God
- God 2 - God 3 - God
4 - God 6
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God
is a blank sheet upon which
nothing is found
but what
you yourself have written.
Martin
Luther
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An important
note: Our pages on God are not meant in any way to
change anyone's
minds or beliefs-- rather, we're simply trying to present
the many complex ways that
people of all faiths look at their idea of a deity.
Some passages may mention a particular
religion or denomination, but that doesn't mean that that
perspective is being presented
as right or wrong-- it just is. The concept of God is
so predominant among humans,
though, that it seems wrong not to include these words on
this site.
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Your own self-will and anxiety, your hurry and
labor, disturb
your peace and
prevent Me from working in you.
Look at
the little flowers, in the serene
summer days; they
quietly
open their petals, and the sun shines into them
with its gentle
influences. So
I will do for you, if you will yield yourself to me.
G. Tersteegen
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The world is God's language to us.
Simone Weil
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I look at the trees; their roots sink deep by the
stream. In the same
way,
let my roots sink deep into you.
Let me feed on your word.
As we commune
in prayer, let me drink from the living water of your Spirit.
Let me jump in and
be bathed by your cleansing power.
I will rely on you rather than things that are
shallow and temporary. I
can’t depend on my own abilities and strength, but I’m
confident in your care and direction.
I will take special notice of the good things
when they come. I
will fix my mind on what is pure and lovely and upright. When the heat and winds of life’s storms come, I will not fear;
I know you are near. I will not worry but keep on producing a life that is a blessing
for you and others.
Anita Corrine Donihue
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A dynamic person is one who really makes a
difference in the world;
who does
something that changes things or
other people. The
magnitude of the work done
may not be great, but the world
is
different because that person has lived and
worked.
The real secret
of a dynamic personality is to believe that
God works
through you,
whatever you may be doing; to put his
service first, and to be
as sincere, practical, and efficient as
you know how.
Emmet Fox
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As
I turn my thoughts to God, my life becomes a prayer. I do
not need to go away
to a mountaintop or seclude myself in a sacred place to spend time
in prayer. I need
only to turn my thoughts inward and open my mind and heart to
God. In this way,
I make whatever I am doing a prayer. As I prepare a meal, I
am grateful for the food,
and as I clean my house, I am grateful for the restful haven it
provides me. As I
walk in the park, I feel a sense of oneness with all life in the
world around me. As I go
through my workday, I am God's instrument of good in the world,
and what I
do and say is an expression of God.
The more I turn my thoughts to God, the more my life becomes a
prayer.
unattributed
(The Daily Word)
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When he sees little kids sitting in the backseat
of cars, in those
little car seats that have steering wheels, with
grim expressions
of concentration on their faces, clearly
convinced that their efforts
are causing the car to do whatever it
is doing, he thinks of himself
and his relationship with God:
God who drives along silently,
gently amused, in the real
driver’s seat.
Anne Lamott
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I sometimes forget that life is fragile.
The fact that I have more time
to
dream
my dreams and take
my ease
is no
reason at all to disregard
the
moment
I’m in by
preferring to be
somewhere else.
I have to remind
myself that wherever
I am. . . fast
lane
or slow lane, in traffic
or out
of
traffic, racing or resting . .
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God
is there. He is in me, abiding
in me,
thus making it possible for me
to
be all there, myself.
Luci Swindoll
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God isn’t calling us to a lonely, joyless
existence with the promise of
a delayed reward. God is calling us to live, to love and enjoy
the challenge.
God’s formulas are roadmaps to freedom and peace.
God is saying to us: “The
only way to live is to be free.
So save
your heart for love and save your love for persons.
Don’t ever let any
‘thing’ own you.
Don’t let money or fame or power or the pursuit of
pleasure
put a ring in your nose and lead you around.
Love persons and use things.”
And of course, this is the only way to live, to be free.
John Powell
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Human nature is such that humans can turn to
God anywhere
at any time, and by believing in His care and
protection,
and thinking in accordance with this belief, fill
their hearts
with peace and poise, rebuild their bodies into
health and strength,
and surround themselves with harmonious and
joyous conditions.
Emmet
Fox
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Some people want to see God with their eyes
as they see a cow,
and to love Him as they love their cow—for
the milk and cheese
and profit it brings them.
This is how it is with people who love God
for the sake of
outward wealth or inward comfort.
Meister Eckhart
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If you want a television, you go out and work
for it and you buy it.
If
you want to learn about Aztec pottery, you take a course.
But the relationship with God requires the active and
passionate
participation of you, yourself.
You have to risk it. You
have to
abandon yourself to it.
You have to leap into the fire.
Nobody
will do it for you; nobody can do it for you.
Andrew Harvey
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The wonder is not that there should be obstacles
and sufferings in this world,
but that there should be law and
order, beauty and joy, goodness and love.
The idea of God that humans have in their being is the
wonder of all wonders.
They
have felt in the depths of their lives that what appears as
imperfect is the
manifestation of the perfect; just as a person
who has an ear for music realized the
perfection of a song, while
in fact he or she is only listening to a succession of notes.
Victor Gollancz
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You can help yourself hear God by creating
harmony and rhythm in your
life.
This does not mean you need silence.
It means you have to find your
song, and you have to
surround yourself with sounds that are part of your
rhythm.
Different people have different songs:
some might find theirs in
a machine shop, others in the
woods, others shut alone in their study.
Engine noises or the rustling of leaves or the ticking of a
clock or silence
will distract some of us but will be part of the
orchestration for others.
If
you find your own harmonious way and listen carefully, you will
hear the voice of God. It
is always available, but the sounds may be
very subtle.
God leaves it to us to set our antennae
in the right
direction, be still, and listen.
Bernie Siegel
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God
- God 2 - God 3 - God
4 - God 6
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It is no hard matter to adhere to God while you
are in the enjoyment
of His comforts and consolations; but if you
would prove your fidelity
to Him, you must be willing to follow
Him through the paths of dryness
and desertion.
The truth of a friend is not known while he or she is
receiving favors and benefits from us; but if they remain faithful
to us
when we treat them with coldness and neglect,
it will be a
proof of the sincerity of their attachment.
William Backhouse |
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Spending time with God does take time.
It is a commitment. Let
me emphasize,
however, that the spiritual exercises are not
“shoulds” intended to inflict
guilt if you are not able or
don’t care to exercise them.
They are simply
options from which you may choose those
which suit your personality
and particular needs at this point in
your life.
Cheryl Biehl
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We mustn't reserve communing with God just
for morning and
evening prayers, or for weekly worship service, or
for when
we feel burdened. The
goal is to realize that every moment
of our lives is a meditation.
Allow yourself to marvel at the
wonder of God's work all
around us. Throughout
your day, let
the sun, a tree, a piece of fruit remind you that
everything you
could ever want has been provided and
can be found
right here on earth.
Susan L. Taylor
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Self-searching is the means by which we bring new
vision, action, and grace
to bear upon the dark and negative sides
of our natures. With
it comes
the development of that kind of humility that makes it
possible for us
to receive God’s help. . . . We find that bit by
bit we can discard the
old life—the one that did not work—for
a new life that can
and does work under conditions whatever.
As Bill Sees It
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We
cannot make the Kingdom of God happen, but we can
put out leaves as it draws near. We can be kind to each
other.
We can be kind to ourselves. We can drive back the darkness
a little.
We can make green places within ourselves and among ourselves
where God can make his Kingdom happen.
Frederick Buechner
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Nothing
in all nature is so lovely and so vigorous, so perfectly at home
in its environment, as a fish in the sea.
Its surroundings give to it
a beauty, quality, and power which are not its own.
We take it out, and
at once a poor, limp dull thing, fit for nothing, is gasping away
its life.
So the soul, sunk in God, living the life of prayer, is supported,
filled,
transformed in beauty, by a vitality and a power which are not its
own.
Evelyn Underhill |
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Can anyone think of believing in God without
trusting Him?
Is it possible to trust in God for the big things like forgiveness
and eternal life, and then refuse to trust Him
for the little things like clothing and food?
Oswald Hoffmann |
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God
is at the tip of our scalpels, our screwdrivers, our computer
terminals, our dust rags, our vacuum cleaners, our pencils and
pens.
He is with us in our wheelchairs, or on our hospital beds, when
all we
can do is sit or lie flat.
When we envision Him and His purpose in
what we do, then we begin to grow aware of His presence in the
middle of it.
We are able to engage in our inward conversation
with Him as we work, naturally, without strain.
He becomes our partner, our collaborator.
Sue Monk Kidd |
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It
always strikes me and it is very peculiar that when we see the
image
of indescribable and unutterable desolation—of loneliness,
poverty,
and misery, the end of all things, or their extreme—then
rises in our mind the thought of God.
Vincent van Gogh |
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God’s
love is just like the sun, constant and shining for us all.
And just as the earth rotates around the sun, it is the natural
order
for us to move away for a season, and then to return closer,
but always within the appropriate time.
Betty J. Eadie |
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God
has spoken very boldly about his desire to be a presence
in our lives.
If I want to heal the ache and loneliness in my own
life, one of the things I need to do is get away alone
with God.
The paradoxical “answer” to loneliness is
aloneness . . . with God.
In the silence God will speak to you most
powerfully.
Too often his words to us get muffled, lost, or
covered by the crowd of many noises both inside and
outside of us.
We must have a quiet heart in order to hear God’s
distinctive message to us.
Tim Hansel |
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Have
courage for the great sorrows of life and patience
for the small ones; and when you have laboriously accomplished
your daily task, go to sleep in peace.
God is awake.
Victor Hugo |
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God's gifts
put people's best dreams to shame.
Elizabeth
Barrett Browning
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I
laugh when I hear that the fish in the water is thirsty.
I laugh when I hear that people go on pilgrimage to find God.
Kabir
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Called
or not, God is always there.
Carl
Jung
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God is in the water of the lake; he is also in
the cracked bed
of the lake when the lake has dried up.
God is in the abundant harvest; he is also in the famine
that occurs when the harvest fails.
God is in the lightning; he is also in the darkness
when the lightning has faded.
Mansur al-Hallaj
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Renew every
day your conversation with God:
Do this even in preference to eating.
Think more often of God than you breathe.
Epictetus
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The
disciples were full of questions about God.
Said the master, "God is the Unknown and the
Unknowable. Every statement about him, every answer
to your questions, is a distortion of the truth.
The disciples were bewildered. "Then why do you
speak of him at all?"
"Why does the bird sing?" said the master.
Anthony de Mello |
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It is more worthy in the eyes of God . . . if a
writer makes
three
pages sharp and funny about the lives of geese
than to make
three hundred fat and flabby about God or the
American people.
Garrison Keillor |
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People sometimes ask me if
I do not feel lonely on holidays. How can
I feel lonely when I live in the constant awareness of God's
presence? I love
and I enjoy being with people, but when I am alone I enjoy being
alone with God.
Peace Pilgrim
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God
- God 2 - God 3 - God
4 - God 6
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|
quotations
- contents
-
welcome
page
-
obstacles
the
people behind the words
-
our
current e-zine
-
articles
and excerpts
Daily
Meditations, Year One - Year
Two - Year Three
- Year Four
Sign up
for your free daily spiritual or general quotation ~ ~ Sign
up for your free daily meditation
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It is not insignificant that
my first apprehension of the love of God was
granted in an experience with my father. Nor is it generally
uncommon
that God is apprehended in experience. Nor, in fact, can the
divine
and human meeting happen any other way. God is not a God of
the
pulpit, though the pulpit proclaim him. He is a God in and
of the histories of humankind.
What is significant is that I should have to say so.
Walter Wangerin, Jr.
Ragman and Other Cries of Faith |
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I have nothing against the church--nothing
against its ceremonies
or the many wonderful people who attend and perform them. I
do,
however, believe that everyone should develop a personal
relationship
with God. A direct line to the Creator. A one-an-one
connection that
doesn't depend on anything but faith to exist. . . . When it's
just you
and God, you can talk to him wherever you are, whenever you need
to.
No third parties, no special chants or channels, are needed.
All you
have to do is quiet your mind and still your soul so that you can
hear
the Holy Spirit clearly; without distraction, interruption, or
interference.
Patti LaBelle |
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There
are no different categories of love. There isn't
one kind
of love between a mother and child, another
between lovers,
and another between friends. The love
that is real is the love
that lies at the heart of all
relationships. That is the love of
God and it doesn't
change with form or circumstance.
Marianne
Williamson |
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