The Power of Words
Though words can be dangerous, they can also be very, very, beautiful. And when they are put together just right, they can make your heart soar, and move you to action. Consider that it is the written word that we religious folk live and die for. It is the written word that God has given us to draw ourselves closer to Him. It is the written word that often causes us to change who we are.
Along with the scriptures, and reading the word of God, I love to find beautiful quotes that are deeply, and profoundly, meaningful to me. I feel that knowing a person's favorite quotes allows you to know their heart a little better. As you gather your favorite quotes in one place, you can see what makes your heart stir, and what gets the fire in your soul burning. You should try quote-gathering, it is very insightful -- a window into who you really are.
I have many favorites, but for today, here are some quotes from a few masters of the written word . . . these quotes prick my soul. And maybe they will help you understand me better . . . they are all handpicked, on purpose.
Quotes by C.S. Lewis:
"Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important."
"There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, 'All right, then, have it your way."
"Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil."
"God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing."
“A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.”
“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”
“The Christian does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us.”
“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.”
“To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.”
“Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”
“Crying is all right in its way while it lasts. But you have to stop sooner or later, and then you still have to decide what to do.”
“The homemaker has the ultimate career. All other careers exist for one purpose only - and that is to support the ultimate career. ”
“He died not for men, but for each man. If each man had been the only man made, He would have done no less.”
“I have learned now that while those who speak about one's miseries usually hurt, those who keep silence hurt more.”
“I know now, Lord, why you utter no answer. You are yourself the answer. Before your face questions die away. What other answer would suffice?”
“God allows us to experience the low points of life in order to teach us lessons that we could learn in no other way.”
"We meet no ordinary people in our lives."
“I think that if God forgives us we must forgive ourselves. Otherwise, it is almost like setting up ourselves as a higher tribunal than Him.”
“Nothing you have not given away will ever really be yours.”
“When you argue against Him (God) you are arguing against the very power that makes you able to argue at all: it is like cutting off the branch you are sitting on.”
“If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.”
“Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man... It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest. Once the element of competition is gone, pride is gone.”
“To what will you look for help if you will not look to that which is stronger than yourself?”
“If God 'foresaw' our acts, it would be very hard to understand how we could be free not to do them. But suppose god is outside and above the Time-line... You never supposed that your actions at this moment were any less free because God knows what you are doing. Well, He knows your tomorrow's actions in just the same way--because He is already in tomorrow and can simply watch you. In a sense, He does not know your action till you have done it: but the moment at which you have done it is already 'NOW' for Him.”
“It is better to forget about yourself altogether.”
“We all want progress. But progress means getting nearer to the place where you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turn, then to go forward does not get you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; and in that case the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive man.”
“The terrible thing, the almost impossible thing, is to hand over your whole self--all your wishes and precautions--to Christ. But it is far easier than what we are all trying to do instead. For what we are trying to do is to remain what we call "ourselves," to keep personal happiness as our great aim in life, and yet at the same time be "good.”
"Now is our chance to choose the right side. God is holding back to give us that chance. It won't last forever. We must take it or leave it.”
Favorite Quotes by J.R.R. Tolkien:
“Fair speech may hide a foul heart.”
“Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens."
"It is perilous to study too deeply the arts of the Enemy, for good or for ill.”
“End? No, it doesn’t end here. Death is just another path, one which we must all take. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all change to silver glass… And then you see it… White shores, and beyond, a far green country, under a swift sunrise.”
"Darkness must pass, a new day will come. And when the sun shines. It will shine out the clearer."
"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us."
"The world is indeed full of peril and in it there are many dark places. But still there is much that is fair. And though in all lands, love is now mingled with grief, it still grows, perhaps, the greater."
"It's a job that's never started that takes the longest to finish."
"A man that flies from his fear may find that he has only taken a short cut to meet it."
"It is useless to meet revenge with revenge. It will heal nothing."
"Even the smallest person can change the course of the future."
"If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world."
"Little by little, one travels far."
"It's a dangerous business going out your front door."
"There is some good in this world, and it is worth fighting for!"
"I feel thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread."
"Where there's life there's hope."
"What does your heart tell you?"
And my number one favorite quote:
"Living by faith includes the call to something greater than cowardly self-preservation."
You and Dad have been on the same wave-length this week. His spiritual thoughts have been focused on the power of words. Amen.
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