“There are four things that are very important to help you as a new believer: First, read the Bible. It is God’s Word written to you. Second, pray. Take everything to God in prayer, because He loves you and you are now His child. Talk to God like you would your best friend. Third, witness for Christ. Tell someone about your decision for Christ. Then witness by your smile and by your love and concern for others. Fourth, get into a church where Christ is proclaimed and where you can serve Him.” [Billy Graham in Russ Busby, Billy Graham: God’s Ambassador, (Nashville: W Publishing Group, 1999), p. 115]
“Donald Barnhouse tells a terrific story of a young man who went to the employment office of Western Union looking for a job delivering telegrams. The manager said he needed someone to start at once and asked if the young man would be willing to begin right then.
“’Well,’ said the boy, ‘there’s one thing I must warn you about before I get started. I am psychologically so constituted that I cannot stand any scene of unhappiness. I’m only willing to deliver good news. Birth announcements, that’s fine. Congratulations for success, fortunes that have been received, promotions, acceptance of marriages—all the joys and bliss news, that I’ll deliver. But sickness and death and failure and all of that, that’s alien to my nature. I just won’t deliver them.’ “It didn’t take the manager very long to say, ‘I guess I’m still looking for the one that’s gonna fill this job, because this responsibility requires that you also announce bad news.’ “That’s the job of one who delivers the gospel. It is wonderful Good News, but it isn’t complete until the bad news is also delivered.” [Donald Barnhouse, Man’s Ruin, Romans Vol. I, quoted in Charles R. Swindoll, The Tale of the Tardy Oxcart And 1,501 Other Stories, (Nashville: Word Publishing, 1998), p. 321]
"Every temptation is an opportunity of our getting nearer to God." [J. Q. Adams]
"If you are writing a poem and the rhymes won't come or the lines won't fit you may cry, 'Oh William Shakespeare, help me!' and nothing whatever happens. If you're feeling jittery you may think of some hero of the past, like Nelson, and say, 'Oh, Horatio Nelson, help me!' But again there isn't the slightest response. But if you're trying to lead a Christian life and realize you're coming to the end of your own moral strength and you cry, 'O Christ, help me!' something does happen, at once, just like that." [J. B. Phillips, Plain Christianity, (New York: The MacMillan Company, 1955), p. 69]
ONE STEP MORE
A hill is not too hard to climb
Taken one step at a time.
One step is not too much to take,
One try is not too much to make.
One step, one try, one song, one smile
Will shortly stretch into a mile.
And everything worthwhile was done
By small steps taken one by one.
To reach the goal you started for,
Take one step more...take one step more.
[James Dillet Freeman]
Romans 1:24-31 says the wrath of God is revealed in those who commit heterosexual, homosexual, and various non-sexual sins. "In addition, the divine condemnation is deserved, not only by those who do these terrible things, but also by those who approve of them, those non-judgmental types who embrace the pale, flaccid I-will-not-impose-my-morality-on-others theory. God judgment falls, then, not only on the malefactors themselves, but on the society that condones, permits, or approves such malefaction." [Patrick Henry Reardon, Touchstone Magazine, (January 25, 2006)]
