"No
Regrets?"
I
regret nothing, says arrogance; I will regret nothing, say inexperience.
Marie
von Ebner-Eschenbach
"Think
About It"
Reflection
is the beginning of reform.
Mark
Twain
"The
Root Of The Problem"
There
are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the
root.
Henry
David Thoreau
"Wiser
Today"
A
man should never be ashamed to own he has been in the wrong, which is but
saying, in other words, that he is wiser today than he was yesterday.
Alexander
Pope
C.S. Lewis
"A
Time To Grieve"
The
more grievous a man's sins seem to him, the readier God is to forgive
them...They are annihilated as if they had never happened, if only the
repentance be whole.
Meister
Eckhart
"When
Suffering Is Mercy"
Suffering
is God's design in this sin-soaked world (Romans 8:20). It portrays sin's
horror for the world to see. It punishes sin's guilt for those who do not
believe in Christ. It breaks sin's power for those who take up their cross and
follow Jesus...there is no greater joy than joy in the greatness of God. And if
we must suffer to see this and savor it most deeply, then suffering is a mercy.
John
Piper
"Lose
No Experience"
Misfortune
and experience are lost upon mankind when they produce neither reflection nor
reformation.
Thomas
Paine
"The Split Second"
Every great mistake has a halfway moment, a
split second when it can be recalled and perhaps remedied.
Pearl S. Buck
Pearl S. Buck
"From
Stone To Flesh"
Swords
will be beaten into plowshares only after hearts of stone are changed into
hearts of flesh.
Anonymous
"Laying
Down Your Arms"
...fallen
man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement: he is a rebel
who must lay down his arms. Laying down your arms, surrendering, saying you are
sorry, realising that you have been on the wrong track and getting ready to
start life over again from the ground floor-that is the only way out of a
"hole." This process of surrender-this movement full speed astern-is
what Christians call repentance. Now repentance is no fun at all. It is
something much harder than merely eating humble pie. It means unlearning all
the self-conceit and self-will that we have been training ourselves into for
thousands of years. It means killing part of yourself, undergoing a kind of
death...If you ask God to take you back without it, you are really asking Him
to let you go back without going back. It cannot happen...
C.S.
Lewis
"The
Sooner The Better"
To-morrow
I'll reform, the fool does say; To-day itself's too late; - the wise did
yesterday.
Benjamin
Franklin
"The
Deep Work Of True Conversion"
When
you come to Christ, He doesn’t just patch you up. He renews you. He doesn’t
just salve your sins. He saves you. He doesn’t just reform you. He transforms
you by His power. Conversion is a deep work. It goes throughout your entire
being, throughout your mind, throughout the members of your body, throughout
your life—your social life, your business life, your family life, your
neighborhood life. You become a partaker of God’s nature.
Billy
Graham
"God's
Planting The Flag of Truth"
No
doubt Pain as God's megaphone is a terrible instrument; it may lead to final
and unrepented rebellion. But it gives the only opportunity the bad man can
have for amendment. It removes the veil; it plants the flag of truth within the
fortress of a rebel soul.
C.S.
Lewis
"You
Are What You Do"
Personality
change follows change in behavior. Since we are what we do, if we want to
change what we are we begin by changing what we do, [and] must undertake a new
mode of action.
Allen
Wheelis
"Skip
The Cover Up"
Most
of our faults are more pardonable than the means we use to conceal them."
Francois
duc de la Rochefoucauld
"From
Bad To Worse"
Neglect
mending a small Fault, and 'twill soon be a great One
Benjamin
Franklin
"Retaining
No Souvenirs of Hell"
I do not think that all who choose wrong roads
perish; but their rescue consists in being put back on the right road. A wrong
sum can be put right: but only by going back till you find the error and
working it afresh from that point, never by simply going on. Evil can be
undone, but it cannot 'develop' into good. Time does not heal it. The spell
must be unwound, bit by bit, 'with backward mutters of dissevering power' - or
else not. It is still 'either-or'. If we insist on keeping Hell (or even earth)
we shall not see Heaven: if we accept Heaven we shall not be able to retain
even the smallest and most intimate souvenirs of Hell. I believe, to be sure,
that any man who reaches Heaven will find that what he abandoned (even in
plucking out his right eye) has not been lost: that the kernel of what he was
really seeking even in his most depraved wishes will be there, beyond expectation,
waiting for him in 'the High Countries'...But what, you ask, of earth?...I
think earth, if chosen instead of Heaven, will turn out to have been, all
along, only a region in Hell: and earth, if put second to Heaven, to have been
from the beginning a part of Heaven itself.
C.S. Lewis
C.S. Lewis
"Progressive
Or Pigheaded?"
We
all want progress. But progress means getting nearer to the place where you
want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turning, then to go forward does not
get you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an
about-turn and walking back to the right road; and in that case the man who
turns back soonest is the most progressive man. We have all seen this when
doing arithmetic. When I have started a sum the wrong way, the sooner I admit
this and go back and start again, the faster I shall get on. There is nothing
progressive about being pig-headed and refusing to admit a mistake. And I think
if you look at the present state of the world, it is pretty plain that humanity
has been making some big mistakes. We are on the wrong road. And if that is so,
we must go back. Going back is the quickest way on.
C.S.
Lewis
"Stop Dilly-Dallying"
I
have developed a distaste for the word “struggling”—as in “I am struggling with
anger” (or lust, or homosexuality, or a bad temper, etc.)It is a perfectly good word, and
I know there are some people who are really “struggling.” But many other people
are spoiling the word for everybody. They are using “struggling” to mean
something more like “repeatedly giving in”—which is almost the opposite of
“struggling,” seems to me.
I wonder what Jesus would say (will say) when we all come to give an account:
“For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God, and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?” (1 Peter 4:17)
When that day comes, Christ will ask each of his children if we “fought the good fight” and “kept the faith” and were workman with no need to be ashamed (2 Timothy 2:15). The Word says:
“In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood” (Hebrews 12:4).
The point is that you should.
So today on my prayer walk I had to repent of some dilly-dallying in a particular sin. I had to make up my mind to put to death the wavering (1 Kings 18:21) and to resolve, by God’s grace, to obey what I know his Word says.
Andree Seu
I wonder what Jesus would say (will say) when we all come to give an account:
“For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God, and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?” (1 Peter 4:17)
When that day comes, Christ will ask each of his children if we “fought the good fight” and “kept the faith” and were workman with no need to be ashamed (2 Timothy 2:15). The Word says:
“In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood” (Hebrews 12:4).
The point is that you should.
So today on my prayer walk I had to repent of some dilly-dallying in a particular sin. I had to make up my mind to put to death the wavering (1 Kings 18:21) and to resolve, by God’s grace, to obey what I know his Word says.
Andree Seu
"Retain
a Conscience"
One
of the misfortunes of our time is that in getting rid of false shame we have
killed off so much real shame as well.
Louis
Kronenberger
"Time
To Redecorate"
Shame
is like everything else; live with it for long enough and it becomes part of
the furniture.
Salman
Rushdie
"Improvement
of Soul"
Are
you not ashamed of heaping up the greatest amount of money and honor and
reputation, and caring so little about wisdom and truth and the greatest
improvement of the soul.
Socrates
"You
Should Be Ashamed of Yourself"
Past
shame, past grace.
Saying
"Weighty,
Yet Recoverable"
No
sin is so light that it may be overlooked; no sin is so heavy that it may not
be repented of.
Moses
Ibn Ezra
"Turn
Today"
The
hour of reformation is always delayed' every delay gives vice another
opportunity of fortifying itself by habit.
Samuel
Johnson