Thoughts to Ponder: June 2002
Holiness
“Progress in holiness can best be measured not by the length of time we spend in prayer, not by the number of times we go to church, not by the amount of money we contribute to God’s work, not by the range and depth of our knowledge of the Bible, but rather by the quality of our personal relationships.”
—Stephen F. Winward
“When we major in minors and blow insignificant trifles out of proportion, we imitate the Pharisees. When we make dancing and movies the test of spirituality, we are guilty of substituting a cheap morality for a genuine one. We do these things to obscure the deeper issues of righteousness. Anyone can avoid dancing or going to movies. These require no great effort or moral courage. What is difficult is to control the tongue, to act with integrity, to show forth the fruit of the Spirit.”
—R. C. Sproul
“Our moral compass is not broken. The needle continues to point in the same direction. But ‘south’ has been mislabeled as ‘north.’ And for a generation, these reversed compasses have been handed to kids by parents, teachers, government officials, various advocacy groups and —yes —even some clergy. ‘Broken moral compass’ is a convenient but inaccurate description of the problem. Our moral compass has been altered, inverted and in fact sabotaged by those who are unwilling or unable to follow a legitimate compass, but who conceal their accountability by inducing the rest of us to go along with them. There is still time to repair our moral compass. All that’s needed is to compare our compass with a genuine one and re-label the directions. The real difficulty comes in following the corrected compass. The genuine path isn’t always easy. Often it leads uphill and over difficult terrain. But it is always straight, and eventually it will get us home again.”
—David C. Stolinsky
“Hypocrisy is the respect that vice pays to virtue.”
—La Rochefoucauld
“We felt frustrated toward the end of our journey because there are several villages that we were not allowed to enter because they are controlled by the rebels. However, we do not want to give up the area. We will continue to ask God to open the doors of these villages for us so that we can freely bring in the gospel of salvation to the people there and even to the rebels.”
—A Filipino missionary [from Christian Aid Mission]
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