Quotes to Ponder

[Uncle Buck]

CONTINUED

Naked I wait Thy love's uplifted stroke!
My harness piece by piece Thou hast hewn from me,
                And smitten me to my knee;
            I am defenceless utterly.
            I slept, methinks, and woke,
And, slowly gazing, find me stripped in sleep.
In the rash lustihead of my young powers,
            I shook the pillaring hours
And pulled my life upon me; grimed with smears,
I stand amid the dust o' the mounded years–
My mangled youth lies dead beneath the heap.
My days have crackled and gone up in smoke,
Have puffed and burst as sun-starts on a stream.
            Yea, faileth now even dream
The dreamer, and the lute the lutanist.
Even the linked fantasies, in whose blossomy twist
I swung the earth a trinket at my wrist,
Are yielding; cords of all too weak account
For earth with heavy griefs so overplussed.
            Ah! is Thy love indeed
A weed, albeit an amaranthine weed,
Suffering no flowers except its own to mount?
            Ah! must–
            Designer infinite!–
Ah! must Thou char the wood ere Thou can'st limn with it?
My freshness spent its wavering shower i' the dust;
And now my heart is as a broken fount,
Wherein tear-drippings stagnate, spilt down ever
            From the dank thoughts that shiver
Upon the sighful branches of my mind.
            Such is; what is to be?
The pulp so bitter, how shall taste the rind?
I dimly guess what Time in mists confounds;
Yet ever and anon a trumpet sounds
From the hid battlements of Eternity;
Those shaken mists a space unsettle, then
Round the half-glimpséd turrets slowly wash again.
            But not ere him who summoneth
            I first have seen, enwound
With glooming robes purpureal, cypress-crowned;
His name I know, and what his trumpet saith.
Whether man's heart or life it be which yields
            Thee harvest, must Thy harvest-fields
            Be dunged with rotten death?

                Now of that long pursuit
                Comes on at hand the bruit;
            That Voice is round me like a bursting sea:
               "And is thy earth so marred,
                Shattered in shard on shard?
            Lo, all things fly thee, for thou fliest Me!
            Strange, piteous, futile thing!
Wherefore should any set thee love apart?
Seeing none but I makes much of naught" (He said),
"And human love needs human meriting:
            How hast thou merited–
Of all man's clotted clay the dingiest clot?
            Alack, thou knowest not
How little worthy of any love thou art!
Whom wilt thou find to love ignoble thee,
            Save Me, save only Me?
All which I took from thee I did but take,
            Not for thy harms,
But just that thou might'st seek it in My arms.
            All which thy child's mistake
Fancies as lost, I have stored for thee at home:
            Rise, clasp My hand, and come!"
    Halts by me that footfall:
    Is my gloom, after all,
Shade of His hand, outstretched caressingly?
    "Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest,
    I am He Whom thou seekest!
Thou dravest love from thee, who dravest Me."

     –Francis Thompson

[Uncle Buck]

"The following notice appeared in a recent addition of the Sunday bulletin of St. Thomas the Apostle Church.
 Now here it is:

To make it possible for everyone to attend church next Sunday,

 Cots will be placed in the vestibule for those who say that Sunday is the only day they can sleep in.

 We will have steel helmets for those who say the roof would cave in if they ever came to church.

 Blankets will be furnished for those who think the church is too cold and fans for those who think it's too hot.

We will have hearing aids for those who say the pastor speaks too softly and cotton for those who say he preaches too loudly.
 
Score cards will be available for those who wish to list the hypocrites present.

 Some relatives will be in attendance for those who like to go visiting on Sundays.

 There will be TV dinners for those who can't go to church and cook dinner too.

 One section will be devoted to trees and grass for those who like to seek God in nature.
 
And finally, the sanctuary will be decorated with both Christmas poinsettias and Easter lilies for those who have never seen the church without them."

     –B.E. Fitzgerald

[Uncle Buck]

Our thoughts lie open to Thy sight;
And naked to Thy glance;
Our secret sins are in the light
Of Thy pure countenance.

     –John G. Whittier

“Secret sin down here is open scandal in heaven.”
     –Dr. Lewis Chafer

[Uncle Buck]

WHY?
 
Why must God's children suffer?
Why must we feel pain?
Why must we keep on fighting
When it seems, we fight in vain?
 
Why do the ones who do not choose
To follow where He's led
Seem to walk an easy road
When a hard path we must tread?
 
Why does He give the riches here
To those who never heed?
Doesn't He see His own dear ones
Who really are in need?
 
So when they seem to sneer at us
When we speak of life above,
Remember, precious child, God chastens
those He loves.
 
God only sends these trials
To those He really loves.
His children will get their rewards
In Heaven up above.
 
So, though for now I'm tested,
Though I'm sick as I can be,
I know my Father really loves,
Because He chastens me.
 
     –By a 17-year-old girl from Grand Haven, Michigan
 

[Uncle Buck]

It's easier to preach than to practice;
It's easier to say than to do.
Most sermons are heard by the many,
But taken to heart by the few.

     –Author unknown

[Uncle Buck]

He made the forests whence there sprung
The tree on which His body hung;

He died upon a cross of wood
Yet made the hill on which it stood!

The sky which darkened o’er His head
By Him above the earth was spread;

The sun which hid from Him its face
By His decree was poised in space!

     –Author unknown

[Uncle Buck]

"I have a little bit of–I don't suppose you'd call it a poem–but someone has refined the statement that Matthew Henry made concerning the creation of Eve. And since we're talking now about Sarah, the wife of Abraham, why I think it's proper to read this at this particular time. Will you listen?

 'Not from his head, that she might rule over him,
 not from his feet that she might trample on him,
 but from his side that she might be equal to him,
from under his arm that he might protect her,
 and from under his heart that he might love her.

' And that may I say is the true marriage relationship as given in the creation of Eve and now we see it exemplified in the life of Sarah."

     –J. Vernon McGee

[Uncle Buck]

I'm Not Growing Old
They say that I am growing old.
I've heard them tell it times untold,
In language plain and bold–
But I'm NOT growing old.
This frail old shell in which I dwell
Is growing old, I know full well–
But I am not the shell.
What if my hair is turning grey?
Grey hairs are honorable, they say.
What if my eyesight's growing dim?
I still can see to follow Him
Who sacrificed His life for me
Upon the Cross of Calvary.
What should I care if Time's old plow
Has left its furrows on my brow?
Another house not made by hand,
Awaits me in the Glory Land.
What though I falter in my walk?
I still can tread the Narrow Way,
I still can watch and praise and pray.
My hearing may not be so keen
As in the past it may have been,
Still, I can hear my Saviour say
In whispers soft, "This is the way."
The outward man–do what I can
To lengthen out his life's short span–
Shall perish, and return to dust,
As everything in nature must.
The inward man, the Scriptures say,
Is growing stronger every day.
Then how can I be growing old
When safe within my Saviour's fold?
Ere long my soul shall fly away,
And leave this tenement of clay.
"This robe of flesh I'll drop, and rise
To seize the everlasting prize"–
I'll meet you on the Streets of Gold,
And PROVE that I'm not growing old.

     –John E. Roberts

[Uncle Buck]

WOULD YOU HIRE THIS PREACHER?

"One of the toughest tasks a church faces is choosing a good minister. A member of an official Board undergoing this painful process finally lost his patience. He watched the Pastoral Relations Committee reject applicant after applicant for some fault, alleged or otherwise. It was time for a bit of soul searching on the part of the committee. So he stood up and read a letter purporting to be from another applicant and this is the letter:

'Gentlemen: Understanding your pulpit is vacant, I would like to apply for the position. I have many qualifications. I’ve been a preacher with much success and also had some success as a writer. Some say I’m a good organizer. I’ve been a leader most places I’ve been. I’m over 50 years of age. I have never preached in one place for more than three years. In some places I’ve left town after my work has caused a riot and disturbances. I must admit that I’ve been in jail three or four times, but not because of any real wrongdoing. My health is not good, though I still get a great deal done. The churches I’ve preached in have been small, though located in several large cities. I’ve not got along well with religious leaders in towns where I’ve preached. In fact, some have threatened me and even attacked me physically. I am not too good at keeping records.  I’ve been known to forget whom I have baptized. However, if you can use me, I shall do my best for you.'

"The Board member looked over to the committee. 'Well, what do you think? Shall we call him?'

"The good church folk were aghast. Call an unhealthy, trouble-making, absent-minded, ex-jailbird? Was the Board member crazy? Who signed the application? Who had such colossal nerve?

"The Board member eyed them all keenly before he answered. 'It’s signed, The Apostle Paul.' And may I say to you, friends, it does have a message in it, does it not?"

     –Author unknown

[Uncle Buck]

 "The most important thing about a man is what he thinks about God." Jesus Christ is my God, I live my life trying to serve him, though I often fall so short. But no matter how far I fall, I never fall out of His grace, and He always takes me back with open arms. That's my life in a nut shell. "

A.W. Tozar

[Uncle Buck]

Tell God

Tell God all that is in your heart, as one unloads one's heart, its pleasures and its pains, to a dear friend. Tell Him your troubles, that He may comfort you; tell Him your joys, that He may sober them; tell Him your longings, that He may purify them; tell Him your dislikes, that He may help you to conquer them; talk to Him of your temptations, that He may shield you from them; show Him the wounds of your heart, that He may heal them; lay bare your indifference to good, your depraved tastes for evil, your instability. Tell Him how self-love makes you unjust to others, how vanity tempts you to be insincere, how pride disguises you to yourself as to others.
 
If you thus pour out all your weaknesses, needs, troubles, there will be no lack of what to say. You will never exhaust the subject. It is continually being renewed. People who have no secrets from each other never want for subjects of conversation. They do not weigh their words, for there is nothing to be held back; neither do they seek for something to say. They talk out of the abundance of the heart, without consideration, just what they think. Blessed are they who attain to such familiar, unreserved intercourse with God.

     –Fenelon

[Uncle Buck]

May I Say
 
His Only Son
And they came to the place which God had told them of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I. And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me….And the angel of the LORD called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time, and said, By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son. (Genesis 22:9-12, 15, 16)

I have a question to ask: Did Abraham do it? No, he did not offer his son, but God says to him, "Because you have done this thing…." You see, Abraham believed God, and he went far enough to let you and me know–God already knew–and to let the created universe know that he was willing to give his son. And so God counted it to him that he had done it. Abraham is justified by faith, but he is also justified before men by his works. He demonstrated that he had that faith.

And "hast not withheld thy son, thine only son." Notice how God plays upon that–because He gave His only Son.

Through this incident, God is making it clear that there will have to be a Man to stand in the gap, there will have to be a Man capable of becoming the Savior of the race if anyone is to be saved. That is a great lesson given to us in this chapter. Abraham said that God would provide Himself a Lamb, and they found a ram and offered it. But God did provide a Lamb nineteen hundred years later in Christ. God stayed Abraham's hand and did not let him go through with the sacrifice of Isaac because it would have been wrong. God spared Abraham's son, but God did not spare His own Son but gave Him up freely for us all.

From Edited Messages on Genesis by J. Vernon McGee
 

[Uncle Buck]

“Prayer is not overcoming God’s reluctance. It is laying hold of His willingness.”
     –George Muller

[Uncle Buck]

Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater.
Albert Einstein

Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.
Albert Einstein,

The ideals which have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty, and Truth. The trite subjects of human efforts, possessions, outward success, luxury have always seemed to me contemptible.
Albert Einstein

[Uncle Buck]

"One of the paradoxes of this age is that it is the age of pacifism, but not the age of peace."
      –G. K. Chesterton

"The Antichrist will come disguised as the great humanitarian. He will talk peace, prosperity, and plenty, not as a means to lead us to God, but as ends in themselves. He will explain guilt away psychologically, make men shrink in shame if their fellowmen say they are not broad-minded and liberal. He will spread the lie that men will never be better until they make society better."
     –Bishop Fulton J. Sheen

If the rapture had occurred in the first century preceding the tribulation which the book of Revelation describes, they were assured of deliverance. By contrast, those sealed out of the twelve tribes of Israel in 7:4 clearly go through the time of trouble. This implies the rapture of the church before the time of trouble referred to as the great tribulation. Such a promise of deliverance to them would seemingly have been impossible if the rapture of the church were delayed until the end of the tribulation prior to the second coming of Christ and the establishment of the kingdom."
     –From The Revelation of Jesus Christ by Dr. John Walvoord