Faith and obedience are inescapably related. There is no saving faith in God apart from obedience to God, and there can be no godly obedience without godly faith.

Now the things done may not be evil or improper; they in fact may be good and godly (such as reading the Bible, praying, worshiping, preaching); but if they are not undertaken in a spirit of complete reliance upon the Holy Spirit, then the flesh is the source of all. The old creation is willing to do anything-even to submit to God - if only it is permitted to live and to be active!

There is a difference between a fleshly stubbornness and a godly perseverance. The former insists on getting one's will done in heaven, and the latter determines to get God's will done on earth.

Earthly wisdom is doing what comes naturally. Godly wisdom is doing what the Holy Spirit compels us to do.

Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing.

For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; / And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; / And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; / And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: / (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;) / The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished: / But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, selfwilled, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities.

LETTUCE, n. An herb of the genus _Lactuca_, "Wherewith," says that pious gastronome, Hengist Pelly, "God has been pleased to reward the good and punish the wicked. For by his inner light the righteous man has discerned a manner of compounding for it a dressing to the appetency whereof a multitude of gustible condiments conspire, being reconciled and ameliorated with profusion of oil, the entire comestible making glad the heart of the godly and causing his face to shine. But the person of spiritual unworth is successfully tempted to the Adversary to eat of lettuce with destitution of oil, mustard, egg, salt and garlic, and with a rascal bath of vinegar polluted with sugar. Wherefore the person of spiritual unworth suffers an intestinal pang of strange complexity and raises the song.".

But someone once described the contrast between a good life and a godly life as the difference between the top of the ocean and the bottom. On top, sometimes it's like glass -- serene and calm -- and other times it's raging and stormy. But hundreds of fathoms below, it is beautiful and consistent, always calm, always peaceful.

You become more divine as you become more creative. All the religions of the world have said God is the creator. I don’t know whether he is the creator or not, but one thing I know: the more creative you become, the more godly you become. When your creativity comes to a climax, when your whole life becomes creative, you live in God. So he must be the creator because people who have been creative have been closest to him. Love what you do. Be meditative while you are doing it – whatsoever it is

You become more divine as you become more creative. All the religions of the world have said God is the creator. I don’t know whether he is the creator or not, but one thing I know: the more creative you become, the more godly you become. When your creativity comes to a climax, when your whole life becomes creative, you live in God. So he must be the creator because people who have been creative have been closest to him. Love what you do. Be meditative while you are doing it – whatsoever it is!

The time you spend alone with God will transform your character and increase your devotion. Then your integrity and godly behavior in an unbelieving world will make others long to know the Lord.

The land of fairy, where nobody gets old and godly and grave, where nobody gets old and crafty and wise, where nobody gets old and bitter of tongue.

YOU have to busy yourselves with activity in order to use time and skill to the best advantage. That is your Duty and Duty is God. The dull and the inert will hesitate to be active for fear of exhaustion or failure or loss. The emotional, passionate individuals will plunge headlong and crave for quick results, and will be disappointed if they do not come in. The balanced persons will be active because it is their duty. They will not be agitated by anything - failure or success. The Godly will take up activity as a means of worshipping God; and they leave the result to God. They know that they are but instruments in the hands of God.

THE relief and joy that you give to the sick and the sad reach me, for I am in their hearts and I am the One they call out for. God has no need of your service; does He suffer from pain in the legs, or ache in the stomach? Try to serve the Godly; be "Dasanudasas", the servants of the servants of the Lord. The service of man is the only means by which you can serve God.

MAKARA Sankranti is a holy day because the day takes you from darkness to increasing light. From today, the sun enters upon the Uttarayana taking a northward direction for six months. When your Drishti (Sight) is on BRAHMAN and when you have Uttama guna it is Uttarayana, and when your Drishti is on Prakriti it is Dakshinayana. When you have fever, the tongue will be bitter. The bitter tongue is "Dakshinayana". When you are healthy, your sweet tongue tastes well, it is Uttarayana. The real Uttarayana is when you crave for the thought of the Lord and the company of the Godly. Bhishma spent days in bed with pain, as he felt death, when the sun starts towards north is auspicious. Bhishma yearned for the vision of Krishna in Uttarayana. Become fit for the vision of God, cultivating Prema in your heart, full of fragrance and uncontaminated by the pests of greed and egoism.

DOES thou know why you are given eyes? To see whatever can be seen? No! No! To fill the eyes with the vision of God who resides on Mount Kailas. We have to cast our looks at sacred sights. We must visualise in everyone only the good and the Godly. That is the purpose for which God has equipped us with eyes. He has not gifted them to us to observe and judge others, to follow people into the bazaar or to see unsightly films.

CONTENTMENT is heaven; grief is hell; anger is the foe; calmness is the armour; and compassion is the comrade. You repeat Shanti three times, don't you? It is to encourage peace in the human, Godly and natural milieu in which you have to live; also to develop peace, in the body, mind and intellect.

ASCETIC practices, years of constant recitation of the Name, pilgrimage to holy places and shrines, study of the sacred books - these will not help the aspirant to spiritual victory as much as communion with the Godly and the good. Bharath is a rare treasure house of spiritual jewels; it can confer all boons on the sincere.

It is impossible for me to reconcile myself to the idea of conversion after the style that goes on in India and elsewhere today. It is an error which is perhaps the greatest impediment to the world’s progress toward peace … Why should a Christian want to convert a Hindu to Christianity? Why should he not be satisfied if the Hindu is a good or godly man? January , .