c2p-cmd/Good-Quotes-Authors huggingface dataset:
All religions worthy of the name are now making great efforts to purify their doctrines and return to their original standpoint, — all except Christianity! You surely know that the nineteenth century Christianity is not the religion taught by Christ. Christ's religion has been changed and corrupted. But Christian clergymen are well aware that if they were to attempt to purify Christianity and bring it back to the religion of Christ, the result would be to reform it out of existence. Christianity stands to-day completely explained. Every step in its development is laid bare and shown to be due to purely natural causes, and it is easy to see how much Christianity adopted from other and older religions.
— Virchand Gandhi, The Monist
The sentiments attributed to Christ are in the Old Testament. They were familiar in the Jewish schools and to all the Pharisees, long before the time of Christ, as they were familiar in all the civilizations of the earth — Egyptian, Babylonian, and Persian, Greek, and Hindu.
— Joseph McCabe, The Sources of the Morality of the Gospels
The central ideas of Christianity — an angry God and vicarious atonement — are contrary to every fact in nature, as also to the better aspirations of the human heart; they are, in our present stage of enlightenment, absurd, preposterous, and blasphemous propositions. Christians well know that the much-decorated statue of the Church, as it now stands, is not of pure chiseled marble, but of clay, cemented together by blood and tears and hardened in the fires of hatred and persecution. And still we hear the cry, 'The whole world for Christ'.
— Virchand Gandhi, The Monist
What would our hospitality look like if we believed that Jesus’s death on the cross was the measure of God’s compassion for someone?
— Gloria Furman, Glimpses of Grace: Treasuring the Gospel in Your Home
Each of us ought to be so happy that Jesus found us and saved us, that we are running to find the next person who needs to be introduced to Him. That's what church is, a community of rescued people celebrating grace, eager to spread the good news of grace and bring other people to the party.
— Justin Buzzard, The Big Story: How the Bible Makes Sense out of Life
What could be more encouraging than realizing that Jesus calls the unqualified?
— Justin Buzzard, The Big Story: How the Bible Makes Sense out of Life
I knew, as soon as I woke up, that the dream had come from God and it was about the reality of Jesus. The truth of Him. The He was a person whose pronouns you had to capitalize. That He was God.
— Lauren F. Winner
Simply put, if you know Jesus and you believe He is still healing people today, He will heal the sick through you.
— Praying Medic, Divine Healing Made Simple: Simplifying the supernatural to make healing & miracles a part of your everyday life
Whether through an outwardly prideful life of breaking the rules or an inwardly prideful life of keeping the rules, we are people who have sought to avoid Jesus and run our own lives.
— Justin Buzzard, The Big Story: How the Bible Makes Sense out of Life
Jesus was the original street healer. He traveled the streets of Israel on foot, staying wherever He found lodging. During His travels He told people the secrets of their hearts, healed all who were sick and demon-possessed, raised the dead and shared the mysteries of the kingdom of God. This was His lifestyle and it could be yours.
— Praying Medic, Divine Healing Made Simple: Simplifying the supernatural to make healing & miracles a part of your everyday life
Because of Jesus’ supposed predestination, God would have had to choose the people who would kill and betray his son, choose the method by which he would be killed (crucifixion), and the time at which the event would occur. Those guilty of killing Jesus would therefore be simply carrying out God’s wishes without the free will to have chosen a path for themselves.
— David G. McAfee, Disproving Christianity and Other Secular Writings
Our relationship with Jesus is based on grace- on the unexpected, undeserved, counterintuitive love of God.
— Justin Buzzard, The Big Story: How the Bible Makes Sense out of Life
Jesus offers undeserved love, a love we don't deserve and can therefore never lose.
— Justin Buzzard, The Big Story: How the Bible Makes Sense out of Life
Then she tells me that Jesus isstill herebecause Jesus wasonce here.And parts of Jesus arestill floating in the air.She tells me Jesus' DNA ispart of the collective DNA.She tells we are all partof Jesus, we are all Jesus in part.She tells me to breathe deepduring all our stormsbecause you can sometimes taste Jesusin a good, hard rain.
— Sherman Alexie
He endured all that hell is on the cross, so that you would never know what hell is like.
— Colin S. Smith, Jonah: Navigating a God-Centered Life
I learned that faith isn’t about knowing all of the right stuff or obeying a list of rules. It’s something more, something more costly because it being present and making a sacrifice. Perhaps that’s why Jesus is sometimes called Immanuel - “God with us.” I think that’s what God had in mind, for Jesus to be present, to just be with us. It’s also what He has in mind for us when it comes to other people.
— Bob Goff, Love Does: Discover a Secretly Incredible Life in an Ordinary World
Narrow all your interests until your mind, heart, and body are focused on Jesus Christ.
— Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest
Solitude is the furnace of transformation. Without solitude we remain victims of our society and continue to be entangled in the illusions of the false self. Jesus himself entered into this furnace. There he was tempted with the three compulsions of the world: to be relevant ('turn stones into loaves'), to be spectacular ('throw yourself down'), and to be powerful ('I will give you all these kingdoms'). There he affirmed God as the only source of his identity ('You must worship the Lord your God and serve him alone'). Solitude is the place of the great struggle and the great encounter - the struggle against the compulsions of the false self, and the encounter with the loving God who offers himself as the substance of the new self.
— Henri J.M. Nouwen, The Way of the Heart: The Spirituality of the Desert Fathers and Mothers
Jesus loves hidden souls. A hidden flower is the most fragrant. I must strive to make the interior of my soul a resting place for the Heart of Jesus.
— Maria Faustina Kowalska, Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska: Divine Mercy in My Soul
We can love anyone at a safe distance, but loving people in the thick of their mess takes the supernatural love of Jesus working in us.
— Alisa Hope Wagner
Faithfulness and character are noble qualities that God honors.
— Jim George
Your relationship or lack of relationship with God through Jesus Christ continues after your last breath on this earth.
— Alisa Hope Wagner
If there were several ways to dwell with a perfect God, God wouldn't have had to leave His glory, entering a dead world to save us.
— Alisa Hope Wagner, Eve of Awakening
Is God present or is he absent? Maybe we can say now that in the center of our sadness for his absence we can find the first signs of his presence. And that in the middle of our longings we discover the footprints of the one who has created them. It is in the faithful waiting for the loved one that we know how much he has filled our lives already. Just as the love of a mother for her son can grow while she is waiting for his return, and just as lovers can rediscover each other during long periods of absence, so also our intimate relationship with God can become deeper and more mature while we wait patiently in expectation for his return.
— Henri J.M. Nouwen, Out of Solitude: Three Meditations on the Christian Life
When our pride usurps Truth, we walk on the shifting sands of relativism, an ego driven reality.
— Alisa Hope Wagner, Eve of Awakening
Our freedom through Christ means we are all free to love one another and to serve one another.
— Chris Vonada
Desperation is a great giver of clarity: Bartimaeus needed no time to decide what to do next. “Jesus! Son of David!” he shouted. “Have mercy on me!” (Mark 10:47). The crowd turned to him in disgust. “Shut your mouth, son of filth!” But Bartimaeus knew what it meant to be despised. He also knew that the chance of a lifetime was literally passing him by, so he called to the Savior all the louder. (From: Bartimaeus)
— Sherri Gragg, Arms Open Wide: A Call to Linger in the Savior's Presence
Fortunately the essence of this revelation did not escape Mary despite the angel's obscure speech, and, much surprised, she asked him, So Jesus is my son and the son of the Lord, Woman, what are you saying, show some respect for rank and precedence, what you must say is the son of the Lord and me, Of the Lord and of you, No, of the Lord and of you, You're confusing me, just answer my question, is Jesus our son, You mean to say the Lord's son because you only served to bear the child, So the Lord didn't choose me, Don't be absurd (...) Is there any real proof that it was the Lord's seed which engendered my first-born, Well, it's a delicate matter, and what you're demanding is nothing less than a paternity test which in these mixed unions, no matter how many analyses, tests, and globule counts one carries out, can never give conclusive results.
— José Saramago
The heart easily commends and condemns itself, depending on our wave like performance. That is why we must base our worth in Jesus alone.
— Alisa Hope Wagner, Eve of Awakening
Life is too short not to look beyond it.
— Alisa Hope Wagner, Eve of Awakening
I can always pray to God with confidence because my righteous state is a gift given through grace in faith on the cross by Jesus!
— Alisa Hope Wagner, Eve of Awakening
Every time I try to be righteous by my own actions, God reminds me my righteousness comes from Jesus alone.
— Alisa Hope Wagner, Eve of Awakening
Keep focusing on God and all things will work out.
— Ray S. Jones
If we presuppose that Jesus and God are one—as many (but not all) Christians do—then we can also infer that Jesus Christ was omnipotent, omniscient, and omni-benevolent, and it is with this that the idea of sacrifice is lost. The martyrdom was premeditated on the part of the Creator, and Jesus was resurrected afterward—showing that the act of ‘death’ was not an inconvenience for the immortal ‘man’ who was said to have known that he would be resurrected.
— David G. McAfee, Disproving Christianity and Other Secular Writings
Once, long ago, Jesus had called her name, breaking through the darkness of her oppression to set her free from the seven demons that bound her. now He broke through the hopelessness of her grief and despair. Mary might not have recognized His face, but she could never forget the sound of His voice, not when He called her name.(From "I Have Seen The Lord!")
— Sherri Gragg, Arms Open Wide: A Call to Linger in the Savior's Presence
GOD Doesn't Follow Your Timetable... And You Will Never Know His Timetable.
— Cyc Jouzy
Life Would've Been Easier If The People Had Crushes On Jesus Christ.. Not Other People.
— Cyc Jouzy
Life Consists Of Many Things But You Have To Do One Thing... And That Thing Is Living For God.Remember You Cant Do Many Things At Once.
— Cyc Jouzy
Discover Whether Jesus Is For You Or Your Pastor's Jesus Or Your Friend's Jesus... You Will See A Lot Of Miracles.
— Cyc Jouzy
Most Kids Are Confused Whether School Is More Important Than God Or God Is More Important.
— Cyc Jouzy
When I seek him, root my values and desires in him, when I found my relationships and sense of self on him, my capacity for joy increases. The more I "have" Jesus, the deeper my enjoyment of him. He increases my desire for those things that are good, adds value to that which is benign, and diminishes the strength of the negative (the evil) that threatens to throttle me. My dependence on material values and experiences as the means by which I define or please myself decreases.
— Greg Paul, The Twenty-Piece Shuffle: Why the Poor and Rich Need Each Other
Christianity may be good and Satanism evil. Under the Constitution, however, both are neutral. This is an important, but difficult, concept for many law enforcement officers to accept. They are paid to uphold the penal code, not the Ten Commandments … The fact is that far more crime and child abuse has been committed by zealots in the name of God, Jesus and Mohammed than has ever been committed in the name of Satan. Many people don’t like that statement, but few can argue with it.
— Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
But who is Aslan? Do you know him?""Well-he knows me," said Edmund. "He is the great Lion, the son of the Emperor-beyond-the-Sea, who saved me and saved Narnia.
— C.S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
To care means first of all to empty our own cup and to allow the other to come close to us. It means to take away the many barriers which prevent us from entering into communion with the other. When we dare to care, then we discover that nothing human is foreign to us, but that all the hatred and love, cruelty and compassion, fear and joy can be found in our own hearts. When we dare to care, we have to confess that when others kill, I could have killed too. When others torture, I could have done the same. When others heal, I could have healed too. And when others give life, I could have done the same. Then we experience that we can be present to the soldier who kills, to the guard who pesters, to the young man who plays as if life has no end, and to the old man who stopped playing out of fear for death.By the honest recognition and confession of our human sameness, we can participate in the care of God who came, not to the powerful but powerless, not to be different but the same, not to take our pain away but to share it. Through this participation we can open our hearts to each other and form a new community.
— Henri J.M. Nouwen, Out of Solitude: Three Meditations on the Christian Life
For whatever reason God chose to make man as he is— limited and suffering and subject to sorrows and death—He had the honesty and the courage to take His own medicine. Whatever game He is playing with His creation, He has kept His own rules and played fair. He can exact nothing from man that He has not exacted from Himself. He has Himself gone through the whole of human experience, from the trivial irritations of family life and the cramping restrictions of hard work and lack of money to the worst horrors of pain and humiliation, defeat, despair and death. When He was a man, He played the man. He was born in poverty and died in disgrace and thought it well worthwhile.
— Dorothy L. Sayers, Creed or Chaos? and Lost Tools of Learning
I Only Believe What I See But I Question Everything I Hear
— Charleston Parker, One Soul, Many Faces: Revealing the Hidden Truth
You see, the bodily resurrection of Jesus isn't a take-it-or-leave-it thing, as though some Christians are welcome to believe it and others are welcome not to believe it. Take it away, and the whole picture is totally different. Take it away, and Karl Marx was probably right to accuse Christianity of ignoring the problems of the material world. Take it away, and Sigmund Freud was probably right to say that Christianity is a wish-fulfillment religion. Take it away, and Friedrich Nietzsche was probably right to say that Christianity was a religion for wimps. Put it back, and you have a faith that can take on the postmodern world that looks to Marx, Freud and Nietzsche as its prophets, and you can beat them at their own game with the Easter news that the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
— N.T. Wright, For All God's Worth: True Worship and the Calling of the Church
Jesus changes our history from a random series of sad incidents and accidents into a constant opportunity for a change of heart.
— Henri J.M. Nouwen, Out of Solitude: Three Meditations on the Christian Life
Christ was a man worthy to rebel against, for he was rebellion itself.
— Patti Smith, Just Kids
This is how it needs to be in life. Solomon also wrote these words in Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 (NIV) "Two are better than one, because if either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls down and has no one to help them up." God didn't intend for us to do life alone. So let me ask you, who do you turn to when life hits you hard in the mouth? Your family? Some trusted friends? A teacher or coach? Are you building relationships today that will be there for you tomorrow when adversity comes your way? Do you have humility to look to others for strength and encouragement, or are you holding to the foolish pride that says, "I need to make it alone"?
— Kirk Cousins, Game Changer
My stubborn, self-savvy heart will not reach for the sky if my earth becomes everything I need. If people fill me up then where is my need for the transcendent? If everything is glory and beauty and sweetness and light, will I be the type of soul that reaches to Jesus?
— Mary E. DeMuth, Thin Places: A Memoir
Women in Jesus' day were less than second-class citizens.
— Madeleine L'Engle, Bright Evening Star: Mystery of the Incarnation
The only river i would like to be drown is the river filled with the blood of Jesus.
— Michael Bassey Johnson
Do not let your peace depend on the words of men. Their thinking well or badly of you does not make you different from what you are. Where are true peace and glory? Are they not in Me? He who neither cares to please men nor fears to displease them will enjoy great peace, for all unrest and distraction of the senses arise out of disorderly love and vain fear.
— Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ
To become more like Jesus we must understand that the only growth we can be in charge of is our own.
— Mary E. DeMuth, Everything: What You Give and What You Gain to Become Like Jesus
Money is a cheap but powerful substitute for Jesus, and wielding money is intoxicating, but it won't usher in the kingdom of God, nor will it ensure eternal treasures.
— Mary E. DeMuth, Everything: What You Give and What You Gain to Become Like Jesus
There was a photograph of Trout. He was an old man with a full black beard. He looked like a frightened, aging Jesus, whose sentence to crucifixion had been commuted to imprisonment for life.
— Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
God values Christian character, which shines in positive, outward conduct. Fashion your heart after Jesus.
— Elizabeth George, Walking with the Women of the Bible: A Devotional Journey Through God's Word
Let all things be loved for the sake of Jesus, but Jesus for His own sake.
— Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ
Christmas is God lighting a candle; and you don't light a candle in a room that's already full of sunlight. You light a candle in a room that's so murky that the candle, when lit, reveals just how bad things really are.
— N.T. Wright, For All God's Worth: True Worship and the Calling of the Church
Unfortunately when I'm on my death bed I believe I'll be like most people and still looking for Jesus. And yes I've checked my sock drawer.
— Stanley Victor Paskavich
Put it this way: if your idea of God, if your idea of the salvation offered in Christ, is vague or remote, your idea of worship will be fuzzy and ill-formed. The closer you get to the truth, the clearer becomes the beauty, and the more you will find worship welling up within you. That's why theology and worship belong together. The one isn't just a headtrip; the other isn't just emotion.
— N.T. Wright, For All God's Worth: True Worship and the Calling of the Church
Jesus wastes none of our stories, even our tales of woe. He transforms them into epic adventures where we dare to face our past for the sake of our present.
— Mary E. DeMuth, Everything: What You Give and What You Gain to Become Like Jesus
When Jesus isn’t our everything, our enough, we pursue every other thing that fills.
— Mary E. DeMuth, Everything: What You Give and What You Gain to Become Like Jesus
Pain can either thrust me into the arms of Jesus or make me turn my back on Him. Either way, it's a choice.
— Mary E. DeMuth, Wall Around Your Heart
Jesus would pray to himself and cry. I often do the same.
— Carl-John X Veraja
Purge me from every sinful blot;My idols all be cast aside: Cleanse me from every evil thought,From all the filth of self and pride.The hatred of the carnal mind Out of my flesh at once remove:Give me a tender heart, resigned, And pure, and full of faith and love.
— John Wesley
And in the Incarnation the whole human race recovers the dignity of the image of God. Henceforth, any attack even on the least of men is an attack on Christ, who took the form of man, and in his own Person restored the image of God in all that bears a human form. Through fellowship and communion with the incarnate Lord, we recover our true humanity, and at the same time we are delivered from that individualism which is the consequence of sin, and retrieve our solidarity with the whole human race. By being partakers of Christ incarnate, we are partakers in the whole humanity which he bore. We now know that we have been taken up and borne in the humanity of Jesus, and therefore that new nature we now enjoy means that we too must bear the sins and sorrows of others. The incarnate Lord makes his followers the brothers of all mankind.
— Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship
An Ego Mind is a destructive mind and a rational mind is a peaceful mind.
— Charleston Parker, One Soul, Many Faces: Revealing the Hidden Truth
Once we have seen Him in a stable, we can never be sure where He will appear or to what lengths he will go or to what ludicrous depths of self-humiliation He will descend in His wild pursuit of men.
— Frederick Buechner, The Hungering Dark
The cross is the place where heaven meets earth and grace erupts. The cross is the place where Jesus does not simply meet our suffering, but becomes our suffering so as to transform the world.
— Matt Farlow
The telescope destroyed the firmament, did away with the heaven of the New Testament, rendered the ascension of our Lord and the assumption of his Mother infinitely absurd, crumbled to chaos the gates and palaces of the New Jerusalem, and in their places gave to man a wilderness of worlds.
— Robert G. Ingersoll, Some Mistakes of Moses
Quit Believing in Lies and Always Search For the Truth!
— Charleston Parker, One Soul, Many Faces: Revealing the Hidden Truth
One of the reasons why most relationships struggle is because we salute the problem more than standing besides our loved ones. We honor the problem, glorify it, magnify it and worship it, until it breaks the relationship apart. If we honored our loved ones more than the problem, forgiveness will not be a struggle.
— Apostle Tavonga Vutabwashe
Be yourself, because you are the perfect YOU!
— Jacci Mendelsohn
Adversity is a school that you need not apply to be enrolled. It has no respect for age, wealth, education, race, power, fame or beauty. It is a school among schools and every human being passes through the school in one format or the other. It is also possible to attend the post graduate department without your consent. You can never attend the school and be the same again. It will change you and purge you of all the things you think that you know. It will bring you to a leveling far beyond all your imaginations. You may also be required to repeat a class with different course or instructors.
— FRESH IN THE SCHOOL OF ADVERSITY by M M Kirschbaum
I’ve never seen exquisite fallen beings, and I never shall see them, but such creatures as that painted Frenchwoman at the counter with the ringlets are vermin to my mind, and all fallen women are the same.’	  ‘But the Magdalen?’	  ‘Ah, drop that! Christ would never have said those words if He had known how they would be abused. Of all the Gospel those words are the only ones remembered. 
— Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
More to the point, what was the lesson that the first Christians drew from crucifixion? Today such a barbarity might galvanize people into opposing brutal regimes, or demanding that such torture never again be inflicted on a living creature. But those weren´t the lessons the early Christians drew at all. No, the execution of Jesus is The Good News, a necessary step in the most wonderful episode in history. In allowing the crucifixion to take place, God did the world an incalculable favor. Though infinitely powerful, compassionate, and wise, he could think of no other way to reprieve humanity from punishment for its sins (in particular, for the sin of being descended from a couple who had disobeyed him) that to allow, an innocent man (his son no less) to be impaled through the limbs and slowly suffocate in agony. By acknowledging that this sadistic murder was a gift of divine mercy, people could earn eternal life. And if they failed to see the logic in all this, their flesh would be seared by fire for all eternity.
— Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined
When Adam ate the irrevocable apple, ThouSaw'st beyond death the resurrection of the dead
— C.S. Lewis, Poems
You give your way out of poverty but you sacrifice your way to wealth.
— McWilton Chikwenengere, The Spirituality of Money: The Ultimate Revelation to Wealth
I've got a King His name is JESUS! I've got a Lord His name is JESUS! I've got a Savior His name is JESUS! I'm gonna praise Him! Praise Your name Lord! Glory to Your name! Hallelujah JESUS!
— Dave  Moore
In Him we have peace, in Him we have power; Preserved by His grace, throughout the dark hour; In all our temptation He keeps us to proveHis utmost salvation, His fulness of love.Pronounce the glad word, and bid us be free! Ah, hast Thou not, Lord, a blessing for me? The peace Thou hast given, this moment impart, And open Thy heaven, O Love, in my heart.
— Charles Wesley
Never think you can convince God through prayer for a blessing. Praying for prosperity is a wrong weapon for war. If prayer could bring money, all intercessors would be billionaires.
— Apostle T. Vutabwashe
I believe in the bible. I believe in the one true God. I believe he is the one true God because he's the only one that loved me enough to actually take action in my life.
— Jacci Mendelsohn, Whispers: Hearing God's Call in the Dark
All such desires are cut short by the statement: the Word became flesh. It is in his sheer humanity that he is the Revealer. True, his own also see his δόξα (v.14b); indeed if it were not to be seen, there would be no grounds for speaking of revelation. But this is the paradox which runs through the whole gospel: the δόξα is not to be seen alongside the σάρξ as through a window; it is to be seen in the σάρξ and nowhere else. If man wishes to see the δόξα, then it is on the σάρξ that he must concentrate his attention, without allowing himself to fall victim to appearances. The revelation is present in a peculiar hiddenness.
— Rudolf Karl Bultmann, Gospel of John: A Commentary
Without cultural indoctrination, all of us would be atheists. Or, more specifically, while many may dream up their own gods as did our ancestors, they would certainly not be ‘Christian’ or ‘Jewish’ or ‘Muslim’ or any other established religion. That’s because, without the texts and churches and familial instruction, there are no independent evidences that any specific religion is true. Outside of the Bible, how would one hear of Jesus? The same goes for every established religion.
— David G. McAfee, Mom, Dad, I'm an Atheist: The Guide to Coming Out as a Non-Believer
When through fiery trials thy pathways shall lie,My grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply;The flame shall not hurt thee; I only designThy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.
— John Rippon
When one is down due to trials on earth evil sees an opening to attack. You with God are more powerful than satan ~ every time.
— Paula Dickerson
One can memorize all words written about Christ but without a heart connection to Him, one does not know Him, and they will not be saved by Him.
— Paula Dickerson, Glory Came in Amber Rays: A Mother's Spiritual Journey Into the Heavenlies
The Jesus of Nazareth who came forward publicly as the Messiah...and died to give his work its final consecration never existed. ["Modern Christian Thought: The twentieth century, Volume 2" by James C. Livingston, Francis Schüssler Fiorenza, p.13]
— Albert Schweitzer
The luxury of relaxation ... is part of the healing process.
— Shirley Corder, Strength Renewed: Meditations for Your Journey through Breast Cancer
Jesus...remains in control of my circumstances, no matter the size of the waves.
— Shirley Corder, Strength Renewed: Meditations for Your Journey through Breast Cancer
In times of suffering, don't turn inward to self-pity or outward to revenge, but turn to the lover of your soul, Jesus.
— Crystal Mary Lindsey
Sometimes there’s a fire in your life and you ask God,“Lord, let me go around the fire.” And God says, “No.”Then you ask, “Lord, then let me go over the fire.”And God says, “No.” Then you ask, “Well Lord, please let me go under the fire.” And God says, “No. Go through the fire and I’ll be with you.
— Lydia Thornton
And if we ask how are we to know where our hearts are, the answer is just as simple - everything which hinders us from loving God above all things and acts as a barrier between ourselves and our obedience to Jesus is our treasure, and the place where our heart is.
— Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship
So I've been thinking. Do you believe there's a hell?""Sure. Doesn't everybody?""Well, what if this is hell, but we just don't know it?""That's crazy. Hell is like lakes of fire, and there are devils with horns and pitchforks. here's none of those around here.""But what if hell's not really like that?" Grace asked. "Everyone says it's that way," I said. "I don't think Jesus every talked about fire and brimstone.""Then why do they teach us that at church?""To scare us.""Why would they want to scare us?""I don't know. I just don't think God wants us to do good things because we're scared. I think he wants us to do good things because we're good.
— Richard Paul Evans, Grace
Jesus does not impose intolerable restrictions on his disciples, he does not forbid them to look at anything, but bids them look on him. If they do that he knows that their gaze will always be pure, even when they look upon a woman.
— Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship
You know the real reason we celebrate Christmas, don't you? I mean, beyond Santa Claus and jungle bells and Christmas trees? You mean because Jesus was born? she asked.Yes... but did you ever think how Jesus was born? I mean, have you considered how it was such a humble birth, in a small barn...how he was laid in a hay trough...how the Son if almighty God humbled himself to be born in such lowly conditions? Have you thought about it like that? Jesus could have been born in a fine palace. After all, he was the Son of God. But for some reason God chose humble beginnings for His son. Do you ever wonder why? ... I think because God wanted to show that his love could reach to everyone, no matter who they were, from the poorest of poor to great kings.
— Melody Carlson, The Christmas Pony
Why weren't there any women in Jesus' gang?’ asked Winnifred. ‘Jesus' gang?’ echoed the vicar surprised. ‘Jesus never had a gang. Ah— you mean the Twelve.’ Winnifred nodded. The vicar looked perplexed. ‘Well, it wouldn't really have been appropriate, would it?’ ‘Why not?’ I asked. ‘It just wouldn't,’ replied the vicar, looking annoyed at my question. ‘But Jesus had a lot of girl friends,’ said Pearl. ‘He certainly didn't,’ replied the vicar, shocked. ‘But Vicar, what about Mary and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus? The Bible says that Jesus loved them,’ insisted Pearl. ‘And then there was Mary Magdalene,’ I added. ‘She wanted to hug him in Joseph's garden when he had just come out of the tomb, but Jesus told her not to touch him.’ ‘Yes— well—’ said the vicar uncertainly. ‘They were good followers of Jesus and they loved him— as we should all love him. No more questions now. We will be starting the service shortly.’ ‘Not very helpful,’ I whispered to Winnifred. ‘If Jesus had had a few women in his group of twelve, it would be much easier to know how to live with them.
— Peter St. John, Gang Loyalty
God sends his Son – here lies the only remedy. It is not enough to give man a new philosophy or better religion. A Man comes to men. Every man bears an image. His body and his life become visible. A man is not a bare word, a thought or a will. He is above all and always a man, a form, an image, a brother. And thus he does not create around him just a new way of thought, will and action but he gives us the new image, the new form. Now in Jesus Christ this is just what has happened. The image of God has entered our midst, in the form of our fallen life, in the likeness of sinful flesh. In the teaching and acts of Christ, in his life and death, the image of God is revealed. In him the divine image has been re-created here on earth. The Incarnation, the words and acts of Jesus, his death on the cross, all are indispensable parts of that image. But it is not the same image as Adam bore in the primal glory of paradise. Rather, it is the image of one who enters a world of sin and death, who takes upon himself all the sorrows of humanity, who meekly bears God’s wrath and judgment against sinners, and obeys his will with unswerving devotion in suffering and death, the Man born to poverty, the friend of publicans and sinners, the Man of sorrows, rejected of man and forsaken of God. Here is God made man, here is man in the new image of God.
— Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship
If we give Jesus what we have, what we give Him will never be less.
— Eric Samuel Timm, Static Jedi: The Art of Hearing God Through the Noise
Things I learned from a man called “The Nazarene” 1- Being poor does not equal being miserable.2- People will judge you, but their judgment should not define who you are.3- Going against what others hold as true is not necessarily a bad thing. 4- Everyone is sacred. 5- Life is sometimes a lonely and dry place, like desert, but those times are there to help us meditate on what is truly important in our lives.6- Complaining or getting angry because there is a storm in our lives solves nothing; embrace the storm and keep calm. 7- Treasure and protect the children of the world, they hold the key of what is pure and innocent; they are the way to freedom. 8- We are free to be who we want to be, it is our choice to be slaves or kings. 9- Fear nothing.10- The person you don’t like is also your neighbor. 11- The words following “I AM” define who we are, we must choose wisely.
— Martin Suarez
Jesus didn’t die to save me from God. Jesus died to save me from myself.
— Ricky Maye, Barefoot Christianity
We must learn, then, not to HAVE a spirituality, something we turn on at a particular place or time, but to BE spiritual, as a habit of life, a continuous state of being. It is to this end that we seek after God in the stillness and hubbub of life, but always and everywhere in and through the church, where Christ is made present to us and, through us, to the world.
— Robert E. Webber, Common Roots: The Original Call to an Ancient-Future Faith
To Jesus, the Christian life wasn't about being perfect but about being perfected.
— Ricky Maye, Barefoot Christianity
Jesus sleeps on the cross by the church door. When he wakes up, he'll be old. The air in the village will be brighter than his naked skin.
— Herta Müller, The Passport
An image needs a living object, and a copy can only be formed from a model. Either man models himself on the god of his own invention, or the true and living God moulds the human form in his image. There must be a complete transformation, a 'metamorphosis' (Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18), if man is to be restored to the image of God.
— Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship
But God does not neglect his lost creature. He plans to re-create his image in man, to recover his first delight in his handiwork. He is seeking in it his own image so that he may love it. But there is only one way to achieve this purpose and that is for God, out of sheer mercy, to assume the image and form of fallen man. But this restoration of the divine image concerns not just a part, but the whole image of divine nature. It is not enough for man to simply recover right ideas about God, or to obey his will in the isolated actions of his life. No, man must be re-fashioned as a living whole in the image of God. His whole form, body, soul and spirit, must once more bear that image on earth. Such is God’s purpose and destiny for man. His good pleasure can rest only on his perfected image.
— Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship
Life is a journey
— Ricky Maye, Barefoot Christianity
Heralds of the gospel have been needed in every generation. This generation is no different.
— Katy Kauffman, 2 Timothy: Winning the Victory
Joy is found in Jesus when we rejoice in Him. We can rejoice our way to joy!
— George Foster, Amazing Peace-PI
If you want to have peace of soul, learn to forgive. Jesus' secret was His ability to see into people's hearts. Seeing their anguish and pain helped Him to understand their nastiness. So He could pity them rather than become angry with them. That is what we have to do: try to understand the pain in people's lives...and not take personally what they do to us.
— Joseph F. Girzone, My Struggle with Faith
A marriage which does not constantly crucify its own selfishness and self-sufficiency, which does not ‘die to itself’ that it may point beyond itself, is not a Christian marriage. The real sin of marriage today is not adultery or lack of ‘adjustment’ or ‘mental cruelty.’ It is the idolization of the family itself, the refusal to understand marriage as directed toward the Kingdom of God. This is expressed in the sentiment that one would ‘do anything’ for his family, even steal. The family has here ceased to be for the glory of God; it has ceased to be a sacramental entrance into his presence. It is not the lack of respect for the family, it is the idolization of the family that breaks the modern family so easily, making divorce its almost natural shadow. It is the identification of marriage with happiness and the refusal to accept the cross in it. In a Christian marriage, in fact, three are married; and the united loyalty of the two toward the third, who is God, keeps the two in an active unity with each other as well as with God. Yet it is the presence of God which is the death of the marriage as something only ‘natural.’ It is the cross of Christ that brings the self-sufficiency of nature to its end. But ‘by the cross, joy entered the whole world.’ Its presence is thus the real joy of marriage. It is the joyful certitude that the marriage vow, in the perspective of the eternal Kingdom, is not taken ‘until death parts,’ but until death unites us completely.
— Alexander Schmemann, For the Life of the World: Sacraments and Orthodoxy
The choice between James’s vision of a Jewish religion anchored in the Law of Moses and derived from a Jewish nationalist who fought against Rome, and Paul’s vision of a Roman religion that divorced itself from Jewish provincialism and required nothing for salvation save belief in Christ, was not a difficult one for the second and third generations of Jesus’s followers to make.Two thousand years later, the Christ of Paul’s creation has utterly subsumed the Jesus of history. The memory of the revolutionary zealot who walked across Galilee gathering an army of disciples with the goal of establishing the Kingdom of God on earth, the magnetic preacher who defied the authority of the Temple priesthood in Jerusalem, the radical Jewish nationalist who challenged the Roman occupation and lost, has been almost completely lost to history.
— Reza Aslan, Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth
But what had lasting significance were not the miracles themselves but Jesus' love. Jesus raised his friend Lazarus from the dead, and a few years later, Lazarus died again. Jesus healed the sick, but eventually caught some other disease. He fed the ten thousands, and the next day they were hungry again. But we remember his love. It wasn't that Jesus healed a leper but that he touched a leper, because no one touched lepers.
— Shane Claiborne, The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical
When you look in the eyes of grace, when you meet grace, when you embrace grace, when you see the nail prints in grace’s hands and the fire in his eyes, when you feel his relentless love for you - it will not motivate you to sin. It will motivate you to righteousness.
— Judah Smith, Jesus Is: Find a New Way to Be Human
When we meet grace, it becomes the fuel of our faith. We pray, we read our Bibles, we worship and we live the purest lifestyle we can because we love a person.
— Judah Smith, Jesus Is: Find a New Way to Be Human
The humble, simple souls, who are little enough to see the bigness of God in the littleness of a Babe, are therefore the only ones who will ever understand the reason of His visitation. He came to this poor earth of ours to carry on an exchange; to say to us, as only the Good God could say: ‘you give me your humanity, and I will give you my Divinity; you give me your time, and I will give you My eternity; you give me your broken heart, and I will give you Love; you give me your nothingness, and I will give you My all.
— Fulton J. Sheen, The Eternal Galilean
I wish I could say that everything I do is for God’s glory but I can’t. And neither can you. What I can say is Jesus’ blood covers all my efforts to glorify myself.
— Tullian Tchividjian
Matthew lists Rahab as one of the ancestresses of the Lord Jesus Christ (Matthew 1:5), and that may be one reason why there was something about free-wheeling ladies with warm and generous hearts that he was never quite able to resist.
— Frederick Buechner, Peculiar Treasures
Gods do have their divisions thanks to man. Jesus Christ is the Christian God, Allah the Muslim and so on. As a convent student, I thought God was English till the Sanskrit mantras became somewhat comprehensible.
— Andy Paula
We have seen some gatekeeping or fencing-the-table language already beginning to rear its head in this context. One needed to be baptized to take the meal; one needed to repent to take the meal; one needed a bishop or his subordinate to serve the meal. This was to become especially problematic when the church began to suggest that grace was primarily, if not exclusively, available through the hands of the priest and by means of the sacrament. One wonders what Jesus, dining with sinners and tax collectors and then eating his modified Passover meal with disciples whom he knew were going to deny, desert, and betray him, would say about all this. There needs to be a balance between proper teaching so the sacrament is partaken of in a worthy manner and overly zealous policing of the table or clerical control of it.
— Ben Witherington III, Making a Meal of It: Rethinking the Theology of the Lord's Supper
Jesus is great -- is there a better role model? No. It's religion, it's the people who get in between -- the bureaucracy, you know. ... It's the way people abuse Jesus. Was there ever a greater victim of name dropping?
— Bill Maher
Creation is the result, but not the beginning of love. Redemption is the manifestation of God as love, and therefore points to a love of absolute necessity and eternity. God is love, not God became love... It is this love that we are planted by the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
— Adolph Saphir, The Hidden Life, Thoughts on Communion With God
Prayer is the answer to earthly troubles.
— Grace Dola Balogun, I Am the Resurrection and the Life
Verse 12 [of Ex. 12) tells us that the judgment of Yahweh is not only on the Egyptians but also on their deities. This is probably an allusion to the fact that Egyptians would often pray for the safety of their firstborn, particularly firstborn sons, as was the custom in many ancient patriarchal cultures. The death of the firstborn would be seen as a sign of the anger or perhaps the impotence of their gods. This is worth pondering when it comes to the death of Jesus as God’s only begotten, or beloved, Son. Would Jesus’ contemporaries have assumed his death was a manifestation of God’s wrath? Probably so. In any event, Yahweh is showing his superiority over the spirits behind the pagan deities, and thus we should not overlook the supernatural struggle that is implied to be behind the contest of wills between Moses and Pharaoh.
— Ben Witherington III, Making a Meal of It: Rethinking the Theology of the Lord's Supper
Jesus Christ is my savior, not the government.
— Joseph P. Sekula
Like many others who have gone into prisons and jails with us, Chuck and Carol Middlekauff demonstrate what our ministry is all about. We train Christian ‘teammates’ to share the good news and love of Christ with ‘the least of these’ so they can continue to do it with others they encounter as they go along. In this book, Carol has written the stories of some of those encounters so you can appreciate how easy it is to tell people about Jesus. It happens when you realize God does all the work, and all you have to do is show up. I hope you will be encouraged by reading the book and then join us soon for a Weekend of Champions to find out for yourself.”Bill Glass, retired NFL all-pro defensive end, evangelist, founder of Bill Glass Champions for Life prison ministries, and author of numerous books, including The Healing Power of a Father’s Blessing and Blitzed by Blessings
— Bill Glass
How you perceive The Father to be, determines what you believe you’ll receive from Him."From "Freedom for LIFE -all of God, inside you
— T. Everett Smith, Freedom for Life
Like Gandalf, God knows the battle going on inside our hobbitlike selves, the wrestling match between the Baggins and the Took. The Baggins side of us takes our creature comforts for granted. We assume these comforts are part of the terms and conditions outlined in the job description Jesus offers when he says, "Follow me." But God never said anything about discipleship being comfortable. He's more interested in coaxing the Took side of us to the fore, the side that's willing to endure a little hardship for the sake of the final destination. When we learn to live without, we discover what we're really made of.
— Sarah Arthur, Walking with Bilbo
But at some point it becomes obvious that, ultimately, the adventure of faith is the most sensible thing to do, and in fact the only thing worth doing. As Sam says toward the end of The Two Towers, no one remembers the tales in which the characters give up and turn back. Great and heroic deeds remain undone if no one leaps into the dark to do them. That's true when it comes to faith, too. You can't play a meaningful role in the great story by playing it safe. Once you hit the road, there is no going back to life as it was before. When Jesus asks His disciples if they will leave him to, Peter says, "Lord to whom will we go?" (verse 68). It's either walk with Jesus, unsafe as it seems sometimes, or go home.
— Sarah Arthur, Walking with Bilbo
It's your job to tell others about Jesus, about what He's done in your life and what He can do in theirs, but you can never make someone believe, no matter how strong or pure your intentions. Salvation is between that person and God,' Piper said.
— Dani Pettrey, Stranded
Jesus said, "If those who lead you say to you, 'See, the kingdom is in the sky,' then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, 'It is in the sea,' then the fish will precede you. Rather, the kingdom is inside of you, and it is outside of you. When you come to know yourselves, then you will become known, and you will realize that it is you who are the sons of the living father. But if you will not know yourselves, you dwell in poverty and it is you who are that poverty.
— Gospel of Thomas
You don’t need a Master’s in Theology to love people.
— D.R. Silva, It's All About Jesus: What They Never Told You in Church
The greatest joy is in giving; after all, God gave Christ for us.
— Ashley Ormon, God in Your Morning
Jesus is the only significance. Beside Jesus nothing has any significance. He alone matters.
— Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship
The truth of the matter is that the whole world has already been turned upside down by the work of Jesus Christ
— Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship
If people think honoring pastors means doing everything they say, why don't they honor Jesus the same way?
— D.R. Silva