Spiritual Thoughts

Bitterness imprisons life ; love releases it. Harry Emerson Fosdick For you were called to freedom…..    Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. Galatians 5:13

Freedom is the will to be responsible to ourselves. Friedrich Nietzsche My friends, you were called to be free.   So don't use your freedom as an excuse to do anything you want.     Use it as an opportunity to serve each other with love. Galatians 5:13

Shared joy is a double joy; shared sorrow is half sorrow.     - Swedish proverb Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. James 5:13

Do not imagine that personal relationships will run themselves.      Like jobs, they are valuable in proportion         to the amount of effort they demand. -W. H. Auden The righteous person is a guide to his friend,    You will keep your friends if you forgive them,       but you will lose your friends if you keep talking about what they did wrong. Proverbs 12:26; 17:9

Love is the doorway through which the human soul passes    from selfishness to service.                                  Anonymous    "And now, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with     all your heart and with all your soul…. but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? Deuteronomy 10:12; Micah 6:8

Maturity is achieved when a person postpones immediate pleasures for long-term values.                         - Joshua L. Liebman By faith Moses, when he was grown up,   refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter,     choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God        than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. Hebrews 11:24-26