"God never promises his people smooth sailing in this life; the only thing He promises is a safe port. Some of us may indeed traverse the bloody seas in order to arrive in that mooring." ~ Dr. John Currid

"The discontented person thinks everything he does for God too much, and everything God does for him too little." ~ Thomas Watson, Contentment

"Indeed, there is no middle ground between these two: either the world must become worthless to us or hold us bound by intemperate love of it. Accordingly, if we have any concern for eternity, we must strive diligently to strike off these evil fetters." ~ John Calvin

"He liked as he liked; he seems to have like everybody, but especially those whom everybody disliked him for liking." ~ G.K. Chesterton on St. Francis of Assisi

"For the Son of God, the incarnation meant a whole new set of relationships: with his father and mother; with his brothers and sisters; with his disciples; with the scribes, the Pharisees and the Sadducees; with Roman soldiers and with lepers and prostitutes. It was within these relationships that he lived his incarnate life, experiencing pain, poverty and temptation; witnessing squalor and brutality; hearing obscenities and profanities and the hopeless cry of the oppressed. He lived not in sublime detachment or in ascetic isolation, but 'with us', as 'the fellowman of all men', crowded, busy, harassed, stressed and molested. No large estate gave him space, no financial capital guaranteed his daily bread, no personal staff protected him from interruptions and no power or influence protected him from injustice. He saved us from alongside us."

"Either we ought to stop spreading the gospel or conform to its teaching amidst such a needy cloud of witnesses as Central Africa presents."
~ from A History of Christianity in Africa by Elizabeth Isichei, regarding missionaries' extravagant living conditions while their congregations remained in poverty

"Much of their time and strength was devoted to the maintenance of a quasi-western lifestyle."
~ from A History of Christianity in Africa by Elizabeth Isichei, regarding early European missionaries to Africa and their failure to attract many converts

"You can read night time books in the day too."
~ some random kid to his dad at the library

“With regard to Jesus there are only two possible modes of behavior: either to believe that in him God encounters us or to nail him to the cross as a blasphemer. There is no third way.”
~ Horst Georg Pohlmann regarding Christ's claims to divine authority

"If you're not rich then you're not eccentric, you're just weird."

"For he that believes that everything happens to him for the best, cannot possibly complain for the want [meaning "lack"] of something that is better....For as thankfulness is an express acknowledgment of the goodness of God towards you, so repinings and complaints are as plain accusations of God's want of goodness towards you."

"As big as you are, the greatest gift God's given you is a wife who can't cook."

"The more I looked at what Jesus had done on the cross the more He met my case exactly. I needed someone or something to stand between a righteous God and my sinful self: a God who must punish sins and blasphemies, and myself, who had wallowed in both to the neck. I needed an Almighty Saviour who should step in and take my sins away, and I found such a one in the New Testament."

"I have enough trouble with this keyboard right here. And I'm gonna use a blackberry?!"
~Grandpa, who just turned 81 two days ago

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."

"Some people are born on third base and go through life thinking they hit a triple."
~Barry Switzer

Today deserves two quotes:
"You can't believe everything you hear on the internet. That's how World War I got started."

"I'm an eternal optimist. You could bury me up to my neck in dog crap and I'd be like, 'At least my heads not under!'"

I went to a new church today called Nexus. It was a pretty cool, inner-city church in Uptown Charlotte (for some strange reason they call their downtown "Uptown"...southerners). The pastor is a missionary to America from Zimbabwe so again, very cool accent. In his sermon today he brought up some very interesting points about the divergance our culture has made between work and play. It made me think about the overwhelming priority we've placed on recreation. It seems like the only reason people work is so that they can go on vacation or save up money for retirement when they won't have to work. We're always trying to get out of work. Just think of how often we're encouraged to take a sick day or a long lunch. Adventure trips and once-in-a-lifetime experiences are now a dime a dozen. They tell us to "Sieze the day" and "Grab life by the horns."

But take a look at the apostles. Those guys were tireless in their work. Everywhere they went they were sharing Jesus with people. And the church fathers, some of those guys we'd call crazy for the amount of time they put into praying over their ministry. How about David Brainerd who wrote in his journal on his 24th birthday, "I want to wear out my life in His service and for His glory." And he did just that ministering to the Native Americans until it cost him his life just five years later. But above all, it was Jesus who said, "My nourishment comes from doing the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work."

"Whenever I need to do some serious thinking, I go for a walk in the woods....There are always a million distractions out here!" ~ Calvin & Hobbes