He takes the junk of our lives

"I grew up hearing everyone tell me 'God loves you'.

I would say big deal -- God loves everybody. That don't make me special!

That just proves that God ain't got no taste.

And I don't think He does. Thank God!

Because He takes the junk of our lives and He makes the most beautiful art of it."

~Rich Mullins

His offspring

"For 'In Him we live and move and have our being’;
as even some of your own poets have said, “‘For we are indeed His offspring'."

~Psalm 136:9

On the rock(s)

"Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them,

will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock."

~Matthew 7:24

A larger hope

"The small and even overpowering pains of our lives are intimately connected
with the greater pains of Christ.

Our daily sorrows are anchored in a greater sorrow, and therefore a larger hope."
~Henri Nouwen

United States of Europe?

Statue George Washington in The Rotunda, U.S. Capitol, Washington D.C. sept. 2004

"If there had been no God,
mankind would have been obliged to imagine one."

~George Washington

He also said:
"Some day, following the example of the United States of America,
there will be a United States of Europe."

(ehhmmm)

Suffering come upon us

"Drei Turme", Montafon, Oostenrijk, long time ago

"When pain and suffering come upon us,

we finally see not only that we are not in control of our lives

but that we never were."

~Timothy Keller

For what is your life?

"Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life?

It is even a vapor that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away."

~James 4:14

Trust in the name of the Lord

"Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God."

~Psalm 20:7

If you tell the truth

"If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything."
~Mark Twain

My people have been lost sheep

"My people have been lost sheep; their shepherds have led them astray and caused them

to roam on the mountains.

They wandered over mountain and hill and forgot their own resting place."

~Jeremiah 50:6

Seek only light and freedom

Detail van "Olijfgaard", juni 1889. Kröller-Müller Museum Otterlo

"Seek only light and freedom and do not immerse yourself too deeply in the worldly mire."

~Vincent van Gogh, The Letters of Vincent van Gogh

Only by God, the Creator

"There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing,

but only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus."

~Blaise Pascal, Pensées

Every winter

"Can it really be my duty to buy and receive masses of junk every winter
just to help the shopkeepers?"
~C. S. Lewis

(Everything is legal in) Amsterdam

eerste 4 foto's vanuit de tram, lijn 5

"No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man."
~1 Corinthians 10:13

"Everything is legal in Amsterdam."
~Rich Mullins, august 1997