20 Short Thoughts

Dear Friends,

Today I send you 20 short thoughts to ponder as you are holed up in your homes looking for things to do! We did not ask for this, but it is a good time to re-learn the somewhat forgotten art of Christian meditation or spiritual contemplation, seeking to focus on the fuller or more comprehensive meaning (or application) contained in just a few short words or sentences. Sometimes short "one-liners" can have a powerful impact when one pauses to consider all that has been packed into them. Enjoy.

“For He Himself IS our peace...”
Apostle Paul (Ephesians 2:14)

“God doesn’t love us because of our worth, we are of worth because God loves us.”
Martin Luther

“The Christian life is not a constant high. I have moments of deep discouragement. I have to go to God in prayer with tears in my eyes and say, “O God forgive me,” or “Help me.”
Billy Graham

“We shall never be clothed with the righteousness of Christ except we first know assuredly that we have no acceptable righteousness of our own.”
John Calvin

“The mere whisper of the Holy Spirit can drown out the thundering noise of an entire world.”
David Jeremiah

“I must listen to the Gospel. It tells me not what I must do, but what Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has done for me.”
Martin Luther

“There is someone I love, even though I don’t approve of what he does. There is someone I accept, though some of his thoughts and actions revolt me. There is someone I forgive, though he hurts the people I love the most. That person is me.”
C. S. Lewis

“If they are wrong, they need your prayers all the more; and if they are your enemies, then you are under orders to pray for them.”
C. S. Lewis

“If the devil cannot make us bad, he will make us busy.”
Corrie Ten Boom

“I don’t have a vision except for Jesus Christ. I don’t want to be anything. I don’t want to be a bigshot. I don’t want to be important. I don’t want to conquer the world. I just want to be pleasing to God today and that is enough. That is enough. Yet strive as I might, I haven’t obtained that goal, so why should I look for another.” 
Paul Washer

“Whether we like it or not, God intends to give us what we need, not what we now think we want.”
C. S. Lewis

“What is it about your own miserable works and doings that you think could please God more than the sacrifice of His Son?”
Martin Luther

“To argue that God is “trying His best” to save all mankind, but that the majority of men will not let Him save them, is to insist that the will of the Creator is impotent, and that the will of the creature is omnipotent.”
A. W. Pink

“When I was coming to Christ, I thought I was doing it all myself; and although I sought the Lord earnestly, I had no idea the Lord was seeking me.” 
 Charles Spurgeon

“I am more afraid of my own heart than of the pope and all his cardinals. I have within me the great pope, self.”
Martin Luther

“My faith rests not in what I am, or shall be, or feel, or know, but in what Christ is, in what He has done, and in what He is now doing for me.”
Charles Spurgeon

“If you see yourself as a little sinner, you will inevitably see Jesus as a little Savior.”
Martin Luther

“To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.”
Martin Luther

“No healthy Christian ever chooses suffering. He chooses God’s will, as Jesus did, whether it means suffering or not.”
Oswald Chambers

“The judgment of God against this nation will not be turned away by a more conservative president, but by the repentance of its people.”
Paul Washer

The art of contemplation involves not just reading a quote and nodding in agreement or disapproval, but considering all that might have led the person to write it, and the many ways it can be understood and applied. I hope that one or more of the above quotes gave you pause to stop, think, or meditate on what was really being said, how it measures up against Scripture, and what you believe, and the many ways it could be applied in your life.

Living in the Grace of Jesus, Pastor Jeff