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RATIONALIZATION
“At the end of the day, every child has learned the Lesson of Spin: Almost every wrong action can be stripped of consequences, along with the need for feelings of guilt and remorse.”
- Bill O’Reilly
REACTING
"Your reactions to your enemy can hurt you more than your enemy can."
- Hannah Hurnard
READING
“My best friend is the man who’ll get me a book I ain’t read.”
- Abraham Lincoln
“One of the best ways to expand his horizon is through a regular reading program.”
-
John F. Kennedy
"The man who never reads will never be read; he who never quotes will never be quoted. He who will not use the thoughts of other men’s brains, proves that he has no brains of his own."
- Charles Spurgeon
“Reading Christians are growing Christians. When Christians cease to read, they cease to grow.”
- John Wesley
"The person who won't read has no advantage over the person who can't."
- Rev. Clifford Warren, Welsh clergyman
"Do not deny yourself the help of good books on the subject of your lessons. Buy, borrow or beg, if necessary, but obtain somehow the help of the best thinkers, enough at least to stimulate your own thought; but do not read without thinking. If possible, talk the lesson over with an intelligent friend; collision often brings light."
- John Milton Gregory
"No matter how busy you may think you are, you must find time for reading, or surrender yourself to self-chosen ignorance."
- Atwood H. Townsend
“It is a good rule, after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between.”
- C.S. Lewis
REALITY
“There’s nothing so tragic as the murder of a beautiful theory by a gang of brutal facts.”
- Unknown
REASON
“The supreme function of reason is to show man that some things are beyond reason.”
- Blaise Pascal
REASONABLE
“There are two kinds of people one can call reasonable: those who serve God with all their heart because they know him, and those who seek him with all their heart because they do not know him.”
- Blaise Pascal
RECIPROCATION
We have received much by means of the efforts and sufferings of the saints in years gone by, and if we do not make some return to the church of Christ by giving her our best energies, we are unworthy to be enrolled in her ranks.
- Charles Spurgeon
REDEMPTION
“Moreover, Christ views the sinner, not as he is in himself, but as he is in the purpose of redemption. ‘His whole head is sick,’ saith Christ, ‘but I can cure him; his whole heart is faint, but I can restore him, and I will do it. His feet have gone astray, his mouth is an open sepulchre, his eyes are windows of lust, his hands are stained with blood; but I will amend all that, and make him a new creature, meet to be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light.’ Jesus looks, you see, not so much to what the sinner is in himself, as to what he can make him. He sees, in every sinner, the possibility of making a glorified saint, who shall dwell with him for ever and ever.”
- Charles H. Spurgeon
REGRET
“Let us not bankrupt our todays by paying interest on the regrets of yesterday and by borrowing in advance the troubles of tomorrow.”
-
Ralph W. Sockman
“A man is not old until his regrets take the place of his dreams.”
- Unknown
"Make it a rule of life never to regret and never to look back. Regret is an appalling waste of energy; you can't build on it, it's only good for wallowing in."
- Katherine Mansfield
"For of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: ‘It might have been.’"
- John Greenleaf Whittier
RELATIONSHIPS
"Every disciple needs three types of relationships in his life. He needs a ‘Paul’ who can mentor him and challenge him. He needs a ‘Barnabas’ who can come along side and encourage him. And he needs a ‘Timothy,’ someone that he can pour his life into."
- Dr. Howard Hendricks
"The right to criticize must be earned, even if the advice is constructive in nature."
- James Dobson in What Wives Wish their Husbands Knew about Women
“Be civil to all; sociable to many; familiar with few; friend to one; enemy to none.”
Benjamin Franklin
“Our navel is a constant reminder that we all started life connected to another human being. We spend all of our lives trying to get reconnected to someone. God created us as relational people.”
- Unknown
RELAXATION
"For fast-acting relief try slowing down.”
- Lily Tomlin
RELEVANCE
It is said that the sermons of Augustine are in bad Latin, not because Augustine was not a good scholar, but because the dog-Latin of the day suited his turn best to get hold of men. That preaching is best which fisherwomen understand. "But the dignity of the pulpit!" says one. Well, the "dignity" of a war-chariot lies in the captives dragged at its wheels, and the "dignity of the pulpit" lies in the number of souls converted to God. You must condescend to men of low estate.
“Think like a wise man but communicate in the language of the people.”
- William Butler Yates
RELIGION
“Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.”
- Blaise Pascal
REMORSE
“Remorse: beholding heaven and feeling hell.”
- George Moore
“Remorse goes to sleep during a prosperous period and wakes up in adversity.”
- Jean-Jacques Rosseau
REPENTANCE
“It is better to feel repentance, than to be able to define it.”
- Thomas a Kempis
“To do so no more is the truest repentance.”
- Martin Luther
True repentance hates the sin, and not merely the penalty; and it hates the sin most of all because it has discovered and felt God’s love.
- W.M. Taylor
True repentance is to cease from sin.
- Ambrose of Milan
“Remorse is sorrow over being caught and the pain of consequences that follow. Repentance is not being concerned for ourselves but having a contrite heart.”
- Charles Swindoll
REPUTATION
"A reputation once broken may possibly be repaired, but the world will always keep their eyes on the spot where the crack was."
- Joseph Hall
“Associate with men of good quality, if you esteem your own reputation; it is better to be alone than in bad company.”
- Unknown
RESENTMENT
“Resentment is like taking poison and waiting for the other person to die.”
- Malachy McCourt
RESISTANCE
"Learn to say 'no.' It will be of more use to you than to be able to read Latin."
- Charles Spurgeon
RESOLUTION
“Never give in! Never give in! Never, never, never, never--in nothing great and small—large and petty—Never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense.”
- Winston Churchill
RESOLVE
"No compromise with the main purpose, no peace till victory, no pact with unrepentant wrong."
- Winston Churchill
“Once you agree upon the price you and your family must pay for success, it enables you to ignore the minor hurts the opponent's pressure, and the temporary failures.”
- Vince Lombardi
“We shall fight on the beaches. We shall fight on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the fields, and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender!”
- Winston Churchill
RESPECT
“Only those who respect the personality of others can be of real use to them.”
- Albert Schweitzer
“Nothing so clearly discovers a spiritual man as his treatment of an erring brother.”
- Augustine
RESPECTABILITY
"Though everyone has an equal right to speak, not all have earned an equal right to be taken seriously."
Hubert Humphrey
RESPONSIBILITY
“To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men.”
- Abraham Lincoln
“The first requisite of a good citizen in this republic of ours is that he shall be able and willing to pull his weight.”
- Theodore Roosevelt
During the talks between President Kennedy and Premier Khrushchev at Vienna, the discussion became heated. “Do you ever admit a mistake?” Kennedy exclaimed. “Certainly,” said Khrushchev. “In a speech before the Twentieth Party Congress, I admitted all of Stalin’s mistakes.”
“We cannot solve a problem by saying, ‘It's not my problem.’ We cannot solve a problem by hoping that someone else will solve it for us. I can solve a problem only when I say, ‘This is my problem and it's up to me to solve it.’”
- M. Scott Peck
“I am rather tired of hearing about our rights...The time is come...to hear about responsibilities...”
- Peter Marshall
“Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anyone else expects of you. Never excuse yourself.”
- Henry Ward Beecher
"The price of greatness is responsibility."
- Winston Churchill
"This is a story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody. There was an important job to be done and Everybody was asked to do it. Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that! After all, it was Everybody's job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn't do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody because Nobody had wound up doing what Anybody could have done!"
- Author Unknown
"The only thing needed for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing."
- Edmund Burke, British Statesman
“I know God won’t give me anything I can’t handle. I just wish he didn’t trust me so much.”
- Mother Teresa
“We cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.”
- Abraham Lincoln
REST
“He that can take rest is greater than he that can take cities.”
- Benjamin Franklin
“The Master knows better than to exhaust His servants and quench the light of Israel. Rest time is not waste time. It is economy to gather fresh strength.”
- Charles Spurgeon (from his book, “Lectures to My Students”)
“People mistakenly believe that if you do nothing but train you can only get better. You’ve got to work hard, but the harder you work the harder you must rest and relax.”
- Justin Gatlin (2004 Olympic Gold Medalist, 100 Meter Dash)
“He that can take rest is greater than he that can take cities.”
- Benjamin Franklin
“There is more to life than increasing its speed.”
- Mohandas K. Gandhi
RESTRAINT
"Empty pockets never held anyone back. Only empty heads and empty hearts can do that."
- Norman Vincent Peale
RESURRECTION
“As I go into a cemetery I like to think of the time when the dead shall rise from their graves. … Thank God, our friends are not buried; they are only sown!”
- Dwight L. Moody
RETALIATION
"People who fight fire with fire usually end up with ashes."
- Abigail Van Buren
REVIVAL
"Nothing that imagination can paint can make a stronger impression...Sinners dropping down on every hand, professors praying, others in raptures of joy!...There can be no question but it is of God, as the subjects...can give a clear and rational account of their conversion."- Rev Moses Hodge (Describing the happenings in Cane Ridge, Kentucky, in 1801
Gypsy Smith was once asked how to start revival. He answered: "Go home, lock yourself in your room, and kneel down in the middle of the floor. Draw a chalk mark all around yourself and ask God to start a revival inside that chalk mark. When he has answered your prayer, the revival will be on."
John Wesley was once asked how he got crowds: "I set myself on fire, and the people come to see me burn."
RIGHT
“Stand with anybody that stands right. Stand with him while he is right and part with him when he goes wrong.”
- Abraham Lincoln
“The time is always ripe to do what is right.”
- Martin Luther King Jr.
RIGHTEOUSNESS
“We do not become righteous by doing righteous deeds, but having been made righteous, we do righteous deeds.”
- Martin Luther
RISK
“Victory will never be found by taking the line of least resistance.”
- Winston Churchill
"The person who gets the farthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare. The sure-thing boat never gets far from shore."
- Dale Carnegie
"Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly."
-
Robert F. Kennedy
“It is only in risking our persons from one hour to another that we live at all. And often enough our faith beforehand in an uncertified result is the only thing that makes the result come true.”
- William James
“It is when we all play safe that we create a world of utmost insecurity.”
- Dag Hammarskjold
“There are a lot of ways to become a failure, but never taking a chance is the most successful.”
- Unknown
"Behold the turtle. He makes progress only when he sticks his neck out."
- James Bryant Conant
"The man who goes farthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare. The sure-thing boat never gets far from the shore."
- Dale Carnegie
“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the great twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.”
- Theodore Roosevelt
“No man is worth his salt who is not ready at all times to risk his body, to risk his well-being, to risk his life, in a great cause.”
- Theodore Roosevelt
RUDENESS
Rudeness is the weak man’s imitation of strength.
- Eric Hoffer
SACRIFICE
"Out of the depths of sorrow and sacrifice will be born again the glory of mankind."
- Winston Churchill
"It is wonderful how well men can keep secrets they have not been told."
- Winston Churchill
Jim Elliot said, "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."
A religion that gives nothing, costs nothing, and suffers nothing, is worth nothing.
- Martin Luther
SALVATION BY WORKS
One critic said he had gone to many churches and heard the preacher say, "Don’t try to impress God with your works" or "Don’t attempt to please God with your merits" or "Don’t try to keep the rules and regulations and thus win your way." He looked around at nearly slumbering collections of utterly casual Christians and wondered, "Who’s trying?"
- Martin Marty
SANCTIFICATION
“The conversion of a soul is the miracle of a moment, but the making of a saint is the task of a lifetime.”
- Charles Swindoll
SATAN
“There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe and to feel an unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight.”
- C.S. Lewis
“The devil divides the world between atheism and superstition.”
- George Herbert
“The Devil’s best ruse is to persuade us that he does not exist.”
- Charles Baudelaire
“There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence, the other is to believe and to feel an unhealthy interest in them!”
- C. S. Lewis
SCRIPTURE
“The authority of Scripture is greater than the comprehension of the whole of man's reason.”
- Martin Luther
SECRETS
“Recovery programs have taught us that you are only as sick as your secrets. Secrets do indeed have great power over us. When sins are kept in the dark, they take on a life of their own, creating an untenable double-life.”
- Joe Jurkowski
SECURITY
Security is mostly superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.”
- Helen Keller
“My best security is within the munitions of an immutable Jehovah, where His unalterable promises stand like giant walls of rock.”
- Charles H. Spurgeon
"If money is your hope for independence you will never have it. The only real security that a man can have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability."
- Henry Ford
SELF-ACCEPTANCE
"There is someone I accept even though I do not approve of all he does...and that someone is me"
- C.S. Lewis
SELF-AWARENESS
"When you get to heaven God won’t ask you why you weren’t more like Billy Graham. He may ask you why you weren’t more like you. Get in touch with who you are. Lead with your own unique style. Be yourself and let God use you."
- Rick Warren
“Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.”
- Carl Jung
"When Abraham Lincoln was a candidate for President of the United States, someone asked him about his aspiration to that high office. He answered that he did not fear his opponents. "But," he said, "there is a man named Lincoln of whom I am very much afraid. If I am defeated, it will be by that man.""
- Dillard S. Miller
"I have more trouble with D.L. Moody than with any other man I know."
- D.L. Moody
SELF-CARE
“Take heed to yourselves, lest you perish while you call upon others to take heed of perishing, and lest you famish yourselves while you prepare their food.”
- Richard Baxter
SELF-CONFIDENCE
"So what if someone wrote your obituary... that doesn't mean you are obligated to die."
- Lou Holtz
"Believe in yourself. You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you stop to look fear in the face… You must do that which you think you cannot do."
- Eleanor Roosevelt
SELF-CONTROL
“You cannot put straight in others what is warped in yourself.”
- Athanasius of Alexandria, Patriarch of Alexandria and Church Father (c. 293-373)
"You never conquer the mountain. You only conquer yourself."
- Jim Whittaker
“I have conquered an empire, but I have not been able to conquer myself.”
- Peter the Great
"All significant battles are waged within the self."
- Sheldon Kopp
"I have more trouble with D.L. Moody than with any other man I have ever met."
- D.L. Moody
"Make the mind run the body. Never let the body tell the mind what to do. The body will always give up."
- George S. Patton
“You can never have a greater or lesser dominion than over yourself.”
- Leonardo DaVinci
“I count him braver who conquers his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is the victory over the self.”
- Aristotle
SELF-DECEPTION
“It is difficult for men in high office to avoid the malady of self-delusion. They are always surrounded by worshippers. They are constantly, and for the most part sincerely, assured of their greatness.
- Calvin Coolidge
“The President hears a hundred voices telling him that he is the greatest man in the world. He must listen carefully indeed to hear the one voice that tells him he is not.”
- Harry S. Truman
“The man is deceived who thinks he can somehow steward his gift without first and continually stewarding his life. A man’s life—his thoughts, attitudes, actions, and relationships—must be affected, influenced, and permeated by the Word he preaches, or else he preaches for the benefit of others while he himself stagnates and atrophies in a pool of self-deception.”
- Tony Cooke
SELF-DISCIPLINE
“That government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves.”
- Thomas Jefferson
SELF ESTEEM
“If each of us were to confess his most secret desire, the one that inspires all his plans, all his actions, he would say, ‘I want to be praised.’”
- E. M. Cioran
SELF-EXAMINATION
“The unexamined life is not worth living.”
- Socrates
SELFISHNESS
"The man who lives by himself and for himself is likely to be corrupted by the company he keeps."
- Charles H. Parkhurst
SELF-PITY
As a Christian you have to live in the midst of an ungodly world, and it is of little use for you to cry "Woe is me." Jesus did not pray O that you should be taken out of the world, and what He did not pray for you need not desire. Better far in the Lord's strength to meet the difficulty, and glorify Him in it.
- Charles Spurgeon
“Never feel self-pity, the most destructive emotion there is. How awful to be caught up in the terrible squirrel cage of self.”
- Millicent Fenwick
SELF-RESTRAINT
“It is easier to stay out than get out.”
- Mark Twain
“I have noticed that nothing I never said ever did me any harm.”
- Calvin Coolidge
SELF SACRIFICE
Self-preservation is the first law of nature, but self-sacrifice is the highest rule of grace.
- Unknown
SELF DEVELOPMENT
He can do more for others who has done most with himself.
- S.D. Gordon
SELFISHNESS
“To be selfish is to be wicked. Suppose the ocean gave up none of its watery treasure, it would bring ruin upon our race. God forbid that any of us should follow the ungenerous and destructive policy of living unto ourselves. Jesus pleased not Himself. All fulness dwells in Him, but of His fulness have all we received. O for Jesus’ spirit, that henceforth we may live not unto ourselves!”
- Charles Spurgeon
“It is well to remember that the entire universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of others.”
- John Andrew Holmes
"If you wish to be miserable, think about yourself; about what you want, what you like, what respect people ought to pay you, what people think of you; and then to you nothing will be pure. You will spoil everything you touch; you will make sin and misery for yourself out of everything God sends you; you will be as wretched as you choose."
- Charles Kingsley
"Selfishness is the greatest curse of the human race."
- William E. Gladstone
"The counterfeit trinity is me, myself, and I."
- Edwin Louis Cole
SELF TALK
"The most influential person who will talk to you all day is you, so you should be very careful about what you say to you!"
- Zig Ziglar
SENSITIVITY
"Listen to the whispers and you won't have to hear the screams."
- Cherokee Saying
SERVANTHOOD
“Timothy’s great value was that he was always willing to go anywhere; and in his hands a message was as safe as if Paul had delivered it himself. Others might be consumed with selfish ambition; but Timothy’s one desire was to serve Paul and Jesus Christ. He is the patron saint of all those who are quite content with the second place, so long as they can serve.”
- William Barclay
“Everybody can be great because anybody can serve.”
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
“You can tell whether you are becoming a servant by how you act when people treat you like one.”
- Gordon MacDonald
"The true measure of a man is not the number of servants he has, but the number of people he serves."
- Arnold Glasgow
"I don't know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found a way to serve."
- Albert Schweitzer
"There is no more noble occupation in the world than to assist another human being—to help someone succeed."
- Alan Loy McGinnis
SERVICE
“You must act in your friend’s interest whether it pleases him or not; the object of love is to serve, not to win.”
-
Woodrow Wilson
“No person was ever honored for what he received. Honor has been the reward for what he gave.”
- Calvin Coolidge
“Being a politician is a poor profession. Being a public servant is a noble one.”
- Herbert Clark Hoover
“The reward of service is more service.”
- Dwight L. Moody
“The purpose of life is not to win. The purpose of life is to grow and share. When you come to look back on all that you have done in life, you will get more satisfaction from the pleasure you have brought to other people’s lives than you will from the times that you outdid and defeated them.”
- Rabbi Harold Kushner
“I feel that the greatest reward for doing is the opportunity to do more."
- Jonas Salk
"I could never forgive myself if I elected to live without humane purpose, without trying to help the poor and unfortunate, without recognizing that ...the purest joy in life comes with trying to help others."
- Arthur Ashe
“Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.”
- Albert Einstein
“It is one of the most beautiful compensations of this life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: ‘What are you doing for others?’”
- Martin Luther King Jr.
“Only a life lived for others is worth living.”
- Albert Einstein
“God does not choose a person for ease and comfort and selfish joy but for a task that will take all that head and heart and hand can bring to it. God chooses a man in order to use him.”
- William Barclay
“No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of it to anyone else.”
- Charles Dickens
“True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever the cost.”
- Arthur Ashe
“I slept and dreamt that life was joy.
I woke and saw that life was service.
I acted and behold service was joy.”
- Tagore
SERVING
"Every member must work or quit. No honorary members."
- Charles Finney
“The hardest instrument in the orchestra to play is second fiddle.”
- Leonard Bernstein
Act in all things not according to your own will but as a son in the gospel. As such, it is your part to employ your time in a manner which we direct: partly in visiting the flock from house to house (the sick in particular); partly, in such a course of reading, meditation and prayer as we advise from time to time. Above all, if you labor with us in the Lord’s vineyard, it is needful you should do that part of the work which we direct, at those times and places which we judge most for his glory.
- John Wesley
SEX
"Sex has become one of the most discussed topics of modern times. The Victorians pretended it did not exist; the moderns pretend that nothing else exists."
- Bishop Fulton J. Sheen
SHAME
“Shame is a spin-off from guilt. We may feel guilty for what we did, but we feel ashamed of who we are.”
- Dr. Les Parrott
SIGNIFICANCE
"One hundred years from now it will not matter what kind of car I drove, what kind of house I lived in, how much money I had in my bank account, or what my clothes looked like. But one hundred years from now the world may be a little better because I was important in the life of a child."
- Anonymous
"If we work upon marble, it will perish; if we rear temples, they will crumble to dust. But if we work on men’s immortal minds, if we impress on them high principles, the just fear of God, and love for their fellowmen, we engrave on those tablets something which no time can efface and which will brighten and brighten to all eternity."
- Daniel Webster
SIMPLICITY
“Genius is the ability to reduce the complicated to the simple.”
- C.W. Ceram
"The discovery of God lies in the daily and the ordinary, not in the spectacular and the heroic. If we cannot find God in the routines of home and shop, then we will not find Him at all."
- Richard J. Foster
"To simplify complications is the first essential of success."
- George Earle Buckle
“You don’t really understand something unless you can communicate it in a simple way.”
- Albert Einstein
SIN
"Sin is what you do when your heart is not satisfied with God."
- John Piper
“Whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, or takes off the relish of spiritual things, whatever increases the authority of your body over your mind, that thing for you is sin.”
- Susanna Wesley
"Sin will take you farther then you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay."
- Unknown
“Oh, how horrible our sins look when they are committed by someone else.”
- Chuck Smith
SINCERITY
“The most exhausting thing in life, I have discovered, is insincerity.”
- Anne Morrow Lindbergh
SKILL
“When love and skill work together expect a masterpiece.”
- John Ruskin
SLANDER
“The murderer only takes the life of the parent and leaves his character as a goodly heritage to his children, whilst the slanderer takes away his goodly reputation and leaves him a living monument to his children’s disgrace.”
- Andrew Jackson
“Speaking ill of others is a cheap, dishonest way to praise ourselves.”
- Unknown
SMALL THINGS
"Everyone is trying to accomplish something big, not realizing that life is made up of little things."
- Frank Clark
“The least movement is of importance to all nature. The entire ocean is affected by a pebble.”
- Blaise Pascal
“We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.”
- Mother Teresa
"He does most in God’s great world who does his best in his own little world."
- Thomas Jefferson
"He is invited to do great things who receives small things greatly."
- Cassiodorus
“I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.”
- Helen Keller
SOULS
“Some wish to live within the sound of church or chapel bell; I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell.”
- C.T. Studd
"If sinners be dammed, at least let them leap to Hell over our bodies. If they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees. Let no one go there unwarned and unprayed for."
- Charles Spurgeon
"I would think it a greater happiness to gain one soul to Christ than mountains of silver and gold to myself."
- Matthew Henry
"I care not where I go or how I live or what I endure so that I may save souls. When I sleep I dream of them; when I awake they are first in my thoughts...no amount of scholastic attainment, or able and profound exposition, of brilliant and stirring eloquence can atone for the absence of a deep, impassioned, sympathetic love for human souls."
- David Brainerd
“Not called,” did you say? “Not heard the call,” I think you should say. Put your ear down to the Bible and hear Him bid you go and pull sinners out of the fire of sin. Put your ear down to the burdened, agonized heart of humanity and listen to its pitiful wail for help. Go stand by the gates of Hell and hear the damned entreat you to go to their fathers’ houses and bid their brothers and sister and servants and master not to come there. Then look Christ in the face – whose mercy you have professed to obey – and tell Him whether you will join heart and soul and body and circumstances in the march to publish His mercy to the world.
– William Booth
“Some men’s ambition is art, some men’s ambition is fame, some men’s ambition is gold. My ambition is the souls of men.”
– William Booth
Some wish to live within the sound of a chapel bell; I wish to run a rescue mission within a yard of hell.
- C.T. Studd
SOULWINNING
“When a man gets up so high (spiritual mountaintop) that he cannot reach down and save poor sinners, there is something wrong.”
- Dwight L. Moody
"I could not be satisfied unless some fruits did appear in my work."
- John Bunyan
"I care not where or how I live, or what hardships I go through, so that I can but gain souls to Christ."
- David Brainerd
"I long for the conversion of souls more sensibly than anything besides."
- Doddridge
"I would think it a greater happiness to gain one soul to Christ than mountains of silver and gold to myself."
- Matthew Henry
"If you should live to preach the gospel forty years, and be the instrument of saving only one soul, it will be worth all your labours."
- Fletcher
"How can I help weeping when you will not weep for yourselves, though your immortal souls are on the verge of destruction!"
- George Whitfield
"The greatest of all things is not theology; it is not controversy; it is to save souls."
- Dr. Lyman Beecher
SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES
“Too often preachers may feel the necessity of spiritual disciplines, not as a means of drawing closer to God, but as sermon insurance.”
- Ed Rowell
SPIRITUALITY
"We're not just human beings having a temporary spiritual experience. But we're spiritual beings having a temporary human experience."
- Teilhard de Chardin, French Priest
SPONTANEITY
“I will tell you the mistake you are always making,” Napoleon said, addressing an opponent he had defeated. “You draw up your plans the day before battle, when you do not yet know your adversary’s movements.”
STAGNATION
“If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always be what you’ve always been.”
- Unknown
STANDARDS
"Let us set up a standard around which the brave and the loyal can rally."
- Winston Churchill
STRATEGY
"Sharpen your weapons and limit your frontiers."
- Roman Military Saying
STATUS
"Too many people spend money they haven't earned, to buy things they don't want, to impress people they don't like."
- Will Rogers
STEWARDSHIP
“Stewardship is the act of organizing your life so that God can spend you.”
- Lynn A. Miller
“Stewardship is what a man does after he says, ‘I believe.’”
- W. H. Greeveries
"I place no value on anything I have or may possess, except in relation to the kingdom of God. If anything will advance the interests of the kingdom, it shall be given away or kept, only as by giving or keeping it I shall most promote the glory of Him to whom I owe all my hopes in time or eternity."
- David Livingstone.
"We deem it a sacred responsibility and genuine opportunity to be faithful stewards of all God has entrusted to us: our time, our talents, and our financial resources. We view all of life as a sacred trust to be used wisely."
- Moravian Covenant for Christian Living
STRENGTH
“Do not pray for easier lives. Pray to be stronger men.”
-
John F. Kennedy
STRESS
“The bow too tensely strung is easily broken.”
- Publius Syrus
“But did you know that some stress can be good? Think of a violin. Each string is tightened to a certain level of tension or stress, and when the stress is just right, it makes beautiful music. Overtighten, and it goes out of tune. Under-tighten, and it goes out of tune. There is a balance in which the right amount of stress tells us we’re living life at its proper speed. On one hand, we’re not being lazy, and on the other hand we’re not being overworked.”
- Dave Williams (from his book, “Emerging Leaders”)
"Most stress is caused by people who overestimate the importance of their problems."
- Michael LeBoeuf
STUBBORNNESS
“Stubbornness should have been my middle name.”
- Martin Luther
STUDY
“If I had only three remaining years of ministry, I would spend two of them studying.”
- Donald Grey Barnhouse
STUPIDITY
“Unwisdom prevailed.”
- Winston Churchill
SUCCESS
“There are two kinds of success: initial and ultimate.”
- Winston Churchill
"Good fortune is what happens when opportunity meets with planning."
- Thomas Edison
“The toughest thing about being a success is that you’ve got to keep on being a success.”
- Irving Berlin
“My mother drew a distinction between achievement and success. She said that achievement is the knowledge that you have studied and worked hard and done the best that is in you. Success is being praised by others. That is nice but not as important or satisfying. Always aim for achievement and forget about success."
- Helen Hayes
“The secret of my success? It is simple. It is found in the Bible, ‘In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths.’”
- George Washington Carver
“People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.”
- Dale Carnegie
“Success is where preparation and opportunity meet.”
- Bobby Unser
“Success is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.”
- Abraham Lincoln
“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.”
- Albert Schweitzer
"It takes twenty years to be an overnight success."
- Eddie Cantor
"Someday I hope to enjoy enough of what the world calls success so that somebody will ask me, "What’s the secret of it?" I shall say simply this: "I get up when I fall down."
- Paul Harvey
"It seems to me shallow and arrogant for any man in these times to claim he is completely self-made, that he owes all his success to his own unaided efforts. Many hands and hearts and minds generally contribute to anyone’s notable achievements."
- Walt Disney
"You have reached the pinnacle of success as soon as you become uninterested in money, compliments or publicity."
- O.A. Battista
"As far as I can remember, being a celebrity has never helped me make a good picture ... or command the obedience of my daughter, or impress my wife. It doesn't even seem to help keep fleas off our dog, and if being a celebrity won't give one an advantage over a couple fleas, then I guess there can't be that much in being a celebrity after all."
- Walt Disney
"The desire for fame is the last weakness wise men put off."
- Tacitus
"Try not to become a person of success, but rather try to become a person of value."
- Albert Einstein
The best place to succeed is where you are with what you have.
- Charles M Schwab
"Be awful nice to ‘em going up, because you’re going to meet them coming down."
- Jimmy Durante
"If you achieve success, you will get applause, and if you get applause, you will hear it. My advice to you concerning applause is this: Enjoy it but never quite believe it."
- Robert Montgomery
"The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary."
- Vidal Sassoon
"Success can make you go one of two ways. It can make you a prima donna – or it can smooth the edges, take away the insecurities, let the nice things come out."
- Barbara Walters
“When you are making a success of something, it’s not work. It’s a way of life. You enjoy yourself because you are making your contribution to the world.”
- Andy Granatelli
“Success is the child of audacity.”
- Benjamin Disraeli
SUFFERING
“Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.”
- Helen Keller
SUPPORTIVE ROLES
“The hardest instrument in the orchestra to play is second fiddle.
- Leonard Bernstein
SUPREMACY OF CHRIST
“Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and myself founded empires; but upon what foundation did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force! But Jesus Christ founded His upon love; and at this hour millions of men would die for Him.”
- Napoleon Bonaparte
SURRENDER
"In our competitive world we’re taught to never quit trying, never give up, and never give in - so we don’t hear much about surrendering. If winning is everything, surrendering is unthinkable. Even Christians would rather talk about winning, succeeding, overcoming, and conquering than yielding, submitting, obeying, and surrendering. But surrendering to God is the heart of worship."
- Rick Warren
SURVIVAL
“The complacent, the self-indulgent, the soft societies are about to be swept away with the debris of history. Only the strong, only the industrious, only the determined, only the courageous, only the visionary who determine the real nature of our struggle can possibly survive.”
-
John F. Kennedy
SYSTEMS
“Your systems are perfectly designed to get the results that you are getting.”
- Stephen Covey
