All that the downtrodden can do is go on hoping. After every
disappointment they must find fresh reason for hope.
--Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Cowards die many deaths each day, while the brave die but once.
--Giovanni Falcone

I thought that the following passages were worth sharing in light of the fact that people have been shooting each other and beating each other up over playstations and other useless crap because they want to be the first to have something.

I think that sometimes in life when we experience the shortlived happiness of passing pleasures and material things, we undermine the true and inexorable nature of our own worth. God has made each of us a masterpiece of creation.

-Rev. Tom Wade, Salem UCC

3If anyone teaches false doctrines and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, 4he is conceited and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions 5and constant friction between men of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.

6But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. 8But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. 9People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. 10For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

1 Timothy 6: 3-10

Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name
of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
-- Colossians 3:17

How would telling people to be nice to one another get a man
crucified? What government would execute Mister Rodgers or
Captain Kangaroo?
-- Philip Yancey

But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve...But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.
-- Joshua 24:15

Happy Turkey Day!!!

Enter [the Lord's] gates with thanksgiving and his courts with
praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is
good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues
through all generations.
-- Psalm 100:4-5

Have you thought about His (God) handling of the gospel? God
needs to get a message out the human race, without which they
will perish...forever. What's the plan? First, He starts with
the most unlikely group ever: a couple of prostitutes, a few
fishermen with no better than a second-grade education, a tax
collector. Then, he passes the ball to us. Unbelievable.
-- John Eldredge

I always thank God for you because of his grace given you in
Christ Jesus. For in him you have been enriched in every way - in
all your speaking and in all your knowledge.
-- 1 Corinthians 1:4-5

God is looking for those with whom He can do the impossible--
what a pity that we plan only the things that we can do by
ourselves.
-- A. W. Tozer

Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the
Rock of our salvation. Let us come before him with thanksgiving and
extol him with music and song.
-- Psalm 95:1-2

Rich is the person who has a praying friend.
-- Janice Hughes

Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.
-- John 17:17

Character may be manifested in the great moments, but it is made
in the small ones.
-- Phillips Brooks

Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the
wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of
mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law
he meditates day and night.
-- Psalm 1:1-2

God's power under us, in us, surging through us, is exactly what
turns dependence into unforgettable experiences of completeness.
-- Bruce Wilkinson

Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law.
-- Psalm 119:18

Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with
yourself. Do not lose courage in considering your own
imperfections but instantly set about remedying them -- every
day begin the task anew.
-- Francois de Sales

Jesus hath many lovers of His heavenly Kingdom, but few bearers
of His Cross. He hath many desirous of consolation, but few of
tribulation. Many love Jesus so long as no adversities befall
them.
-- Thomas à Kempis

The lovely maid whose form and face
Nature has deck'd with ev'ry grace,
But in whose breast no virtues glow,
Whose heart ne'er felt another's woe,
Whose hand ne'er smooth'd the bed of pain,
Or eas'd the captive's galling chain;
But like the tulip caught the eye,
Born just to be admir'd and die;
When gone, no one regrets its loss,
Or scarce remembers that it was.

-Susanna Rowson, Charlotte Temple

Veteran's Day 2006

I wasn't able to make a post for Veteran's Day while I was at home so I would just like to post this quote and ask everyone to say this small prayer for our troops:

It is the Soldier, not the minister
Who has given us freedom of religion.
It is the Soldier, not the reporter
Who has given us freedom of the press.
It is the Soldier, not the poet
Who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the Soldier, not the campus organizer
Who has given us freedom to protest.
It is the Soldier, not the lawyer
Who has given us the right to a fair trial.
It is the Soldier, not the politician
Who has given us the right to vote.
It is the Soldier who salutes the flag,
Who serves beneath the flag,
And whose coffin is draped by the flag,
Who allows the protester to burn the flag.
-Province-

Prayer:
"Lord, hold our troops in your loving hands. Protect them as they
protect us. Bless them and their families for the selfless acts they
perform for us in our time of need. I ask this in the name of Jesus,
our Lord and Savior. Amen."

Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the
unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body
but made alive by the Spirit.
-- 1 Peter 3:18

It is God's will that by doing good you should silence the
ignorant talk of foolish men. Live as free men, but do not use your
freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God.
-- 1 Peter 2:15-16

Men perish with whispering sins--nay, with silent sins, sins
that never tell the conscience that they are sins, as often with
crying sins; and in hell there shall meet as many men that never
thought what was sin, as that spent all their thoughts in the
compassing of sin.
-- John Donne

I sometimes think that the easiest way to lose something is to want it too badly...

The greatest proof of Christianity for others is not how far a
man can logically analyze his reasons for believing, but how far
in practice he will stake his life on his belief.
-- T. S. Eliot

This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God's
servants, who give their full time to governing. Give everyone what
you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue;
if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.
-- Romans 13:6


The tragedy of life and of the world is not that men do not know
God; the tragedy is that, knowing Him, they still insist on
going their own way.
-- William Barclay

Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around
like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him,
standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers
throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.
-- 1 Peter 5:8-9

Many promising reconciliations have broken down because, while
both parties came prepared to forgive, neither party came
prepared to be forgiven.
-- Charles Williams

I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your
bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God -- this is
your spiritual act of worship.
-- Romans 12:1

What you do every day should contribute to giving your life
meaning. If it doesn't, why are you doing it?
-- Don Hutcheson

The word of God is living and active. Sharper than any
double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit,
joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the
heart.
-- Hebrews 4:12

Love begins when the needs of someone else become more important
than your own.
-- Lao Wei

A Man of Many Faces

I was a man of many faces.

And the faces kept multiplying. About a month before summer I began to get close to Marketa, and like all twenty-year-olds I tried to impress her by donning a mask and pretending to be older (in spirit and experience) than I was: I assumed an air of detachment, of aloofness; I made believe I had an extra layer of skin, invisible and impeneterable. I thought (quite rightly) that by joking I would establish my detachment, and though I had always been good at it, the line I used on Marketa always seemed forced, artificial, and tedious.

Who was the real me? I can only repeat: I was a man of many faces.

At meetings I was earnest, enthusiastic, and committed; among friends, unconstrained and given to teasing; with Marketa, cynical and fitfully witty; and alone (and thinking of Marketa), unsure of myself and agitated as a schoolboy.

Was that last face the real one?

No. They were all real: I was not a hypocrite, with one real face and several false ones. I had several faces because I was young and didn't know who I was or wanted to be. (I was frightened by the differences between one face and the next; none of them seemed to fit me properly, and I groped my way clumsily among them.)

The psychological and physiological mechanism of love is so complex that at a certain period in his life a young man must concentrate all his energy on coming to grips with it, and in this way he misses the actual content of the love: the woman he loves.

-The Joke, Milan Kundera