Friday's Five - Joy

A thing of beauty is a joy forever: its loveliness increases; it will never pass into nothingness. - John Keats

I sometimes wonder whether all pleasures are not substitutes for joy. - C. S. Lewis

The pain of parting is nothing to the joy of meeting again. - Charles Dickens

Be good, keep your feet dry, your eyes open, your heart at peace and your soul in the joy of Christ. - Thomas Merton

A laugh, to be joyous, must flow from a joyous heart, for without kindness, there can be no true joy. - Thomas Carlyle

Friday's Five - Praise

In almost everything that touches our everyday life on earth, God is pleased when we're pleased. He wills that we be as free as birds to soar and sing our maker's praise without anxiety. - Aiden Wilson Tozer

When you focus on how wonderful God is and all the great things He's done... is doing... and even will do in your life, your natural response will be praise, adoration and awe. Don't let yourself ever get used to it... stay amazed! - Joyce Meyer

Praise now is one of the great duties of the redeemed. It will be their employment for ever. - Albert Barnes

Nature is the one song of praise that never stops singing. - Richard Rohr

Praise God, from whom all blessings flow! Praise Him, all creatures here below! Praise Him above, ye heavenly host! Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost! - Thomas Ken

Friday's Five - Patience

"The work that God does in us when we wait is usually more important than the thing for which we wait!”
― Erwin W. Lutzer

"Patience is not the ability to wait but how you act while you are waiting.” 

― Ziad K. Abdelnour

"Patience is the calm acceptance that things can happen in a different order than the one you have in mind.” 

― David G. Allen

"Let nothing disturb you, nothing frighten you, all things are passing, God is unchanging. Patience gains all; nothing is lacking to those who have God: God alone is sufficient.” 

― St. Teresa of Avila

“There are seasons when to be still demands immeasurably higher strength than to act.” 

― Margaret Bottome

Friday's Five - Light

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. - Martin Luther King, Jr.

Words which do not give the light of Christ increase the darkness. - Mother Teresa

In faith there is enough light for those who want to believe and enough shadows to blind those who don't. - Blaise Pascal

In all my perplexities and distresses, the Bible has never failed to give me light and strength. - Robert E. Lee

The stars, that nature hung in heaven, and filled their lamps with everlasting oil, give due light to the misled and lonely traveller. - John Milton

Friday's Five - Happiness

That is happiness; to be dissolved into something completely great. - Willa Cather

Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God's kindness: kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile. - ― Mother Teresa

Just because you are happy it does not mean that the day is perfect but that you have looked beyond its imperfections - ― Bob Marley

Seize the moments of happiness, love and be loved! That is the only reality in the world, all else is folly. It is the one thing we are interested in here. - ― Leo Tolstoy

“Remember laughing? Laughter enhances the blood flow to the body’s extremities and improves cardiovascular function. Laughter releases endorphins and other natural mood elevating and pain-killing chemicals, improves the transfer of oxygen and nutrients to internal organs.
Laughter boosts the immune system and helps the body fight off disease, cancer cells as well as viral, bacterial and other infections. Being happy is the best cure of all diseases!”  - ― Patch Adams

Friday's Five - Mercy

“I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.”
― Abraham Lincoln

“His mercy is so great that it forgives great sins to great sinners after great lengths of time and then gives great favors and great privileges and raises us up to great enjoyments in the great heaven of the great God!”
― Charles H. Spurgeon

“The most frightful of all spectacles is the strength of the civilization without its mercy.”
― Winston Churchill

“My past life is abundantly full of God’s mercy, and, above all sin, stands the forgiving love of the Crucified.”
― Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“We get the odd notion that God is showing mercy because Jesus died. No. Jesus died because God is showing mercy.”
― A.W. Tozer

Friday's Five on Peace

A great many people are trying to make peace, but that has already been done. God has not left it for us to do: all we have to do is to enter into it. – Dwight L. Moody.

Peace reigns where our Lord reigns – Julian of Norwich.

 With peace of mind a poor man is rich: without it. A rich man is poor – Author Unknown.

All that matters is to be one with the living God to be a creature in the house of the God of life. Like a cat asleep on a chair at peace. – D.H.Lawrence.

Keep your heart in peace: let nothing in this world disturb it: everything has an end. – John of the Cross.

Friday's Five - On Compassion

Compassion will cure more sins than condemnation – Henry Ward Beecher

Compassion is the basis of all morality – Arthur Schopenhauser

The dew of compassion is a tear. – Lord Byron

I saw that every natural compassion anyone has for a fellow Christian is due to Christ living within; and every bit of self-emptying that he revealed in his passion was shown again in this compassion – Julian of Norwich.

If we offer compassion to one another, when the opportunity arises, we offer compassion to Christ just as, when others compassionate us we receive from then the tenderness of Jesus himself who is living within them - Elizabeth Ruth Obbard

Friday's Five - On Hope

Every blade of grass, each leaf, each separate petal, is an inscription speaking of hope – Richard Jefferies.

If you do not hope, you will not find what is beyond your hopes – Clement of Alexandria.

Whatever enlarges hope will also exalt courage – Samuel Johnson.

In God alone is there faithfulness and faith in the trust that we may hold to him, to his promise, and to his guidance. To hold to God is to rely on the fact that God is there for me, and to live in this certainty – Karl Barth.

The word ‘hope’ i take for faith; and indeed hope is nothing else but the constancy of faith – John Calvin.

Friday's Five - On Love

The reason for loving God is God himself and how he should be loved is to love without limit – Bernard of Clairvaux.

It is possible to give without loving, but it is impossible to love without giving – Richard Braunstein.

Take away love and our earth is a tomb – Robert Browning.

Let us make God the beginning and end of our love, for he is the fountain from all good things flow and into him alone they flow back. Let him therefore be the beginning of our love – Richard Rolle,

Where there is love, there is a trinity; a lover, a beloved and a spring of love – Augustine of Hippo.

Friday's Five - God's Sword

He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life – Genesis 3:24.

Therefore David ran and stood over the Philistine, took his sword and drew it out of its sheath and killed him, and cut of his head with it. And when the Philistines saw their champion was dead, they fled. – 1 Samuel 17:51.

And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God – Ephesians 6:17

For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and to joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the. thoughts and intents of the heart. – Hebrews 4:12

He had in His right hand seven stars, out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength – Revelation 1:15.

Friday's Five - Knowing......

knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. - Romans 6:5-7

knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.  - Galatians 2:15-17

And you, masters, do the same things to them, giving up threatening, knowing that your own Master also is in heaven, and there is no partiality with Him.  - Ephesians 6:8-10

But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them - 2 Timothy 3:13-15

knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. - James 1:2-4

Friday's Five - Be.....

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;  and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. – Philippians 4:6-7

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. – Romans 12:2

And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit – Ephesians 5:18

Be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. – 2 Corinthians 13:11

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. – John 3 : 14-15

Friday's Five - Wait on the Lord

Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the Lord – Psalm 27:14

But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength, They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint. – Isaiah 40:31

The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul that seeks him. It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. – Lamentations 3:25-26. 

Therefore I will look to the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation; My God will hear me. – Micah 7:7.

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God, And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces patience; and patience, character; and character, hope, now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. – Romans 5:1-5.

Friday's Five - Reconciliation

And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. – Romans 5:11

That is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. – 2 Corinthians 5:19

And that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity – Ephesians 2:16

And by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. – Colossians 1:20

Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. – Hebrews 2:17

Friday's Five - Peace

Better a dry crust eaten in peace than a house filled with feasting—and conflict. – Proverbs 17:1

You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You. – Isaiah 26:3

I will make a covenant of peace with my people and drive away the dangerous animals from the land. Then they will be able to camp safely in the wildest places and sleep in the woods without fear – Ezekiel 34:25

Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. – Romans 5:1

and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. – Philippians 4:7

Friday's Five - Come

“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” – Matthew 11 v 28

So He said, “Come.” And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. – Matthew 14 v 29

And Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.” – Matthew 8 v 7

“But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” – Matthew 9 v 13

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” – Matthew 16 v 24-25.

Friday's Five - Thoughts

Be transformed by the renewing of your mind – Romans 12:2

Set your minds on things above, not on earthy things – Colossians 3:2

Whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. – Philippians 4:8

For as he thinks in his heart, so is he – Proverbs 23:7

You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You – Isaiah 26:3

Friday’s Five – Union with Christ.

Every act of kindness and compassion done by man for his fellow Christian is done by Christ working within him – Julian of Norwich.

To want all that God wants, always to want it, for all occasions and without reservations, this is the kingdom of God which is all within – Francois Fenelon.

True religion is an union of God with the soul, a real participation of the divine nature, the very image of God drawn upon the soul, or in the Apostle’s phrase, it is Christ formed in us – Henry Scougal

The heart of Paul is Union with Christ. This, more than ever other conception – more than justification, more than sanctification, more than reconciliation – is the key that unlocks the secrets of his soul – James Stewart. 

Christ has become the very blood flowing within our veins and the breath within our lungs. This union is genuine and living! – Benjamin Dunn.

Friday’s Five - Faith

Faith expects from God what is beyond all expectations – Andrew Murray

Faith is living and unshakable confidence, a belief in the grace of God so assured that a man would die a thousand deaths for its sake – Martin Luther

Faith is not belief without proof, but trust without reservations – Elton Trueblood

True faith is simply an effortless realization of the facts. Christ is the Fact. Faith doesn’t save you, the Fact did. You are not saved by faith. You are saved by free-gift grace. Faith is the simple recognition of the free gift that’s already been given to you. – John Crowder.

Faith is your positive response to what God has already provided by grace – Andrew Wommack