Do not run impetuously before the Lord...

Do not run impetuously before the Lord; learn to wait His time: the minute-hand as well as the hour-hand must point the exact moment for action. ...Mrs. Charles E. Cowman image

As one of His redeemed ones...

As one of His redeemed ones, you are His delight, and all His desire is to you, with the longing of a love which is stronger than death, and which many waters cannot quench. His heart yearns after you, seeking your fellowship and your love. Were it needed, He could die again to possess you... His life is bound up in yours; you are to Him inexpressibly more indispensable and precious than you ever can know. ...Andrew Murray
 (I took this picture at the Tel Dan Nature reserve in northern Israel-PD)

Love ever gives...

Love ever gives, forgives, outlives,

And ever stands with open hands.

And while it lives it gives.

For this is love's prerogative,

To give, and give, and give.

...John Oxenham image

There is a certain extravagance in love...

There is a certain extravagance in love. The alabaster phial of perfume was meant to be used drop by drop; it was meant to last for years, perhaps even a life-time; but in a moment of utter devotion, the woman poured it on the head of Jesus. Love does not stop nicely to calculate the less or more; love does not stop to work out how little it can respectively give. With a kind of divine extravagance, love gives everything it has and never counts the cost. Calculation is never any part of love. ...William Barclay image

Anybody who lives beneath the Cross...

Anybody who lives beneath the Cross and who has discerned in the Cross of Jesus the utter wickedness of all men and of his own heart will find there is no sin that can ever be alien to him. Anybody who has once been horrified by the dreadfulness of his own sin that nailed Jesus to the Cross will no longer be horrified by even the rankest sins of a brother. ...Dietrich Bonhoeffer image

As our life comes to maturity...

As our life comes to maturity we discover to our confusion that human ears can pick up from the Infinite many incompatible tunes, but cannot hear the whole symphony. And the melody confided to our care, the one which we alone perhaps can contribute and which taxes our powers to the full, has in it not only the notes of triumph but the notes of pain. The distinctive mark therefore is not happiness but vocation: work demanded and power given, but given only on condition that we spend it and ourselves on others without stint. ...Evelyn Underhill image

The Power of the Cross

"For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."
-1 Corinthians 1:18

Those who follow the Lamb...

If anyone tells you that the life of prayer is one uninterrupted experience of being happy with Jesus, do not follow him. He is not a safe guide. Those who follow the Lamb know that there are stretches of darkness and loneliness and perplexity along the way, and they know that Jesus himself went that way. ...Lesslie Newbigin image

Look at what Christ has done for the soul of man...

How can we know that what Jesus has shown us of God is the truth; ... how do we know when we look into the face of Jesus that we are looking into the face of God? ... The answer is so plain and simple that it is a marvel how intelligent men can manage to miss it as they do... Look at what Christ has done for the soul of man: that is your answer. Christianity is just Christ—nothing more and nothing less. It is a way of life, and He is that way. It is the truth about human destiny, and He is that truth. It is the offer of life lived in the sunshine of eternal love, and He is that life. To know this is to know God, and every need is satisfied in that one word. ...RJ Campbell image