It had been a big morning at church. It was a family dedication service, and the parents had dedicated their four-year-old boy that day. As they pulled out of the church parking lot, they noticed their son was whimpering in the back seat. They asked him what was wrong. Through tears he said, “The minister said he wanted me to be raised in a Christian home, but I want to stay with you guys!”
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Don’t worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you.
–Robert Fulghum
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“The Holy Scriptures are our letters from home.”
― St. Augustine (345-430)
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John 6:26-27a — Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you…”
Jesus made a contrast between the material and the spiritual. It is almost universally true that people are more attracted to material things than to spiritual matters. A sign that says ‘free money and free food’ will get a bigger crowd than one that says ‘spiritual fulfillment and eternal life.’
–David Guzik
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“Out of 100 people, one might read the Bible, the other 99 will read the Christian.”
–Dwight L. Moody (1837-1899)
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Job 30:19b — …I am reduced to dust and ashes.
Ecclesiastes 3:19a…20 — Surely the fate of human beings is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other… All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return.
Or, in other words:
“We are all cremated equal.”
–Goodman Ace, American humorist (1899-1982)
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We are not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be.
— C.S. Lewis
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One of the great uses of Twitter and Facebook will be to prove at the Last Day that prayerlessness was not from lack of time.
— John Piper
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At age 20, we worry about what others think of us. At age 40, we don’t care what they think of us. At age 60, we discover they haven’t been thinking of us at all.
–Ann Landers, advice columnist (1918-2002)
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Three by G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936):
“The business done in the home is nothing less than the shaping of the bodies and souls of humanity. The family is the factory that manufactures mankind.”
“Our generation, in a dirty, pessimistic period, has blasphemously underrated the beauty of life and cravenly overrated its dangers.”
“A strange fanaticism fills our time: the fanatical hatred of morality, especially of Christian morality.”
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It has become an accepted fact for many people today that each person can have their own take on the truth; as in “that might be true for you, but not for me.” Not everyone would agree on that approach to truth:
C. S. Lewis on truth in That Hideous Strength:
“I suppose there are two views about everything,” said Mark.
“Eh? Two views? There are a dozen views about everything until you know the answer. Then there’s never more than one.”
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Or, as G. K Chesterton put it in Orthodoxy:
“It is always simple to fall down; there are an infinity of angles at which one can fall. But there is only one way to stand up straight.”
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A little girl asked her mother, “Where do people come from?” The mother answered, “God made Adam and Eve and they had children, and so was all mankind made.” Two days later the girl asked her father the same question. The father answered, “Many years ago there were monkeys from which the human race evolved.” The confused girl returned to her mother and said, “Mom, how is it possible that you told me the human race was created by God, and Dad said they developed from monkeys?” The mother answered, “Well, dear, it is very simple. I told you about my side of the family and your father told you about his.”
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O God, you are the Father of us all, and so you can never be content until all your children come home to you, and your family is complete. We ask you to put into our hearts a deep concern for those who still do not know you and love you.
Give us patience and skill, to appeal to those whose hearts are hard, and whose minds are shut. Give us wisdom and understanding, to enlighten those who do not know the truth. Help us to prove the worth and the power of your Word to those who despise it, not only by our words, but also by the quality of our life.
Fill us with a desire to win those who have never heard the message of the Christian faith. Give us such a grasp of the truth, and such a skill to commend it and defend it, that we may be able to console, convince, and persuade those who have refused it or misunderstood it or perverted it.
Lord Jesus Christ, grant that the day may quickly come when everyone will be united into your family; the day when everyone shall know you and love you, from the least to the greatest; in your name we pray. Amen.
—A Barclay Prayer Book by William Barclay
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