The Sayings of Samuel Godfrey George - The Tweets

May I walk beside you? The journey is long, and my mind will soon wander away. Let's walk together now before everything fades away.

Can a man have wisdom and still be happy? Can a man know his Creator and still hold on to the created?

As one increases in understanding, the certainties become uncertainties and the uncertainties become certainties.

What seems hopeless may still yield hope, what seems meaningless may still offer meaning and what seems inevitable may still be prevented.

Meaning may arrive from meaninglessness, joy may issue from pain and knowledge may result from foolishness.

There is sanity after madness, hope after despair and life after death.

After the dark of the night comes the light of the day. But the joy of the light cannot precede the misery of darkness.

Being considered weird by those who are not equipped to accept difference is not as unfortunate as being adversely affected by that opinion.

I am found doing the unpromising thing in an unpromising way. What I do is indeed highly privileged.

If I don't fit in and if I seem too strange, I shall not regret the effect. The disciple of the rejected must also be rejected.

Shall we speak or forever hold our peace?

Great disasters may come. But what do you fear the most - the death of your body or the death of your soul?

Will you know me or be deprived of the knowledge of me?

It shall happen all of a sudden. What you waited for and desired with all your heart shall come to pass. But will you welcome it then?

Do I like what I like? Do I love what I love? Do I not dislike what I like? Do I not hate what I love?

Few and hazy are the glimpses that I have had of my Lord. Still His immeasurable beauty and limitless wisdom have not been hidden from me.

The Lord beautifies everything, even my despair.

Blessed is the quiet of the man who has spurned every thought except the thought of his Lord.

If you feel the pain of my joy and the joy of my pain, you will have heard my voice.

You shall speak of the world. But I shall speak of the Word.

As the teacher administers a difficult test to his exceptional student, the Lord refines His chosen through severe trials.

Who has mastered your heart? What compels your attention?

Wherever I go, the One who goes with me will be plainly seen.

You will find the black in my white, and the white in my black.

Has the beast in Man found full expression?

The Lord has marked the cracks from which hellfire will burst. He has already commissioned the stars that will fall upon the earth.

I will rejoice in the work that I have accomplished. My joy is a tribute to God who has achieved the work in me. No one can steal that joy.

You may come and go, but He remains with me.

Not every wrong can be made right. Not every mistake can be corrected.

To study human nature you must study your own nature and then the nature of others.

This is the humbling, the mellowing, the discharging and the releasing of the one who will be the Voice.

Should I be alarmed by the dead that stirs within me? Let the dead be concerned with the dead.

Do you perceive all? Do you understand everything? If you do not, hold your peace.

I stand before you. Do you see me?

To be chosen is to be rejected. To be blessed is to be cursed.

The fools look outward. The wise look inward.

Have I spoken enough? Or have I not spoken at all?

Extraordinary pain calls for extraordinary stillness.

Agonised and desperate I call out to everyone except the One who shall save me.

I have walked without being seen. I have spoken without being heard.

What is the purpose of these agonised cries? Who is the afflicted, the sufferer or the observer?

How can the dead appear alive? How can the alive appear dead?

Am I doomed to know the truth and not exercise it?

No matter how much you cling to it or caress it, it is simply not precious.

May I trouble you? May I speak the unpleasant truth?

Filth serves its purpose when it creates the desire for purity.

Am I so blessed that I cannot connect with you?

Have I not spoken? Or have you not heard?

I may have a glimpse of the inside. But I cannot see the outside.

He who blinds is also the one who opens your eyes.

Shall I rise from the dead or live among the dead?

In simple things I must find pleasure. Complicated joys have turned bitter.

After the blackness, I shall dare to claim the blessing of the Lord.

Do I violate the sanctum of allowable truth and diluted reality?

Why does one prefer the diseased unreality to the diseased reality? The knowledge of the real disease is better than that of the unreal one.

Disease comes in the guise of health. And health comes in the guise of disease.

Why does one look everywhere but upward? Why does one summon every visible one and not the invisible One?

What is the purpose of God if one cannot trust Him? What is the strength of the faith that does not withstand the test?

Can one believe when there is no reason to believe? Can one trust God when God does not appear to be a friend?

Will the silence last forever? Will the connection never be made? Will the rejection be complete?

Who hears my voice and does not respond? Who realizes my truth and does not acknowledge? Who has seen me and walked away?

In destruction my construction will take place. In despair my faith will shine. In death my life shall manifest itself.

Can the fire be flung without consequences? Can the truth be told without the response?

The Voice will now be heard. All barriers have been removed from his path.

I'm desperate to believe in the fear that I will not believe.

Does it matter who follows me? Whom I follow matters.

How silent my street is! How deserted my garden is! How abandoned my banquet is!

The Lord is good. He is particularly good when I have been particularly bad.

Flee from the tumult of earthly applause. Seek the gentle whisper of God. Seek his gentle disapproval. Desire his silent approval.

Let the applause of the entire world be drowned by the faintest sound of approval from the lips of my God.

Worry is not for me. Confidence is my shield. The Lord is in charge, though the devil may dance. I shall trust and rest.

He's there. I know He's there. He's got me in His control, strangling this worldly life out of me in ruthless silence.

When all things have ceased to be palatable, I have discovered that the Word of God will not disappoint.

The Desirable Union

When flesh meets flesh casually and illicitly, it is union, and desirable it is to some, and so it was to me once, but not anymore. The act of flesh deriving satisfaction from flesh is a joy temporary and flimsy and ultimately disappointing, if it occurs out of marriage, out of love and out of God's sanction.

In the grip of unholy love, in the stench of its juices I have passed many a pointless hour, many a day, and many a year. Much of my holy strength I have squandered on unholy lust that retards and regresses the work of God that I am. I have drunk deep from a fleshly cup until its contents revolt me and destroy the very desire to drink.

I have discovered that lust will not plunder the angel face of its riches. The lecher cannot strip away the everlasting joy of beauty. Nothing pure or lasting can be salvaged in an unblessed union that masquerades foolishly as love.

All misspent energy is misbegotten. The instinct to love comes from God. As He is holy, His instinct is also holy. Every act of love is an exercise of holiness. And this I will bear in mind as I give to and receive from others. My energy will be begotten of God. My desire will emerge from His heart. My embrace will be holy and my kiss will be chaste. My desire will be legal, and my love will give without the intent to receive.

- Samuel Godfrey George

- Samuel Godfrey George

The Beauty Of Pain

If you want to scream out in pain, you should seriously consider laughing at your own discomfort. If a disappointment is hard to take, it is because you do not see the beauty of it. Pain and disappointment are human reactions to truth. You want to embrace the beautiful lie, as the ugly truth is too dreadful to take. Yet the ugly truth is what will secure your happiness some day, if you are willing to wait for it. Joy lies in understanding and accepting the pain of growth, the growth from ignorance to knowledge.

You want what is not possible. You believe in what is not true. You see nothing wrong in seeking what is good for yourself, but cannot accept those who want to do the same. You love so that you may be loved in return. So you are destroyed when someone fails to return your love. You give so that you may feel good about yourself. You give so that others may show you gratitude. So you are horrified when you meet thankless people. You believe in a higher power, because you have little faith in your own power. You believe in God because you want to be safe. So you are immobilised when your faith leads you to the brink of disaster.

Realise this. Pain is the road to joy. The love that endures is willing to accept rejection. Giving is most blessed when it is unacknowledged. To have faith is to hope when it is hopeless, and to believe when there is no reason to believe.

Today you smile without joy, and weep without reason. Tomorrow you will rejoice without a smile, and weep with reason.

-Samuel Godfrey George

Health

Love without the desire to hold.
Give without the desire to receive.
Embrace without the intent to plunder.
Kiss without the intent to suffocate.
Have without the thought to retain.
Rule without the rod of obsession.
Take with the intent to share.
Give without the fear of loss.
And then the bond will last.

-Samuel Godfrey George

Belief and Disbelief

Someone sent me this message:
"I hope you know that God does not exist".

This is my response:

What do I know? What does anyone know except what has been revealed to him?

To him who declares that there is no God, I have only this to say, "You are right. This is what has been revealed to you."

To him who believes in God, as I do, I say, "You are right. This is what has been revealed to you."

That God does exist is evident to all and yet not perceptible to all. Everything that I see testifies to his existence. Not everyone can see this. Let him who can see see.

What we see and believe is what has been revealed to us. And the question of "what" is revealed to "whom" is determined in the realm of the Spirit, which is invisible, yet perceptible to the one to whom it has been revealed.

Believing in God is better than not believing in God. Not believing in God is better than declaring disbelief in God when one actually believes. In truth the worst state is to declare belief in God when one actually does not believe.

- Samuel Godfrey George

The Aspirations of Samuel Godfrey George

To the God I worship I say: "Let me truly be your servant. Let all that I say and do glorify you. Let your desire be mine. Let your care be mine. Your joy will be my joy. Your sorrow will be my sorrow. Your kingdom I shall await every conscious moment. Till then your Word shall guide every step of mine."

To those who come to me I say, "Let me express the love of God to you. I have received much. Let me give much. May I love you truly, and care for you, without expecting your love and your gratitude. Let my motivation come from the love of God and not from any earthly source. Let me freely give to you what I have freely received. Let me express to you what is deep and innermost in my being. Let me convey my passion and my desire for the Christ that I worship. Let Him reign in my work. Let Him speak through my voice."

To myself I say, "Be firm and serve your Lord. Every attempt will be made to turn you away from the path. Every ungodly desire will be flung in your direction as you move forward. Disease and death may linger at your door. Despair may be your companion. Keep moving forward. May you never turn away. May you never retreat to the dark pit that you were taken from."

- Samuel Godfrey George

The Sayings of Samuel Godfrey George - Introductions

There is no place for bitterness in this life. The blessing of the Lord outweighs the curse. Though there is much in life that merits endless rant and destructive rage, the one response that befits the man of God is restrained silence. Not all can or will be resolved. Not everything will be right, even with God on one's side. In truth, strife is certain where God is involved. Nevertheless this life must be lived, the strife must be endured and hope must never die. After the dark of the night comes the light of the day. But the joy of the light cannot precede the misery of darkness.

My career is over. So I've been told. "What career?" I ask in response.  "And what did I lose along with it?  I realise that I have spurned the opportunity to achieve the goals of my education, and have thus forfeited the rewards that the fulfilment of those goals ensured. I have forsaken the visible world for the invisible Word. I have spurned the usual life for the unusual. I have wandered far into something completely unpromising.

And here I am found doing the unpromising thing, speaking unpopular words in an unpopular way. And I find a certain joy in this. What I do is indeed highly privileged.

There is much I needn't say and haven't said. There is much I needn't do and haven't done.  Yet, in what I have said and done is that which I haven’t said and done. May the perceptive discern what cannot be plainly seen and heard. The power of suggestion is like none other, and the beauty of this game lies in the blurring of definition.

"Who is your master?
Do you believe in Jesus Christ?"
I was just asked these questions. And this is my response: If a man had a single master, then he will not be in conflict. If a man could believe in Jesus Christ without the slightest degree of doubt, then there will be no inner struggle between darkness and light. I am a child of conflict and struggle. Does that now make me a man who serves two masters or a disbeliever in Christ? My voice has spoken for the sake of the Divine One to magnify His glory in response to His command. I call Him my Lord Christ.

Will I appreciate the slowness of my progress?  Will I savour the pungent defeats that precede success? Will I befriend despair that comes along with hope? Will I acknowledge the devil’s place in the garden of God?

After I languish in despair, will I embrace hope? After I lament over my fall, will I rejoice in my rise? After I sleep with the devil, will I uphold my vow to the Lord?

The Lord Christ is my God. And I am His servant, who has been enabled to speak. My voice belongs to Him, and has been created by Him to express the thoughts that He inspires in my mind.

The Voice is the struggle to express my gratitude for the love of Christ that has transformed me from voicelessness to voice and from wordlessness to words.

I was not always a believer in Christ. There was a time when I did not believe in God. And then I became a man, a man of God and a man of Christ.

My Lord Christ has not had a slight impact on me. He often reduces me to tears and inarticulateness. At times He enables me to speak. On this occasion I believe He has enabled me to speak though not with my physical voice. My spiritual voice conveys my vision of the One who is my Lord and my God.

A believer in Christ, a servant of the Lord God, a student and teacher of life and a man on a journey to light - these labels hopefully describe the man that I am now, or if not hopefully describe the man that I will one day be.

You awakened me, turned my voicelessness to voice and my wordlessness to words. You turned my confusion to coherence and my cravenness to courage. You are my Lord God; you are my Christ. It is to you I belong. I did walk away from you. I am a prodigal son that squandered your wealth on worthless things. Now profligacy and depravity sicken me, so I return disfigured and diseased to you, the origin of the peace, the truth and the beauty that I seek. I return to you my sweet Lord. I raise my voice to you and for you. Bless the one whom you have made alive. Bless the one who speaks your words of life. Bless those who hear the voice and receive life.

For many years a soul has wandered in darkness in search of its origin, its Master, its God. The wait is now over, the darkness is now dispelled and the cloud is now lifted. The thirst is finally quenched and the hunger is filled. A voice forged in the furnace of the Lord is quickened with the fire of its Creator. The message will be spoken. And those appointed to hear will hear.

My journey from darkness to light continues to be conducted in public. As I walk further into the light of the Lord Christ, I give my love to all who come to me. May God enable me to do His will. May I glorify Him with all my heart.

 

To the Lord Who empowers,

Who makes the mediocre best,

Who crafts the ungainly into a work of beauty,

Who turns a heart of stone into a heart of flesh,

Who achieves sublimity from simplicity,

Who relentlessly pursues His lost son

And returns him to his innocence,

The voice presents himself,

Behold the work of your hands.

Can the Giver of my voice, Who compels me to speak, be ignored? Shall I walk without my Lord, Who is the breath of my voice, the reason for my speech and the purpose of my action? Can the servant be separated from his Master? No, never. So here I come with my Lord and my God, Jesus Christ. And blessed is the one who receives us.

A celebration of undeserved love,
An untrained use of the generous gifts
Of a loving God who answered
The crude prayer of a nameless child,
An unrehearsed answer to the Call
That cannot be denied,
And a feeble act of gratitude
For a love that cannot be priced
Have quickened this voice to speak.

To the One whom I did not believe in, and who stayed despite the rejection,
And who knew the desires of my heart and fulfilled them,
To the One who pursues me relentlessly, and who compels me to act,
To the One who placed in me a love for a language that is not my own,
And who nourished it through the tempestuous years,
To the One who gave me a voice and a reason to use it,
To the Origin of my noblest impulses, to Jesus
This feeble act of love is dedicated.

I, Samuel Godfrey George, have emerged as "The Voice" created by God for God. I am happily commanded to glorify the name of the Lord God Jesus Christ, the Son of the Almighty Jehovah. I am stirred by the Spirit of the Most High to present my readings of the Bible to a world that needs to hear the Word of God again and again. So here I come in Christ to convey His love through my voice. To those who hear it, I say, "May God bless you with eternal life. May He grant you His peace and His joy. May His perfect love cast out all your fears. And may you be more than conquerors in Him."

In chaos I emerge. In pain I speak. In ugliness I produce beauty. In darkness I use my gift. I toil in silence and wait in silence. I wait for a particular response.

Into my darkness came light. To my despair attached the glow of hope. In my vast barren fields sprouted the crop of sustenance. In my numb senseless flesh drummed the beat of endless life.

To whom do I speak? I speak to myself. What do I speak of? I speak of a war in the mind between two opposing forces. What opposing forces are these? These are the forces of the two eternal warriors, who are also known as God and the Devil. What is the purpose of my speech? My speech will attempt to extract meaning from chaos, sanity from insanity and purity from filth. For whose benefit do I speak? I speak purely for my own benefit. However what benefits me may also benefit another. What is the desired response? Silence is the desired response. In deafening silence this mental struggle will meet its end.

Lord, may I live to glorify your name;
May your children be guided to you through my work.
May the man in me be the one you want me to be;
May everything in my life be according to your will.

In the middle of life, and in the midst of experience,
Before the dawn of the day and before the end of the night,
Even as the new man is raised, and the old man is put to rest,
Two lives, two souls merge,
Light and darkness blend to create the voice that is heard.

Do you see the beauty within these walls?
'Tis the work of the Lord.
He sculpts the lifeless with love,
And breathes into breathless nostrils,
Making the dead alive so that the work may voice its joy.

If I could be a friend or a brother, a son or a father, a student or a teacher, let me be. Anything but a stranger I would rather be. Have I not walked this far, felt and said this much so that I may not always be locked within the walls of silence?

Now that the voice has been sent out, let the man follow. May his passage be free and without obstacle. As freely as the man and his voice are given they will be received.

May I live this day as if it were my last. May I take the opportunity to offer a smile to the one who needs it, and my voice to the one who is willing to hear it.

When God Became Man - Gospel of John, Chapter I

What cannot be understood must be endured

The Bible

The Sayings of Samuel Godfrey George - Plain Speaking

To pretend that we are better than those who killed God when he lived on earth is to believe in what is not true. We are as evil as any who have ever lived. What saves us is the presence of God's own Spirit within us and the knowledge that he brings us of God's love. These alone may ensure that we do not murder God again when he chooses to return to us.

If I speak what you wouldn't and perhaps couldn't speak there is a reason for that. I have walked in places where you would not dare to go. I have dwelt among demons that you would not allow anywhere near you. I have penetrated the darkness when all that you want to do is to stay outside and look at it. So I shall speak of what I have seen with the boldness of the man who has surely seen what he speaks of. He who shakes his head at me should do so for that is the grace that has been allowed him.

A man should tell the truth as he hears it. He must speak to anyone who is willing to listen. If he must he should speak in empty places where people are few. He must speak even if no one is willing to listen. He must speak and continue to speak in the hope that someone will listen.

May I walk beside you? The journey is long, and my mind will soon wander away. Let's walk together now before everything fades away.

It is through abuse that you learn how to use. It is through sin that you develop a hunger for righteousness. It is after encountering the devil that you long to meet God.

I will not scratch your back today. You may scratch mine if you like. Maybe then your scratching will be unselfish.

Be grateful for everything, even for the beggarly gift. You are not entitled to anything, and yet you have been given.

Forgive not because forgiveness is good for you. Such forgiveness is worthless. Forgive because everyone whom you will ever forgive is as weak and flawed as you are. People need your forgiveness as much as you need theirs.

It is good not to ridicule anyone or anything. We are all quite ridiculous anyway.

Speak the truth even if everybody speaks it. Speak it especially when nobody speaks it.

Rejection is not always bad. In some cases it is an absolute must.

What startles me from my complacency? This is the only thing worth looking forward to.

God should reward me for the many expletives I did not say to those who richly deserved them. I could have cut them down without any mercy. But I refused to do so because of God and because of decency, my own decency. That deserves an award.

If you can turn an absolutely rotten thing that some rotten person said to you into something strikingly brilliant and beautiful, then you are surely a man of God, because it is only God who can make something beautiful out of something utterly rotten.

God rewarded me well when I was at my worst. Can it therefore be said that he shall reward me more when I improve my behaviour? And if he rewarded me more when I behaved better, then he surely rewarded me for my improved behaviour. I know that God is gracious, and if he rewarded a man for his behaviour then that reward cannot be gracious as it is merited. Thus I conclude that a perfectly gracious God cannot and should not base his reward on behaviour. Needless to say my conclusion is based on human wisdom, which is not as wise as God's foolishness.

To conquer the thing you fear you must do the thing you fear. Then you must wait and learn.

There is wretchedness in the goodness. And as the wretchedness grows sharper in focus one is increasing in goodness.

To impress someone is the lowest of all joys. But to live to one's full potential in obedience to God, that is the highest joy in this life.

Whether one is viewed 300 times or 3 times when one broadcasts a message does not really matter. Whether one has said what one wanted to say in the manner that one wanted to say it, that matters.

You've got to get a little angry sometimes, at least to know the use of anger. Anger is never useless. It may be needless.

Do misunderstand. Only then shall you understand.

Never react immediately. Delay your reaction by days, months, preferably by a year or two.

Learning to be silent is more important than learning to speak.

So what if the world finds my faith laughable? I shall not laugh along with the world.

I shall let you remain only to remind me of how unsatisfactory you are, of how futile the pursuit of the unsatisfactory is.