Lauren > Lauren's Quotes

“Freedom from anxiety is characterized by three inner attitudes. If what we have we receive as a gift, and if what we have is to be cared for by God, and if what we have is available to others, then we will possess freedom from anxiety. This is the inward reality of simplicity. However, if what we have we believe we have gotten, and if what we have we believe we must hold onto, and if what we have is not available to others, then we will live in anxiety. Such persons will never know simplicity regardless of the outward contortions they may put themselves through in order to live “the simple life.”
― Richard J. Foster, Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth

“But, and here comes the rub, all of us feel that we are in complete control of our desire for things. We would never admit to an ungovernable spirit of covetousness. The problem is that we, like the alcoholic, are unable to recognize the disease once we have been engulfed by it. Only by the help of others are we able to detect the inner spirit that places wealth about God. And we must come to fear the idolatrous state of covetousness because the moment things have priority, radical obedience becomes impossible.”
― Richard J. Foster, Freedom of Simplicity: Finding Harmony in a Complex World

“In “The Cost of Discipleship” Dietrich Bonhoeffer makes it clear that grace is free, but it is not cheap. The grace of God is unearned and unearnable, but if we ever expect to grow in grace, we must pay the price of a consciously chosen course of action which involves both individual and group life. Spiritual growth is the purpose of the Disciplines.

It might be helpful to visualize what we have been discussing. Picture a long, narrow ridge with a sheer drop-off on either side. The chasm to the right is the way of moral bankruptcy through human strivings for righteousness. Historically this has been called the heresy of moralism. The chasm to the left is moral bankruptcy through the absence of human strivings. This has been called the heresy of antinomianism. On the ridge there is a path, the Disciplines of the spiritual life. This path leads to the inner transformation and healing for which we seek. We must never veer off to the right or to the left, but stay on the path. The path is fraught with severe difficulties, but also with incredible joys. As we travel on this path the blessing of God will come upon us and reconstruct us into the image of Jesus Christ. We must always remember that the path does not produce the change; it only places us where the change can occur.”
― Richard J. Foster, Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth

“God's blessing is not for personal aggrandizement, but to benefit and bless all the peoples of the earth. To understand the distinction makes all the difference in the world. The theology of wealth says, 'I give so that I can get.' Christian simplicity says, 'I get so that I can give.' The difference is profound.”
― Richard J. Foster, Freedom of Simplicity: Finding Harmony in a Complex World

“Where are the people today who will respond to the call of Christ? Have we become so accustomed to “cheap grace” that we instinctively shy away from more demanding calls to obedience? “Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross.”4 Why has the giving of money, for example, been unquestionably recognized as an element in Christian devotion and fasting so disputed? Certainly we have as much, if not more, evidence from the Bible for fasting as we have for giving. Perhaps in our affluent society fasting involves a far larger sacrifice than the giving of money.”
― Richard J. Foster, Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth

“Freedom in the Gospel does not mean license. It means opportunity.”
― Richard J. Foster, Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth

“To use good things to our own ends is always a false religion”
― Richard J. Foster, Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth

“Cause every task of your day to be a sacred ministry to the Lord. however mundane your duties, for you they are a sacrament.”
― Richard J. Foster, Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth

“The truly Christian imagination never lets Jesus Christ out of her sight.”
― Richard J Foster, Celebration of Discipline

“frequently we hold on so tightly to the good that we do know that we cannot receive the greater good that we do not know.”
― Richard J. Foster, Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home

“obedience has a way of strengthening rather than depleting our resources. If we obey in one small corner, we will have power to obey elsewhere. Obedience begets obedience.”
― Richard J. Foster, Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home

“The purpose of the Disciplines is freedom. Our aim is the freedom, not the Discipline. The moment we make the Discipline our central focus we will turn it into law and lose the corresponding freedom....Let us forever center on Christ and view the Spiritual Disciplines as a way of drawing us closer to His heart.”
― Richard J. Foster, Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth

“God’s ownership of everything also changes the kind of question we ask in giving. Rather than, “How much of my money should I give to God?” we learn to ask, “How much of God’s money should I keep for myself?” The difference between these two questions is of monumental proportions.”
― Richard J. Foster, Seeking the Kingdom: Devotions for the Daily Journey of Faith – A Guide to the Spiritual Life: Transformation, Intimacy with God, and Ministry

“Radical self-denial gives the feel of adventure. If we forsake all, we even have the chance of glorious martyrdom. But in service, we must experience the many little death of going beyond ourselves. Service banishes us to the mundane, the ordinary, the trivial”
― Richard J Foster, Celebration of Discipline

“We do not have to have the correct answers to listen well. In fact, often the correct answers are a hindrance to listening well, for we become more anxious to give the correct answer than to hear.”
― Richard J Foster, Celebration of Discipline

“Willpower will never succeed in dealing with the deeply ingrained habits of sin. Emmet”
― Richard J. Foster, Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth

“Our ordinary method of dealing with ingrained sin is to launch a frontal attack. We rely on our willpower and determination. Whatever may be the issue for us--anger, fear, bitterness, gluttony, pride, lust, substance abuse--we determine never to do it again; we pray against it, fight against it, set our will against it. But the struggle is all in vain, and we find ourselves once again morally bankrupt or, worse yet, so proud of our external righteousness that "whitened sepulchers" is a mild description of our condition.”
― Richard J. Foster, Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth

“People do not drift toward Holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated.”
― D.A. Carson

“Feelings are indicators, not dictators. They can indicate where your heart is in the moment, but that doesn't mean they have the right to dictate your behavior and boss you around. You are more than the sum total of your feelings and perfectly capable of that little gift . . . called self-control.”
― Lysa TerKeurst, Unglued: Making Wise Choices in the Midst of Raw Emotions

“If a man is forever concerned first and foremost with his own interests then he is bound to collide with others. If for any man life is a competition . . . then he will always think of other human beings as enemies, or at least as opponents who must be pushed out of the way . . . and the object of life becomes not to help others up but to push them down.[7]”
― Duane Elmer, Cross-Cultural Servanthood: Serving the World in Christlike Humility

“Second, building trust requires risk—mostly emotional. Testing strengthens trust. Friendships grow while working through difficulties together and finding resolution. This includes clarifying misunderstandings, admitting wrong, apologizing and forgiving. As we deal with the bumps in a relationship, mutual confidence increases. Soon both parties are confident the other will not intentionally hurt them.”
― Duane Elmer, Cross-Cultural Servanthood: Serving the World in Christlike Humility

“Jesus came to earth occupying two roles: (1) Lord and Christ, and (2) humble, obedient servant. He alone is Lord and Christ. But he taught and exemplified humble servanthood, the role we are to occupy—the way of the towel. The problem arises when his followers choose to follow him in his kingly role and not in his servant role. They gravitate toward the robe while resisting the towel. The Lord Jesus Christ alone wears the robe. His disciples are to follow him only in his humble, obedient servant role—maybe even his suffering-servant role.”
― Duane Elmer, Cross-Cultural Servanthood: Serving the World in Christlike Humility

“We live in a culture that has, for centuries now, cultivated the idea that the skeptical person is always smarter than one who believes. You can almost be as stupid as a cabbage as long as you doubt.”
― Dallas Willard, Hearing God: Developing a Conversational Relationship with God

“Our failure to hear His voice when we want to is due to the fact that we do not in general want to hear it, that we want it only when we think we need it.”
― Dallas Willard, Hearing God: Developing a Conversational Relationship with God

“Great faith, like great strength in general, is revealed by the ease of its workings. Most of what we think we see as the struggle OF faith is really the struggle to act as IF we had faith when in fact we do not.”
― Dallas Willard, Hearing God: Developing a Conversational Relationship with God

“And grace is not opposed to effort; it is opposed to earning.”
― Dallas Willard, Hearing God: Developing a Conversational Relationship with God

“To be loved but not known is comforting but superficial. To be known and not loved is our greatest fear. But to be fully known and truly loved is, well, a lot like being loved by God. It is what we need more than anything. It liberates us from pretense, humbles us out of our self-righteousness, and fortifies us for any difficulty life can throw at us.”
― Timothy Keller, The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God

“Dear old world', she murmured, 'you are very lovely, and I am glad to be alive in you.”
― L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

“People laugh at me because I use big words. But if you have big ideas, you have to use big words to express them, haven't you?”
― L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

“The world calls them its singers and poets and artists and storytellers; but they are just people who have never forgotten the way to fairyland.”
― L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables