I saw at Carrie‘s and Susanne’s last week that a new weekly carnival has begun called The Week In Words, created and hosted by Melissa at Breath of Life which involves sharing some words from your reading. Melissa explains,

“Playing along is simple, just write a post of the quote(s) that spoke to you during the week (attributed, of course) and link back here [at Melissa‘s]. They can be from any written source, i.e. magazine, newspaper, blog, book. The only requirement is that they be words you read.”

I’m excited about this because I often mark quotes that speak to me in books, but I don’t often think to write them down, and this will be an excellent reminder to do so. Plus it will be fun to see quotes that stood out to other people: sometimes they point out quotes that I have read but did not see in the same light they did, and it it eye-opening.

So here are a few things that stood out to me this week:

I’ve been reading The Tartan Pimpernel about Scottish Pastor Donald Caskie who ministered in France at the onset of WWII and who decided to stay and help rather than flee for his own safety. Among other things he became an important link the escape route for British soldiers behind enemy lines. In one section he tells of friends who both helped and inspired him. One was a Pastor Heuzy:

The gentle good-humoured voice, which I knew and loved, speaking its odd Franco-Scottish English, when it preached in beautiful French from the pulpit in his church, excoriated the evil-doers who had ravished France. He was warned to be more discreet but, serenely believing in God and the impossibility of a pastor telling anything but the truth as he saw it under God, he continued (p. 104).

Another friend was a college professor named Jacques Monod who was a pacifist, but “the evil of the Nazi war-machine, and his love for human beings…compelled him into an active share in the fight against Hitlerism” (p. 103). Not long before he died, Jacques wrote a letter to his family which contained the following:

I leave the world without hate in my heart, Nevertheless, we Christians should never allow pagans alone to offer their lives in the name of a purely political ideal, in a fight in which we are involved with the fate of the State, the fate of the Church, and the spiritual destiny of our children” (p. 105).

These quotes speak to me on two levels. On one, we’re told today that Christians should not get involved in politics,  especially pastors in the pulpits. I think people who say that must not have read much history from the era of America’s quest for independence, but be that as it may, while it may be wise to avoid “spouting off” about politics in general in many cases, there comes a time when honest people must stand up for what is right and speak out against falsehood.

On another level, these quotes and indeed this whole book show that many heroes don’t set out to be heroes. In some cases they’d rather be doing anything than what they’re doing, but an issue or need has arisen that they cannot pass by and they must help no matter what it costs them.

I’m about 30 pages away from finishing this book and hope to review it later this week.

This quote is from Elisabeth Elliot’s book Keep a Quiet Heart from a chapter titled “The World Must Be Shown,” which was also included in her e-mail devotionals, and which I was recently reminded of at Diane‘s.

It had to be proved to Satan, in Job’s case, that there is such a thing as obedient faith which does not depend on receiving only benefits.

Another Elliot quote Diane reminded me of that I have read often before but can’t locate what book it came from is:

Many women have told me that my husband’s advice, which I once quoted in a book, has been an eye-opener to them. He said that a wife, if she is very generous, may allow that her husband lives up to perhaps eighty percent of her expectations.  There is always the other twenty percent that she would like to change, and she may chip away at it for the whole of their married life without reducing it by very much. She may, on the other hand, simply decide to enjoy the eighty percent, and both of them will be happy. It’s a down-to-earth illustration of a principle: Accept, positively and actively, what is given. Let thanksgiving be the habit of your life. ~Elisabeth Elliot

This quote is from Warren Wiersbe’s With the Word from the commentary on Revelation 12:

I’m not afraid of the devil. The devil can handle me — he’s got judo I never heard of, But he can’t handle the One to whom I am joined; he can’t handle the One to whom I’m united; he can’t handle the One whose nature dwells in my nature. — A. W. Tozer

I am afraid of the devil. so this is a good reminder for me.

That’s probably more than enough for today. I promise sometimes to have some “lighter” quotes as well.