Prayers and Thoughts

for Reflection

Lenton Devotional

2008

March 23

Give the best you have received from the past

to the best that you may come to know in the future.

Accept life daily not as a cup to be drained but

as a chalice to be filled with whatsoever things are

honest, pure, lovely, and of good report.

Making a living is best undertaken as a part of the more

Important business of making a life.

Every now and again take a good look at something not made

With the hands – a mountain, a star, the turn of a stream.

There will come to you wisdom and patience and solace and,

Above all, the assurance that you are not alone in the world.

Sidney Lovett

Jesus is God spelling himself out in language that man can understand.

S. D. Gordon

Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in an obscure village. He worked in a carpenter shop until he was thirty, and then for three years he was an itinerant teacher. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never owned a home. He never had a family. He never went to college. He never traveled, except in his infancy, more than two hundred miles from the place where he was born. He never did one of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but himself. While he was still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. One of them denied him. He was turned over to his enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed upon a cross between two thieves. His executioners gambled for the only piece of property he had on earth, his seamless robe. When he was dead, he was taken down from the cross and laid in a borrowed grave through the courtesy of a friend. Nineteen wide centuries have come and gone, and today he is the centerpiece of the human race and the leader of all human progress. I am well with the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever were built, all the parliaments that ever sat, and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has this one solitary personality.

James A. Francis

Jesus Christ has true excellency, and so great an excellency, that when you come to truly see Him, you look no further, but your mind rests there.

Jonathan Edwards

To fall in love with God is the greatest of all romances;

To seek him, the greatest adventure;

To find him, the greatest human achievement.

Raphael Simon

God has a purpose for each one of us, a work for each one to do, a place for each one to fill, an influence for each one to exert, a likeness to his dear Son for each one to manifest, and then, a place for each one to fill in his holy temple.

Arthur c. A. Hall

Do not be afraid of tomorrow; for God is already there. 

Author Unknown

The man who finds life will find it through trusting God.

Romans 1:17

The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

Psalms 18:2 

And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.

Romans 8:11               

Dear Lord, Thank you for the promise of Your word.  I thank you God, for the times of my life that draw me closer to you. Thank you for the opportunities to store your word in my heart. Our Father, on this day that reminds us especially of your ever present love, turn my eyes upon Jesus so I may tell this story of love so others might hear. Breathe Your love deeply into my being. Remind me, that your gifts to me are meant to be shared with others. Renew my spirit, so I will hear your whispers and You can be seen in my every action and heard in my every word. Go with me Lord and guide me through each path I take. Thank you, for Your love and care.Thank you for your presence and guidance in the seasons of my life – of hope, of faith, of harvest, of surrender, and of trust.  Thank you for your abundant love and the promise of Your word.  May I never forget them.  Amen