Quotes About God

A Spiritual Discipline is an intentionally directed action by which we do what we can do in order to receive from God the ability (or power) to do what we cannot do by direct effort.

John Wesley once said: "Give me one hundred preachers who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God…such alone will shake the gates of hell and set up the kingdom of heaven on earth."9

However brightly the light may shine, it can be seen only by those who are spiritually prepared to receive it. 'Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.'" —A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy 8

Of this much we can be sure: if we love the creation, we will learn from it. In The Brothers Karamazov Dostoevski counsels, "Love all God's creation, the whole and every grain of sand in it. Love every leaf, every ray of God's light. Love the animals, love the plants, love everything. If you love everything, you will perceive the divine mystery in things. Once you perceive it, you will begin to comprehend it better every day."4

I believe the Bible is the best gift God has ever given to man. All the good from The Savior of the world is communicated to us through this Book." —Abraham Lincoln5

God has given us the Disciplines of the spiritual life as a means of receiving his grace. The Disciplines allow us to place ourselves

To worship is to experience Reality, to touch Life. It is to know, to feel, to experience the resurrected Christ in the midst of the gathered community. It is a breaking into the Shekinah of God, or better yet, being invaded by the Shekinah of God.* God

many things tempt our hearts to put them first and God second. We must root out the desire to worship these things and focus on the true God. The

OUR CHOICE IS either to trust our plans with all our heart or trust our God.

The water was only parted once they had acted in faith and followed God. They could not count on any plans, because God gave them none. He only gave them himself. God was the plan.

Every soul belongs to God and exists by His pleasure. God being who and what He is, and we being who and what we are, the only thinkable relation between us is one of full Lordship on His part and complete submission on ours. We owe Him every honor that is in our power to give Him. Our everlasting grief lies in giving Him anything less." —A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God 4

1 Corinthians 12:12, 14–25 IN COMMUNITY WE learn of our individual responsibilities to God and our corporate responsibilities to one another. There are exceptions, to be sure, but sustaining a life with God without an active, living connection to a visible expression of the Body of Christ is virtually impossible and is not a goal to be sought after. Have

God invites us into a variety of Spiritual Disciplines, and we step into them as best we can. These actions place us before God as a living sacrifice. God, in turn, uses our actions to build within us deeply ingrained habit patterns of "righteous and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit" (Rom. 14:17). Back and forth, back and forth, in interactive relationship so that, through time and experience, we are learning to "grow in grace.

We knew not whether we were in heaven or on earth, for surely there is no such splendour or beauty anywhere upon earth. We cannot describe it to you: only this we know, that God dwells there among men, and that their service surpasses the worship of all other places. For we cannot forget that beauty.

We read every verse of Scripture lovingly and attentively, because every verse is a potential summons from God.

Nothing must come before the kingdom of God, including the desire for a simple life-style.

God is working, always working, to form us and conform us and transform us into the image of Christ. God is intent upon this forming, conforming, transforming process. And God invites us to participate in this process by means of interactive relationship.

To believe that God can reach us and bless us in the ordinary junctures of daily life is the stuff of prayer.

John Wesley says, "God does nothing but in answer to prayer

it is the trees that capture my attention the most, and they lead me into complete silence. It's the patience of the quiet, laden with snow. The trees give me a glimpse into the cosmic patience of God. There among the trees I behold the Lord, the Creator of the trees.

The story is not about the singular virtues of the one being called. The story is about a risk-taking, bold sort of God who reaches in and calls people for divine service, giving them what they need for that service.

The handiwork of the Creator can speak to us and teach us if we will listen. Martin Buber tells the story of the rabbi who went to a pond every day at dawn to learn "the song with which the frogs praise God."1

God has given us the Disciplines of the spiritual life as a means of receiving his grace. The Disciplines allow us to place ourselves before God so that he can transform us. The

Without the cross the Discipline of confession would be only psychologically therapeutic. But it is so much more. It involves an objective change in our relationship with God and a subjective change in us. It is a means of healing and transforming the inner spirit.