Quotes

Strong

/ Susie Stewart / Leave a comment

The Christian often tries to forget his weakness;  God wants us to remember it, to feel it deeply.  The Christian wants to conquer his weakness and to be freed from it;  God wants us to rest and even rejoice in it.  The Christian mourns over his weakness;  Christ teaches His servant to say, “I take pleasure in infirmities.”  The Christian thinks his weaknesses are his greatest hindrance in the life and service of God;  God tells us that it is the secret of strength and success.  It is our weakness, heartily accepted and continually realized, that give us our claim and access to the strength of Him who has said, “My strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9)

…And if we want to know how the power is bestowed, the answer is simple:  Christ gives His power in us by giving His life in us.  He does not, as so many believers imagine, take the feeble life He finds in them and impart a little strength to aid them in their feeble efforts.  No, it is in the giving His own life in us that He gives us His power.  The Holy Spirit came down to the disciples direct from the heart of their exalted Lord, bringing down into them the glorious life of heaven into which He had entered.  And so His people are still taught to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.  When He strengthens them, it is not by taking away the sense of feebleness and giving in its place the feeling of strength.  By no means.   But, in a very wonderful way, leaving and even increasing the sense of utter helplessness, He gives them along with it the consciousness of strength in Him.  The feebleness and the strength are side by side;  as the one grows, the other also grows, until they understand the saying, “When I am weak, then am I strong…I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2 Corinthians 12:10,9).

…He lives a most joyous and blessed life, not because He is no longer feeble, but because, being utterly helpless, he consents and expects to have the mighty Savior work in him.

– Andrew Murray

 

For the Kingdom of God is not just a lot of talk; it is living by God’s power.

1 Corinthians 4:20 (NLT)

 

Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away.  Each time He said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.  That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

– 2 Corinthians 12:8-10 (NLT)

 

“And now I will send the Holy Spirit, just as my Father promised. But stay here in the city until the Holy Spirit comes and fills you with power from heaven.”

– Luke 24:49 (NLT)

 

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere.”

– Acts 1:8 (NLT)

 

For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.

– Philippians 4:13 (NLT)

 

Photo by Susie Stewart

Humility

/ Susie Stewart / Leave a comment

The greatest test of whether the holiness we profess to seek or to attain is truth and life will be whether it produces an increasing humility in us. In man, humility is the one thing needed to allow God’s holiness to dwell in him and shine through him. The chief mark of counterfeit holiness is lack of humility. The holiest will be the humblest.

– Andrew Murray

 

Since God chose you to be the holy people He loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.

–  Colossians 3:12 (NLT)

 

They must not slander anyone and must avoid quarreling. Instead, they should be gentle and show true humility to everyone.

–  Titus 3:2 (NLT)

 

If you are wise and understand God’s ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom.

–  James 3:13 (NLT)

 

…Whoever is the least among you is the greatest.

– Luke 9:48 (NLT)

 

Photo by Andy Stewart

Contentment

/ Susie Stewart / Leave a comment

All our discontents about what we want appear to me to spring from the want of thankfulness for what we have.

– Daniel Defoe

 

…give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread.

– Proverbs 30:8 (NIV)

 

Thank God every morning when you get up that you have something to do which must be done, whether you like it or not. Being forced to work, and forced to do your best, will breed in you temperance, self-control, diligence, strength of will, content, and a hundred other virtues which the idle never know.

– Charles Kingsley

 

If you cannot get what you like, why not try to like what you get?

– Author Unknown

 

Young men, I beseech you earnestly, beware of pride. Two things are said to be very rare sights in the world~~~one is a young man humble, and the other is an old man content.

– J.C. Ryle

 

The secret of contentment is the realization that life is a gift, not a right.

– Author Unknown

 

He might live a thousand years twice over but still not find contentment….

– Ecclesiastes 6:6 (NLT)

 

Yet true godliness with contentment is itself great wealth. After all, we brought nothing with us when we came into the world, and we can’t take anything with us when we leave it.

–  1Timothy 6:6-7 (NLT)

 

Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.

– Philippians 4:11-13 (NLT)

 

Photo by Susie Stewart

Adopted

/ Susie Stewart / 2 Comments

It would be enough if God just cleansed your name, but He does more.  He give you His name.  It would be enough if God just set you free, but He does more.  He takes you home…

Adoptive parents understand this more than anyone.  I certainly don’t mean to offend ny biological parents – I’m one myself.  We biological parents know well the earnest longing to have a child.  But in many cases our cribs were filled easily.  We decided to have a child and a child came.  In fact, sometimes the child came with no decision.  I’ve heard of unplanned pregnancies, but I’ve never heard of an unplanned adoption.

That’s why adoptive parents understand God’s passion to adopt us.  They know what it means to feel an empty space inside.  They know what it means to hunt, to set out on a mission, and take responsibility for a child with a spotted past and a dubious future.  If anybody understands God’s ardor for His children, it’s someone who has rescued an orphan from despair, for that is what God has done for us.

God has adopted you.  God sought you, found you, signed the papers and took you home.

– Max Lucado

 

Long ago, before God made the world, God chose us to be His very own, through what Christ would do for us;  He decided then to make us holy in His eyes, without a single fault we who stand before Him covered in His love.  His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into His own family by sending Jesus Christ to die for us.  And He did this because He wanted to.

– Ephesians 1:3-5 (TLB)

 

For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out “Abba!  Father!”  The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.

– Romans 8:15-16 (NASB)

 

But when the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, in order that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.

– Galatians 4:4-5 (NASB)

 

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Photos by Susie Stewart & Andy Stewart

Steady

/ Susie Stewart / 3 Comments

Steady gaze
Upon Your face
Steady eyes
Drinking in Your grace
Steady ears
Anxious to hear
Steady arms
Knowing Your near
Steady thoughts
Of You and Your life
Fragrancing my heart
Perfuming the strife
Steady gaze
Constant abide
Walking with You
Right by my side.

– LeeLee Dart

 

. . . this one committal, this one great volitional act which establishes the heart’s intention to gaze forever upon Jesus. God takes this intention for our choice and makes what allowances he must for the thousand distractions which beset us in this evil world. He knows that we have set the direction of our hearts toward Jesus, and we can know it too, and comfort ourselves with the knowledge that a habit of soul is forming which will become, after a while, a sort of spiritual reflex requiring no more conscious effort on our part.

Faith is the least self-regarding of the virtues. It is by its very nature scarcely conscious of its own existence. Like the eye which sees everything in front of it and never sees itself, faith is occupied on the Object upon which it rests and pays no attention to itself at all. While we are looking at God we do not see ourselves — blessed riddance. The man who has struggled to purify himself and has had nothing but repeated failures will experience real relief when he stops tinkering with his soul and looks away to the perfect One. While he looks at Christ, the very things he has so long been trying to do will be getting done within him. It will be God working in him to will and to do.

– AW Tozer

 

We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting Him, He endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now He is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne.

– Hebrews 12:2 (NLT)

 

“Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in Me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from Me you can do nothing.”

– John 15:5 (NLT)

 

That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day.  For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!  So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.

– 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (NLT)

 

Photo by Arik Stewart

Extraordinary

/ Susie Stewart / Leave a comment

Since our heavenly Father’s goal is to help us reach our full spiritual potential as believers in Christ, we will be challenged by the things He calls us to do. Sometimes really challenged…This is God’s way. Putting extraordinary tasks on the plates of ordinary people so that ordinary people can see what an extraordinary God can do through them…what He’s saying to you may sound impossible. But if you’ll just follow Him in stunned, submitted obedience, stepping out of your cozy comfort zone, you’ll find you’re leaving the realm of your natural abilities behind and entering the realm of His supernatural ones.

– PriscilIa Shirer

 

I replied, “I’m not a good speaker, Lord, and I’m too young.”
“Don’t say you’re too young,” the Lord answered. “If I tell you to go and speak to someone, then go! And when I tell you what to say, don’t leave out a word! I promise to be with you and keep you safe, so don’t be afraid.”

– Jeremiah 1:6-8 (CEV)

 

“I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in Me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father.”

– John 14:12 (NLT)

 

“You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden.  No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house.  In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.”

– Matthew 5:14-16 (NLT)

 

Photo by Susie Stewart

Worth

/ Susie Stewart / 1 Comment

It takes a profound conversion to accept that God is relentlessly tender and compassionate toward us just as we are — not in spite of our sins and faults (that would not be total acceptance), but with them.  Though God does not condone or sanction evil, He does not withhold His love because there is evil in us.

– Brennan Manning

 

We cannot accept love from another human being when we do not love ourselves, much less accept that God could possibly love us.

– Anonymous

 

Our courteous Lord does not want His servants to despair because they fall often and grievously;  for our falling does not hinder Him in loving us.

– Julian of Norwich

 

Many Christians…find themselves defeated by the most psychological weapon that satan uses against them.  This weapon has the effectiveness of  deadly missile.  Its name?  Low self-esteem.  Satan’s greatest psychological weapon is a gut level feeling of inferiority, inadequacy, and low self-worth.  This feeling shackles many Christians, in spite of wonderful spiritual experiences and knowledge of God’s Word.  Although they understand their position as sons and daughters of God, they are tied up in knots, bound by a terrible feeling of inferiority, and chained to a deep sense of worthlessness.

– David Seamands

 

But God loves who we really are — whether we like it or not.  God calls us, as He did Adam, to come out of hiding.  No amount of spiritual makeup can render us more presentable to Him.  As Merton said, “The reason we never enter into the deepest reality of our relationship with God is that we so seldom acknowledge our utter nothingness before Him.”  His love, which called us into existence, calls us to come out of self-hatred and to step into His truth.  “Come to me now,” Jesus says.  “Acknowledge and accept who I want to be for you:  A Savior of boundless compassion, infinite patience, unbearable forgiveness, and love that keeps no score of wrongs.  Quit projecting onto Me your own feelings about yourself.  At this moment your life is a bruised reed and I will not crush it, a smoldering wick and I will not quench it.  You are in a safe place.”

– Brennan Manning

 

…love covers a multitude of sins.

1 Peter 4:8 (NLT)

 

A bruised reed he will not break,
and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.

– Isaiah 42:3 (NIV)

 

Father,

My worth

is tied beautifully to Your complete worthiness

and Your love for me.

 

Let me not slip into

corrosive thoughts self-degrading

preoccupied

with my failures.

 

But keep me in

the place

where I know

I’m completely dependent on You

and loved beyond reason.

 

 

Surrendered to grace

 

– Susie Stewart

 

Photo by Susie Stewart

 

 

 

Obey

/ Susie Stewart / Leave a comment

A world of confusion and disappointment results from trying to believe without obeying.  This puts us in the position of a bird trying to fly with one wing.  We merely flap in a circle and seek to cheer our hearts with the hope that the whirling ball of fathers is proof that a revival is under way.

– A.W. Tozer

 

Loving God means keeping His commandments, and His commandments are not burdensome.

1 John 5:3 (NLT)

 

And he is, to them, ‘a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence’. Yes, they stumble at the Word of God for in their hearts they are unwilling to obey it—which makes stumbling a foregone conclusion. But you are God’s “chosen generation”, His “royal priesthood”, His “holy nation”, His “peculiar people”—all the old titles of God’s people now belong to you. It is for you now to demonstrate the goodness of Him who has called you out of darkness into His amazing light. In the past you were not “a people” at all: now you are the people of God. In the past you had no experience of His mercy, but now it is intimately yours.

– 1 Peter 2:7-9 (PHILLIPS)

 

Jesus said, “I will do what the Father requires of Me, so that the world will know that I love the Father.”

John 14:31 (NLT)

 

‘Listen to and obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people; and you will walk in all the way which I command you, so that it may be well with you.’

– Jeremiah 7:23 (AMP)

 

By your words I can see where I’m going; they throw a beam of light on my dark path. I’ve committed myself and I’ll never turn back from living by your righteous order. Everything’s falling apart on me, God; put me together again with your Word. Festoon me with your finest sayings, God; teach me your holy rules. My life is as close as my own hands, but I don’t forget what you have revealed. The wicked do their best to throw me off track, but I don’t swerve an inch from your course. I inherited your book on living; it’s mine forever— what a gift! And how happy it makes me! I concentrate on doing exactly what you say— I always have and always will.

– Psalm 119:111-113 (MSG)

 

Obedience is the key to real faith.

– Chuck Colson

 

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Love Never Fails

/ Susie Stewart / Leave a comment

Love never fails.

– 1 Corinthians 13:8 (NIV)

 

Love is the river that flows through. Love is the arms that are holding you. Love is the place you will fly to. Love never fails you.

-Brandon Heath

 

You stay the same through the ages. Your love never changes. There may be pain in the night. But joy comes in the morning.
The wind is strong and the water’s deep. I’m not alone here in these open seas cause Your love never fails.

-Newsboys

 

Higher than the mountains that I face. Stronger than the power of the grave. Constant in the trial and the change. One thing remains.
In death. In life. I’m confident and covered by the power of your great love.
My debt is paid. There’s nothing that can separate my heart from Your great love.
Your love never fails. It never gives up. It never runs out on me.

-Jesus Culture

 

Love never fails.

 

Everything else

Everyone else

may fall away

but God will never fail

you

 

He is the Love

the Constant

you are searching for.

 

– Susie Stewart

 

This is how much God loved the world: He gave His Son, His one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in Him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending His Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in Him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust Him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person’s failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to Him.

– John 3:15-17 (MSG)

 

 

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Love Always Hopes

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Love always hopes…

– 1 Corinthians 13:7 (NIV)

 

Love is hope when reason despairs.

– Jack Hyles

 

If you’ll quit moaning and crying, I’ll use the things to make you into someone I can use in the lives of others to show them that no matter where they’ve been, no matter how deep the hole, no matter how painful the trial, there’s hope. There is victory.

– Kay Arthur

 

Love always points to a brighter day ahead. Love is the lifeline that the hurting can hold on to.

– Philip Ryken

 

Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory.

We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance.  And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.  And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with His love.

– Romans 5:2-5 (NLT)

 

Photo by Susie Stewart