c2p-cmd/Good-Quotes-Authors huggingface dataset:
When Rome was at the height of her glory and power, there appeared a disturbing sect called Christians. Because of a fire that burned within them, these people dared to be different . . . they refused to be defiled by the sensual practices of a disintegrating civilization. In a period when human life was cheap, they put a high value upon human beings, their souls, and their destiny. These Christians refused to be absorbed into the godless society of Rome. They had not heard of the rule that we hear today, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
The feet of the Christian need to tread the narrow path that the Savior trod, keeping in step with Him.
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
True Christianity finds all of its doctrines in the Bible
—  true Christianity does not deny any part of the Bible
Christians are not powerless. We have the mighty power of God available through God the Holy Spirit, even in this world.
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
Becoming a Christian is the work of a moment
—  being a Christian is the work of a lifetime.
Except... what Jesus said was: "I will build My church," not you. The verse is not a prediction, it is a proclamation of the Lord of the Earth, who never once talked of "children in subjection." or "wives be grave... sober, faithful in all things." In fact, reading the New Testament from the Gospels into Paul's letters, is like watching the Wizard of Oz backwards -- going from a world of color and amazement, into a land of black-and-white with insane devout women trying to kill your dog. -- editorial 2014
— Glenn Hefley
If man will understand the real essence of staying in the solitude with his Maker alone, he will never spend all his time with the crowd always
— Ernest Agyemang Yeboah
As for the negation of the Christian Trinity in the Quran - and this negation is extrinsic and conditional - we must take account of certain shades of meaning. The Trinity can be envisaged according to a "vertical" perspective or according to either of two "horizontal" perspectives, one of them being supreme and the other not. The vertical perspective- Beyond-Being, Being and Existence - envisages the hypostases as "descending" from Unity or from the Absolute - or from the Essence it could be said - which means that it envisages the degrees of Reality. The supreme horizontal perspective corresponds to the Vedantic triad Sat (supraontological Reality), Chit (Absolute Consciousness) and Ananda (Infinite Beatitude), which means that it envisages the Trinity inasmuch as It is hidden in Unity(1). The non-supreme horizontal perspective on the contrary situates Unity as an essence hidden within the Trinity, which is then ontological and represents the three fundamental aspects or modes of Pure Being, whence the triad : Being, Wisdom, Will (Father, Son, Spirit).Now the concept of a Trinity seen as a deployment (tajalli) of Unity or of the Absolute is in no way opposed to the unitary doctrine of Islam ; what is opposed to it is solely the attribution of absoluteness to the Trinity alone, or even to the ontological Trinity alone, as it is envisaged exoterically. This last point of view does not, strictly speaking, attain to the Absolute and this is as much as to say that it attributes an absolute character to what is relative and is ignorant of Maya and the degrees of reality or of illusion ; it does not conceive of the metaphysical - but not pantheistic - identity between manifestation and the Principle; still less, therefore, does it conceive of the consequence this identity implies from the point of view of the intellect and the knowledge which delivers.(1) The Absolute is not the Absolute inasmuch as it contains aspects, but inasmuch as It transcends them; inasmuch as It is Trinity It is therefore not Absolute.
— Frithjof Schuon, Understanding Islam
The Christian’s journey through life isn’t a sprint but a marathon.
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
Tragic as it is when a child fails to develop physically or mentally, even more tragic is a Christian who fails to develop spiritually.
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
Christianity is not an insurance policy against life’s ills and troubles.
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
Christians, pray for an outpouring of God’s Spirit upon a willful, evil, unrepentant world.
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
We aren’t only called to become Christians
—  we are also called to be Christians.
As Christians we are constantly bombarded with attitudes and values which are contrary to biblical teaching.
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
The faithful Christian steward acknowledges that God owns all he has, and it is his responsibility to manage and dispose of his possessions in a way that is acceptable to the Lord.
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
I fear that so often we Christians give the idea that the truth is fiction by the way we live and by the lack of dedication to the teachings of our Lord.
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
Don’t be a half-Christian. There are too many of such in the world. The world has a profound respect for people who are sincere in their faith.
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
Too many so-called Christians are like the little chameleon which adapts its coloration to that of its surroundings. Even a critical world is quick to recognize a real Christian and just as quick to detect a counterfeit.
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
Would Christ feel comfortable in an environment where men and women are consuming alcoholic beverages, gambling away their money, and engaging in conversation that is often filled with the baser things of life? It is a relevant question. As a Christian, Christ lives in you and you carry Him wherever you go. The Bible tells us to “come out from them and be separate” [2 Corinthians 6:17 NIV].
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
For the Christian, all is not hopeless unless his affections are centered on the things of this world.
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
There are too many professed Christians who never get “wrought up” about anything; they never get indignant with injustice, with corruption in high places, or with the godless traffics which barter away the souls and bodies of people.
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
The Christian is not to be disturbed by thechaos, violence, strife, bloodshed, and threat of war that fill the pages of our daily newspapers. We know that these things are the consequences of man’s sin and greed. Every day as I read my newspaper I say: “The Bible is true.
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
Christianity is a Gospel of crisis. It proclaims unmistakably that this world’s days are numbered.
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
It is a tragic fact that the vast majority of Christians today are living a sub-normal Christian life.
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
The greatest need in the world today is for fully committed Christians.
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
It’s tough to be a Christian in our world. We need to be willing to take on Jesus’ unpopularity and the scorn that is often heaped on Him.
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
There are Christians who have never really learned the biblical truth of separation: separation from unclean thoughts and unclean habits.
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
Millions of professing Christians are only just that—“professing.” They have never possessed Christ. They live lives characterized by the flesh.
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
Christianity is not an accretion, it is not something added. It is a new total outlook which is satisfied with nothing less than penetration to the furthest corners of the mind and the understanding.
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
We have made Christianity too easy.
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
Our generation has become well versed in Christian terminology but is remiss in the actual practice of Christ’s principles and teachings. Hence, our greatest need today is not more Christianity but more true Christians.
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
All of Christianity is based on a person—Jesus Christ. Christ Himself is the embodiment of the Gospel.
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
Christianity cannot expect the world to live the truths of the Gospel until it has the life that the Gospel provides in Christ. We Christians ought to be light and salt in the society in which we live.
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
Christianity increases the scope and area of our lives.
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
Christianity is not a spectator sport, it’s something in which we become totally involved.
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
Affliction may be for our edification and Christian development.
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
In some churches and religious television programs, we see an effort to make Christianity popular and always positive. This may be a comfortable cushion for those who find the hard facts too difficult.
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
Christianity has its roots in the deep, firm soil of history. Jesus’ incarnation—God invading human history with His presence in the form of man—is on the record. Every time you write the date, you attest to the fact that God entered human history.
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
In reality, the damned are in the same place as the saved—in reality! But they hate it; it is their Hell. The saved love it, and it is their Heaven. It is like two people sitting side by side at an opera or a rock concert: the very thing that is Heaven to one is Hell to the other. Dostoyevski says, 'We are all in paradise, but we won’t see it'…Hell is not literally the 'wrath of God.' The love of God is an objective fact; the 'wrath of God' is a human projection of our own wrath upon God, as the Lady Julian saw—a disastrous misinterpretation of God’s love as wrath. God really says to all His creatures, 'I know you and I love you' but they hear Him saying, 'I never knew you; depart from me.' It is like angry children misinterpreting their loving parents’ affectionate advances as threats. They project their own hate onto their parents’ love and experience love as an enemy—which it is: an enemy to their egotistic defenses against joy…Since God is love, since love is the essence of the divine life, the consequence of loss of this life is loss of love...Though the damned do not love God, God loves them, and this is their torture. The very fires of Hell are made of the love of God! Love received by one who only wants to hate and fight thwarts his deepest want and is therefore torture. If God could stop loving the damned, Hell would cease to be pure torture. If the sun could stop shining, lovers of the dark would no longer be tortured by it. But the sun could sooner cease to shine than God cease to be God...The lovelessness of the damned blinds them to the light of glory in which they stand, the glory of God’s fire. God is in the fire that to them is Hell. God is in Hell ('If I make my bed in Hell, Thou art there' [Ps 139:8]) but the damned do not know Him.
— Peter Kreeft, Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Heaven-- But Never Dreamed of Asking
Most people, when they are looking for a spouse, are looking for a finished statue when they should be looking for a wonderful block of marble. Not so you can create the kind of person you want, but rather because you see what kind of person Jesus is making.
— Kathy  Keller, The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God
In the wilderness, we experience the faithfulness of God.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
It is wise to know God.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
We fall on our knees in awe of God’s greatness.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
Have we forgotten the laws of God?
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
I believe there is an obedience to the Gospel, there is a self-denial and a bearing of the cross, if you are to be a follower of Christ. Being a Christian is a serious business.
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
Some of us have little spiritual vitality because we fail to feed on Christ day by day. Over time, we become spiritually anorexic.
— Joel R. Beeke, Why Christ Came: 31 Meditations on the Incarnation
Jesus calls all sinners to repent. True repentance is not a nebulous response of sorrow; it requires definite actions. Repentance so transforms the mind that it results in a changed life. Repentance does not merely say “I’m sorry” (similar to what we say when we accidentally step on someone’s foot). Rather, true repentance says from the heart, “I’ve been wrong and grieve over my sin, but now I see the truth, and I will change my ways accordingly.
— Joel R. Beeke, Why Christ Came: 31 Meditations on the Incarnation
Praying is holy act.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
Jesus Christ is the mighty Saviour.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
The Saviour is the Son of God.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
If it is Christian, it will be Bible-centered.
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
Christianity has no shrines to visit, no dusty remains to venerate, no tombs at which to worship.
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
Surely no rebel can expect the King to pardon his treason while he remains in open revolt. No one can be so foolish as to imagine that the Judge of all the earth will put away our sins if we refuse to put them away ourselves.
— Charles Haddon Spurgeon, All of Grace
Only the Christian faith claims that its Leader died and rose again and is alive at this moment. Many gravestones carry the inscription, “Here lies . . . ,” but on Christ’s tomb are emblazoned the words, “He is not here.
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
Christians should be a foreign influence, a minority group in a pagan world.
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
The secret of the power of Christianity is not in its ethics. It is not in Christian ideas or philosophy . . .the secret of Christianity is found . . . in the Lord Jesus Christ.
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
If we have our eyes upon ourselves, our problems, and our pain, we cannot lift our eyes upward. A child looks up when he’s walking with his father, and the same should be true for the Christian.
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
What makes us Christians shrug our shoulders when we ought to be flexing our muscles? What makes us apathetic in a day when there are loads to lift, a world to be won, and captives to be set free? Why are so many bored, when the times demand action? Christ told us that in the last days there would be an insipid attitude toward life.
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
To a sinner, a righteous person is an oddity and an abnormality. A Christian’s goodness is a rebuke to the wicked; his being right-side up is a reflection upon the worldling’s inverted position.
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
Ninety-five percent of the difficulties you will experience as a Christian can be traced to a lack of Bible study and reading.
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
God says it is our duty as Christians to take care of widows and orphans and to help the poor within the Christian society . . .And Jesus said, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me” Matthew 25:40 KJV].
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
We must have a virile, dynamic, aggressive Christian who lives Christ seven days a week, who is ready to die, if necessary, for his faith.
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
We can never live this [Christian] life on the highest plane unless we are continually growing and moving forward. You should be closer to God today in heart, soul, and body than at any other time so far in your life.
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
A great problem in America is that we have an anemic and watered-down Christianity that has produced an anemic, watered-down, and spineless Christian who is not willing to stand up and be counted on every issue.
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
Christianity is not primarily a matter of externals, nevertheless it does find expression in conversation, habits, recreation, emphasis, and ambitions to be noted in our daily life.
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
The Christian is to take his place in society with moral courage to stand up for that which is right, just, and honorable.
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
Christianity has become so respectable and so conventional that it is now insipid. The salt has lost its flavor.
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
To be the salt, you also need to be the shaker. To shake the world. Shake the truth. Shake the people. Shake the word. Have it sprinkle, melt and preserve humanity.
— Anthony Liccione
I wonder if anyone who needs a snappy song service can really appreciate the meaning of the cross.
— Reinhold Niebuhr, Leaves from the Notebook of a Tamed Cynic
Whereas Jesus demanded of the Jews the rejection of the tribalist Jahweh whom they identified with Israel, the race, the community the political state as object of worship and desire, the Sufis, born in an atmosphere of pure monotheism, demanded what Jesus of the first century A.D. would demand if he were to relive his early life again in present-day monotheistic Christendom. This does not mean that Jesus did not demand, like the Sufis, the cleansing of the soul from the personal deities it may worship besides God, but it does mean that the main weight of his teaching centered around the Jewish preoccupation with the tribe as God.""The object and deal of Sufism is, therefore, identically the same as that of the radical self-transformation of Jesus. Both aimed at the state of consciousness in which God is the sole subject, the sole determiner and the sole object of love and devotion. The tradition of both later influenced each other and succeeded in developing the same kind of preparatory disciplines leading towards the end. Finally, both referred to the final end of these processes as 'oneness' and their reference was in each case exposed to the same dangers of misunderstanding, indeed to the same misunderstanding. The oneness of Jesus was misunderstood as unity and fusion of being, and thus gave rise to the greatest materialization of an essentially spiritual union history has ever seen. The oneness of the highest Sufi state was likewise misunderstood and gave rise to the worst crime perpetrated on account of a supremely conscious misunderstanding...The destinies of the two misunderstandings, however, were far apart. The Christian misunderstanding came to dominate the Christendom; the Muslim misunderstanding performed its bloody deed and sank away in front of the Sufi tide which overwhelmed the Muslim world. The success of Sufism in Islam was therefore the success of the Jesus' ethic, but devoid of the theological superstructures which this Christian misunderstanding had constructed concerning the oneness of Christ with God, or of men with Christ. In the Middle Ages, the intellectual disciples of Jesus were the sufis of Islam, rather than the theologians of the Council or Pope-monarchs of Christendom.
— Ismail R. al-Faruqi
Jesus, unlike the founder of any other major faith, holds out hope for ordinary human life. Our future is not an ethereal, impersonal form of consciousness. We will not float through the air, but rather will eat, embrace, sing, laugh, and dance in the kingdom of God, in degrees of power, glory, and joy that we can't at the present imagine.
— Timothy J. Keller
God is love. Love is of God. Whoever loves is of God.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
Until the evil man finds evil unmistakably present in his existence, in the form of pain, he is enclosed in illusion.
— C.S. Lewis
Our concern for victims is the secular mask of Christian love.
— René Girard, I See Satan Fall Like Lightning
My fish dream is a sex dream.
— Joseph Heller, Catch-22
In the First Epistle of Peter we are told to honor everyone, and I have never been in a situation where I felt this instruction was inappropriate. When we accept dismissive judgements of our community we stop having generous hopes for it. We cease to be capable of serving its best interests.
— Marilynne Robinson, When I Was a Child I Read Books
Knowing what we believe and why we believe it is not an option for the Christian, because as believers, OUR BELIEFS ARE THE VERY HEART OF WHO WE ARE.
— Patty Houser, A Woman's Guide to Knowing What You Believe: How to Love God With Your Heart and Your Mind
if you really want to understand the real fear of God, ponder over Joseph with Potiphar's wife in the secret place; think about Abraham on his arduous errand to sacrifice Isaac without the knowledge of Sarah ; understand the urgency Jesus Christ attached to His work and His eagerness to do His Fathers will; appreciate the courage with which Shadrach Meshach and Abednego stood against all odds and also remember Daniel in the Lions Den.
— Ernest Agyemang Yeboah
When we love God with our hearts in disproportion to our minds, our faith is out of kilter with the kind of faith God wants us to have.
— Patty Houser, A Woman's Guide to Knowing What You Believe: How to Love God With Your Heart and Your Mind
The secret to extraordinary faith is fully engaging our MINDS, as well as our hearts, because DYNAMIC FAITH REQUIRES A HEALTHY BALANCE OF BOTH.
— Patty Houser, A Woman's Guide to Knowing What You Believe: How to Love God With Your Heart and Your Mind
The evidence which we have of the great facts of the Bible history belongs to this class, that is, it is moral evidence; sufficient to satisfy any rational mind, by carrying it to the highest degree of moral certainty. If such evidence well justify the taking away of human life or liberty, in the one case, surely it ought to be deemed sufficient to determine our faith in the other.
— Simon Greenleaf, An Examination of the Testimony of the Four Evangelists, by the Rules of Evidence administered in Courts of Justice
But the Christian writer seems, by the usual course of the argument, to have been deprived of the common presumption of charity in his favor; and reversing the ordinary rule of administering justice in human tribunals, his testimony is unjustly presumed to be false, until it is proved to be true. ...{independent historians} have been treated, in the argument, almost as if the New Testament were the entire production, at once, of a body of men, conspiring by a joint fabrication, to impose a false religion upon the world.
— Simon Greenleaf, An Examination of the Testimony of the Four Evangelists, by the Rules of Evidence administered in Courts of Justice
There's a pattern in these Commandments of setting things apart so that their holiness will be perceived. Every day is holy, but the Sabbath is set apart so that the holiness of time can be experienced. Every human being is worthy of honor, but the conscious discipline of honor is learned from this setting apart of the mother and father, who usually labor and are heavy laden, and may be cranky or stingy or ignorant or overbearing. Believe me, I know this can be a hard Commandment to keep. But I believe also that the rewards of obedience are great, because at the root of real honor is always the sense of the sacredness of the person who is its object.
— Marilynne Robinson, Gilead
The Truth only offends those who live outside it.
— Corey M.K. Hughes
In sorrow and in pain, still do remember your Master Jehovah; He can make things that do not matter, matter.
— Ernest Agyemang Yeboah
There are enough in the novelty business without us; and we have something better to do. We have to give an account unto our God of what we do and say, and if we have been murderers of souls, it will be no excuse that we flourished the dagger well, or that when we gave them poison we mixed the draught cleverly, and presented it with poetical phrases.
— Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Barbed Arrows From the Quiver of C.H. Spurgeon
There's a patter in these Commandments of setting things apart so that their holiness will be perceived. Every day is holy, but the Sabbath is set apart so that the holiness of time can be experienced. Every human being is worthy of honor, but the conscious discipline of honor is learned from this setting apart of the mother and father, who usually labor and are heavy laden, and may be cranky or stingy or ignorant or overbearing. Believe me, I know this can be a hard Commandment to keep. But I believe also that the rewards of obedience are great, because at the root of real honor is always the sense of the sacredness of the person who is its object.
— Marilynne Robinson
That is how life goes- we send our children into the wilderness. Some of them on the day they are born, it seems, for all the help we can give them. Some of them seem to be a kind of wilderness unto themselves. But there must be angels there, too, and springs of water. Even that wilderness, the very habitation of jackals, is the Lord's.
— Marilynne Robinson, Gilead
If I had had this experience earlier in life, I would have been much wiser, much more compassionate. I really didn't understand what it was that made people who came to me so indifferent to good judgement, to common sense, or why they would say "I know, I know" when I urged a little reasonableness on them, and why it meant "It doesn't matter, I just don't care." That's what the saints and the martyrs say. And I know now that it is passion that moves them to their prodigal renunciations. I might seem to be comparing something great and holy with a minor and ordinary thing, that is, love of God with mortal love. But I just don't see them as separate things at all. If we can be divinely fed with a morsel and divinely blessed with a touch, then the terrible pleasure we find in a particular face can certainly instruct us in the nature of the very grandest love. I devoutly believe this to be true. I remember in those days loving God for the existence of love and being grateful to God for the existence of gratitude, right down in the depths of my misery. I realized many things that I am at a loss to express. And of course those feelings become milder with time, which is a mercy.
— Marilynne Robinson
Anyone who wonders if a Christian can sin is ignorant about sin's enslaving nature.
— Timothy J. Keller, Romans 1 - 7 for You
Has it never struck you that a man who does next to nothing but hears men's real sins is not likely to be wholly unaware of human evil?
— G.K. Chesterton
To have sinned and wake up the next day is truly a miracle, repent.
— Okisha Jackson
Wisdom is the knowledge of the gospel truth.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
I know Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
Cheers to a gracious New Year. May we uphold the fullness of God’s grace, goodness and goodwill.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
I taught I had to be good to walk with God. And God said, “My grace is what you need to walk with me, than you will be good.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
Christianity is the only major religion to have at its central event the humiliation of its God.
— Bruce L. Shelley, Church History in Plain Language
Let's take off the masks and get real so we can get it right with God.
— Undena Y. Leake Jackson
Proxy religion involves too great a risk: you had better see to your soul's matters yourself, and leave them in no man's hands.
— Spurgeon, Charles H.
God’s grace is our greatest need for every good deed.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
Desire to know God.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
When I think of whisper, I think of tenderness, gentleness, beauty. And that was God's voice. The hard part with whispers, though, is we have to be listening for them. They are just loud enough that only the people listening will hear and those who are distracted won't.
— Jefferson Bethke, It's Not What You Think: Why Christianity is About So Much More Than Going to Heaven When You Die
Jesus Christ, a Nazarene, lived in Nazareth.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius. ("Kill them all. For the Lord knoweth them that are His." Supposedly said when asked by a Crusader how to distinguish the Cathars from the Catholics.)
— Bishop Arnold of Citeaux
May we uphold God’s grace, goodness and goodwill.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
May the God richly bless humankind.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
May God grant us grace for our daily work.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
My unchanging resolution is to read the Holy Scriptures every year.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
The people come to Jesus, not because they recognized his dignity and function but because it is rumored that a miracle worker has come in their midst. Jesus had come to preach repentance and the nearness of the kingdom but the people think only of relief from pain and affliction.
— William L. Lane, The Gospel of Mark
Christianity would have lacked a great essence without the Bible. A Christian who seldom devotes a little time to read the Bible is with a great question mark.
— Ernest Agyemang Yeboah
Why is Jesus’ saying, “I am!” so important? Because, you’re not!
— Paul David Washer
Walking in close fellowship with God is a spiritual self.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
Stop complaining. Be grateful for every circumstance.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
We are citizens of heaven. We must conduct ourselves, worthy of our calling, faith in Christ.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
This book is dedicated to the much needed establishing of greater unity in the wider body of Christ. It is dedicated to agreement with the prayer that Jesus prayed:“I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one:”John 17:20-22 NKJV
— Andrew Billings
Arise and shine bright.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
Perfect faith casts out all fears.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
Many Christians live in a prison created by their own disobedience of Biblical Requirements.
— Daryl Baugh
Witchcraft is the attempt to gain special knowledge or power outside God. What do we mean by "special?" We mean power or knowledge that is not found or allowed by God in the natural order.
— Thiessen, Sarah
The doctrine that war is always a greater evil seems to imply a materialist ethic, a belief that death and pain are the greatest evils. But I do not think they are... All men die, and most men miserably. That two soldiers on opposite sides, each believing his own country to be in the right, each at the moment when his selfishness is most in abeyance and his will to sacrifice in the ascendant, should kill [each] other in plain battle seems to me by no means one of the most terrible things in this terrible world.
— C.S. Lewis
Sometimes that's what prayer is--simply inviting God to join us where we actually are, not because He isn't already here but because inviting Him reminds us it's true.
— Emily P. Freeman, Simply Tuesday: Small-Moment Living in a Fast-Moving World
The grace of endurance is the great power of God at work within us.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
In the strength of God, you can crush any army
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
And the centurion who stood by said: Truly this was a son of God. Not long ago but everywhere I go There is a hill and a black windy sky. Portent of hill, sky, day's eclipse I know; Hill, sky, the shuddering darkness, these am I. The dying at His right hand, at His left, I am - the thief redeemed and the lost thief; I am the careless folk; I those bereft, The Well-Belov'd, the women bowed in grief. The gathering Presence that in terror cried, In earth's shock in the Temple's veil rent through, I; and a watcher, ignorant, curious-eyed, I the centurion who heard and knew
— Adelaide Crapsey, Verse by Adelaide Crapsey
Reaffirm your love for one another and let grow.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
Savour on the moment, while still waiting for sacred time.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
From a theological point of view, Easter is the center of the Church year; but Christmas is the most profoundly human feast of faith, because it allows us to feel most deeply the humanity of God. The crib has a unique power to show us what it means to say that God wished to be “Immanuel”—a “God with us”, a God whom we may address in intimate language, because he encounters us as a child.
— Pope Benedict XVI
Finally, the work of the minister tended to be judged by his success in a single area - the saving of souls in measurable numbers. The local minister was judged either by his charismatic powers or by his ability to prepare his congregation for the preaching of some itinerant ministerial charmer who would really awaken its members. The 'star' system prevailed in religion before it reached the theater. As the evangelical impulse became more widespread and more dominant, the selection and training of ministers was increasingly shaped by the revivalist criterion of ministerial merit. The Puritan ideal of the minister as an intellectual and educational leader was steadily weakened in the face of the evangelical ideal of the minister as a popular crusader and exhorter. Theological education itself became more instrumental. Simple dogmatic formulations were considered sufficient. In considerable measure the churches withdrew from intellectual encounters with the secular world, gave up the idea that religion is a part of the whole life of intellectual experience, and often abandoned the field of rational studies on the assumption that they were the natural province of science alone. By 1853 an outstanding clergyman complained that there was 'an impression, somewhat general, that an intellectual clergyman is deficient in piety, and that an eminently pious minister is deficient in intellect.
— Richard Hofstadter, Anti-Intellectualism in American Life
We have confident
—  God gives only what pleases Him.
The warrior of the night intercedes for the people.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
We joyfully pray with grateful heart to welcome blessings in New Year.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
We joyfully pray with grateful heart’s to welcome blessings in New Year.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
We joyfully pray with grateful hearts, to welcome the sacred-blessings in New Year
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
We are not for ourselves. We live for the glory of God.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
God is life. Life is divine.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
In the sacredness of pureness
—  a spark of divinity manifest.
There is love in every heart.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
We face many trials, beyond our human ability to endure. We learn to depend on only God’s grace.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
In the spiritual realms, we can only see the things of the spirit.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
God continue to rescue us from mortal sufferings.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
Be thankful, joyful and prayerful.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
You may say we made a mistake placing the birth of Jesus on December 25th. Consider this: in 3 B.C., December 25th was the eighth day of Hanukkah, the day when the greatest gift is given.... Early Christians would not have made up the date, or used a pagan festival date...the date was chosen by people who remembered﻿.
— Anonymous
Love is a sacred entity.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
Faith gives self-confidence and self-courage and strength.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
We ought to know the Lord and fullness of His great grace.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
Peter stands by the gate, And Michael by the throne. 'Peter, I would pass the gate And come before the throne.' 'Whose spirit prayed never at the gate In life nor at the throne, In death he may not pass the gate To come before the throne:' Peter said from the gate; Said Michael from the throne.
— Adelaide Crapsey, Verse by Adelaide Crapsey
May the Lord‘s purpose for my life be fulfilled in Jesus name. Amen.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
The break of a family is the break of society. We must never break the bond of love and peace that unite us in sacred harmony.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
No amount of organization and time management will compensate for a lack of Christian character, not when it comes to this great calling of glory through good—bringing glory to God by doing good to others.
— Tim Challies, Do More Better: A Practical Guide to Productivity
Christian productivity is unique. Most productivity gurus will encourage you to be as selfish as you need to be, to get rid of anything that doesn’t interest or excite you. But as a Christian you know you can do things that do not perfectly fit your mission but still do them out of love for God and with a desire to glorify him.
— Tim Challies, Do More Better: A Practical Guide to Productivity
In the midst of the storm, my only anchor is the Saviour.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
Productivity is not what will bring purpose to your life, but what will enable you to excel in living out your existing purpose.
— Tim Challies, Do More Better: A Practical Guide to Productivity
Love is a divine soul.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
Productivity—true productivity—will never be better or stronger than the foundation you build it upon.
— Tim Challies, Do More Better: A Practical Guide to Productivity
We are brothers and sisters. We are a sacred family.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
The spirit of divinity lives in you.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
It is true that the modern Christian is less robust, but that is not thanks to Christianity; it is thanks to the generations of freethinkers, who from the Renaissance to the present day, have made Christians ashamed of many of their traditional beliefs. It is amusing to hear the modern Christian telling you how mild and rationalistic Christianity really is and ignoring the fact that all its mildness and rationalism is due to the teaching of men who in their own day were persecuted by all orthodox Christians.
— Bertrand Russell, Why I Am Not a Christian and Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects
Love is the ecstasy of life.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
A mark of true Christianity will be its intellectual vigour and its search for meaning in every aspect of life. True Christianity will always be critical, questioning and continually developing in its understanding of God and of human life. The subject matter for religion is every human experience. In Christian understanding, God is immanent, that is, God is present in all things, and creation itself is a sign, and an effective sign, of God’s presence - a sacrament. That is why there has been such an emphasis on scholarship and learning in the Christian tradition. Faith, as St Anselm wrote, ‘seeks understanding’, for it is the nature of true faith to trust that God is at work in everything and that there is no question which falls outside the scope of religious inquiry. When faith in God weakens, the critical element will also weaken, and there will be more warning against false doctrines than encouragement to develop our understanding. If the critical element is not fostered, Christians will remain infantile in their religious belief and practice, which will have little or no relation to everyday life and behaviour.
— Gerard Hughes
The glorious gift of a new year is sacred blessing.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
Humans are the greatest sacred resources.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
The bond of love will unite the world.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
Repent, return and be restored by Jesus Christ.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
Love is the soul of God
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
The divinity of thy soul is a spark of divine-self.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
Let us embrace the coming year with a living hope for everyday life.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
The divinity of thy soul is spark of divine-self.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
Life is story, until I realized life as sacred.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
Awaken the divinity of a sacred self.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
Our existence and our environment enclosed entities of divinity.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
God loves you and created you in His own image.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
We are saved only by grace through faith.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
We can love and do righteous acts only by grace.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
We are not for ourselves. We live for the glory of Go
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
Albania’s future is towards Christianity, since it is connected with it culturally, old memories, and its pre-Turkish nostalgia. With the passing of time, the late Islamic religion that came with the Ottomans should evaporate (at first in Albania and then in Kosova), until it will be replaced by Christianity or, to be more exact, Christian culture. Thus from one evil (the prohibition of religion in 1967) goodness will come. The Albanian nation will make a great historical correction that will accelerate its unity with its mother continent: Europe
— Ismail Kadare, Mëngjeset në Kafe Rostand
May you find love, joy and hope at Christmas and every day of your life.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
All glory to the great God of wonders!
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
It is the little act of kindness that touches our heart and blossom our life with gladness.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
Love life, love light.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
Life is love.Love is divine.Divine is God.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
Christmas is a sacred festival. It is celebration of Christ love for Humankind. And the love that bind us together.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
The sacredness of Christmas: glory to God in the highest holy heavens, peace on earth and goodwill to all people.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
May the Lord give us a new spirit and new heart
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
May we love each other not only at Christmas but all year.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
Christmas is the spirit of love, joy and peace.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
You ought to travel on your own path.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
We ought to love one another at Christmas and every day of the year.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
It is better for you to love than hate.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
We ought to love one another.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
Christmas is the spirit of love, peace and goodwill to all Humankind. It is within the reach of every heart and hand.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
I wish you a blessed beautiful Christmas with the fullness of grace.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
You dare travel on sacred road, although you may not know the end.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
You dare travel on the sacred road, although you may not know the end.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
My idea of Christmas is love. Love so pure and so divine.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
You can overcome any situation with positive attitude.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
God’s power is able to change stony, stubborn heart to kind, responsive heart.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
God’s great love is the grace of redemption.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
Christmas is a celebration of Christ love for Humankind. And the love that bind us together as sacred family.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
The vision is for the sacred-time. Though it delays, joyfully wait for it.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
You can only do righteous acts and good deed by grace.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
If it isn't one blessing, it's another!
— Chari Twitty-Hawkins
It is a sacred gladness for us to celebrate the holy birth of Jesus Christ.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
We don’t survive to live. We live to survive.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
We will be stronger, if we love each other.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
God Almighty, I don’t want to ask for more. But to say more thanks.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
Jehovah-Jireh is a Great provider. Even in times of famine, we have enough to eat.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
May my thanksgiving be my prayer.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
May every soul reconnect to the Creator.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Think Great: Be Great!
Great is the Lord’s provisions
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
Great is thy love.Great is thy mercy.Great is thy faithfulness.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
Ah! If you have a self-will in your hearts, pray to God to uproot it. Have you self-love? Beseech the Holy Spirit to turn it out; for if you will always will to do as God wills, you must be happy. I have heard of some good old woman in a cottage, who had nothing but a piece of bread and a little water, and lifting up her hands, she said, as a blessing, "What!? all this, and Christ too?" What is "all this," compared with what we deserve? And I have read of someone dying, who was asked if he wished to live or die; and he said, "I have no wish at all about it." "But if you might wish, which would you choose?" "I would not choose at all." "But if God bade you choose?" "I would beg God to choose for me, for I would not know which to take." Oh happy state! to be perfectly acquiescent, to lie passive in His hand, and know no will but His.
— Charles Haddon Spurgeon
May we celebrate the sacredness of Christmas with joy, faith and hope.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
Love is God. God is love.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Think Great: Be Great!
May you life be sparkle with love, joy and hope.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
We will bear much fruits, when we connect to the true vine, the Creator.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Think Great: Be Great!
Life is a sacred breath.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Think Great: Be Great!
Love is the fruit of a sacred-soul.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Think Great: Be Great!
How can we love the unseen God and hate the visible man?
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Think Great: Be Great!
Persecution for Christians is not a possibility, it's a promise, it's not a maybe, it's a surely! Following Jesus can mean finding the trouble you've been looking for!
— Kingsley Opuwari Manuel
All that I seen makes be fear the Lord, for great is wrath.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Think Great: Be Great!
May we love another, for love is of God.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Think Great: Be Great!
Gratitude is heavenly bliss.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Think Great: Be Great!
Giver of life, the Holy God.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Think Great: Be Great!
God's grace is the power of life.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Think Great: Be Great!
You can endure all things by grace.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
The light of God extinguishes the darkness.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of  Wisdom: Great  mind
May the Lord deem us from deep gloom to the light.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Think Great: Be Great!