Quotable Quote || John Newton

"If people are satisfied of a surgeon’s skill and prudence, they will not only yield to be cut at his pleasure without pretending to direct him where, or how long he shall make the incision, but will thank him and pay him for putting them in pain, because they believe it for their advantage. I wish I could be more like them and my concerns. My body, as I said is, through mercy, free from considerable ailments, but I have a soul that requires surgeon’s work continually."

C.S. Lewis on Horses (There's gold in them there hills/words)

 "To shrink back from all that can be called Nature into negative spirituality is as if we ran away from horses instead of learning to ride. There is in our present pilgrim condition plenty of room (more room than most of us like) for abstinence and renunciation and mortifying our natural desires. But behind all asceticism the thought should be, ‘Who will trust us with the true wealth if we cannot be trusted even with the wealth that perishes?’ Who will trust me with a spiritual body if I cannot control even an earthly body? These small and perishable bodies we now have were given to us as ponies are given to schoolboys. We must learn to manage: not that we may some day be free of horses altogether but that some day we may ride bare-back, confident and rejoicing, those greater mounts, those winged, shining and world- shaking horses which perhaps even now expect us with impatience, pawing and snorting in the King’s stables. Not that the gallop would be of any value unless it were a gallop with the King; but how else— since He has retained His own charger—should we accompany Him?”

Efficiency

The other day I went into the auto repair store to get a new air filter for the car. With my bizarre sense of humor, I noticed on the box for the air filter, that it said that it was 90% efficient (see picture).  In my bizarre way of thinking, I wondered if that meant that it was 10% inefficient. I asked the clerk if he thought that meant that it was 10% inefficient. To his credit, he quickly understood my strange sense of humor, and said he wasn't quite sure. I said to him that if the filter is working at 90% efficiency, it's still doing a lot better than I am. It may be as much as 50 or 60% more efficient than I am. As I walked out I was thinking about the fact that there are so few things that are 100% efficient. I am so grateful for the blood of Jesus Christ that is 100% efficient for forgiving my sin and making me acceptable to God, propitiating the wrath of God, and bringing me into an experience of the love of God by the Holy Spirit. 

"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin."

The Bandit and the Ninja...

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