c2p-cmd/Good-Quotes-Authors huggingface dataset:
Forget, too, the lamb-y, metaphor-male, the groinless, bourgeois Jesus, with his Easter-egg, candy-store-window eyes ogling the cruciform crosspiece of his eyebrows.  If you meet such a Christ on the way, kill him. Do you wish to love? Do you wish to love? Leave love. Love nothing. Life is dark; life is dark at the no-place of the shocked heart cut two by the bone-handled, thrice-bladed Word.
— Tim Lilburn, Tourist to ecstasy
[C]ontinence is a very important part of yoga. If a handful of people come forward with strong wills, nothing is impossible. One Buddha changed half the globe; one Jesus, three quarters of the world. We all have that capacity. (140)
— Swami Satchidananda, The Yoga Sutras
He was without any comforts of God — no feeling that God loved him — nofeeling that God pitied him — no feeling that God supported him. God was hissun before — now that sun became all darkness… He was without God — hewas as if he had no God. All that God had been to him before was taken fromhim now. He was Godless — deprived of his God. He had the feeling of thecondemned, when the Judge says: “Depart from me, ye cursed,” “who shallbe punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord andfrom the glory of his power.” He felt that God said the same to him. Ah! This isthe hell which Christ suffered. The ocean of Christ’s sufferings isunfathomable… He was forsaken in the [place] of sinners. If you close with himas your surety, you will never be forsaken… “My God, my God, why hast thouforsaken me?” [The answer?] For me — for me.
— Robert Murray McCheyne
Jesus - “the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily” (Colossians 2:9).
— John Piper, Don't Waste Your Life
We must acknowledge that all we have are, at times very differing, interpretations of what Jesus was all about-and these interpretations, as they are collected in the New Testament, have been written in particular situations by men, none of whom questioned the existing patriarchal structure of their societies or of their communities. While some Christ-believing women did challenge certain male-dominated aspects of their church gatherings (see 1 Cor 14:33b-36) it is quite unlikely that they questioned the patriarchal structure of their society, community, and church on a fundamental level. ~ Werner Kahl in Reading Other-Wise, p. 151
— Gerald O. West, Reading Otherwise: Socially Engaged Biblical Scholars Reading with their Local Communities
Judas said, "Master, as you have listened to all of them, now also listen to me. For I have seen a great vision." And when Jesus heard this, he laughed and said to him, "You thirteenth daimon, why do you try so hard? But speak up, and I shall bear with you.
— Rodolphe Kasser, The Gospel of Judas Together with the Letter of Peter to Phillip, James, and a Book of Allogenes from Codex Tchacos
New Labour leader Ed Miliband announces plan to 'make this party slightly less unelectable by 2015'. He added: 'I am Ed, the Almighty One.'Defeated brother David Miliband overheard muttering: 'Now I know how Wayne Christ felt after little Jesus came along.
— Andy Zaltzman
Master, take me in along with these people." Jesus answered and said, "Your star has led you astray, Judas.
— Rodolphe Kasser, The Gospel of Judas Together with the Letter of Peter to Phillip, James, and a Book of Allogenes from Codex Tchacos
I do not believe that any man can preach the gospel who does not preach the Law. Lower the Law and you dim the light by which man perceives his guilt; this is a very serious loss to the sinner rather than a gain; for it lessens the likelihood of his conviction and conversion. I say you have deprived the gospel of its ablest auxiliary [its most powerful weapon] when you have set aside the Law. You have taken away from it the schoolmaster that is to bring men to Christ. they will never accept grace till they tremble before a just and holy Law. Therefore, the Law serves a most necessary purpose, and it must not be removed from its place. The Law cuts into the core of evil, it reveals the seat of the malady and informs us that the leprosy lies deep within. They must be slain by the Law before they can be made alive by the gospel.
— Charles Spurgeon
I want to spend my life helping other reach their God Given Dreams!
— Joe Joe Dawson
I could only imagine how Jesus felt when He heard the voice of our Heavenly Father God Almighty for the first time. He was probably a little confused, terrified, and probably was nervous…
— Nicholas M. Cuono Sr., This Is His House and These Are His Rules
Since the beginning of time, the ignorant have always screamed the loudest...They celebrated their intolerance as proof of their convictions. Now after all these years, mankind had finally managed to utterly erode everything that had once been so beautiful about Jesus.
— Dan Brown, The Lost Symbol
Therefore you too have grief now; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.
— Jesus Christ
I have never quite managed to see how we can make sense of the sacramental life of the Church without a theology of the risen body; and I have never managed to see how to put together such a theology without belief in the empty tomb. If a corpse clearly marked ‘Jesus of Nazareth’ turned up, I should save myself a lot of trouble and become a Quaker.
— Rowan Williams
If I think God’s aim is to produce rule-followers, spiritual growth will always be an obligation rather than a desire of my heart.
— John Ortberg, The Me I Want to Be: Becoming God's Best Version of You
After Jesus' fast, he began healing, rescuing, redeeming. The Spirit filled up the emptiness Jesus created, launching him into ministry. In some supernatural way the abstinence from food was the catalyst for Jesus' unveiling; the real fireworks were next.
— Jen Hatmaker, 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess
Pray. Smile. Repeat.
— Victoria Barnes
If Jesus was willing to be beaten and tortured to gain the salvation of mankind, the least we can do is tell them about it.
— Evan Minton, A Hellacious Doctrine: A Defense Of The Biblical Doctrine Of Hell
Dear God, I don’t ask for fame and fortune but for an opportunity to embrace many. I don’t ask you to make my life perfect but full of love. With every mistake I make, or with any success I have, I ask to feel your grace along the way, for the rest of my life. In Jesus’s name, amen.
— Ron Baratono, The Writings of Ron Baratono
One Tree is of life, the other is of death. Do our fruits hang from the bad tree, or the good? Only by testing the fruits of a Tree (or, rather, testing ourselves) can we truly see what kind of tree we are!
— Ted  Roberts, Brotherly Love: The Gospel of Jesus Christ
To place Jesus Christ in the class of mystics is an insult to the Highest.
— Paul Bamikole
I marvel at how out of place simple, humble Jesus would be in today's American churches.
— Jen Hatmaker, 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess
We don’t just learn facts, but we learn a Face. We’re not just learners of principles, but of a Person. We are lifelong learners in relationship with Jesus as we hear his voice in his word and have his ear in prayer, and share in community with his body, all through the power of his Spirit.
— David Mathis, Habits of Grace: Enjoying Jesus through the Spiritual Disciplines
It is indeed true that when the Word becomes flesh in the here and now it changes us.
— Jenni Jessen, The Lucky One: A Chilling True Account of Child Sex Trafficking and One Survivor's Journey from Brutal Captivity to a Life of Freedom
One thing God has been showing me is that I'm not called to save the world, just to point those He places in my life towards the right way.
— J.R. Rim
Dad?" Jesus asked."Yes, son," God said."Why do people have sins?" Jesus asked."It's to remind them that they're human," God replied."But, wouldn't they be better off just being perfect?" Jesus now asked.God smiled, "Then they wouldn't learn anything," he said.
— Anthony T. Hincks
Dear God, let me find calm in every situation. Let me look at others with pity instead of anger. Let me pray they make it through life’s fog they’ve created for themselves and find you. In Jesus’s name, amen.
— Ron Baratono
When we feel used and abused, the Bible says we are loved. When we feel abandoned, the Bible says we are never alone. When we feel rejected, the Bible says we are redeemed. When we feel lost, the Bible is a lamp for our feet and a light on our path. When we feel worthless, the Bible says that we are God’s handiwork created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which He prepared in advance for us to do.
— Teresa Schultz, The Bible In Poetry,
Jesus has kept the Heaven beyond the reach of Scientific Wisdom but within the reach of Spiritual Wisdom.
— Gladstone Manganoori
You dreamed like all mothers do.Until he began to speak aloud,Your boy,calling for justice in the market place,Demanding integrity and fair playin the courts and halls of business.Declaring the Realm of GodImminent,Manifest . . .Jesus leapt into the swelling crowdslike an axe into wood,Uncompromising and unrelentingin his passionate callfor peace and justice.Jesus, your boy,causing havoc in public,critiquing and condemningthe status quo,breaking rule after rule . . .And with every speech, with every act of defiance, with every call to liberation, with every amazing deed,Your dreams of peace and liberation,Your dreams of a secure old age,Your dreams of grandchildren—Evaporated.
— Edwina Gateley, Soul Sisters: Women in Scripture Speak to Women Today
The prodigal son represents all of us. We go off to live our lives the way that our sinful hearts desire, but when we “come to our senses” by the illuminating work of God’s Holy Spirit, we can return to God. God and his “servants” (i.e. the angels) will rejoice when you repent. He’s happy to wrap His arms around you! He is overjoyed! He rejoices, and the angels rejoice with Him!
— Evan Minton, Inference To The One True God: Why I Believe In Jesus Instead Of Other Gods
Christians do not believe that there is one God and three Gods. Nor do we believe that God is one person and three persons. That would clearly be contradictory and therefore logically impossible. Rather, the doctrine of the Trinity is that there is one God who eternally exists as three distinct persons. We believe that The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit are each individual persons in their own right, but they all share the same divine essence. Saying that "God is one being who consists of three persons" is no more contradictory than saying that "There's one triangle that consists of three corners
— Evan Minton
Wholeness is birthed through vulnerability and sensitivity, which is often conceived in brokenness. Jesus taught me this.
— Natalie Brenner, This Undeserved Life: Uncovering The Gifts of Grief and The Fullness of Life
Remember, God placed man on earth and gave him dominion over the earth to cultivate and steward it. The fall of man subjected the earth to the same corruption as the hearts of man, but the work Jesus did on the cross set the course for the reversal of this process and the return to our intended mandate. Instead, we as Christians tend to sit back while those who do not know the Lord cultivate and dominate the earth. This is not wrong. They are in fact doing what they were created to do, but they are doing it under a different master. Consider what the world would look like if we took up our God-given mandate and released, by restoration, the glory of creation to a watching world!
— Karla Perry, Back to the Future: Rebuilding America's Stability
-Shut the FUCK UP, said 
— T.A. Keizer
O Sacred Heart of Mary!" she murmured by his side, and he felt how that name was food and raiment, friend and mother to her. He received the miracle in her heart into his own, saw through her eyes, knew that his poverty was as bleak as hers. When the Kingdom of Heaven had first come into the world, into a cruel world of torture and slaves and masters, He who brought it had said, "And whosoever is least among you, the same shall be first in the Kingdom of Heaven.
— Willa Cather
...It Isn't actually much of an encouragement to me to read the stories about Jesus. I might as well take encouragement from watching a great athlete run a four-minute mile. Sure, it's a fine sight, but at my age and with my weight I would be lucky to do a mile in 10 minutes, let alone four. I can watch a ballet dancer on stage with great delight, not because I can copy him, but precisely because I know I can't.
— N.T. Wright, How God Became King: The Forgotten Story of the Gospels
I do not attack your ego. I do work with your higher mind, the home of the Holy Spirit, whether you are asleep or awake, just as your ego does with your lower mind, which is its home. I am your vigilance in this, because you are too confused to recognize your own hope. I am not mistaken.
— Foundation for Inner Peace, A Course in Miracles
Like a great waterwheel, the liturgical year goes on relentlessly irrigating our souls, softening the ground of our hearts, nourishing the soil of our lives until the seed of the Word of God itself begins to grow in us, comes to fruit in us, ripens in us the spiritual journey of a lifetime. So goes the liturgical year through all the days of our lives. /it concentrates us on the two great poles of the faith - the birth and death of Jesus of Nazareth. But as Christmas and Easter trace the life of Jesus for us from beginning to end, the liturgical year does even more: it also challenges our own life and vision and sense of meaning. Both a guide to greater spiritual maturity and a path to a deepened spiritual life, the liturgical year leads us through all the great questions of faith as it goes. It rehearses the dimensions of life over and over for us all the years of our days. It leads us back again and again to reflect on the great moments of the life of Jesus and so to apply them to our own ... As the liturgical year goes on every day of our lives, every season of every year, tracing the steps of Jesus from Bethlehem to Jerusalem, so does our own life move back and forth between our own beginnings and endings, between our own struggles and triumphs, between the rush of acclamation and the crush of abandonment. It is the link between Jesus and me, between this life and the next, between me and the world around me, that is the gift of the liturgical year. The meaning and message of the liturgical year is the bedrock on which we strike our own life's direction. Rooted in the Resurrection promise of the liturgical year, whatever the weight of our own pressures, we maintain the course. We trust in the future we cannot see and do only know because we have celebrated the death and resurrection of Jesus year after year. In His life we rest our own. ― Joan D. Chittister, The Liturgical Year: The Spiraling Adventure of the Spiritual Life - The Ancient Practices Series
— Joan D. Chittister, The Liturgical Year: The Spiraling Adventure of the Spiritual Life - The Ancient Practices Series
If I do not love my fellow man, I can be sure of it that I do not love Jesus Christ. And I would do well if guilty of loving Jesus Christ even more than I love my fellow man, because only by this may I fully come to love my fellow man.
— Criss Jami
Real teachers like Jesus, Buddha, Nanak, Rumi have much more to teach humanity, than the imaginary figure Krishna, concocted by an ancient Indian man named Vyasa.
— Abhijit Naskar, The Krishna Cancer
You know, the kind who know Jesus by His first name, but out of politeness never use it even to His face.
— Toni Morrison, Beloved
Jesus loves us not because we are good but because he is.
— Bryan Chapell, Unlimited Grace: The Heart Chemistry That Frees from Sin and Fuels the Christian Life
Jesus changes everything about a person’s life, from the obvious to the unseen. He shatters black and white into brilliant color and shakes the asleep until they’re wide awake.
— Jacquelle Crowe
God’s will for you is to make you more like Jesus. Christlikeness is your target, your goal, your vision, and the reason you were created. You are set apart to be like Jesus. That goal will take the rest of your life to accomplish." (Life Hacks, p.61)
— Jon Morrison, Life Hacks: Nine Ideas That Will Change How You Do Everything
Sometimes life takes you into a dark place where you feel it's impossible to breathe. You think you've been buried, but don't give up, because if truth be told, you've actually been planted.
— Karen  Gibbs
Want to know the coolest thing about the coming? Not that the One who played marbles with the stars gave it up to play marbles with marbles. Or that the One who hung the galaxies gave it up to hang doorjambs to the displeasure of a cranky client who wanted everything yesterday but couldn't pay until tomorrow. Not that he, in an instant, went from needing nothing to needing air, food, a tub of hot water and salts for his tired feet, and, more than anything, needing somebody - anybody - who was more concerned about where he would spend eternity rather than where he would spend Friday's paycheck. Or that he resisted the urge to fry the two=bit, self-appointed hall monitors of holiness who dared suggest that he was doing the work of the devil. Not that he kept his cool while the dozen best friends he ever had felt the heat and got out of the kitchen. Or that he gave no command to the angels who begged, "Just give us the nod, Lord. One word and these demons will be deviled eggs." Not that he refused to defend himself when blamed for every sin of every slut and sailor since Adam. Or that he stood silent as a million guilty verdicts echoed in the tribunal of heaven and the giver of light was left in the chill of a sinner's night. Not even that after three days in a dark hole he stepped into the Easter sunrise with a smile and a swagger and a question for lowly Lucifer - "Is that your best punch?" That was cool, incredibly cool. But want to know the coolest thing about the One who gave up the crown of heaven for a crown of thorns? He did it for you. Just for you.
— Max Lucado, He Chose the Nails
We must seek to keep a right view of Jesus and to remember He is always after greater love.
— Dana Candler, Deep Unto Deep: The Journey of His Embrace
Yet when God entered time and became a man, he who was boundless became bound. Imprisoned in flesh. Restricted by weary-prone muscles and eyelids. For more than three decades, his once limitless reach would be limited to the stretch of an arm, his speed checked to the pace of human feet.I wonder, was he ever tempted to regain his boundlessness? In the middle of a long trip, did he ever consider transporting himself to the next city? When the rain chilled his bones, was he tempted to change the weather? When the heat parched his lips, did he give thought to popping over to the Caribbean for some refreshment? If he ever entertained such thoughts, he never gave into them. Not once. Stop and think about this. Not once did Christ use his supernatural powers for personal comfort. With one word, he could've transformed the hard earth into a soft bed, but he didn't. With a wave of his hands, he could've boomeranged the spit of his accusers back into their faces, but he didn't. With an arch of his brow, he could've paralyzed the hand of the soldier as he braided the crown of thorns. But he didn't.
— Max Lucado, He Chose the Nails
Problems arise when (especially) theologians use such metaphorical language without realizing that that is what they are doing, and without even realizing that there is a distinction between metaphor and reality – saying something like: ‘It is not important whether Jesus really fed the five thousand. What matters is what the idea of the story means to us.’ Actually it is important, because millions of devout people do believe the Bible is literally true.
— Richard Dawkins, An Appetite for Wonder: The Making of a Scientist
When Jesus enters a country the fire of revival starts burning there
— Sunday Adelaja
Jesus Christ is the most outstanding person who has ever lived on planet earth
— Sunday Adelaja
What would Jesus do" is a good thing but it would be better if we did not leave it so open and asked What did Jesus Do?
— Chuck Bridges
You may often have to watch Jesus Christ wreck a life before He saves it.
— Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest
Christ is our Way; we walk in Him. He is our Truth; we embrace Him. He is our Life; we live in Him. He is our Lord; we choose Him to rule over us. He is our Master; we serve Him. He is our Teacher, instructing us in the way of salvation. He is our Prophet, pointing out the future. He is our Priest, having atoned for us. He is our Advocate, ever living to make intercession for us. He is our Saviour, saving to the uttermost. He is our Root; we grow from Him. He is our Bread; we feed upon Him. He is our Shepherd, leading us into green pastures. He is our true Vine; we abide in Him. He is the Water of Life; we slake our thirst from Him. He is the fairest among ten thousand: we admire Him above all others. He is 'the brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of His person;' we strive to reflect His likeness. He is the upholder of all things; we rest upon Him. He is our wisdom; we are guided by Him. He is our Righteousness; we cast all our imperfections upon Him. He is our Sanctification; we draw all our power for holy life from Him. He is our Redemption, redeeming us from all iniquity. He is our Healer, curing all our diseases. He is our Friend, relieving us in all our necessities. He is our Brother, cheering us in our difficulties.
— Dwight L. Moody, The Way to God and How to Find It
Most of Jesus’ life is told through the four Gospels of the New Testament, known as the Canonical gospels, written by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. These are not biographies in the modern sense but accounts with allegorical intent. They are written to engender faith in Jesus as the Messiah and the incarnation of God, and not to provide factual data about Jesus’s life. This left the door of exaggeration open. And through that door all kinds of mystical non-sense crept in and made place right alongside the good philosophical teachings of Jesus.
— Abhijit Naskar, Neurons of Jesus: Mind of A Teacher, Spouse & Thinker
Imagine being with the apostles and having the opportunity of seeing Jesus being taken up into heaven. Imagine if you had been there to witness to the ascension of Christ. For sure it must have been an awesome experience!
— George Calleja, The Light
She was simply a young woman who believed that the man called Jesus Christ is a real person, such as those represent him who profess to have known him; and she therefore believed the man himself—believed that, when he said a thing, he entirely meant it, knowing it to be true; believed, therefore, that she had no choice but do as he told her. That man was the servant of all; therefore, to regard any honest service as degrading would be, she saw, to deny Christ, to call the life of creation's hero a disgrace. Nor was he the first servant; he did not of himself choose his life; the Father gave it him to live--sent him to be a servant, because he, the Father, is the first and greatest servant of all.
— George MacDonald, Mary Marston
For many of us, it's just one thing standing in our way of completely following Jesus.
— Craig Groeschel, Weird: Because Normal Isn't Working
This book is dedicated to only those who are worthy.Calling myself an Author and taking own name as a body is an ego, concluding my spiritual achievement is an ignorance, explaining to those who are busy in this materialistic world would be my immaturity.(Author representing the Universal Consciousness).
— Vishal Chipkar, Enter Heaven
To refuse Jesus as the messiah is to be a hypocrite
— Sunday Adelaja
God wants the simplicity and accessibility of Jesus Christ to be your main quality
— Sunday Adelaja
Nothing should enslave you. Be dependent only on one person – Jesus Christ
— Sunday Adelaja
In the face of Jesus’ dogged steadfastness, how could we but offer him our own loyal allegiance? As we have seen, our decision to serve Jesus should be made not in order to earn Jesus’ grace but as a response to it. He who has given so much for us can rightly call us to lay down our lives for him. Recognizing that we will continue to stumble and fall short of his impeccable standard, we nonetheless strain onward out of gratitude for his mercy and kindness to us. Why do we serve the poor or preach the Gospel? Why do we continue with the otherwise foolish work of peace-making or justice-seeking? Not out of some neurotic fear of losing God’s favor but precisely because we have tasted that favor and would do anything for the one who died to win it for us.
— Michael Frost, Jesus the Fool: The Mission of the Unconventional Christ
Speaking personally, I find it helpful to detect in the four evangelists four dimensions of the saving purpose of God: its length, depth, breadth and height. Matthew reveals its length, for he depicts the Christ of Scripture, who looks back over long-centuries of expectation. Mark emphasizes its depth, for he depicts the Suffering Servant who looks down to the depths of the humiliation he endured. In Luke it is the breadth of God's purpose which emerges, for he depicts the Savior of the world who looks round in mercy to the broadest possible spectrum of human beings. Then John reveals its height, for he depicts the Word made flesh who looks up to the heights from which he came and to which he intends to raise us.
— John R.W. Stott
If we choose Jesus as our model, we simultaneously choose his own model, God the Father. Having no appropriative desire, Jesus proclaims the possibility of freedom from scandal. But if we choose possessive models we find ourselves in endless scandals, for our real model is Satan. A seductive tempter who suggests to us the desires most likely to generate rivalries, Satan prevents us from reaching whatever he simultaneously incites us to desire.
— René Girard
His changes are true, And oh for a reason.His work is eternal, And arrives in due season.
— Kari L. Greenaway, Hope Doesn't Hide
Great is our calling, We dare not be idle.The saddle is in place,And Jesus is bridle.
— Kari L. Greenaway, He Had You at Belief
God's Love for you through Christ Jesus is more than a Valentine's card or gift.
— Chris Chacko
The gospel of Jesus Christ is an offense to both religion and irreligion. It can't be co-opted by either moralism or relativism.
— Timothy J. Keller, King's Cross: The Story of the World in the Life of Jesus
On the night before Jesus died, he said to his Heavenly Father, "I have accomplished the work which you gave me to do."He didn't heal every sick person on earth. When he ascended to heaven, there was still sickness and heartache and pain. But Jesus knew that he had accomplished what his father had called him to do, and that was enough.
— Lisa Brenninkmeyer, Walking With Purpose: Seven Priorities That Make Life Work
There is not one harsher, more sure-fire way to fail than that of the man who tries to be like Jesus without submitting to Jesus.
— Criss Jami
The Lord Jesus is a loyal friend.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
I am a follower of Jesus and a student of the Buddha.
— David Paul Kirkpatrick
I am a follower of Jesus and a student of the Buddha. Why is that so hard for my fellow Christians to grasp?
— David Paul Kirkpatrick
Jesus became flesh to reveal God in His love and kindness
— Sunday Adelaja
Each one of us also can become an image or likeness of God if we, like Jesus, the firstborn, give our bodies to him
— Sunday Adelaja
We need to regard every problem or situation as an opportunity to be triumphant and celebrate the victory of Jesus in our lives
— Sunday Adelaja
I recall the passage in the letter to the Hebrews in which we are reminded that Christ has already done everything for us. It speaks of the Christ who "offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins" (Hebrews 10:12). And yet the church teaches, and our experience of faith confirms, that Christ continues to be with us and to pray for us. The paradox may be unraveled, I think, if we remember that when human beings try to "do everything at once and for all and be through with it," we court acedia, self-destruction and death. Such power is reserved for God, who alone can turn what is "already done" into something that is ongoing and ever present. It is a quotidian mystery.
— Kathleen Norris, The Quotidian Mysteries: Laundry, Liturgy and Women's Work
...people can go to church every week of their lives and never go all in with Jesus Christ. I'm afraid we've cheapened the gospel by allowing people to buy in without selling out. We've made it too convenient, too comfortable. We've given people just enough Jesus to be bored but not enough to feel the surge of holy adrenaline that courses through your veins when you decide to follow Him no matter what, no matter where, no matter when.
— Mark Batterson, All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life
Paul was devoted to a Person, not a cause.
— Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest
Human language falls short of expressing all that He is, even as a thimble lacks capacity to hold Niagara Falls.
— Blake Western, There's No One Like Jesus
The Holy Spirit is saying that no authority or authoritative being exists that was not created by Jesus Christ. This is a statement beyond creation. It is a statement of Godhead.
— Todd Coburn
Death does not end my life, it opens the door to a life without end.
— J.R. Rim
When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: "Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last.
— Jesus/John
That which was published in the Law, the prophets, and psalms before "God was manifested in flesh"looks forward to Jesus the Christ; what was published after Christ's ascension looks back to Him as "the Lord God of Israel" who "hath visited and redeemed His people" (Luke 1:68).
— Tim Liwanag, Fulfilled Eschatology
Jesus was not a theologian. He was a God who told stories.
— Madeleine L'Engle, Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art
Most of all, we remain focused on our Rock that never moves.
— Craig Groeschel, Weird: Because Normal Isn't Working
When surrounded by the ashes of all that I once cherished, despite my best efforts I can find no room to be thankful. But standing there amidst endless ash I must remember that although the ashes surround me, God surrounds the ashes. And once that realization settles upon me, I am what I thought I could never be ... I am thankful for ashes.
— Craig D. Lounsbrough
Today I must look in the mirror and be thankful for the person who I find staring back at me. For although the reflection is terribly imperfect, and I know that full well, God created it with enough room that one day it would be perfect. And if there is nothing else I can find to be thankful for, let me begin here.
— Craig D. Lounsbrough
I, too, have to end up worshipping at the altar where God’s name is truth.
— Philip Novak
The Christmas story is penmanship of the most brilliant sort, where God crafted a beginning that would never be subject to an ending.
— Craig D. Lounsbrough
The best way to see majesty is to strip away everything that pretends to be majestic so that which is fake wholly collapses in the face of that which is majestic. And God in a manger is likely the most remarkable example we have of such a monumental truth.
— Craig D. Lounsbrough
We should never argue with the devil about our sins, but we should speak about our sins only with Jesus.
— Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Creation and Fall Temptation: Two Biblical Studies
I am not the sum total of my accomplishments, for no matter how much I exhaust myself acquiring those accomplishments, the sum total of them will always be far too trifling to ever reflect my true value. My value rests in the fact that I am an accomplishment of God so incalculably valuable that He gave up Himself rather than give me up.
— Craig D. Lounsbrough
God chose to deliberately venture into and intentionally occupy depths far below and infinitely beyond that which any human has ever descended, and then to raise Himself back up to glory from those horridly dark places. And I pray that we never miss the fact that Christmas is God’s invitation for us to join Him in the rising.
— Craig D. Lounsbrough
Christmas embodies everything that I need. However, everything that I need is often made up of a lot of stuff I don’t want.
— Craig D. Lounsbrough
I would like to say that I’m sacrificial. But am I sacrificial enough to acknowledge the fact that I’m not?
— Craig D. Lounsbrough
More often than not, rejecting rescue is in reality rejecting our need to be rescued. And it may very well be that is why so many reject Christmas.
— Craig D. Lounsbrough
Perfect majesty that deliberately chose to be born into abject poverty, walk a road of perpetual poverty, and be unjustly executed in the raw nakedness of poverty is utterly ludicrous unless I realize that this is the single and sole way that God can reach me in the suffocating poverty that I myself have created.
— Craig D. Lounsbrough
What we’re searching for will determine where we arrive, or if we arrive. And right in the middle of such risky choices, Christmas is God perfectly solving the problem by showing us what to search for and then bringing it to us.
— Craig D. Lounsbrough
It’s not so much about writing the story of Christmas itself, as ingenious as it is. In reality, it’s much more about writing the story of Christmas into the story of life so that it will become the story of life.
— Craig D. Lounsbrough
This is the wonder of Christmas, that in the solitary form of an impoverished infant God has handed me everything that I could never create so that I can be everything that I could never be.
— Craig D. Lounsbrough
We were made to get along, to be together, andit’s a truth that’s medically attested... Love and dance and connection strengthen every bodily system, while isolation, rage and sadness poison them with cortisol.
— Steven Heighton, Every Lost Country
She said, "Right now, while we have this time, I'm not going to do any of that other stuff. I'm going to seize this moment and simply enjoy being with Jesus while I can." Mary made a deliberate choice. She wasn't being lazy and using company as an excuse to get out of helping her sister with chores. She was choosing to focus on what mattered the most.
— Craig Groeschel, Weird: Because Normal Isn't Working
If God annihilates or deflects or creates a unit of matter, He has created a new situation at that point. Immediately nature domiciles this new situation, makes it at home in her realm, adapts all other events to it. It finds itself conforming to all the laws. If God creates a miraculous spermatozoon in the body of a virgin, it does not proceed to break any laws. The laws at once take over. Nature is ready. Pregnancy follows, according to all the normal laws, and nine months later a child is born
— C.S. Lewis, Miracles
Jesus prayed for us , We too , need to pray for others.
— Dariush Youkhaneh
When God looks at sin, what he sees is what a violin maker would see if the player were to use his lovely creation as a tennis racquet.
— Tom Wright, The Day the Revolution Began: Rethinking the meaning of Jesus' crucifixion
Suffering is sometimes cleansing,” said the man. His clothes were casual, but expensive. “It can purify."“It can also fuck you up,” said Shadow.
— Neil Gaiman, American Gods
Let Him empty and transform you ;and afterwards fill the chalice of your hearts to the brim, that you in your turn, may give of your abundance. Seek Him. Knowledge will make you strong as death. Love Him trustfully without looking back, without fear. Believe that Jesus and Jesus alone is life. Serve Jesus, casting aside and forgetting all that troubles or worries you, make loved the love that is not loved.
— Mother Teresa, The Love of Christ: Spiritual Counsels
If I worship the fact that I don’t worship anything, amongst other things what I’m worshipping is denial.
— Craig D. Lounsbrough
The blessing we receive for following Jesus comes also with persecutions, which, if we have faith to accept them, can also be a blessing.
— Lori Stanley Roeleveld, Jesus and the Beanstalk: Overcoming Your Giants and Living a Fruitful Life
If you're a follower of Jesus, He has given you abundance so that you can care for others, not so you can stock up on capri pants for next summer or afford a leather interior in the new SUV.
— Craig Groeschel, Weird: Because Normal Isn't Working
If you're a follower of Jesus, He has given you abundance so that you can care for others, not so you can stock up on capri pants for next summer or afford a leather interior in the new SUV. As long as you don't own the responsibility of being blessed with resources so that you can give to those around you, then you can stay focused on getting more for yourself.
— Craig Groeschel, Weird: Because Normal Isn't Working
Jesus to Pilate:"The trouble is," the bound man went on, not stopping by anyone, "that you are too closed off and have definitely lost faith in people. You must agree, one can't place all one's affection in a dog. Your life is impoverished, Hegemon.
— Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita
[Jesus] did not say, 'Simon, son of Jonas, fearest thou me.' He did not say, 'Dost thou admire me? Dost thou adore me?' Nor was it even a question concerning his faith. He did not say, 'Simon, son of Jonas, believest thou in me?' but he asked him another question, 'Lovest thou me?' I take it, that is because love is the very best evidence of godliness. Love is the brightest of all the graces; and hence it becomes the best evidence.
— Charles Haddon Spurgeon
But I know Jesus arose. I feel his presence now, here, with me. I see the evidence of his Word everyday. From creation forth, the whole world is witness to God's plan revealed through his Son. From the beginning, he prepared us. In the passing of the seasons; in the way flowers spring forth, die, and drop seeds for life to begin again; in the sunset and sunrise. Jesus' sacrifice is reenacted every day of our lives if we but have the eyes to see.
— Francine Rivers, A Voice in the Wind
I'm half way to Heaven and half way to Hell with each breath I take in this mortal shell.
— Stanley Victor Paskavich
There is no record in Scripture that an angel visited John’s cell to explain the meaning of his persecution. This great, godly man who was the designated forerunner to Jesus went through the same confusing experiences as we. It is comforting to know that John responded in a very human way. He sent a secret message to Jesus from his prison cell, asking “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?” (Matthew 11:3). Have you ever felt like asking that question?
— James C. Dobson, Life on the Edge: The Next Generation's Guide to a Meaningful Future
If God annihilates or creates or deflects a unit of matter, He has created a new situation at that point. Immediately all nature domiciles this new situation, makes it at home in her realm, adapts all other events to it. It finds itself conforming to all the laws. If God creates a miraculous spermatozoon in the body of a virgin, it does not proceed to break any laws. The laws at once take over. Nature is ready. Pregnancy follows, according to all the normal laws, and nine months later a child is born.
— C.S. Lewis, Miracles
To see what God is like, we must look at Jesus. He perfectly represents God to men in a form which they can see and know and understand.
— William Barclay, The Letters to the Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians
In the womb of the Virgin Mary, God “becomes” human, receiving from her the body that makes possible the “passion” of God; while on the Cross, through the Jewish flesh given of Mary, the divine Son is truly crucified. In the same way, in the Eucharist, Christians receive the very flesh the Logos received of Mary and united to himself, that “truly life-giving flesh of God the Word himself.” Only insofar as God receives the passability of human flesh does he become crucifiable and sacramentally givable.
— Aaron Riches, Ecce Homo: On the Divine Unity of Christ
Every time we compromise, push the limits, or forego Biblical boundaries, we cheat on God…we hurt Him.
— Jayce O'Neal
To Jesus she already is somebody. Like the loving father of the prodigal son, Jesus is frantically scanning the horizon, watching for Madonna to return to him. He's absolutely convinced that she's so valuable that she's worth dying for. 'Greater love has no one than this,' said Jesus in John 15:13, 'that one lay down his life for his friends.' That's what He did for her on the cross!
— Lee Strobel, What Jesus Would Say: To Rush Limbaugh, Madonna, Bill Clinton, Michael Jordan, Bart Simpson, and You
What insanity causes a king abandon the comforts of his kingdom and willfully discard the privileges of royalty in order to save an ornery and rebellious people who have spent a lifetime rejecting him? We have yet to understand that such an action is nothing of insanity. Rather, it is everything of love.
— Craig D. Lounsbrough
Even to someone as notorious as Madonna, I think Jesus would say, 'I'll help you experience the fulfillment that has eluded you despite your struggle to find it. I'll help heal whatever's driving you to affirm your self-worth in self-defeating ways. But I can only help you if you let me.
— Lee Strobel, What Jesus Would Say: To Rush Limbaugh, Madonna, Bill Clinton, Michael Jordan, Bart Simpson, and You
He's firmly, irrevocably, unambiguously convinced that you're somebody worth dying for.
— Lee Strobel, What Jesus Would Say: To Rush Limbaugh, Madonna, Bill Clinton, Michael Jordan, Bart Simpson, and You
WORSHIP LEADERSHIP.Mere talents does not give glory to God but a humble heart.
— Mac Canoza
Dear Jesus, please get me out. Christ, please, please, please, Christ. If you only keep me from being killed I'll do anything you say. I believe in you and I'll tell everybody in the world that you are the only thing that matters. Please, please, dear Jesus' The shelling moved further up the line. We went to work on the trench and in the morning the sun came up and the day was hot and muggy and cheerful and quiet. The next night back at Mestre he did not tell the girl he went upstairs with at the Villa Rosa about Jesus. And he never told anybody.
— Ernest Hemingway, In Our Time
What would Jesus do? One thing is obvious, if there is one thing Jesus would NOT do - is to behave like his followers.
— Christina Engela, Blachart: Galaxii Series Book 1
Many times in the Old Testament, God refers to human beings as His beloved. But when God called Jesus His beloved, Jesus did something truly remarkable: He believed Him. And He lived every moment of His life fully convinced of His identity.
— Jonathan Martin, Prototype: What Happens When You Discover You're More Like Jesus Than You Think?
But again, this is not a list of rules; we are not reading an impossible standard—no. This describes our Jesus. This! This is our Abba. This is our Holy Spirit. He never gives up, and he takes pleasure in the flowering of truth. And when we are following in the ways of Jesus, when we are abiding in the Vine, these become our characteristics, and we become signposts, tastes, movements of the Kingdom to the North, a glimpse of true Love.
— Sarah Bessey, Jesus Feminist: An Invitation to Revisit the Bible’s View of Women
These hoes ain't loyal
— Rue Black
If God could do things like that, the world wouldn’t look the way it does. He can’t reach down and change things. He can’t stop any of us doing what we choose to do.'“What use is he then?”Oenone shrugged. 'He sees. He understands. He knows how you’re feeling. He knows how Theo felt. He knows how it feels to die. And when we die, we go to him.''To the Sunless Country, you mean? Like ghosts?”'Oenone shook her head patiently. 'Like children. Do you remember what it was like to be a tiny child? When everything was possible and everything was given to you, and you knew that you were safe and loved, and the days went on forever? When we die, it will be like that again. That’s how it is for Theo now, in heaven.
— Philip Reeve, A Darkling Plain
His body would be crushed, but the words would still remain: You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased. The trajectory of Jesus' life and (in a real sense) the fate of the world hung on those few words. They were not the words of a Father celebrating the good things His Son had done, because He hadn't really done anything yet. Even though Jesus was perfect, it wasn't His perfection that brought the Father such delight. It was His very existence.
— Jonathan Martin, Prototype: What Happens When You Discover You're More Like Jesus Than You Think?
You can spot people who don't know Jesus very well because the world they see is always so ugly. Even if they use all sorts of religious language, don't be misled—people who get touched by Jesus don't ignore the hurt and pain in the world, and yet they see so much beauty in it.
— Jonathan Martin, Prototype: What Happens When You Discover You're More Like Jesus Than You Think?
I follow Jesus not because I don't have any doubts. I follow Jesus because in my doubt, He has always been tender with me.
— Jonathan Martin, Prototype: What Happens When You Discover You're More Like Jesus Than You Think?
In The Classroom of analysis, students who are too quick to debunk written evidence must also be armed with opposing "truth" to the evidence which they defy. never be too quick to say "I don't believe this or that"when you have no opposing tested grounds of evidence. Be careful to oppose with valid proof and consider that no one comes to the stage of argument without a superior argument except a simpleton
— Oluseyi Akinbami
If you have any questions for Jesus Christ it is only because you were not paying attention when he said "It is finished; I died for you on the cross." John 19:30.
— Felix Wantang, God's Blueprint of the Holy Bible
What would Jesus do? One thins is obvious, if there is one thing Jesus would NOT do - is to behave like his followers.
— Christina Engela
And one day, God would send another baby, a baby promised to a girl who didn't even have a husband. But this baby would bring laughter to the whole world. This baby would be everyone's dream come true.
— Sally Lloyd-Jones, The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name
When Jesus says he will keep you safe, he means it. Hell will have to get through him to get to you.
— Max Lucado, A Gentle Thunder: Hearing God Through the Storm
If Jesus regarded it as important the blessing that comes to one who voluntarily renders help, then the churches have been right in presenting the claims of philanthropy as on of the most important of religious obligations. For one thing, this obligation keeps us sensitive and aware toward an important aspect of our environment --- other peoples needs. Secondly, this is a rightful stewardship of ones own property, and it is the antithesis of the practice whereby one man volunteers another mans property for use in alleviating some real of imagined distress --- as in various schemes of social security.
— Edmund A. Opitz, The Libertarian Theology of Freedom
A Lady in Waiting...Recklessly abandons herself to the Lordship of ChristDiligently uses her single daysTrusts God with unwavering faithDemonstrates virtue in daily lifeLoves God with undistracted devotionStands for physical and emotional purityLives in securityResponds to life in contentment Makes choices based on her convictionsWaits patiently for God to meet her needs
— Jackie Kendall, Lady in Waiting: Becoming God's Best While Waiting for Mr. Right
The cross is not a sign of the church's quiet, suffering submission to the powers-that-be, but rather the church's revolutionary participation in the victory of Christ over those powers. The cross is not a symbol for general human suffering and oppression. Rather, the cross is a sign of what happens when one takes God's account of reality more seriously than Caesar's. The cross stands as God's (and our) eternal no to the powers of death, as well as God's eternal yes to humanity, God's remarkable determination not to leave us to our own devices.
— Stanley Hauerwas, Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony
Whatever it is you ask for in prayer, believing you have received it, it shall be yours.
— Jesus
Here's a teacher who's talking about Jesus and, oh no, she quotes a bible verse, horror of horrors. The world's breaking and torched and completely messed up, but God forbid some teacher mentions Jesus.
— Travis Thrasher, God's Not Dead 2