The Sayings of Samuel Godfrey George - May 2013

Walk with God into the dark places. And let him shine his light on every dark thing that you desire.

Blessed is he who tastes affliction for God is near him.

Sin in me is serious. But Jesus in me is far more serious.

The more I learn about my weaknesses the more I need God's strength.

Good faith lies in calm and thankful acceptance of God's will.

Today I will learn to be still. Though time is running out and I need to act quickly I will be still and wait for God.

The more I learn about human wickedness the more I perceive God's goodness.

The eagle symbolizes the strength that God provides. When I look at an eagle I am reminded of God's promise of strength to all who trust in him.

How can I impact this world? With what will I impact this world? I am a servant of God. On my own I am nothing. What impact can I make without God? O Lord, you who inspire and enable me, now bless me. And bless this world through me.

Let me see God and melt. Let everything not of God within me melt.

I must say thank you even for nothing.

It is time that I go back to my roots and have a good look at myself.

There are two passions in my life. When one is raging the other is silent. When the other is raging the one is silent.

There's no point in saying, "I would have done it if I had been rich." Do it now in your poverty. Do whatever you can now.

Had I not fallen so much I would not have learned so much.

Lord. I have tasted your truth. I have tasted the sweet in the bitter.

Speak so little that when you speak you will be heard.

Let us appreciate people before it is too late.

It's God job to provide. It's my job to wait expectantly.

Today as I wait for my miracle I know that God has performed many miracles in my life, the chief of which is my life, which he has turned around from unbelief to belief. And He has given me people who love me. And from voicelessness I have emerged with a voice. I have much to thank God for.

Why do I continue to do something that offers little profit to me? This is a question that reveals much to me.

I should get out and speak the truth even in the middle of nowhere, even in the middle of my own hell.

A human being is made in the image of God. He is not God. So do not worship him.

I should avoid every false move that seeks to create an effect and embrace every true move of stillness even at the risk of not creating an effect.

You must walk the road of fear to reach fearlessness.

You should get past the feeling into the fact. You must get into the truth of God and embrace it even as the lies of the devil scream at you from every direction.

If Christ lives in you then say to lust and every other stirring of your flesh, "God is greater than you. He always overcomes you."

"I have the mind of Christ. I love what God loves and hate what God hates. I have been set free by the Son and I am free indeed." This is what I declare myself to be today though it may not necessarily be a reflection of how I feel.

You can easily trust God until you have to wait and time is running out.

You're not the first shameful person God has used. So don't worry about it. He will cover your shame.

Sometimes nothing happens. And you have to wait.

Your resolve never to sin again will fail every time. So resolve never to make such resolutions. Just trust in Jesus. His grace is sufficient for everything.

When God reveals your dark and ugly heart do not run away from him.

Do not desert me O Lord even if I desert you.

The best worship is to say "thank you".

God loves even those who do not know him. God loves even the person who has never read his word or spoken his name or even considered him with any seriousness. When I realize this I see how strange God's love is. It is nothing like the love of humans who love for purely selfish reasons and who always base their love on expectations.

When God fills me with his love I can do anything.

Today, please help me O Lord. Can I say anything more than that? Yes. Please help everyone who is calling out to you today O Lord. Do not forget those who cry out to you today.

Today while I need much help in my own life, let me be keen to help another person as much as possible. Let God enable me to be there at a suffering person's side when it is much needed, and may I speak and do what will help this person.

You have to go through the experience to find what happens at the end.

Faith in God is not easy. Waiting on God without doing anything else is not easy. I need help. And it is difficult to wait on God when time is running out. But I must wait.

God's silence is the scariest one.

Christian ministries need support. And those who support them are supporting the work of God. However not all ministries may act honestly. The proper response of a Christian is to reserve judgement and desist from condemnation. No one is good, so no one is fit to condemn. Also one may not know the situation as well as one thinks. But if there is untruth and corruption in Christian ministries only God can be the judge and only he can correct these appropriately.

It's wonderful to believe in God. It's wonderful to be in the presence of people who believe in God.

To throw the demons out I had to sit with God to the exclusion of almost everything else for many years.

Nothing is too hard for God. And nothing is impossible to him who believes. Remember this today.

Let me think of another in the middle of my own pain.

Even God's little things have the strength to endure the heat.

Our elderly are our precious gifts. They may have little time left. We may have little time left. So let us use every moment of our time well and let us love our aged relatives and friends and celebrate their presence in our lives.

In a world that rejects Jesus and his followers we who are called by Jesus must stand up for Him.

Greater is God in us than all the worldly desires that rule our minds.

Never overdo even a good thing.

All right, your weakness leads you to God. So do not be afraid of being weak. Your weakness is your blessing. However do not relish your weakness and encourage it in your heart. Always resist your weakness.

Give as though giving is as natural as breathing. And be ready to be rejected.

Our expectations are probably our limitations.

It is the one who loves God the most who has the greatest doubt regarding God.

What I really do not want is to look weak before others. Even when I try to look weak I want to look strong.

It is the heart alone that matters. The expression ranks much lower.

I am thankful for my many weaknesses. I have been greatly humbled by them.

When I see someone losing control over her mouth, I cannot judge her negatively. I had the same problem. I was not able to control what I spoke in anger. Consequently I spoke much that I regretted later. These days God has clearly shown me through many mistakes and their painful consequences that I just cannot speak anything that comes to my mind when I am angry. I should be very careful with what I say to someone else in anger, and should convey my displeasure in tolerable, even mild language. This is a lesson that I learned the hard way. So I should be patient with those who haven't yet learned this lesson.

Absolute humility is required when you belong to Christ. You must keep absolutely silent when provocative remarks and annoying suggestions are made. Sometimes you feel like lashing out as Job did at his sanctimonious, platitudinous friends. Sometimes it's good to call a spade a spade. But it's so much better to say nothing, to rein in that vicious impulse. I choose not to speak the vehement words not because I lack the vocabulary but because I prefer to bless the offender with my silence, or if I receive the grace I will bless him verbally.

Today's challenge is this: can I pray even though there is no answer from God?

"Seeking your own glory" is a serious term and should not be used lightly. Everybody wants to succeed at what he does. Everybody seeks the approval of others. And this is not wrong. However one should not be entirely focused on one's own achievements and constantly look for approval. This is what seeking one's own glory is about.

Today's challenge is this: can I pray for my neighbour that I don't even know?

In a world where everyone feels that he is right there will be conflict and division and hatred and unbearable pain.

It is a heartbreaking process but it must be done. Your innocent children will grow up and see the evil of the world. And before they do that you must prepare their hearts and minds for the difficulties of life.

The joy of a father is in his child's initial innocence. The pain of a father is in his son's final corruption.

My entire presentation of God's love emerges from the Bible and there are references to it, both overt and covert. Whether I speak for God or for myself is something that no one but God can possibly know.

I who have read the Bible do not doubt its presentation of God as Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. The Father, the Son and the Spirit are one. The Son came to show the Father, and those who have seen the Son have seen the Father. The Spirit came to the world to testify to the Son and lives in all believers in Christ so that they may daily renew their minds and hearts towards God.

It is imperative that teachings regarding the God of Israel, His Son and His Spirit emerge from the written word of God, which is the Bible. The Bible is not easy to understand. It was written by many men over a period of many centuries. So it does not appear to present a unified message, though it does point to Christ as the resolution of the ultimate conflict, the troubled relationship between God and Man. I believe that my thoughts concerning God have emerged from my relationship with God and my association with his written word. If my thoughts appear alien to what the Bible says I hope that they are not alienated from it in spirit. In spirit I believe that I speak what is agreeable to Christ.

I do not state that God is love and that God is not righteousness and judgement. He is love, righteousness and judgement. Still there is nothing more for Man to pay beyond what Jesus Christ has already paid for human sins. To Christ's perfect atonement nothing can be added by Man. What God seeks is the restoration of Man to himself. It is only through the application of God's love in the knowledge of his boundless mercy and compassion that the goal can be best achieved. There is no return to God without repentance and awareness of sins. Still there is absolutely no safe return to God without a knowledge of his love for that alone secures Man in his perilous journey back to God.

The knowledge of sin is crucial for it leads to repentance. It must lead to repentance and not despair. To know one has sinned against God is not enough. It is also important to know that God is merciful and compassionate and willing to forgive. God is so because he is love, and his love is what drove him to make atonement for the world's sins. Therefore it is the love of God that a man must know to be saved from his sins. This is why I choose to see God's love above his judgement and wrath. Though the latter should not be denied or glossed over, the former is what ultimately drives God. Without knowing God's love there is no sure path for the soul to return to its God.

If God loves the world so much, then he must love everyone in the world, regardless of the person's race, nationality, religion and creed. This is why I believe that God looks at all of us in the same way. The way he looks at a believer is essentially the same as the way he looks at a non-believer. He looks at both with the same love. Nevertheless unbelief in God has certain consequences just as belief in God has consequences. The one who believes has chosen to belong to God. The one who does not believe has chosen to be apart from God. So those who will go to heaven and hell ultimately do so by the act of their own freewill.

Today the challenge is this: can I lay aside my problems and think about someone else?

There is a time when I know what I am doing. There is a time when I don't know what I'm doing. This is the latter time.

That God forgives all sins and loves all people is a fact that is hard to accept for some people. Even some who call themselves the followers of God have a problem with God showing grace to others even though they themselves have received the same grace.

Even a negative thing has positive consequences.

There is no fear in love. The one who fears is not perfected in love. To fear God in the sense of the Bible is to feel respect for divine knowledge and rule. The other fear, which is related to terror, and dismay, which is related to despair are not what God ultimately wants his people to feel. What God ultimately wants for his people is that they should not let their hearts be troubled and that they should cast all their cares on him and trust him to work for their good. One should know this.

The more I try the greater is the likelihood that I will get it right sometime soon.

He who takes illegally from a human body, and who violates its sanctity against the wishes of its owner is a rapist. And rape is not just a physical act against a person. It is also a spiritual act against God in whose image the victim was created.

When you think of people who have behaved poorly think of their good qualities and the times when they added value to your life.

Don't put yourself down. You need to give vent to your feelings every now and then. And when you do you may not always speak correctly. But don't worry. There's plenty to learn in this life and you need a spirit of humility to recognize your own need of learning and the will to learn it degree by degree.

Forgiving is best for the forgiver.

When you receive God's love you cannot remain the same. You cannot have God in you and be the same person that you were before you met God. Something in you fundamentally changes forever. But certain old behavioural patterns remain, and they too will pass as you yield them day by day to God.

God is love. This is the central point of the Bible. And the evidence for God's love is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was sacrificed by God for the sins of the entire world. All human sins have been atoned for by Christ. This is the good news that must be shouted from rooftops. People who have no knowledge of God must be told about God's love. May God enable them to accept his love, and when they do so, may they be transformed into His likeness by that love.

In showing what love is I am glad that God did not just send us the words that Saint Paul wrote to the Corinthians, but he actually demonstrated that love in the life and in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Without this flesh-and-blood demonstration of love no one would have ever known what God's love is, and it is a most wonderful thing, and it is available to all who seek it, irrespective of caste, creed and colour. This is the good news that the world needs to hear: God's love is available to all, and by accepting his love we are saved from the wretchedness of our lives.

I do not say to people: "God loves you, so accept his love and let him change your life" because that is unnecessary. I also do not confuse anyone by saying, "God accepts you just as you are, but he will soon change you utterly for what you are is not good enough." Anyone who experiences the love of God will change automatically. You cannot experience the essence of God and remain the same. Change is inescapable. However Man must allow God to work in him, for God does not change a person against his wishes. However a certain fundamental change is unavoidable in any encounter with God.

There is hatred for God in this world. The way to counter this hatred is to present God who is essentially love. The reason why some people hate God is that they do not and cannot see love in him. I see God as utterly in love with Man. It is my belief that when a person sees this he is on the road to being transformed by the love of God.

You can read the entire Bible and still miss the point.