Quotes from Charles R. Ringma

Our life is not only travail and labour; it is also refreshment and joy in the forgiveness of God. We labour, but God nourishes and sustains us. And this is the reason for celebrating." —LIFE TOGETHER

One is distressed by the failure of reasonable people to perceive either the depths of evil or the depths of the holy." —ETHICS

Lord Jesus, when I am tempted because I cannot see God and his power and love in this world, let me firmly look upon you, for you are my Lord and my God.

The Christian surely must be a person of passion rather than of reasonableness; of discernment rather than gullibility.

Reasonable people maintain the world. Passionate people change it. And wise people guide the change process.

Lord, help me to see that what I have has been given and this makes a claim on me to be generous and not to hold things simply to myself. Amen.

The prayer for the vengeance of God is the prayer for the execution of his righteousness in the judgment of sin.

3 "If my sinfulness appears to me to be in any way smaller or less detestable in comparison with the sins of others, I am still not recognising my sinfulness at all." —LIFE TOGETHER

9 "There are Christians who want to be more spiritual than God himself. They like to talk of battle, renunciation, suffering, and the cross, and it is almost painful to them that the holy scripture speaks not only of that, but time and again of the good fortune of the devout, the well-being of the just." —MEDITATING ON THE WORD

The truth still remains the greatest service of love which men can show each other in the community of Christ." —NO RUSTY SWORDS

We are to learn to understand ourselves now as those who have been placed on the way and no longer can do anything other than walk in it." —MEDITATING ON THE WORD

Reading of biblical books forces everyone who wants to hear to put himself, or to allow himself to be found, where God has acted once and for all for the salvation of men." —LIFE TOGETHER

Lord, help me first of all to confront in my own life all that is not according to Your will. Amen.

The Christian perceives in suffering a temptation of Satan to separate him from God." —TEMPTATION

Jesus Christ is for his brethren by standing in their place." —CHRISTOLOGY

Pain and joy are also part of the polyphony of life, and ... they can exist independently side by side.

Meditation If Christ would not be for us, who then would be?

Lord, may Your grace and Your action toward me solidify in me a new set of values which expresses itself in new choices and actions. Amen.

As evil grows through many small acts of wrongdoing, good develops as we continue to do what is right before God and others.

Faith stakes everything on the faithfulness of God." —NO RUSTY SWORDS

The first service that one owes to others in the fellowship consists in listening to them. Just as love of God begins with listening to his word, so the beginning of love for the brethren is learning to listen to them." —LIFE TOGETHER

As the open confession of my sins to a brother insures me against self-deception, so, too, the assurance of forgiveness becomes fully certain to me only when it is spoken by a brother in the name of God. Mutual, brotherly confession is given to us by God in order that we may be sure of divine forgiveness." —LIFE TOGETHER

Lord, help me to wait expectantly, to act purposefully, and to trust You to see me through to the end. Amen.

God's ways are the ways which he himself has gone and which we are now to go with him. God will not allow us to go on any way which he himself has not preceded us." —MEDITATING ON THE WORD