A politician awoke in a hospital bed after a complicated operation, and found that the curtains were drawn around him. “Why are the curtains closed,” he said. “Is it night?”

A nurse replied, “No, it is just that there is a fire across the street, and we didn’t want you waking up and thinking that the operation was unsuccessful.”

Received from GCFL

God’s thoughts are not our thoughts—we aren’t even in the same neighborhood!  Psalm 92:5 sets the standard!  “Lord you have done such great things! How deep are your thoughts!”

When we’re thinking preserve the body, God is thinking save the soul. When we dream of a pay raise God dreams of raising the dead. We avoid pain and seek peace while God uses pain to bring peace. I’m going to live before I die, we resolve. But God instructs, Die so you can live. We love what rusts but God loves what endures. We rejoice at our successes but God rejoices at our confessions.

We show our children the Nike star with the million-dollar smile and say, “Be like him!” God points to the crucified carpenter with bloody lips and a torn side and says, “Be like Christ!”

From Grace for the Moment

Christians are people of hope and not despair because we know that God, who had the first word, will have the last. He is never thwarted or caught napping by the circumstances of our lives.

– Rebecca Manley Pippert

Give me the love that leads the way, the faith that nothing can dismay, The hope no disappointments tire, the passion that will burn like fire; Let me not sink to be a clod: Make me Thy fuel, Flame of God.

–Amy Carmichael

Father to son after exam: “Let me see your report card.”

Son: “My friend just borrowed it. He wants to scare his parents.”

Received from GCFL