By Jennifer R.If you haven't seen the new bulletin board upstairs, here's a picture of it.
We will be changing the topic every month, but this month - since we're focusing on godly friendships in the summer ladies Bible study and in the upcoming fall retreat - the topic is "friendship." Below are the quotes that are on the board this month.
If I take offence easily; if I am content to continue in cold unfriendliness, though friendship be possible, then I know nothing of Calvary love. ~ Amy Carmichael
It’s impossible to have friendships that aren’t directed by the heart. And it’s impossible to have genuine, authentic friendships if what is in our heart is self-centered and self-absorbed. Bad hearts produce bad friendships. Good hearts produce good friendships. (Luke 6:45) ~ Amy Baker
When I have learnt to love God better than my earthly [best friends], I shall love my earthly [best friends] better than I do now. In so far as I learn to love my earthly [best friends] at the expense of God and instead of God, I shall be moving towards the state in which I shall not love my earthly [best friends] at all. When first things are put first, second things are not suppressed but increased. ~ C.S. Lewis
Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another, “What! You, too? I thought I was the only one.” ~ C.S. Lewis
A true friend never gets in your way unless you happen to be going down. ~ Arnold Glasow
The dearest friend on earth is a mere shadow compared to Jesus Christ. ~ Oswald Chambers
Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. ~ Jesus (John 15:13)
I am convinced, by the way, that friendships provide the most fertile soil for evangelism. When the reality of Christ is introduced into a relationship of love and trust that has already been established, the effect is powerful. And it seems that invariably, when someone becomes a true follower of Christ, that person's first impulse is to want to find a friend and introduce that friend to Christ. ~ John MacArthur
A blessed thing it is for any man or woman to have a friend; one human soul whom we can trust utterly; who knows the best and the worst of us, and who loves us in spite of all our faults; who will speak the honest truth to us, while the world flatters us to our face, and laughs at us behind our back. ~ Charles Kingsley
God's is the only friendship that can really meet all our soul's deep needs and cravings. Human companionship helps us at a few points; but the divine friendship has its blessing for every experience. We never shall be left alone when we have Christ. When other helpers fail and comforts flee—He will ever stand close beside us. When other faces fade out of view—His will shine out with gentle love, pouring its light upon us. ~ J.R. Miller
Good friends are among our greatest blessings – they may keep us back from much evil, quicken us in our course, speak a word in season, draw us upward, and draw us on. But a bad friend is a positive misfortune, a weight continually dragging us down, and chaining us to earth. Keep company with an irreligious man, and it is more than probable you will in the end become like him. That is the general consequence of all such friendships. The good go down to the bad, and the bad do not come up to the good. ~ J.C. Ryle, Thoughts For Young Men
To become another's friend in the true sense—is to take the other into such close, living fellowship that his life and ours are knit together as one. It is far more than a pleasant companionship in bright, sunny hours. It is more than an association for mutual interest or profit or enjoyment. A genuine friendship is entirely unselfish. It seeks no benefit or good of its own. It does not love - for what it may receive - but for what it may give. Its aim is “not to be served—but to serve” (Mark 10:45). ~ J.R. Miller
Christ loves us—not according to our worthiness—but according to the riches of His own loving heart! So should it be with our giving of friendship—not as the person deserves—but after the measure of our own character. ~ J.R. Miller
