Thank you for joining me during for this month of 31 days from the books. It was such an encouragement to me go through these old “friends” and review some of what I learned there. There are some that I would like to reread sooner rather than later. I hope they were an encouragement to you as well.
“You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.”
~C.S. Lewis
*The photo is of my grandmother’s hutch decorated for fall.
“Being set apart for God is not a punishment. It is not an attempt on God’s part to deprive us or condemn us to a cheerless, joyless lifestyle. It is a privilege–a call to belong, to be cherished, to enter into an intimate love relationship with God Himself; to fit into His grand, eternal plan for this universe; to experience the exquisite joys and purposes for which we were created; to be freed from all that destroys our true happiness.”
“There’s something by Thomas à Kempis: ‘Everywhere I have sought rest and not found it, except sitting in a corner by myself with a book.'”
“This change from the self-centered ways of our sinful heart to the self-sacrificing ways of our Lord will require divine assistance…the Holy Spirit is the divine power behind everything the believer does that will count for God…He is the divine Leader calling attention through His convicting voice to the times when we are intent upon going our own way. He leads us into an understanding of the Scriptures and leads us into ‘paths of righteousness’ that will reflect Christ’s life in us. Those who experience this kind of leadership–away from sin and toward Christ’s likeness–‘are the sons of God.'”
“The man who has God for his treasure has all things in One. Many ordinary treasures may be denied him, or if he is allowed to have them, the enjoyment of them will be so tempered that they will never be necessary to his happiness. Or if he must see them go, one after one, he will scarcely feel a sense of loss, for having the Source of all things he has in One all satisfaction, all pleasure, all delight. Whatever he may lose he has actually lost nothing, for he now has it all in One, and he has it purely, legitimately and forever.”
“Key to loving God with all our mind is truly experiencing His love for us. On our own power, we cannot change the way we think, but when we draw near to God and spend time getting to know Him by getting to know His Word, He uses the truths there to transform how we think. When we feel weak or overwhelmed by life, He can use Scriptures to give us strength. He can use the truths we find in His Word to fortify us to go on.”
“The heart cannot love what the mind does not know. Yes, it is sinful to acquire knowledge for knowledge’s sake, but acquiring knowledge about One we love, for the sake of loving him more deeply, will always be for our transformation.”
“God wants to set your feet on a rock. He wants to give you stability. He wants to ‘establish your goings.’ That is, He wants to direct your ways so that when others look at your life they see what God is doing and want the same thing for themselves.”
“No sea is deeper than the ocean of His love. There in no army stronger than His hosts, no force greater than His throne of grace, no enemy who can overcome His direct and indirect work in our lives.
“Please don’t dip regret out of yesteryear’s pool based on what we know today. If only we’d known this, we could’ve done that… But we didn’t know. We can’t rewind the clock. What we can do is stand in faith, trusting we have the strength for each new day.”
Drinking at the Springs 