Quotes from David Roper

The Essenes of Qumran thought Melchizedek was an angel. The philosopher Philo believed he was the divine Logos. The Jewish historian Josephus said he was only a man, but so righteous that he was "by common consent . . . made a priest of God." David saw Melchizedek as a prototype of the promised Messiah who would establish a new order of king-priests (Psalm 110:1–4).

Here's the thing: What I hold in my mind will, in time, show up in my face, for as George MacDonald once pointed out, the face is "the surface of the mind." If I cling to bitterness and resentment, if I tenaciously hold a grudge, if I fail to forgive, my countenance will begin to reflect those angry moods. My mother used to tell me that a mad look might someday freeze on my face. She was wiser than she knew.

When President Franklin D. Roosevelt said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself," he was dead wrong. It's the absence of fear that we should fear.

God is never in a hurry, but He does mean business. He will finish the work as soon as He can. "But" we say, "I have wasted so much of my life. Can I still be of use?" God wastes nothing, not even our sins. When acknowledged, they humble us and make us more merciful to others in their weakness. We can become more approachable, more useful to God and to others. Indeed, each loss has its own compensation.

There are hermit souls that live withdrawn In the peace of their self-content; There are souls, like stars, that dwell apart In a fellowless firmament; There are pioneer souls that blaze their paths Where highways never ran; But let me live by the side of the road, And be a friend to man. —Samuel Walter Foss

Fairy tales do not deny the existence of . . . sorrow and failure: the possibility of these is necessary to the joy of deliverance; it denies (in the face of much evidence if you will) universal final defeat . . . giving a glimpse of Joy, Joy beyond the walls of the world, poignant as grief. —J. R. R. Tolkien

It is a commonplace of Christian thought that joy is deep tranquility. Yet it seems to me that biblical joy is something more: it is "holy laughter"—the laughter of Sarah, for example: "God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me" (Genesis 21:6).

G. K. Chesterton claimed that joy, "which is the small publicity of the pagan, is the gigantic secret of the Christian . . . and the dominant theme of Christian faith. By its creed (i.e., what we believe) joy becomes something gigantic and sadness something special (occasional) and small.

The devil hates our laughter. "Joy," C. S. Lewis's demon, Screwtape, writes to his nephew, "is a disgusting and a direct assault to the realism, dignity and austerity of hell.

Once you give up your integrity, everything else is a piece of cake. —J. R. Ewing

Melchizedek blessed Abram, saying, "Blessed be Abram by God Most High." As Billy Graham would say, he blessed him real good.

Lord With a crooked stick for a cane I'm limping home. Mocked and maligned Stooped and stupid Soiled and shabby I limp toward You. —Ruth Harms Calkin

God made your body, mind, and soul. And He isn't done with you; He is still making you. God is making you braver, stronger, purer, more peaceful, more loving, less selfish - the kind of person you've perhaps always wanted to be.

As Lucy says, "Winning isn't everything; winning big is!" Most of us need to win big. The problem, however, is that there seems to be a law of diminishing returns: the bigger wins give a decreasing measure of satisfaction.

To say we'll only have complete satisfaction in God strikes us as too simple, but the simplest answers reveal the profoundest truths. Until we find our peace in Him, we'll continue to feel alone, caught in midlife crisis and forever itching.

Prayer is more like listening than anything else...being quiet in God's presence, waiting on God until we know what to do.