After a long, hard winter in many areas, this week I got the annual surprise of seeing, seemingly overnight, flowering trees burst into bloom. Bushes and trees that looked like dead sticks a few days ago are suddenly resplendent with pink or white blossoms. I drive down the street and notice bright yellow daffodils dotting many yards as well as forsythia bushes. (And my yard is lavender because of the yet uncut clover covering it.) It’s a pastel wonderland.
All around us is evidence of life coming out of what had seemed dead. As we think about this month’s theme of Life@Full Strength in Christ, we’ll be discussing what makes up our life in Christ. In April we’ll also celebrate Easter (April 20 this year) commemorating the resurrection of Christ which gave us that new and eternal life. To begin our month, I’d like to give you a bouquet of a dozen quotes about varying aspects of the Christian life. May their wisdom help your Life@Full Strength in Christ to bloom and flourish:
Salvation. John Bunyan: “We are not deprived; we are depraved. He did not come to make you better; He came to make you new.”
Obedience. Christina Rosetti: “Obedience is the fruit of faith; patience, the bloom on the fruit.”
Growth. Erwin Lutzer: “I don’t fear failure as much as that I might succeed in things that don’t matter.”
Discipline/Suffering. Ruth Graham: “God does not punish us for our sins but by them.”
Knowledge. George Sweeting: “I learned long ago that even good things can rob me of that which is best.”
Ministry. Frederick Buechner: “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”
A Difference. Ingrid Trobisch in The Confident Woman: “If I really want God to be with me, then my life will be extremely different from ordinary human life. The outcome will be far greater than the efforts.”
Love/Fear. P. D. James in Time to Be in Earnest: “Perfect love may cast out fear, but fear is remarkably potent in casting out love.”
Servanthood. Gordon MacDonald: “You can tell whether you are becoming a servant by how you act when people treat you like one.”
Temptation. Dietrich Bonhoeffer: “Satan does not here fill us with hatred of God, but with forgetfulness of God.”
Joy. Calvin Miller in The Taste of Joy: “There is no automatic joy. Christ is not a happiness capsule; he is the way to the Father. But the way to the Father is not a carnival ride in which we sit and do nothing while we are whisked through various spiritual sensations.”
The Future. Elisabeth Elliot in Keep a Quiet Heart: “Today is mine. Tomorrow is none of my business. If I peer anxiously into the fog of the future, I will strain my spiritual eyes so that I will not see clearly what is required of me now.”
About Vicki Huffman
National award-winning journalist Vicki Huffman's latest book is Soon to Come: The Revelation of Jesus Christ. It is a verse by verse exposition of the only purely prophetical book in the New Testament. Her other five books are: The Jesus Moses Knew: How to See Christ in the Old Testament; A Secret Hope (novel); Still Looking: Finding the Peace of God in Job Loss; Plus Living: Looking for Joy in All the Right Places, and The Best of Times. All are available in print and e-book on amazon.com. Vicki is a national award-winning author who has taught the Bible for many years. She was an editor for several Christian publishing houses, including Thomas Nelson and David C. Cook Ministries.
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