c2p-cmd/Good-Quotes-Authors huggingface dataset:
In Acts, every believer was living in a direct relationship with Him (Christ) and each one functioned normally as a member of His body in oneness with all believers.
— Henry Hon, ONE: Unfolding God's Eternal Purpose from House to House
If you want to accurately judge the spiritual level of any human being, count the number of religions that he is capable of understanding and observe how effective he is in applying the lessons learned to his own life or the life of others.
— Robin Sacredfire
Don't just cry over your 10 or 20 member church. Sometimes, God gives you your future first. The ones you call little carry in them every possibility you desire of the future. God would send you leaders but they may come as weak men and women first. Don't be so 'gift' conscious that you fail to realize that certain things are results of growth.
— Kingsley Opuwari Manuel
I began realizing it was okay to just sit with Him instead of always reading and journaling prayers or hustling off to the next bible study. It was okay to just be still. It was possible to find Him in the immense stillness, the hidden parts of my heart. He was always there in my hiddenness.
— Natalie Brenner, This Undeserved Life: Uncovering The Gifts of Grief and The Fullness of Life
I wasn't there yet, I wasn't finding joy and gladness in my barrenness, but I believed I would. I believed He would make my barren soul as beautiful as His perfect garden.
— Natalie Brenner, This Undeserved Life: Uncovering The Gifts of Grief and The Fullness of Life
A daily practice of how you shall live in heaven, here on earth, is a good qualification plan to get to heaven
— Ernest Agyemang Yeboah
The Bible nowhere states that people before the law observed the Sabbath as a day of rest or worship.
— David K. Bernard
Too often truth is doubted, while the error is believed.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
The faithful have no dread of using the traditional language of the church. Terms like incarnation and resurrection need to be explained, not avoided.
— Thomas C. Oden
No doubt he must very soon realize that his own faith is in direct opposition to the assumptions on which all the conversation of his new friends is based. I don't think that matters much provided that you can persuade him to postpone any open acknowledge of the fact, and this, with the aid of shame, pride, modesty and vanity, will be easy to do. As long as the postponement lasts he will be in a false position. He will be silent when he ought to speak and laugh when he ought to be silent.
— C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
The name of the Lord Jesus, and His Word is powerful as the two edged sword that can cut through the face of the earth and bring man to subjection to His Kingdom which is pregnant to be established. The pains of labour is being felt and will intensify in the years to come and the moment will come for us to meet our Bridegroom Christ Himself.
— Henrietta Newton Martin-Sr Legal Cons.& Author ( Greatest of All Romances, Your Potter's Call)
So, were every man on earth to become atheist, it could not affect God in any way. He is what He is in Himself without regard to any other. To believe in Him adds nothing to His perfections; to doubt Him takes nothing away.Almighty God, just because He is almighty, needs no support. The picture of a nervous, ingratiating God fawning over men to win their favor is not a pleasant one; yet if we look at the popular conception of God, that is precisely what we see. Twentieth century Christianity has put God on charity. So lofty is our opinion of ourselves that we find it quite easy, not to say enjoyable, to believe that we are necessary to God. But the truth is that God is not greater for our being, nor would He be less if we did not exist.
— A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy
The ecstatic vision and social program sought to rebuild a society upward from its grass roots but on principles of religious and economic egalitarianism, with free healing brought directly to the peasant homes and free sharing of whatever they had in return. The deliberate conjunction of magic and meal, miracle and table, free compassion and open commensality, was a challenge launched not just at Judaism’s strictest purity regulations, or even at the Mediterranean’s patriarchal combination of honor and shame, patronage and clientage, but at civilization’s eternal inclination to draw lines, invoke boundaries, establish hierarchies, and maintain discriminations.
— John Dominic Crossan, The Historical Jesus: The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant
Sin is the preclusion of self-worth.
— Benjamin Aubrey Myers
No mere man can do, what the Son of Man, the Saviour, did for all mankind.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
Jesus Christ suffered,to bear the sin of mankind.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
Whoever confesses his sins, shall obtain the mercy of God's grace.
— Lailah Gifty, Akita
Jesus isn’t an afterthought only when we need help, but He should be our first thought. Our first friend. Our first listening ear. The first person we go to for advice. Jesus shouldn’t be our last resort, but the reservoir of strength that we draw from before we even begin.
— Tiffany  Webster, Embracing the Broken: Letting Go of Perfection and Living by the Power of Christ's Grace
Of course I contradict myself. Why else would I often bite my tongue and attempt to put the fire out?
— Jen Tindugan-Adoviso
Of course I contradict myself. Why else would hold things in and put the fire out?
— Jennifer Tindugan-Adoviso
As a teenager, I loved how I looked in the outfit of using drugs and exercising poor judgement. I had tried it on, spun around in the mirror, and decided I would choose this look, this image, this identity. But eventually and without realising it, the ability to choose had gone. I had become what at first I had only pretended to be.
— Nadia Bolz-Weber, Pastrix: The Cranky, Beautiful Faith of a Sinner & Saint
The sword of the scripture.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
The Holy Scripture is the truth of God.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
Spirituality profits the soul.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
The Great King, Jesus Christ.
— Laiah Gifty Akita
Is there any Great Teacher like Jesus Christ, He taught his disciplines all that He knew..
— Lailah Gifty Akita
Men are often mislead by their fellow-men.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
the night of thought is the light of perception.
— Evelyn Underhill, Practical Mysticism
Are we creating and cultivating things that have a chance of furnishing the New Jerusalem? Will the cultural goods we devote our lives to - the food we cook and consume; the music we purchase and practice; the movies we watch and make; the enterprises we earn our paychecks from and invest our wealth in - be identified as the glory and honor of our cultural tradition? Or will they be remembered as mediocrities at best, dead-ends at worst? This is not the same as asking whether we are making "christian" culture.
— Andy Crouch, Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling
My heart says, ‘This way.’ The world says, ‘That way.’ God says, ‘I am the Way.’ And if perchance I choose to listen to the first two, I’m going to find myself so far off the ‘way’ that being lost becomes the ‘way’.
— Craig D. Lounsbrough
If Christian, we open the Holy Bible. And read, they shall grow in the knowledge of Christ Jesus.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
God's presence is not the same as the feeling of God's presence and He may be doing most for us when we think He is doing least.
— C.S. Lewis
The degradation of most civilizations, contain a common thread. The 'synagogue of Satan' is behind all weaponized ignorance and hate.
— Paul Boggs, Freud's Mafia: Sigmund Freud's Crimes Against Christianity
Salvation is sanctification of soul by the Blessed Saviour.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
Sin may appear good. But by God's commandment sin might become utterly sinful.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
The unspiritual is a slave to sin.…! But spiritual is slave to righteousness in Christ Jesus.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
Sacrifice is a sacred service.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
Consider how textbooks treat Native religions as a unitary whole. ... "These Native Americans ... believed that nature was filled with spirits. Each form of life, such as plants and animals, had a spirit. Earth and air held spirits too. People were never alone. They shared their lives with the spirits of nature." ... Stated flatly like this, the beliefs seem like make-believe, not the sophisticated theology of a higher civilization. Let us try a similarly succinct summary of the beliefs of many Christians today: "These Americans believed that one great male god ruled the world. Sometimes they divided him into three parts, which they called father, son, and holy ghost. They ate crackers and wine or grape juice, believing that they were eating the son's body and drinking his blood. If they believed strongly enough, they would live on forever after they 
— James W. Loewen
The Holy Bible is the written code of holy teachings.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
The Holy Bible is Divine oracles.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
Salvation is neither human effort nor desire.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
If the light we have is continually engulfed by the darkness in a way that makes the darkness even darker, maybe we should think about getting our light from Someone else before it gets a whole lot darker.
— Craig D. Lounsbrough
Rabbi, the Sacred Teacher, Jesus Christ.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
If we pray, we shall prosper.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
Christ Jesus leads the way to holy heavens.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
How wonderful is the word of God.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
Many men but one Master.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
The Holy Scriptures are words taught by the Spirit.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
Devotion to sacred cause is divine.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
The best I can do is to ‘pretend’ that I’m my own god. But in the pretending I have to pretend that I’m not pretending, and somehow that doesn’t sound very god-like to me.
— Craig D. Lounsbrough
To love one another as He loves us, is the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. For it is love that kills our outward man’s ways; buries him in baptism; and causes our inward-man (named Jesus) to resurrect on the inside of us!
— Ted  Roberts, Brotherly Love: The Gospel of Jesus Christ
God's protection is our prosperity.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
Besides, we were fifteen, and we couldn't get our feelings to match up with our brains. So we went with our feelings.
— Karen Swallow Prior, Booked: Literature in the Soul of Me
From that moment, and for the rest of my life, my mother's words--perceptive and many others--have helped me to be the thing she saw and named in me.
— Karen Swallow Prior, Booked: Literature in the Soul of Me
The unchurched kids laughed at the Bible studies based on television shows or songs of the moment. They weren't impressed at all by the video clips provided by the denomination's publisher, or by the knock-off Christian boy bands crooning about the hotness of sexual purity. What riveted their attention wasn't what was relatable to them but what wasn't.
— Russell Moore
While God desires salvation for everyone, God owes salvation to no one.
— Evan Minton, A Hellacious Doctrine: A Defense Of The Biblical Doctrine Of Hell
God hates Hell. He hates the idea of people going there. He hates it so much that He was willing to take on human flesh and be tortured on a cross in order to absorb the penalty for sin on our behalf. God wants no one to perish but for all people to come to repentance, and He grieves when people don’t.
— Evan Minton, A Hellacious Doctrine: A Defense Of The Biblical Doctrine Of Hell
People don’t mind Christianity until you show any sign of actually believing in it
— Tim Farron
We know many among ourselves who have given themselves up to bonds, in order that they might ransom others. Many, too, have surrendered themselves to slavery, that with the price which they received for themselves, they might provide food for others.
— Clement of Rome, The First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians
The great mercy of God's grace is forgiveness for all sins.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
To believe in God is to be bold.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
To deny the battle is unwise. To believe that I can fight it without God is insane. To actually do so is suicidal. No wonder so many of us walk around looking like death warmed over.
— Craig D. Lounsbrough
It is fatal to forget the Law's of God.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
Christ Jesus is the power of God.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
If you teach your children, teach them the Truth of God.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
The Lord himself lead the way to the holy heavens.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
The holy servants are stewards of the mysteries of Saviour, the Son of God.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
God is everything in every where.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
Christianity is a sacred path to pursue the Knowledge of Son of God, Jesus Christ.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
I had long since wished that they would have been born with a dictionary sized how-to guide in my placenta. It would have been custom printed for each child by God. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. I’d been forced to walk through the minefield of parenthood feeling like I was blindfolded and hopping on one leg. Surely my kids should understand that I was trying to know what I was doing, but the verdict still seemed out at the moment.
— Anna Aquino
Wasn’t I allowed at least one nervous breakdown a year? Maybe next year Jon and I could pencil it into our calendar. Maybe we could post it in the church bulletin. It would read “ATTENTION: Our Dear Pastor’s wife is scheduling her annual nervous breakdown, so if you could avoid calling, texting, emailing, or whining in her direction for the next week between the hours of 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m., she would be most grateful.
— Anna Aquino
An idle mind was a recipe for disaster. Bathsheba wasn’t just teetering on the edge
—  I knew she was going to be diving right into a pool of tragedy.
Father is pleased with your progress. You humans are all the same you know. You’re always refusing just to enjoy the moment you’re in when you don’t understand things. You know just because you don’t understand something doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy it. Father gave you all this for a gift. Have fun a little. You are at a royal affair. Maybe you should lighten up.” Really? My life was on hold and an angel was complaining to me that I needed to kick back and relax. Did an angel just tell me to lighten up?
— Anna Aquino
I was going to stop pretending that just because we were in ministry we were perfect. I was tired of wearing the mask of ministry, and knew that I needed to start living the life.
— Anna Aquino
Perhaps we could fool them, but Bathsheba was entering into a place I couldn’t help her. It was a dark place filled with the result of one night of bad choices. I could feel it beginning to erupt. It was as if Bathsheba had been sitting on a mountain and like a volcano it was getting ready to explode.
— Anna Aquino
Repentance seemed like too loose of a word. I knew I’d been wrong, but that didn’t soften the blow.
— Anna Aquino
Time and time again, I find I cannot skip the night to arrive to the morning. Joy comes in the morning, but the morning comes after the dark night. Sometimes the night lasts longer than we want it to.
— Natalie Brenner, This Undeserved Life: Uncovering The Gifts of Grief and The Fullness of Life
Christians need to set the example with their words. Christians should think twice about the negative things that they say and not hesitate to say something positive.
— Rob Shepherd
In solitude we discover that community is not a common ideology, but a response to a common call.
— Henri Nouwen
Jennifer was good at her job and loved it. However, I hated the fact she was forced on me. She was young, beautiful, and thin. Everything I never felt that I was, and she always insisted on wearing heels and cute little suits in the office. Really? Who had such bionic feet that they could wear those day in and day out. My attitude toward her bordered on civil with a touch of sarcasm. I was sure she had stories to tell the women in the church on how hard I was to work with. I told myself I didn’t care. I’d wear flip-flops and flats at my desk and sequester all shoes over a two-inch heel to be worn only on Sundays.
— Anna Aquino
The Holy Spirit teaches the Truth.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
The Great law is God's commandment.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
The purpose of prayer is purification.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
To pray is to make petition.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
The Highest Holy Heavens!
— Lailah Gifty Akita
The Scripture is like a sharp sword.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
True Christianity is obedience to Jesus Christ.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
Rebirth is neither born of blood nor flesh or human origin. But born of God.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
The Gospel of glad tidings is the power of God.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
Christianity is a sacred act of knowing the holy servant of God, Jesus Christ.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
Whoever said that one cannot be moral without being religious never had morals in in the first place.
— J.Adam Snyder
Fusing the doctrines of Plotinus and Proclus with the creeds and beliefs of Christianity, Dionysius the Pseudo-Areopagite combined the Neo-Platonic conviction of the fundamental oneness and luminous aliveness of the world with the Christian dogmas of the triune God, original sin and redemption. The universe is created, animated and unified by the perpetual self-realization of what Plotinus had called "the One," what the Bible had called "the Lord," and what he calls "the superessential Light.
— Erwin Panofsky, Meaning in the Visual Arts
There is more that unites us than divides us. So make it a point to talk with someone who is different from you. You may find that you have more in common than you think
— Johnny Corn
God the Creator has become God the Father
— Gladstone Manganoori, Thou Art Our Father: God wants to be a Father unto Us
Never stop studying the Holy Scriptures .
— Lailah Gifty Akita
The duty of a Christian is to obey Jesus Christ.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
Jesus came emotional and raw, scandalously gracious. I want to be like Him.
— Natalie Brenner, This Undeserved Life: Uncovering The Gifts of Grief and The Fullness of Life
In my gut-wrenching honesty and by acknowledging our big, big God, I found peace.
— Natalie Brenner, This Undeserved Life: Uncovering The Gifts of Grief and The Fullness of Life
Generations to generations, you are God.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
What a glorious God!
— Lailah Gifty Akita
Christianity has always been the Gestapo of desire, since long, long before there was a Gestapo. Instead of Jews to hate, Christianity has desire. Though I guess Christianity has Jews, too. In any case, all the ovens in the world can’t incinerate desire.
— David Burr Gerrard, Short Century: A Novel
The Teacher of the Truth trains in righteousness.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
When we ask God to draw near, what we're really asking is for Him to make us aware of Him.
— Mike Donehey, We Are Cathedrals
I must strive to see only God in my friends, and God in my cats.
— Florence Nightingale
God is God. If He is God, He is worthy of my worship and my service. I will find rest nowhere but in His will, and that will is infinitely, immeasurably, unspeakably beyond my largest notions of what He is up to.
— Elisabeth Elliot, Through Gates of Splendor
How we understand the person and character of God the Father affects every aspect of our lives. It affects far more than what we normally call the "religious" aspect of our lives. If God is the Creator of the entire universe, then it must follow that He is Lord of the whole universe. No part of the world is outside of His lordship. His Holy character has something to say about economics, politics, athletics, romance - everything with which we are involved.
— R.C. Sproul
Moreover, our certitudes were closely bound to a given set of symbols. Change the well defined Latin term for an undefined Greek one and every bishop and every priest found himself at a loss. We knew the catechism by heart; mention catechesis and we are no longer sure who made us and why. We could manage a dogmatic sermon all right but just listen to our homilies! We were absolutely firm about confession and contrition; all our firmness vanished at the one word METANOIA. We knew exactly what the Mass was; the Eucharist is hazy. Even the Consecration and the Real Presence have been engulfed in the mist of ANAMNESIS. All this is patently true, is undeniable. We had received a solid theological training in our seminaries. It did not stand the test. It collapsed overnight without leaving track or trace.
— Bryan Houghton, Mitre And Crook
Christians must focus on Jesus Christ.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
There is no danger than doubt.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
Is it right for people to critique others for their supposed un-Christian attitudes by themselves being un-Christian?
— James Martin, Building a Bridge: How the Catholic Church and the LGBT Community Can Enter into a Relationship of Respect, Compassion, and Sensitivity
All Christians have access to the spiritual riches found in the Scriptures, which, after all, were written amid the spiritual turmoil and social conflicts of the writers’ times. We can learn from those who went before us.
— James Martin, Building a Bridge: How the Catholic Church and the LGBT Community Can Enter into a Relationship of Respect, Compassion, and Sensitivity
I knew very little about the religion. [Christianity] It had a reputation for few gods and great violence. But good schools.
— Yann Martel, Life of Pi
Caesar's messengers didn't go round the world saying, 'Caesar is lord, so if you feel you need to have a Roman-empire kind of experience, you might want to submit to him'.
— N. T. Wright
Missiologists have in recent years begun to think seriously about inculturation, and historians have begun to learn from them. When the Christian message is inserted into a cultural framework, if the messengers are insensitive to the local culture the result can be cultural imperialism. On the other hand, if they grant too much hegemony to the local culture, the result at best is 'syncretism' and at worst 'Christo-paganism.' Things are most wholesome when sensitive interchange takes place leading to 'a truly critical symbiosis.' But for this to happen, there must be a second stage - a time of 'pastoral follow-up work,' of catechizing and life formation enabling the new faith to express its genius in the institutions and reflexes of its new host culture.
— Alan Kreider, The Change of Conversion and the Origin of Christendom
Is there any greater news than the Good News?
— Lailah Gifty Akita
Culture cannot be a monolithically universal phenomenon without some kind of demonic imposition of one culture over the rest of cultures. Nor is it possible to dream of a universal "Christian culture" without denying the dialectic between history and eschatology which is so central, among other things, to the eucharist itself. Thus, if there is a transcendence of cultural divisions on a universal level - which indeed must be constantly aimed at by the Church - it can only take place via the local situations expressed in and through the particular local Churches and not through universalistic structures which imply a universal Church.
— John D. Zizioulas, Being as Communion: Studies in Personhood and the Church
The noble calling to rule and subdue the earth in God’s name was perverted, as male and female tried to rule and subdue each other.
— Carolyn Custis James, Lost Women of the Bible: Finding Strength & Significance through Their Stories
Christian feminists can celebrate any sort of feminism that brings more justice and human flourishing to the world, no matter who is bringing it, since we recognize the hand of God in all that is good.
— Sarah Bessey, Jesus Feminist: An Invitation to Revisit the Bible’s View of Women
Another component to living in the weeds and trees is earthly success, which will quickly place a crown on our heads without discipleship. The answer is Jesus Christ and it will always be him.
— W. R. Martin, God Graciously Took My Crown: The Anointed Place
The purpose of God's Word is to transform people in every country and every century into the image of God.
— David Platt, Radical Together
As’ is the most difficult word in a Christian’s life. We have to forgive 'as' we want to be forgiven.
— John   Kramer, Blythe
There is no more hateful person than a Christian who thinks you’ve got your theology wrong.
— Sarah Bessey, Jesus Feminist: An Invitation to Revisit the Bible’s View of Women
The power of loving a God whom religion paints as the most detestable of beings would, doubtless, be a proof of the most supernatural grace, that is, a grace the most contrary to nature; to love that which we do not know, is, assuredly, sufficiently difficult; to love that which we fear, is still more difficult; but to love that which is exhibited to us in the most repulsive colors, is manifestly impossible.
— Paul Henri Thiry d'Holbach, Letters to Eugenia; Or, a Preservative Against Religious Prejudices
Christianity and Socialism Compared"Socialism is the antithesis of Christianity. Socialism is filled with elitists and Christianity is the faith of servants.Socialism is filled with submission to man. Christianity is submission to the God/man - Jesus Christ.The socialist lives under strong delusion. Christians are taught by the Holy Spirit who deals only in truth.Socialism will die with time and it's fall will be a blip on the radar of eternity. Those who die advocating socialism will suffer the wrath of a holy God forever. Christianity will stand forever and its adherents will live on in the presence of the absolute ruler of the universe in joy and peace forever."C R Lord © 2017
— C.R. Lord, From the Heart of a Servant: Poetry Created to Glorify God
Let yourself go. Let others in. This is the essence of being made in God's image.
— Mike Donehey
The law of manifestation operates like a triangle: First, know what you want and visualize it as if you already had it; Second, see it behind the illusion of reality, practice it in your decisions, choose the people you hang out with, etc; Third, believe, have faith and work on your emotions to be at the right frequency. This triangle of manifestation is one of the secrets of many religions: Christianity, Scientology, and Freemasonry. In Masonry is seen as "heart, mind and desire"; in Scientology is perceived as "reality, communication and affinity"; in Christianity is understood as "Father, son and holy ghost"; basically, "actions, learnings and emotions". In Christianity, the Father equals reality or the Creator of the illusion, the son is the way, the path, he road of our decisions and actions, and the holy ghost is our heart, instincts and desires manifested in that same path. In word words, through Jesus, and with the power of the holy ghost, you reach God. This is an allegory that not many Christians can understand. Jesus represent behavior - right and wrong, the holy ghost is our faith, your heart and emotions reflecting back at you what you attract, it's the energy that connects you to your dreams, and God represents the Architect of Reality. So, through moral behavior and positive emotions, your understand God and life, and then you receive "paradise". This paradise is whatever you dream for yourself. Furthermore, if someone has shown you this way, he has been as an angel to you, a messenger of God; if someone stopped you from reaching it, he has been as a demon, a worker for Satan, the enemy, if you failed in seeing this path, you have redirected yourself towards hell. And if you hate your life, you are already in hell. If you want to get out of hell, you must accept the truth, and this truth is that you must know God, for He is the truth. He and the truth are one and the same.
— Robin Sacredfire
The law of manifestation operates like a triangle: First, know what you want and visualize it as if you already had it; Second, see it behind the illusion of reality, practice it in your decisions, choose the people you hang out with, etc; Third, believe, have faith and work on your emotions to be at the right frequency. This triangle of manifestation is one of the secrets of many religions: Christianity, Scientology, and Freemasonry. In Masonry is seen as "heart, mind and desire"; in Scientology is perceived as "reality, communication and affinity"; in Christianity is understood as "Father, son and holy ghost"; basically, "actions, learnings and emotions". In Christianity, the Father equals reality or the Creator of the illusion, the son is the way, the path, the road of our decisions and actions, and the holy ghost is our heart, instincts and desires manifested in that same path. In other words, through Jesus, and with the power of the holy ghost, you reach God. This is an allegory that not many Christians can understand. Jesus represents behavior - right and wrong, the holy ghost is our faith, your heart and emotions reflecting back at you what you attract, it's the energy that connects you to your dreams, and God represents the Architect of Reality. So, through moral behavior and positive emotions, your understand God and life, and then you receive "paradise". This paradise is whatever you dream for yourself. Furthermore, if someone has shown you this way, he has been as an angel to you, a messenger of God; if someone stopped you from reaching it, he has been as a demon, a worker for Satan, the enemy; if you failed in seeing this path, you have redirected yourself towards hell. And if you hate your life, you are already in hell. If you want to get out of hell, you must accept the truth, and this truth is that you must know God, for He is the truth. He and the truth are one and the same.
— Robin Sacredfire
That this is really the case was made plain to me by the questions asked me, mostly by young men, about my Canterbury play, The Zeal of Thy House. The action of the play involves a dramatic presentation of a few fundamental Christian dogmas— in particular, the application to human affairs of the doctrine of the Incarnation. That the Church believed Christ to be in any real sense God, or that the eternal word was supposed to be associated in any way with the word of creation; that Christ was held to be at the same time man in any real sense of the word; that the doctrine of the Trinity could be considered to have any relation to fact or any bearing on psychological truth; that the Church considered pride to be sinful, or indeed took notice of any sin beyond the more disreputable sins of the flesh—all these things were looked upon as astonishing and revolutionary novelties, imported into the faith by the feverish imagination of a playwright. I protested in vain against this flattering tribute to my powers of invention, referring my inquirers to the creeds, to the gospels, and to the offices of the Church; I insisted that if my play were dramatic it was so, not in spite of the dogma, but because of it—that, in short, the dogma was the drama. The explanation was, however, not well received; it was felt that if there were anything attractive in Christian philosophy I must have put it there myself.
— Dorothy L. Sayers, Letters to a Diminished Church: Passionate Arguments for the Relevance of Christian Doctrine
You cannot love the Father and dislike His beloved son
— Ernest Agyemang Yeboah
The line between sacred and secular is man-made.
— Sarah Bessey, Jesus Feminist: An Invitation to Revisit the Bible’s View of Women
We do battle with our minds and deceptive hearts, that we may might lay our souls down upon the grace of God.
— Mike Donehey, We Are Cathedrals
But she always sweetly and tenderly called him Mungo for it was Mungo and his words of truth that had finally set her free.
— Anthony Jay Cleveland, Roots of Faith
All men are equal but their graces and abilities separates them and makes certain things possible for them than for others.
— Kingsley Opuwari Manuel
God performs wonders beyond description.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
...the naive forms of Christian moral motivation - bare threats of hell and the bribery of heaven - stunt moral growth by ensuring believers remain emotional children, never achieving the cognitive moral development of adults. Psychologists have established that mature adults are moral not because of bare threats and bribes (that stage of moral development typifies children, not adults), but because they care about the effects their behavior has on themselves and others.
— Richard C. Carrier
Agnosticism, Atheism, secularism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam or any other counter belief to Christianity is not the greatest threat facing Christianity in the west. The biggest threat facing Christianity in the west is Scripture illiterate believers. People who are asleep, all while the world waits to here the Gospel...” 
— Steve Bainbridge
What we need today is men who take a stand on the Word of God and stop trying to fit in or preach a socially acceptable gospel...We need men like Caleb, when they see the giants of Atheism, Political Correctness or other secular social pressures demanding the message of the bible be altered to fit in with their views declare “we will not shrink back – and we are well able to overcome it!
— Pastor Steve Bainbridge
The most tragic thing anyone could ever say to us is “Oh – you're a Christian? I had no idea!” It is not who we say we are, but how we are recognized. Let's remember, “In Antioch the disciples were first called Christians “ and By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” Dear brothers and sisters, let our walk match our talk and be doers of the word...
— Pastor Steve Bainbridge
It is often said by the critics of Christian origins that certain ritual feasts, processions or dances are really of pagan origin. They might as well say that our legs are of pagan origin. Nobody ever disputed that humanity was human before it was Christian; and no Church manufactured the legs with which men walked or danced, either in a pilgrimage or a ballet. What can really be maintained, so as to carry not a little conviction, is this: that where such a Church has existed it has preserved not only the processions but the dances; not only the cathedral but the carnival. One of the chief claims of Christian civilisation is to have preserved things of pagan origin.
— G.K. Chesterton, The Superstition of Divorce
If you have understood, then what you have understood is not God.
— Augustine of Hippo
Everything [Jesus] taught and did was a summons to the humility and love that purge self-exaltation out of leadership and servility out of submission.
— John Piper and Wayne Grudem
Man is free only within communion. If the Church wishes to be the place of freedom, she must continually place all the 'objects' she possesses, whatever they may be (Scripture, sacraments, ministries, etc.) within the communion-event to make them 'true' and to make her members free in regard to them as objects, as well as in them and through them as channels of communion. Christians must learn not to lean on objective 'truths' as securities for truth, but to live in an epicletic way, i.e. leaning on the communion-event in which the structure of the Church involves them. Truth liberates by placing beings in communion.
— John D. Zizioulas
Jesus won the war, and the rest of history is simply mopping up.
— Carolyn Custis James, Lost Women of the Bible: Finding Strength & Significance through Their Stories
A woman’s mission centered on home and family — vital spheres of ministry to be sure, but only a slice of the vast mission God originally cast by calling women to rule and subdue the earth.
— Carolyn Custis James, Lost Women of the Bible: Finding Strength & Significance through Their Stories
The part of you that's like God is the part that makes a choice. That says, I choose to. Or, I choose not to. That's what's sacred.
— Willie Parker
How did I get to the place where I would be considering that darkest of all escapes — suicide — on the day when we commemorate our Lord’s death for us all? That is the question this story seeks to answer.
— Todd Peperkorn
Soul winning for Christ Jesus is a great business everyone must endeavor to start and keep it diligently
— Ernest Agyemang Yeboah
From the very beginning of the movement in the sixteenth century, Anabaptists shared a deep suspicion of the so-called Schriftgelehrten - the university-trained scholars who, they claimed artfully dodged the clear and simple teachings of Jesus by appealing to complex arguments and carefully crafted statements of doctrine. In other words, they confused theological discussions with lived faith.
— John D. Roth, Beliefs: Mennonite Faith and Practice
Throughout history, Christians have faced the persistent temptation of confusing the language we use to talk about God with the essence of Christian faith. This stubborn human tendency to turn doctrine into an idol - to confuse a human creation with the truth itself - can easily lead people to wield doctrinal claims as a weapon against minority or dissenting perspectives. Thus, anyone who does not line up with a certain formulation of Christian faith is not only wrong, but also a heretic and therefore worthy of punishment or death.
— John D. Roth, Beliefs: Mennonite Faith and Practice
I didn't know that love is not about what we do, but who we are, convincing others of our love for them...and about who loves us.
— Jack Frost, Experiencing Father's Embrace
The Spirit of Truth reveals all truth.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
There is an unsearchableness in this mystery of the Godhead, in the mystery of God becoming Man; in the mystery of the Mediator his taking on these offices , to exercise them in our nature; and in speaking or thinking of them, there is a necessity to silence that which our curiosity would propose, for satisfactionabout them; as, namely ., how there are or can be three Persons in the Godhead , and yet but one God. How one of these persons can be man? and how it is , that by Him we have access to God the Father , Son , and Holy Ghost? There is silence required in the how of these things.
— James  Durham
The part of you that's like Gob is the part that makes a choice. That says, I choose to. or, I choose not to. That's what's sacred.
— Willie Parker
Suddenly finding myself imprisoned in the ruins of the fortresses I created, I realize that that which I built to protect me has now become a labyrinth that is set to destroy me. And laying spent in the rubble, I finally realize that there is only one fortress and I cannot create it because there is only one God.
— Craig D. Lounsbrough
If you want to completely destroy a child, all you have to do is mold them into your vision of what you want them to be. If you want to completely liberate a child, all you have to do is grow them into the person they were created to be. The former cannot see God in the child. The latter can see nothing less.
— Craig D. Lounsbrough
People are vaccinated with dangerous chemicals during their childhood, indoctrinated with immorality through television while growing up, taught to reject God by their teachers, fed with genetically modified food, and led to suspect others by their relatives and friends, and then you wonder why it's so difficult to find a normal person in this modern world, why nobody assumes responsibility for their words and behavior, and why everyone is so selfishly abusive. The biblical apocalypse has begun and the zombies are everywhere. It's just that we call them stupid and selfish instead. But they do act like there's no life inside of them anymore. There are no more normal human beings around. The survivors of this apocalypse are extremely scarce and must be treasured.
— Robin Sacredfire
It will not, however, affect one tiny bit the question of whether the text has a literal meaning because—mark this—every biblical text has a literal meaning. Many people are stunned to hear this. That is because many people think a "literal meaning" can only be conveyed by literal language. They make the mistake of assuming that an author who uses metaphor, fiction, hyperbole, or various other figures of speech does not have a literal meaning. Thus, for instance, if I say "my heart is broken", some people mistakenly imagine that I "meant nothing literally." But, of course, I do. I literally mean I am deeply grieved and I am expressing that grief via a metaphor. Likewise, if I say "I stood in line for a million years" I am using an exaggeration to communicate another literal meaning: I waited a long time. Indeed, more often than not, metaphor is exactly the right vehicle for conveying a literal meaning and is far better than nonfigurative language. The shortest distance between two minds is a figure of speech. -- Making Senses of Scripture
— Mark Shea
Think about it. Before the creation of the world, before anything or anyone existed, there was a living, loving God. There is not chaos at the centre. There is a Father. The emptiness our earthly fathers have left in us should not be a deterrent from God but rather an invitation to have our needs fulfilled by him in the deepest part of our being.
— Jon Morrison, Clear Minds & Dirty Feet: A Reason to Hope, a Message to Share
The Christian belief is that Jesus, as God, is the only one who can bring humanity back to God. He was the only person in history with such a pedigree. 1 Timothy 2:5 tells us plainly, “There is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” As a man, he could represent humanity. He was tempted in every way, and yet he never sinned. Jesus is our proverbial “best foot forward” as far as humanity goes. Jesus is also God. As such he is able to serve as a “middle man” and usher us into the very presence of God.The amazing thing is that Jesus offers his righteousness to anyone who will receive it. Rather than being receptive to this offer, we complain there are not other ways to God. While it is incredibly gracious that God would offer any way back to him, people complain that he did not provide ten ways. The offer for salvation is available to all. Instead of being exclusive, Christianity is actually very inclusive. Everyone is welcome to come to Jesus. It does not matter who they are, or what they have done. The Bible tells us, “…whoever believes in him shall have eternal life” (John 3:16). Whether they be Jew, Hindu, Sikh, Greek, Canadian, African, athlete, entrepreneur, lawyer, or academic, the offer is there — come to Jesus.
— Jon Morrison, Clear Minds & Dirty Feet: A Reason to Hope, a Message to Share
Evil is the most difficult problem in the world. It is also the strongest objection to God’s existence. If God does exist, it is also the most problematic challenge to his nature and power. As a Christian, it is my greatest temptation for doubt and unbelief.
— Jon Morrison, Clear Minds & Dirty Feet: A Reason to Hope, a Message to Share
I confess [Election] is a hard doctrine, running contrary to our earthly ideas of fair play, but I can see no way around it. Read I Corinthians 6:13 and II Timothy 1:9,10. Also I Peter 1:2,19,20 and Romans 11:7. There you have it. It was good for Paul and Silas and it is good enough for me. It is good enough for you too.
— Charles Portis, True Grit
The literal sense of the author was "creation is the orderly act of a loving Creator God." What the modern reader often hears, however, is "The universe was made in six 24-hour days." This is as wrong-headed as taking me to mean I actually stood in line a million years or that my cardiac tissue has been torn in half or that Christ had delusions of being a grape plant.-- Making Senses of Scripture
— Mark Shea
It is well known that Pentecost reverses Babel. The people who built the tower of Babel sought to make a name, and a unity, for themselves. At Pentecost, God builds his temple, uniting people in Christ. Unity – interpretive agreement and mutual understanding – is, it would appear, something that only God can accomplish. And accomplish it he does, but not in the way we might have expected. Although onlookers thought that the believers who received the Spirit at Pentecost were babbling (Acts 2:13), in fact they were speaking intelligibly in several languages (Acts 2:8-11). Note well: they were all saying the same thing (testifying about Jesus) in different languages. It takes a thousand tongues to say and sing our great Redeemer’s praise.Protestant evangelicalism evidences a Pentecostal plurality: the various Protestant streams testify to Jesus in their own vocabularies, and it takes many languages (i.e. interpretive traditions) to minister the meaning of God’s Word and the fullness of Christ. As the body is made up of many members, so many interpretations may be needed to do justice to the body of the biblical text. Why else are there four Gospels, but that the one story of Jesus was too rich to be told from one perspective only? Could it be that the various Protestant traditions function similarly as witnesses who testify to the same Jesus from different situations and perspectives?
— Kevin J. Vanhoozer, Biblical Authority After Babel: Retrieving the Solas in the Spirit of Mere Protestant Christianity
Church historians often ask, ‘Is the church a movement or an institution?' . . . I think it is both. . . . I believe the people of God in history live in a tension between an ideal--the universal communion of saints--and the specific--the particular people in a definite time and place. The church’s mission in time calls for institutions: special rules, special leaders, special places. But when institutions themselves obstruct the spread of the gospel rather than advancing it, then movements of renewal arise to return to the church’s basic mission in the world.
— Bruce L. Shelley, Church History in Plain Language
The world is not divided between Christ and the devil; it is completely the world of Christ, whether it recognizes this or not. As this reality in Christ it is to be addressed, and thus the false reality that it imagines itself to have, in itself or in the devil, is to be destroyed. The dark, evil world may not be surrendered to the devil, but must be claimed for the one who won it by coming in the flesh, by the death and resurrection of Christ.
— Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Ethics
When considering the topic of spirituality or religion, I would encourage you to look at Christianity first. It is a testable religion. That is, it is based on evidence. The evidence is philosophical and historical. It can be examined and then we can all make our decision.
— Jon Morrison, Clear Minds & Dirty Feet: A Reason to Hope, a Message to Share
The spirit is willing but the body is weakLead us then our Savoir that we may not slumberOh Jehovah! Oh Jehovah!Thy strength we beseech to get to the endSo we may render a good account of our arduous journey to the endThe spirit is willing but the body is weakLead us then our Savoir that we may not slumberWell done, good and faithful servants you shall sayUnto they that shall be faithful with a few things in their days.Come and share your Master’s happiness you shall sayUnto they that diligently made their hay in the day.Oh Jehovah! Oh Jehovah! Grant us Thy power to be faithful in our days!The spirit is willing but the body is weak.Lead us then our Savoir that we may not slumber.Certain paths we know seem leading to your throne.But there is only one path to Thy throne we yearn to know;The path of our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus!Come to me all you who grow weary He exclaims!Easy is His yoke; lighter is His burden! Our hearts and minds; our burden!The spirit is willing but the body is weak.Lead us then our Savoir that we may not slumber.The end draws nearer and nearer as we take steps to the end.Many are the things we need to do before we get to the end.But many are the things that take our attention as we journey to the end.A heart of understanding oh Jehovah we beseech;that we may do all things pleasant to Thee with understanding.The spirit is willing but the body is weak.Lead us then our Savoir that we may not slumber.
— Ernest Agyemang Yeboah