Quotes from Charles Swindoll

When God's in it ... it flows. When the flesh is in it ... it's forced.

In many (most?) churches there are programs and activities... but so little worship. There are songs and anthems and musicals... but so little worship. There are announcements and readings and prayers... but so little worship.

God's voice isn't all that difficult to hear. In fact, you almost have to be closing your eyes and stopping your ears to miss it.

I gird myself today with the power of God: God's strength to comfort me, God's might to uphold me, God's wisdom to guide me, God's eye to look before me, God's ear to hear me, God's word to speak for me, God's hand to lead me, God's way to lie before me, God's shield to protect me. ..

I am convinced that life is 10% of what happens to me and 90 % how I react. And so it is with you, we are in charge of our Attitudes.

Envy has empty hands and wants them full. Jealousy has full hands and never wants them empty. Envy languishes in self-pity because it doesn't have what others have. Jealousy rants in paranoia because it fears losing what it feels unworthy to own.

As long as we hold onto our own desires and remain fixated on having our way, we will be unable to see God, even if He were to stand right before our eyes. God, in His patient, sometimes painful mercy, allows us to hold our desires as tightly as we wish until we tire of the pain and loosen our grip. Meanwhile, He holds before us a divine alternative, one that offers great abundance in exchange for the trinkets we clutch with desperate resolve.

Sometime in my ministry, I am going to gather up enough courage to have a testimony time where the only thing we'll share is our failures.

Isn't it remarkable what God can do without our help? Sometimes we think, My company needs me. My church needs me. My family needs me. Hey, God must need me, too. No, He doesn't. He can manage quite well without us, remarkable though it may seem. In fact, He prefers us to step aside and leave the striving to Him.

Satan is real, and he is relentless in his attacks on people of the light. Satan and his demons don't look anything like the depictions we see flickering across the screen in movies or on television. He subtly plays upon the fallibilities of good people to convince them that their darkest desires and most destructive activities are innocent, even righteous. His chief weapon is deception, and he uses it masterfully.

Matthew says, "This is the Messiah, the King; worship Him." Mark says, "This is the Servant who served humanity; follow Him." Luke says, "This is the only Man among men without sin; emulate Him." John says, "This is God in human flesh; believe in Him.

Life is difficult. That blunt, three-word statement is an accurate ap praisal of our existence on this planet.