The ministry of encouragement is open to Christians as it is to no others. Christians have a new life in Christ, an all powerful Holy Spirit to lead them into all truth, and a Heavenly Father who will protect and bless them eternally. If any people anywhere are qualified and equipped to a ministry of positive and healthy encouragement in a desperately discouraging world, it is the Christian church. Christian disciples, Christ said, are the “salt of the earth.” They should make life tasty! They should be, above all else, encouragers.
Encouragement – Oxygen for the Soul, Christian Focus, 1997, p. 9. Used by Permission.
It takes what I am calling “big-heartedness” for a person to overcome jealousy, envy, division and personality differences to reach out and become an encourager… Genuine, godly love never even looks on another believer’s success as a threat, it looks on it as a blessing. It gets right in there giving all the possible support it can possibly give, immediately.
Encouragement – Oxygen for the Soul, Christian Focus, 1997, p. 25-27. Used by Permission.
The encourager, no matter how dark the day, always brings a message of hope. Those who encourage…are in effect only beggars telling other beggars where to find help.
Encouragement – Oxygen for the Soul, Christian Focus, 1997, p. 54. Used by Permission.
A suicide’s body was found floating in a river and a note was written on her person. The note had only two words written on it: “They said.” Do we realize what a word from our tongues can do? It can wreck a local church, mar a child for life, disrupt the harmony of a business office and destroy a marriage.
Encouragement – Oxygen for the Soul, Christian Focus, 1997, p. 89. Used by Permission.
In the United States preschool children constitute the largest television audience and their weekly average viewing time is at least thirty hours. By the age of seventeen the average American child has logged fifteen thousand hours watching television.
Encouragement – Oxygen for the Soul, Christian Focus, 1997, p. 118. Used by Permission.
Television encourages passivity and diminishes creativity. And it disrupts natural family life. Worst of all, it induces what has been called ‘the television trance.’ It has not merely blurred the distinctions between the real and unreal for steady viewers, but by doing so it has dulled their sensitivities to real events.
Encouragement – Oxygen for the Soul, Christian Focus, 1997, p. 118. Used by Permission.
I gave Him a crown of thorns, He gave me a crown of righteousness. I gave Him a cross to carry, He gave me His yoke which is easy, His burden which is light. I gave Him nails through His hands, He gave me safely into His Father’s hands from which no power can pluck me. I gave Him a mock title, ‘This is the King of the Jews.’ He gave me a new name and made me a king and a priest to God. I gave Him no covering, stripping His clothes from Him, He gave me a garment of salvation. I gave Him mockery, casting the same in His teeth, He gave me Paradise. I gave Him vinegar to drink, He gave me Living Water. I crucified and slew Him on a tree, He gave me eternal life. It was my sinfulness that put Him there. It is His sinlessness that puts me here.
Encouragement – Oxygen for the Soul, Christian Focus, 1997, p. 157-158. Used by Permission.
Many over-scrupulous, rigid and obsessional perfectionists may worry intermittently for years concerning some relative trivialities, which have done no real harm to anyone, except the worrier. Here surely the emphasis should be on God’s wonderful and complete forgiveness available in Christ, and Philippians 3:13 is more appropriate.
Derick Bingham Encouragement – Oxygen for the Soul, Christian Focus, 1997, p. 76. Used by Permission.
The counselor is perhaps better equipped for his task, if he has experienced personal difficulties, problems, doubts and fears, even a sense of guilt and failure, perplexity and distress, but has come through to peace, both spiritually and emotionally.
Encouragement – Oxygen for the Soul, Christian Focus, 1997, p. 71. Used by Permission.
Restoration for the backslider must always be kept in mind no matter how complex the problem of his failure.
Encouragement – Oxygen for the Soul, Christian Focus, 1997, p. 54-55. Used by Permission.
There is no retirement in God’s work.
Encouragement – Oxygen for the Soul, Christian Focus, 1997, p. 151. Used by Permission.
The Savior moved from divine doctrine to dirty feet in a very short space of time. We would do well to remember this.
Encouragement – Oxygen for the Soul, Christian Focus, 1997, p. 14. Used by Permission.