There came a gentle tapping ‘let me in!’
I opened and beheld a very little sin.
He entered with apologies and scarcely raised his eyes
As if abashed to contemplate tempting one so wise.
I found myself amused at this and set out to explore
This little cunning sin I’d let inside my door.
I petted him and teased him and gave him bread and wine,
Grew fond of him, then adopted him, this little sin of mine.
He twined around my heartstrings and grew so very dear
I loved him and assured myself he was too small to fear.
He soon spied out my weakness and therein was the rub,
He built himself a treadmill, my weakness at the hub.
With every revolution my darling little sin
Enlarged himself and multiplied over and over again.
At last he stooped and lifted me and placed me on his knee,
Now he is my besetting sin and makes a pet of me.
-- credited to Irene Holsted

The best Christian is still a poor Christian - R.B. Kuiper

Whatever your heart clings to and confides in, that is really your God- Martin Luther

The Kingdom must be advanced not merely extensively, but also intensively. The Church must seek to conquer not merely every man for Christ, but also the whole of man - Greg Bahnsen

Give me one hundred preachers who fear nothing but sin, and desire nothing but God, and I care not a straw whether they be clergymen or laymen; such alone will shake the gates of hell and set up the kingdom of heaven on earth. -John Wesley

My hands are raised in awesome wonder of His grace to me.
I seek the words to say but cannot for only His face I see.
Lift me up oh Lord in the shadow of your wings.
Up and away from this world, this world of things.
Cause me to hear and say and feel and taste and see
Only those joys that truely satisfy, those joys of Thee.
Keep me always vigilant, a watchman on the wall.
That I may teach the ones entrusted to me,
Oh Lord, to teach them to recognize Your Call. Amen.
Allan L Winger

There is no higher priority in the believer's life than to delight himself in the love of Christ.- Maurice Roberts

Theosophists for instance will preach an obviously attractive idea
like re-incarnation; but if we wait for its logical results, they are
spiritual superciliousness and the cruelty of caste. For if a man is a
beggar by his own pre-natal sins, people will tend to despise the
beggar. But Christianity preaches an obviously unattractive idea, such
as original sin; but when we wait for its results, they are pathos and
brotherhood, and a thunder of laughter and pity; for only with
original sin we can at once pity the beggar and distrust the king. - G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy, 1908

Christlikeness is the result of making Christlike
choices and depending on his Spirit to help you
fulfill those choices. Once you decide to get
serious about becoming like Christ, you must
begin to act in new ways.
You will need to let go of some old routines,
develop some new habits, and intentionally change
the way you think. You can be certain that the
Holy Spirit will help you with these changes.
The Bible says, "Continue to work out your salvation
with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in
you to will and act according to his good purpose."
(Philippians 2:12-13)
This verse shows the two parts of spiritual growth:
"work out" and "work in." The "work out" is your
responsibility, and the "work in" is God's role.
Spiritual growth is a collaborative effort between
you and the Holy Spirit. God's Spirit works with
us, not just in us.
This verse, written to believers, is not about how to be saved, but how to grow. It does not say "work for" your salvation, because you can't add anything to what Jesus already did. During a physical "workout," you exercise to develop your body, not to get a body. -Rick Warren (1954- ) _The Purpose Driven Life_ [2002], Chapter 23

It is a mistake to think that some of our impulses--say mother love or patriotism--are good, and others, like sex or the fighting instinct, are bad. All we mean is that the occasions on which the fighting instinct or the sexual desire need to be restrained are rather more frequent than those for restraining mother love or patriotism. But there are situations in which it is the duty of a married man to encourage his sexual impulse and of a soldier to encourage the fighting instinct. There are also occasions on which a mother's love for her own children or a man's love for his own country have to be suppressed or they will lead to unfairness towards other people's children or countries.- C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

The view of evil implied by Marxism, expressed by Shaw and maintained by modern psychotherapy, which regards it as the by-product of circumstances which circumstances can, therefore, alter and even eliminate—has come to seem to me intolerably shallow, and the contrary view of it as endemic in man—more particularly in its Christian form, the doctrine of original sin—to express a deep and essential insight into human nature. - C. E. M. Joad (1891-1953), The Recovery of Belief [1952]

It was because we rejected the doctrine of original sin that we on the left were always being disappointed - disappointed by the failure of true socialism to arrive, by the behavior of nations and politicians, and above all by the recurrent fact of war. C. E. M. Joad (1891-1953), The Recovery of Belief [1952]

Earth's crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God; and only he who sees takes off his shoes; the rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.- Elizabeth Barrett Browning

It is better to debate a question without settling it than to settle a question without debating it -Joseph Joubert: 1754 - 1824