Lynn Austin Quotes

The journey has been a parody of my life recently: rushing, waiting, wandering, feeling lost and losing sleep, wondering if I'm getting anywhere.

I wanted to weep. Everywhere I went, it seemed that people wanted to discuss slavery, yet they talked about it as if it was an abstract concept. It wasn't abstract to me. Slaves were real-life people with individual faces and souls. I knew some of those faces, loved some of those souls, and it broke my heart to be reminded of the truth about them - that Josiah and Tessie weren't allowed to be man and wife; that Grady had been torn without warning from his mother's arms; that Eli could be whipped for secretly preaching about Jesus in the pine grove or killed for knowing how to read.

You know what I wish? I wish I could put time in a bottle and throw it into the ocean. Then I would have forever to spend with you. I wouldn't need air to breathe or food to eat. Holding you in my arms would be all the food I would need. Having your love would be the only air I would need to breathe.

Worry doesn't change a single thing. Just live.

I listened to God and to my husband, not the the enemy's whispers, not to other people's opinions.

I need to stay continually watchful, prepared with the whole armor of God if I want to combat the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil.

I will thank Him for all that He has given me, not curse Him for all that I've lost.

Don't ask God what He's doing. That's the wrong thing to ask. Ask Him what you should be doing.

Flattery from a man who displayed no common sense or self-control, much less reverence for God, meant nothing to him. I

Scriptures were just words on a page and my prayers failed to lift ...

Prayer isn't just about asking for things. It's taking time to hear what God is saying, too, just like any good conversation. Once we finally stop talking and demanding and begging for things, it's easier to hear what God is trying to say to us.

The only way to grow in faith is to put your faith to the test. You must place yourself in His hands and let Him prove himself faithful. Unless you make up your mind to trust Him, you'll never know that Yahweh is faithful.

Jerusalem's wall is real, but it's also symbolic," he said. "In a way, we destroyed the wall ourselves by relying on idols instead of on God. We destroyed it by desecrating His Sabbaths. By ignoring the laws He gave us, laws that teach us how to live. These ruins are a picture of what we did to our relationship with the Almighty One - we demolished it. Now it's time to rebuild what our sins have destroyed.

Love for God is never instant. It has to grow and mature just like any other kind of love. The struggle is always with our will.

Happiness is something that comes from our own hearts, not from other people.

In the past I had often tried to escape the grown-up world of sorrow through my imagination- dreaming that a handsome young lieutenant would ride to my rescue or that a great empresario would discover my musical talents and whisk me away. I had envisioned knights in shining armor and happily ever after scenes to escape from rules or boredom or pain; including a vision of my mother walking through our front door whole and well again. Now I knew that a lifetime of escape led to a life like Aunt Bertie's. My imagination was a gift, but I had to live in the real world. My eyes had been opened this summer to poverty and crime and abuse and I needed to use my imagination not to escape, but to help people like Irina and Katya, to make my own contribution as the women in the women's pavilion had done. I couldn't do it in the same way Jane Adams and my grandmother and Aunt Mat were, but I would find my own way and my own time.

living in a stinking

We are a stoic, reserved bunch who hide our emotions well - except when reading a terribly sad or poignant story, of course. I have been known to sob aloud at a tragic ending.

People are always thinking they can use the Lord to get their own way-- all they have to do is pray and God's gonna take away all their suffering and give them what they whatever they ask for. But it don't work that way. God's doing His business, and it's up to us to be serving Him, not the other way around."

Then why do people pray at all? My papa asked Jesus to help him escape with me when I was just a little girl. But Jesus didn't help us."

Praying ain't about asking for your own way. It's all about talking things over with God, just like you and me are talking things over. In the end, you have to be trusting the Lord to do what's best."

So the Lord thought it was best that my papa died and my mama was sold?"

Delia slowly shook her head. "I don't know, honey, I just don't know. The hardest thing of all to understand is why a loving God keeps letting us suffer... I don't know all the answers myself. I seen my share of suffering, believe me. But there two things I do know for sure. One is that God loves us... And the second thing is that God's always in control of everything that happens. When bad things come our way and it starts looking like He don't love us, all I can say is that maybe we ain't knowing everything He knows."

Kitty's tears started falling again. "I still don't understand."

Remember what you told me about the fighting up in Charleston? How you was standing on that porch, not able to see what's

Shebna scraped the tablet clean and began drawing circles in the soft clay. "Suppose you had six figs and you ate two. How many would
"
"Four." Hezekiah answered before Shebna finished, and the tutor's thick black eyebrows rose in surprise.
"And suppose I had five figs. How many would we
"
"Nine."
"Have you done this before?"
Hezekiah thought the question was ridiculous. "I've eaten figs lots of times.

That depends on how Washington reacts. Every state joined the Union voluntarily; they should have the right to leave it again if the Federal government no longer represents their best interests.

Sometimes when He seems the farthest away from us, He's really the closest.

Jesus told us to look at the birds; they don't worry about the future because our Heavenly Father feeds them. I think that's why they praise Him.

Alliances with other nations lead to bondage," Zechariah explained. "Joseph started out as Pharaoh's trusted advisor in Egypt, but later generations ended up as slaves. And wasn't it Ahaz's so-called alliance with Assyria that led to our present slavery?

If you truly understood the holiness of God, you would have a proper attitude about yourself.

Guard your heart, son," Eli said in a hushed voice. "That's what God looks at - your heart. Most folks look at the outside things, like the color of your skin. But God looks at your heart.

Maybe it's because spiritual growth and vibrant faith in God don't happen in isolation, but under pressure.

Once I understand that my enemy is never going to lay down arms and sign a peace treaty with, I would be wise to remain on full alert at all times.

Our trials are supposed to turn us toward God, but we whine and complain and wish someone would turn down the fire so we could have our old life back the way it was.

Love isn't a feeling; it's an attitude, it's actions. Like buying him the prayer shawl. Whether you feel anything or not, just do the loving thing.

All you had to do was look up at the stars at night or at a baby's face to know God existed.

Can't never go by your feelings. Got to go by the word of the Lord.

No terrain is too bleak, no distance too far that it will stop God from rescuing His own.

His questions will make his faith stronger in the end.

The reality of life as His disciple, as one of "the sheep of his pasture" (Psalm 100:3), is a life of complete helplessness in a harsh environment, trusting the shepherd to lead us and feed us.

I've seen spring come to the orchard every year as far back as I can remember and I've never grown tired of it. Oh, the wonder of it! The outrageous beauty! God didn't have to give us cherry blossoms you know. He didn't have to make apple trees and peach trees burst into flower and fragrance. But God just loves to splurge. He gives us all this magnificence and then, if that isn't enough, He provides fruit from such extravagance.

You have beautiful hair ... and she reached out to touch it, her bejeweled fingers gently caressing my head. A tear slipped down my cheek. I knew how the lepers felt when Jesus touched them and made them whole again.

You pray. And you allow the Lord to be your strength. Remember the Lord doesn't give you strength. He is your strength.

[God] wants us to work with Him, honey. Not for Him.

Belief in Yahweh doesn't come with your mind. It comes with your heart. When you only believe in things you can see with your eyes and touch with your hands, it is idolatry ...
To have faith in Yahweh is to know that there is a realm of the spirit beyond the comprehension of our minds ... Trusting in Molech ... or trusting in your own wisdom and intellect - there's no difference in God's eyes. It's all idolatry.

Thirst is a symptom of need, the body's way of telling me to take action. If I don't listen, I end up dehydrated and all sorts of bad things can happen, including loss of consciousness and death. Spiritual dryness is also a symptom: Something is wrong! Take action! I'm drying up! I need God. My soul's longing for God is as never-ending as my physical need for water. And spiritual dehydration leads to spiritual death.

What's it like to fall in love, Tessie?" I asked.
She gazed into the darkness for a long moment, then her smile widened. "Well, when you see that certain man you heart flies like paper on the wind
don't matter if you just see him one minute ago or one year ago. When you with him, ain't nothing or nobody else in the whole world but him. You might be walking down the same old street you walk on every day, but if you with him, your feet don't hardly touch the ground anymore, like you just floating on a little cloud. And, honey, you want his arms to be around you more than you want air to breathe.

Faith don't come in a bushel basket, Missy. It come one step at a time. Decide to trust Him for one little thing today, and before you know it, you find out He's so trustworthy you be putting your whole life in His hands.

I do not know how long 'twill be, nor what the future holds for me, but this I know, if Jesus leads me, I shall get home someday ...

We want to make our own plans and then pray, 'My will be done, if you please Massa Jesus, in earth, as it is in my plans.' You got to put your life in Jesus' hands. Trust that in the end, whatever happens, He still in control.

Just a minute, Esther. Slow down and listen to me. How can Hashem answer such a prayer in the middle of a war? We are the ones who started this war, not Him. People are not puppets that Hashem controls, making us do whatever He wants. Nor can He be manipulated to do whatever we ask of Him. Human beings chose to start this war, and that means we are responsible for putting the people we love in danger, not Him. But Hashem can bring good from this, even if we cannot see it.

Love is like candy floss. you crave it and it looks very promising, but if you try to satisfy your hunger with it, there is nothing. Only a sweet aftertaste - if you're lucky.

One thing I have learned during these past few terrible years is that our grief and sorrow should be shared, not carried alone.

Our faith often grows stronger when we have to defend our beliefs, the same way that patriotism flowers and blooms when our country is threatened.

We serve a promise-keeping God, a God of miracles. My vigorous attempts to save myself, like Herod's, will never succeed. But what is impossible for man, is always possible with God. When it seems as though all is lost and God asks, "Can these bones live?" let my answer be, "Sovereign Lord, you know.

God also puts His people in the middle of things for the same reason that He put the tree of temptation in the middle of the garden
so that our choice to follow Him would be a conscious, daily one. Every time we publicly choose to live for Christ, He is glorified.

Bitterness is one of the deadliest emotions we ever feel. You can't look forward when you're bitter, only backward - thinking about what you've lost, stuck in the past, despairing because it's gone. In the end, it devours all hope.

It takes less courage to end your life in a burst of glory than to face the mistakes you've made and start over.

Hmm. Relationships between fathers and sons can be notoriously difficult, especially for two men who are as different as you and your father are."
"Yes, and he's also the king
that makes our relationship impossible.

He had lived to please himself instead of God all those years, giving little more than lip service to His holy laws. And now when Zechariah cried out to God, his numberless sins swallowed up his prayers before they reached heaven. His guilt filled the yawning gulf between him and God.

Combat worry, such as keeping a prayer journal and rereading it when I'm under attack.

I have met people who truly do not believe in God, and they feel no anger when they see suffering. They are indifferent to it. But you and I are angry. Anger is not indifference. I blamed God because He took my family. But I couldn't get revenge from God, so I turned my rage against other people. I wanted revenge. Someone must pay."

"You're wrong." Helen said, wanting desperately to believe that he was. "I told you, I no longer believe in God."

"Then why are you so angry with Him?" His eyes were so sorrowful that Helen had to look away. She was unable to reply.

"You blame me and my country for your losses Miss Kimball. And I blame you and your country. But you and I are people, not countries. Did you kill my wife? My child? Would you put a gun to their heads and shoot them, or take away all of their food and watch them die? No, of course not. Neither would I kill someone you loved if I met him face to face. Wars come from bitterness and hatred. They are started by nations without face. But wars end when the hatred ends in the hearts of people like you and me. That is why I ask you to please forgive me.

The war has changed you, too, Caroline. Your faith is stronger, your compassion deeper, your love more intense than ever before. It's as if all the qualities I saw in you and fell in love with have been refined and purified.

And he realized that this was their attitude toward Yahweh, too. They either hurried through life, ignoring Him, or they regarded Yahwey and His commandments with contempt.

Our daughters aren't the same people we are, nor are they extensions of ourselves. They are unique individuals in God's eyes, responsible to Him for the choices they make, not to their mothers.

Because we're not free when there are no boundaries-we're in great danger.

I pick up my knitting and wind the yarn around my fingers so I can finish the row. The needles whisper softly as they slide against each other, as if telling secrets.

Hashem may not answer our prayers the way we want him to," he said, clearing his throat. "He did not deliver Joseph from prison right away. But Hashem was there with Joseph, even in hype silence

A servant does what his massa says and goes where his massa sends him and doesn't quit until the job is done.

But the truth is, I can't sip from an hour-long church service on Sunday morning or dash off a hasty prayer or gulp down a daily Bible verse and expect them to sustain me any more than I can expect a glass of water to last for a week.

That's absurd," I said with a little laugh. "Nobody can read too much. That's like saying someone breathes too much.

No, Hezekiah ... no.. I don't deserve forgiveness. He lifted his head to look at her. None of us do. But God doesn't treat us as our sins deserve. He took her hands in his. I should have shown you that. I should have shown you my God instead of making you serve a God you didn't know. I only showed you his rules and laws. But God doesn't want us to worship Him out of fear. He is our Father, and He wants us to learn to love Him with all our heart and all our soul and all our strength. I should have helped you know Him.

Is it better not to fall in love at all, or to love someone for a little while, even if you have to say good-bye?

When you only believe in things you can see with your eyes and touch with your hands, it is idolatry.

Joy explodes throughout the book of Psalms like fireworks, and is the most potent anti-missile defense system there is.

Besides re-arming myself with joy, I need to know the holes in my defenses, the places where I'm vulnerable and where the enemy has successfully attacked me before.

Like most rural girls, I had graduated from the Volkschule

I do not believe in witches, but if I did, I'd swear you are one.

The wilderness is a place where we can lean on God and trust His promises, but it's also a place to discover that the arms He provides and the ears that listen to our fears sometimes belong to flesh-and-blood people.

If He strips us of all our own resources, we just might learn to lean on Him. And to start praying again.

Then rely on your judgment and forget all this." Zechariah scooped up the scroll with a sweep of his hand. "But don't try to do both. It won't work. Either your faith in God is absolute, or it's worthless. There's no way to compromise.

God had told the survivors of Sodom and Gomorrah not to look back after they'd been rescued from death and destruction, and if Jo's family continued to gaze into the past, they were going to become stuck in place like pillars of salt, too.

All these troubles you've been having aren't a punishment from God. He wants to use them to draw you closer to himself.

We should be dissatisfied with the stale, routine way we've been worshiping and seek His presence. We should build the temple and build a relationship with Him that's genuine and real.

Don't be fooled by strength you can see," he said at last. "Yahweh often hides His power in the simple things, the weak things, and so His strength seems foolish in man's eyes.

While I don't have to leave home to find God's oasis, I do have to search for it, pursuing God in prayer and trusting Him to take care of me when all other hope is gone. He promised that "If ... you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul" (Deuteronomy 4:29).

Seem like it be a mighty hard thing to change someone's mind," he said. "Most folks won't change their mind unless they have a change of heart first." "Well, then ... how do I change their heart?" "You can't, Missy Caroline," he said gently. "Only Massa Jesus can change folks' hearts.

Only a coward would send his children to their deaths in order to save his own life.

Bitterness is like a weed. Remember how hard it always was to pull out thistles once they root? Remember how deep those roots grow, and how if you just snapped off the end of it, the plant would grow right back? You have to dig down deep inside. Let God search your heart. Let Him show you what's there and help you root out all that bitterness. Then you can pray for forgiveness.

Sometimes when people work for God, they get the idea that He should make their life all smooth and easy because they're doing His work ... It ain't so. Jesus said life is gonna be hard. Period. He said if you're gonna follow Him, then you're gonna carry a cross, just like He did. this world of ours is under a curse, honey. We need to expect things to be bad. But even if we lose everything, we still have Jesus.

Librarians are serious people, seldomgiven to idle jocularity. The reason for this, I believe, is because we are overwhelmed by the enormous number of good books waiting to be read, leaving little time for frivolity. My personal list of must-read books presents a daunting challenge; I can't even imagine the pressure our head librarian must be under.

Often, it'a not one great, dramatic thing that God asks us to do but hundreds of little everyday things. If we want to be used by Him, if we're ready to be used and aren't all tangled up with your own plans and projects, then He'll show us the work He has for us.

Ah, but that would require a spending time with God--more than an hour or two on Sunday, I suspect--getting to know Him, communing with Him, praising Him.

Behind Caroline was her schoolroom full of bright, eager students. God had given them to her as a gift, to show her that the sacrifices she'd made did have meaning. His purposes for her life would be partly fulfilled in them, and in those children's futures.

Understand. I understand. She was only dimly aware that it wasn't Hezekiah holding her, but his