c2p-cmd/Good-Quotes-Authors huggingface dataset:
The appeal of Jesus to Nones has nothing to do with the institution developed by his followers, but rather with his willingness to walk across religious and other social boundaries, through the lives of ordinary people, attending to their suffering, healing their afflictions, welcoming them into conversation, and sharing stories of hope.
— Elizabeth Drescher, Choosing Our Religion: The Spiritual Lives of America's Nones
It is for a specific reason that you were born from that specific place. Never wish that away because it's not where you were born that matters, but who you were born to be. Jesus was born on the kraal and He became a King of Kings.
— Gugu Mona
Worries isn't good to your mental and physical health, so you better stay away from those things that keeps on bothering you, live peacefully and free.Always pray, and one day blessings will be on your way!
— Bradley B. Dalina
Jesus loves the little children, All the children of the world. Red and yellow, black and white. They are precious in His sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world.
— LaShonda Bowman, My Soul Is Satisfied
But that was just a shadow of what would come to pass:When one appointed season Christ came to die at last.And in the name of justice they flogged him like a thief,But willing was the victim of human disbelief.
— Joyce Rachelle, Sewing Figs
Christianity teaches righteousness, not rights. It emphasizes honor, not equality. A Christian's concern is what is owed to the other, not what is owed to himself.
— Elisabeth Elliot, Discipline: The Glad Surrender
If you had the option to pray for me or fight with me, you better choose the fight.
— Darnell Lamont Walker
He who had known the ceaseless worship of angels came to be a slave to men. Preaching, teaching, healing the sick, and raising the dead were parts of his ministry, of course, and the parts we might consider ourselves willing to do for God if that is what He asked. He could be seen to be God in those. But Jesus also walked miles in dusty heat. He healed, and people forgot to thank Him. He was pressed and harried by mobs of exigent people, got tired and hungry, was "tailed" and watched and pounced upon by suspicious, jealous, self-righteous religious leaders, and in the end was flogged and spat on and stripped and had nails hammered through His hands. He relinquished the right (or the honour) of being publicly treated as equal with God.
— Elisabeth Elliot, Discipline: The Glad Surrender
To the corruptions of Christianity I am, indeed opposed; but not to the genuine precepts of Jesus himself. I am a Christian, in the only sense in which he wished any one to be; sincerely attached to his doctrines, in preference to all others.
— Thomas Jefferson
And then this whole deal of new gods, old gods," said his friend. "You ask me, I welcome new gods. Bring them on. The god of the guns. The god of bombs. All the gods of ignorance and intolerance, of self-righteousness, idiocy and blame. All the stuff they try and land me with. Take a lot of the weight off my shoulders." He sighed.
— Neil Gaiman, American Gods
If someone tries to follow the narrow way and does not set aside who they think they are and what they think they need, they cannot follow.
— Ted Dekker, Outlaw
The task of defining Jesus's message fell instead to a new crop of educated, urbanized, Greek-speaking Diaspora Jews who would become the primary vehicles for the expansion of the new faith. As these extraordinary men and women, many of them immersed in Greek philosophy and Hellenistic thought, began to reinterpret Jesus's message so as to make it more palatable both to their fellow Greek-speaking Jews and to their gentile neighbors in the Diaspora, they gradually transformed Jesus from a revolutionary zealot to a Romanized demigod, from a man who tried and failed to free the Jews from Roman oppression to a celestial being wholly uninterested in any earthly matter.
— Reza Aslan
Can you, at a minimum, objectively step back—throw out the stereotypes, ditch the conformity, set aside the religion—and ask yourself, why? Why Jesus?
— William Thrasher
If Jesus looks too feminine to us, maybe it says more about our understanding of masculinity than it does about a possible conspiracy to feminize the church and men.
— Nate Pyle, Man Enough: How Jesus Redefines Manhood
Rather than elevating poverty to a form of righteousness, Jesus is instead calling for a revolution of imagination around the nature of what we consider true blessing.
— Jamie Arpin-Ricci, The Cost of Community: Jesus, St. Francis and Life in the Kingdom
No one who meets Jesus ever stays the same.
— Philip Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew
It gets darker and darker, and then Jesus is born.” That line came back to me, from out of nowhere, and I decided to practice radical hope, hope in the face of not having a clue.
— Anne Lamott, Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith
Jesus said, “But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret.
— Pat Schneider, How the Light Gets in: Writing as a Spiritual Practice
Because Jesus paid it all, we are free from the need to do it all. Our identity, worth, and value, are not anchored in what we can accomplish but in what Jesus accomplished for us.
— Tullian Tchividjian, One Way Love:  Inexhaustible Grace for an Exhausted World
Before your greatest victories, you will always fight your greatest battles. Stay in the Fight.
— Joe Joe Dawson
God's demand: 'be righteous'
—  God's diagnosis: 'no one is righteous'
The hub of Christianity is not 'do something for Jesus.' The hub of Christianity is 'Jesus has done everything for you.' And my fear is that too many people, both inside and outside the church, have heard our pleas for intensified devotion and concluded that the focus of Christian faith is our love for God instead of God's love for us. Don't get me wrong--what we do is important. But it is infinitely less important than what Jesus has done for us.
— Tullian Tchividjian, One Way Love:  Inexhaustible Grace for an Exhausted World
The truth is in Jesus and it leads to the fullness of truth about God, man, creation, history, sin, righteousness, grace, faith, salvation, life, death, purpose, meaning, relationships, heaven, hell, judgement, eternity, and everything else of ultimate consequence.
— John F. MacArthur Jr.
Whatever you may believe about it, the birth of Jesus was so important that it split history into two parts. Everything that has ever happened on this planet falls into a category of before Christ or after Christ.
— Philip Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew
Often a work of God comes with two edges, great joy and great pain, and in that matter-of-fact response Mary embraced both. She was the first person to accept Jesus on His own terms, regardless of the personal cost.
— Philip Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew
Christmas has a deeper significance to followers of Jesus. It’s not all about the gifts underneath Christmas trees or the elaborate meals served in extravagantly decorated homes. Christmas is the season of Immanuel. We celebrate the good news that He is near, that He cares for us, and that He transforms lives. His presence was the greatest present God gave mankind. May we be present carriers of that presence!
— Katherine J. Walden, Dare to Call Him Friend
It seems that God arranged the most humiliating circumstances possible for His entrance, as if to avoid any charge of favoritism.
— Philip Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew
What if we lived like Jesus really did rise from the dead?
— Sarah Holman, If He Lives
The cross unerringly exposes this stunningly marvelous and abruptly exquisite declaration that God will not let this single life of mine, with all of its grotesque maladies and pathetic filth pass into oblivion without unflinchingly declaring that my life carries a value worth the expenditure of His. And if I dare look upon the cross, I am utterly perplexed but wholly enraptured by the immensity of such a love as this.
— Craig D. Lounsbrough, An Intimate Collision: Encounters with Life and Jesus
The lamb, having survived the storm unharmed and no longer afraid, came up to Jesus and put its mouth to his lips, there was no sniffing, one touch was all that was needed. Jesus opened his eyes, saw the lamb, then the livid sky like a black hand blocking whatever light remained. The olive tree still burned. His bones ached when he tried to move, but at least he was in one piece, if that can be said of a body so fragile that it takes only a clap of thunder to knock it to the ground. He sat up with some effort and reassured himself, more by touch than by sight, that he was neither burned nor paralyzed, none of his bones were broken, and apart from a loud buzzing in his head as insistent as the drone of a trumpet, he was all right. He drew the lamb to him and said, Don’t be afraid, He only wanted to show you that you would have been dead by now if that was His will, and to show me that it was not I who saved your life but He. One last rumble of thunder slowly tore the air like a sigh, while below, the white patch of the flock seemed a beckoning oasis.Struggling to overcome his weakness, Jesus descended the slope. The lamb, kept on its cord simply as a precaution, trotted at his side like a little dog.
— José Saramago, The Gospel According to Jesus Christ
Here and throughout the Gospels, Jesus does not simply cite Scripture as though it were a self-evident, self-interpreting source of authority. He rereads it, drawing out new, often highly provocative meanings, "fulfilling" it in a way that gives it new form for a new day. What would Jesus do? Reread. The Bible tells me so.
— Timothy Beal, The Rise and Fall of the Bible: The Unexpected History of an Accidental Book
Jesus walked on water, so maybe he makes aquifers, too.
— Paolo Bacigalupi, The Water Knife
Sometimes people claim they don't need a crutch like Jesus, but he's not a crutch, he's a teacher. If you want to be a writer, you read the classics. If you want to make great music you listen to music that's been made by great musicians who have gone before. If you're studying to be a painter, it's a good idea to study the great masters. If Picasso came into your room while you were learning to draw and said 'Hi, I have a couple of hours would you like some hints?' would you say no? So it is with spiritual masters: Jesus, Buddha or any other enlightened being. They're geniuses in the way they used their minds and hearts just as Beethoven was a genius with music, or Shakespeare a genius with words. Why not learn from them, follow their lead, study what they were doing right.
— Marianne Williamson
Indeed, like so many encounters with Jesus in the Gospel stories, we might go to the Bible looking for answers, but we usually come away with more questions.
— Timothy Beal, The Rise and Fall of the Bible: The Unexpected History of an Accidental Book
An altar is like an airport where spirits take off and land
— Steven Chuks Nwaokeke
Crucified Love lives with us today and till the end of times, as He promised.Amen.The beauty of the cross and our crucified Lord cannot be easily fathomed by human mind or by barely reading scriptures in bits, but by careful reading of entire scripture in the spirit which will in turn engulf one with wisdom and love.
— Henrietta Newton Martin -Senior Legal Consultant & Author in law. (B.Com,LLB-goldmedalist, LLM-GoldM
The yoke is hard because the teachings of Jesus are radical: enemy love, unconditional forgiveness, extreme generosity. The yoke is easy because it is accessible to all — the studied and the ignorant, the rich and the poor, the religious and the nonreligious. Whether we like it or not, love is available to all people everywhere to be interpreted differently, applied differently, screwed up differently, and manifested differently.
— Rachel Held Evans, Evolving in Monkey Town: How a Girl Who Knew All the Answers Learned to Ask the Questions
Therefore, a search for God's will should begin on your knees. He will meet you there. Remember that Jesus promised, "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you" (Matthew 7:7).
— James C. Dobson
Do you have a girlfriend?''No,' I said quickly.Deny Honour again. Peter only denied Jesus three times. I must have denied Honour like three thousand times.
— Ruth Ahmed, When Ali Met Honour
He cannot do anything deliberate now. The strain of his whole weight on his outstretched arms hurts too much. The pain fills him up, displaces thought, as much for him as it has for everyone else who has ever been stuck to one of these horrible contrivances, or for anyone else who dies in pain from any of the world’s grim arsenal of possibilities. And yet he goes on taking in. It is not what he does, it is what he is. He is all open door: to sorrow, suffering, guilt, despair, horror, everything that cannot be escaped, and he does not even try to escape it, he turns to meet it, and claims it all as his own. This is mine now, he is saying; and he embraces it with all that is left in him, each dark act, each dripping memory, as if it were something precious, as if it were itself the loved child tottering homeward on the road. But there is so much of it. So many injured children; so many locked rooms; so much lonely anger; so many bombs in public places; so much vicious zeal; so many bored teenagers at roadblocks; so many drunk girls at parties someone thought they could have a little fun with; so many jokes that go too far; so much ruining greed; so much sick ingenuity; so much burned skin. The world he claims, claims him. It burns and stings, it splinters and gouges, it locks him round and drags him down…All day long, the next day, the city is quiet. The air above the city lacks the usual thousand little trails of smoke from cookfires. Hymns rise from the temple. Families are indoors. The soldiers are back in barracks. The Chief Priest grows hoarse with singing. The governor plays chess with his secretary and dictates letters. The free bread the temple distributed to the poor has gone stale by midday, but tastes all right dipped in water or broth. Death has interrupted life only as much as it ever does. We die one at a time and disappear, but the life of the living continues. The earth turns. The sun makes its way towards the western horizon no slower or faster than it usually does.Early Sunday morning, one of the friends comes back with rags and a jug of water and a box of the grave spices that are supposed to cut down on the smell. She’s braced for the task. But when she comes to the grave she finds that the linen’s been thrown into the corner and the body is gone. Evidently anonymous burial isn’t quite anonymous enough, after all. She sits outside in the sun. The insects have woken up, here at the edge of the desert, and a bee is nosing about in a lily like silk thinly tucked over itself, but much more perishable. It won’t last long. She takes no notice of the feet that appear at the edge of her vision. That’s enough now, she thinks. That’s more than enough.Don’t be afraid, says Yeshua. Far more can be mended than you know.She is weeping. The executee helps her to stand up.
— Francis Spufford, Unapologetic: Why, despite everything, Christianity can still make surprising emotional sense
When Jesus was interrupted, He started where He was and helped those in need who were nearest to Him. There is always another mission “out there”—the next cause, the next city, or the next country that seems to be the most important mission we could pursue. Jesus illustrates that our greatest mission is often the person in front of us.
— Dillon Burroughs, Faith Acts: A Provocative Call to Live What You Believe
We want to care most about what Jesus cares most about.
— Dillon Burroughs, Faith Acts: A Provocative Call to Live What You Believe
Find me the perfect human being and I'll show you Jesus Christ.
— J.R. Rim
Instead, it is the reality that the God-forsaken one experienced in an eminent way because no one can even approximately experience the abandonment by God as horribly as the Son, who shares the same essence with the Father for all eternity.
— Hans Urs von Balthasar, Love Alone is Credible
God comes when your broken
—  not you believe but he works when you believe..
When Jesus said to 'love your neighbor as yourself,' I don't think He meant judgmentally; but that is exactly how we treat our own souls, so it bleeds out to others. Folks who thrive in God's grace give grace easily, but the self-critical person becomes others-critical. We 'love' people the way we 'love' ourselves, and if we are not good enough, then no one is.
— Jen Hatmaker
A Roman soldier . . . thrust a spear into Jesus’ side and out came blood and water. Physicians say that a mixture of blood and water indicates that Jesus died of a broken heart. He poured out the last ounce of His blood to redeem us.
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
Respectable Protestant denominations retreated inside...leaving...unaffiliated madwomen to evangelize alfresco...
— Sara Miles
Remember that the lives of other people are not your business. They are their business. They are God's business because they all have God whether they use the word God or not. Even your own life is not your business. It also is God's business. Leave it to God.
— Frederick Buechner, Telling Secrets
God's kingdom is not the most exciting thing to seek, but the most rewarding thing to find.
— ELW-Reta Barnes
The Lord needs us. He needs us to be knowledgeable, dependable, and competent disciples. We need to know not only that the gospel is true but we need to know the gospel, better than we do right now. We need to be in the right place at the right time. We will thereby become the right person.
— Robert L. Millet, Coming to Know Christ
My world view is somewhat unique. I have learned from many great philosophers including Plato, Socrates, Buddha, Jesus, Darwin, Tagore, Emerson, and many more.
— Debasish Mridha
God's FoolIf loving God, celebrating God, loving life, being a servant, loving my neighbor is foolish then let me be a fool. If loving God, celebrating God though art, poetry, song & dance is a fools game then let me be a fool.If trusting Jesus is a foolish waste of time and energy then let it be known by one and all I shall waste everyday every dollar I shall waste time and eternity celebrating Jesus the one who loves and delights in me.
— Charles W. Warner, The HeartBeat of God Book 2
We should be about our Father’s business by pouring His compassionate love into aching and parched souls that have nowhere to turn, no one to love, and no one to care. Let them see Jesus in us. That is a living testimony.
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is calledthe Christ?” (Matthew 27:22 NIV). This is the most important question that has ever been asked. It is also the question you must ask yourself.
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
Sin diverts some. Pleasure diverts others. Social service and “religious” activity divert others. We are told to be occupied with Jesus Christ Himself.
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
Jesus knows the intentions of our hearts and what we do in secret.
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
Jesus cares more about our effort than our accomplishments.
— Dillon Burroughs, Faith Acts: A Provocative Call to Live What You Believe
I trust Jesus with all my tomorrows, knowing that He will solve the mystery of life beyond the grave.
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
A pastor without anointing is just a religious professor
— Steven Chuks Nwaokeke
One of the most amazing things that we often forget is this: God never forgets us! Face it; you could hide under a rock, BUT, God will still be beside you saying, "Rock bottom, already?
— Mary Kate
When asked why you include Jesus in everything, remind that person that, after all, He included you in everything!
— Mary Kate
Christ did not come to earth simply to be our moral teacher. If that were His only mission, He could have come as He did in former times, as the Angel of the Lord, without our flesh and blood to encumber Him. Instead, He had to become like us so that He could raise us up to be like Him.
— Joel R. Beeke, Why Christ Came: 31 Meditations on the Incarnation
If you watch what you think about, you won't have to watch what you talk about.
— Bill Johnson
Obedience moves the hand of the Lord.
— Daryl Baugh
it is in seeing and owning that we are crazy and damaged, it is in crying “uncle” to our failed self-reformation projects, it is in recognizing that we are most certainly “so unlike our Christ”—that Christ begins to change us. It is when we become tired of ourselves, weary of our own failed efforts, that Jesus meets us with hope.
— Scott Sauls, Jesus Outside the Lines: A Way Forward for Those Who Are Tired of Taking Sides
Latter-day Saints have often been critical of those who emphasize salvation by grace alone, while we have often been criticised for a type of works-righteousness. The gospel is in fact a gospel covenant—a two-way promise. The Lord agrees to do for us what we could never do for ourselves—to forgive our sins, to lift our burdens, to renew our souls and re-create our nature, to raise us from the dead, and to qualify us for glory hereafter. At the same time, we promise to do what we can do: come unto Christ by covenant, commit our lives to him as Lord and Master, receive the appropriate ordinances (sacraments), love and serve one another, and do all in our power to put off the natural man and deny ourselves of un-godliness. We know, without question, that the power to save us, to change us, to renew our souls, is in Christ. True faith, however, always manifests itself in faithfulness. "When faith springs up in the heart," Brigham Young taught, "good works will, and good works will increase that pure faith within them.
— Robert L. Millet, Coming to Know Christ
In Christ’s first coming, He implemented a rescue plan conceived in the mind of God before the foundation of the world. He did not come to promote holiday cheer, boost end-of-year sales, or serve as the central figure in a Nativity scene. He came to save sinners. To save sinners, Christ had to put away what makes people sinners–namely, sin.
— Joel R. Beeke, Why Christ Came: 31 Meditations on the Incarnation
The plan God has doesn’t just involve us as individuals, but also the people who share part of our lives. Jesus was never alone; there were always people around him. He had friends, followers, and people He could depend on. Never be afraid, someone wants to listen in your time of need. Reaching our hands out, especially when we’re hurting has the power to heal our hearts.
— Ron Baratono
[Christ’s] goodness is still a rebuke to our badness; His purity still shows up our impurities; His sinlessness still reveals our sinfulness; and unless we allow [Jesus] to destroy the evil within us, the evil within us still wants to destroy Him. This is the conflict of the ages.
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
The word repentance is sadly missing today from the average pulpit. It is a very unpopular word. The first sermon Jesus ever preached was “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” [Matthew 4:17 kjv].
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
If we were able to distill all human experience to its essence, it would be a question on the lips of a man named Jesus. As he asked Peter, he asks all mankind, "Who do you say that I am?" "Our idea of God," observed Thomas Merton, "tells us more about ourselves than about Him.
— Ron Brackin
You can't live an obedient life and miss an adventure. Following the commands of Christ is not just about behavior. Behavior modification is not an end in itself in the New Testament. Transformation is about knowing the truth and the truth setting you free.
— Beth Moore
The more I read, {the Bible] the more Paul sounds like a stroke victim, who never taught a thing that Jesus taught, and only quotes him once, in Acts, wrongly, and the 12 are constantly chastising him for his teachings.
— Glenn Hefley
The central message of the Bible is Jesus Christ.
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
Jesus made everything so simple and we have made it so complicated. He spoke to the people in short sentences and everyday words, illustrating His messages with never-to-be forgotten stories.
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
When Jesus needed friends, they left Him.
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
Not everyone Jesus tried to turn back from the brink of destruction responded—nor will they with us.
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
Many people are willing to have Jesus as part of their lives—as long as it doesn’t cost them anything. They may even profess faith in Jesus and join a church. But Jesus to them is almost like an insurance policy—something they obtain and then forget about until they die. What keeps you from being His disciple?
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
Though [Jesus’] words were profound, they were plain. His words were weighty, yet they shone with a luster and simplicity of statement that staggered His enemies.
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
Every word that [Jesus] spoke was historically true. Every word that He spoke was scientifically true. Every word that He spoke was ethically true. There were no loopholes in the moral conceptionsand statements of Jesus Christ. His ethical vision was wholly correct, correct in the age in which He lived and correct in every age that has followed it.
— Billy Graham, Billy Graham in Quotes
God hates sin not because he wants us to be good little boys and girls, but because he knows sin destroys that which he loves most: sinners.
— Criss Jami, Healology
Christ came into the world to save sinners, not good people, and your unworthiness is your greatest claim for His salvation.
— Hannah Whitall Smith, The God of All Comfort
Never be afraid of the PROCESS that will take you to the PROMISE
— Joe Joe Dawson
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Help me. Please, help me. If you really exist, you skinny jew bastard, help me kill myself.
— Hubert Selby Jr., Waiting Period
Noah got a word from God then built upon that word. Then when the storm came he stood on what he built according to the word of God!
— Joe Joe Dawson
When you’re called to Revival & Awakening you walk closer to God and most people won't understand your calling so save your breathe you don’t have to explain yourself
— Joe Joe Dawson
Almost All Christians want to taste the fruits of revival but only a few will do what's necessary to achieve it.
— Joe Joe Dawson
Compromise is only comfortable to the man who is outside the presence of God.
— Joe Joe Dawson
God has a plan for your life and so does the devil. Whose plan will you choose to live out?
— Joe Joe Dawson
The Manifestation of your dream is probably right around the corner, that is why the devil is working overtime on you trying to make you give up.
— Joe Joe Dawson
For once in my life maybe I ought to actually think about taking God at His word, and in doing so to suddenly find myself riotously welcoming the rather shocking reality that Christmas is truly everything that He says it is.
— Craig D. Lounsbrough, An Intimate Collision: Encounters with Life and Jesus
Unto you is bornin the city of Davida Savior for all.
— Richelle E. Goodrich
Love never fails but people fails in how to love-Jesus never fails
— tirumala
The first century was an era of apocalyptic expectation among the Jews of Palestine, the unofficial Roman designation for the vast tract of land encompassing modern day Israel/Palestine as well as large parts of Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon (the land would not be officially called Palestine until after 135 C.E.)
— Reza Aslan, Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth
We must leave Christmas to be what it is, for to reduce it to the stuff of myth and whimsy is take the single and sole hope of a dying humanity and obliterate it. And I would contend that such an action is insanity of the greatest sort.
— Craig D. Lounsbrough, An Intimate Collision: Encounters with Life and Jesus
Seeking revenge is like reaching out for your own personal turmoil, it's never worth it. Righteousness will always come through Jesus Christ.
— Ron Baratono
But, as in the rest of Galilee, the profits firm this increase in the means of production disproportionately benefited the large landowners and moneylenders who resided outside Capernaum: the wealthy priests in Judea and new urban elite in Sepphoris and Tiberias. The majority of Capernaum's residents had been left behind by the new Galilean economy. It would be these people whom Jesus would specifically target - those who found themselves cast to the fingers of society, whose lives had been disrupted by the rapid social and economic shifts taking place throughout Galilee.
— Reza Aslan, Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth
Among Romans, crucifixion originated as a deterrence against revolt of slaves, probably as early as 200 B.C.E. By Jesus's time, it was the primary form of punishment for "inciting rebellion" (i.e., treason or sedition) the exact crime which Jesus was charged.[..] The punishment applied solely to non-Roman citizens. Roman citizens could be crucified, however, if the crime was so grave that it essentially forfeited their citizenship.
— Reza Aslan
The Romans may be known for many things, but humor isn't one of them. As usual, this interpretation relies on a prima facie reading of Jesus as a man with no political ambitions whatsoever. That is nonsense. All criminals sentenced to execution received a titulus so that everyone know the crime for which they were being punished and thus be deterred from taking part in similar activity. That the wording on Jesus's titulus was likely genuine is demonstrated by Joseph A. Fitzmeyer, who notes that "if [the titulus] were invented by Christians, they would have used Christos, for early Christians would scarcely have called their Lord 'King of the Jews'."[..] the notion that a no-name Jewish peasant would have received a personal audience with the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, who had probably signed a dozen execution orders that day alone, is so outlandish that it cannot be taken seriously.
— Reza Aslan, Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth
The common depiction of Jesus as an inveterate peacemaker who "loved his enemies" and "turned the other cheek" has been built mostly on his portrayal as an apolitical preacher with no interest in or, for that matter, knowledge of politically turbulent world in which he lived. That picture of Jesus has already been shown to be complete fabrication. The Jesus of history had a far more complex attitude toward violence. There is no evidence that Jesus himself openly advocated violent actions. But he was certainly no pacifist. "Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth. I have not come to bring peace, but sword" (Matthew 10:34 / Luke 12:51)
— Reza Aslan, Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth
When it comes to the heart and soul of the Jewish faith - the law of Moses - Jesus was adamant that his mission was not to abolish the law but to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17). That law made a clear distinction between relations among Jews and relations between Jews and foreigners. The oft-repeated commandment "love your neighbor as yourself" was originally given strictly in the context of internal relations within Israel. The verse in question reads: "You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people , but shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Leviticus 19:18). To the Israelites, as well to Jesus's community in first-century Palestine,"neighbor" meant one's fellow Jews. With regard to the treatment of foreigners and outsiders, oppressors and occupiers, however, the Torah could not be clearer: "You shall drive them out before you. You shall make no covenant with them and their gods. They shall not live in your land" (Exodus 23:31-33)
— Reza Aslan, Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth
Thank you, Jesus, for blindness that every once in a great while allows one of us to hit the target.
— John Edgar Wideman, Fanon
To be in Jesus' easy yoke is an easy way of doing hard things." (p. 202)
— Bill Gaultiere, Your Best Life In Jesus' Easy Yoke
Trying to be good enough to earn heaven is like trying to jump to Hawaii from the coast of California. Everyone looks like an idiot, some drown, some get three feet, some get ten feet, but no one even gets close to Hawaii.
— Jefferson Bethke, Jesus > Religion: Why He Is So Much Better Than Trying Harder, Doing More, and Being Good Enough
To me, many of what seemed to be Bible contradictions only pointed to the grace of Christ. It is not so much a rule book on how to be holy as it is a prophecy of the One who can make you holy. In this, I see God as the least bigoted of all in existence: While men always, in their hearts, delight in vengeance for being wronged, God is the only Being who wants to free you from the penalty of His own laws.
— Criss Jami, Healology
They bewailed innocence maltreated, goodness persecuted, love bleeding, meekness about to die; but my heart has a deeper and more bitter cause to mourn. My sins were the scourges which lacerated those blessed shoulders, and crowned with thorn those bleeding brows: my sins cried “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” and laid the cross upon His gracious shoulders. His being led forth to die is sorrow enough for one eternity: but my having been His murderer, is more, infinitely more, grief than one poor fountain of tears can express.
— Charles Haddon Spurgeon
The biggest difference between between religious people and gospel-loving people is that religious people see certain people as the enemies, when Jesus-followers see sin as the enemy.
— Jefferson Bethke, Jesus > Religion: Why He Is So Much Better Than Trying Harder, Doing More, and Being Good Enough
For a Christian to return to a Jewish territoriality is to deny fundamentally what has transpired in the incarnation. It is to deflect appropriate devotion to the new place where God has appeared in residence, namely, in his Son. This explains why the New Testament applies to the person of Christ religious language formerly devoted to the Holy Land or the Temple. He is the new spatiality, the new locale where God may be met.
— Gary M. Burge, Jesus and the Land: The New Testament Challenge to "Holy Land" Theology
Jesus has to become real to us. We need to court him and get to know him better. Go on some dates with the Lord.
— Sandra M. Michelle
There does not exist any more a holy mountain or a holy city or holy land which can be marked on a map. The reason is not that God’s holiness in space has suddenly become unworthy of Him or has changed into a heathen ubiquity. The reason is that all prophecy is now fulfilled in Jesus, and God’s holiness in space, like all God’s holiness, is now called and is Jesus of Nazareth.
— Karl Barth
The mountain of superstition has to be leveled for our people to taste a fresh breath of life in Christ Jesus.
— Sunday Adelaja
I will not keep quiet until a revolution is started to fight ignorance and superstitions in the church of the lord Jesus Christ and in the nation of my birth.
— Sunday Adelaja
To my shame, my nation and the church of the lord Jesus Christ in my continent is covered head to toe in this ignorance.
— Sunday Adelaja
I have no doubt that ignorance is the biggest obstacle facing the church of the lord Jesus Christ in this age
— Sunday Adelaja
So are demons forces that are totally external to us who seek to defy God? Are they just the shadow side of our own souls? Are they social constructions from a premodern era? Bottom line: Who cares? I don’t think demons are something human reason can put its finger on. Or that human faith can resolve. I just know that demons, whether they be addictions or actual evil spirits, are not what Jesus wants for us, since basically every time he encounters them he tells them to piss off.
— Nadia Bolz-Weber, Accidental Saints: Finding God in All the Wrong People
I have argued that the God of the Bible, and especially of the Gospels, can be understood only as God-in-public, and that methods of criticism designed to keep this rumor quiet need to be challenged by appropriate historical, theological, and political critique and replaced by methods that do justice to the reality of the texts and hence do justice - in the much fuller sense - in the public world that the Gospels demand to address.
— N.T. Wright
They’ve gave me many names,I’ve wore many masks and sat on their altars, They’ve called me Hitler, and Muhammad Ali,They’ve crucify me,And forced me to be like them, They resuscitated me, They forced me to live.I am God, and the Devil,The looser and the champion,I created all you see,I am God, and Muhammad AliI’m the one creating time, and eternity,I am God, I am Hitler,I am the king and the slave,I am life and death, and Muhammad Ali
— Quetzal
My generation is the most fatherless and insecure generation that's ever lived, and we are willing to sacrifice everything if we just can be told we are loved.If only we knew just how loved we really are.
— Jefferson Bethke, Jesus > Religion: Why He Is So Much Better Than Trying Harder, Doing More, and Being Good Enough
One of the most convicting things I have recently come to realize about Jesus is that He was never, not once, in a hurry.
— Mark Buchanan, Your God Is Too Safe: Rediscovering the Wonder of a God You Can't Control
And now without redemption all mankindMust have been lost, adjudged to death and hellBy doom severe, had not the Son of God,In whom the fullness dwells of love divine,His dearest mediation thus renewed.'Father, Thy word is passed, man shall find grace;And shall grace not find means, that finds her way,The speediest of Thy winged messengers,To visit all Thy creatures, and to allComes unprevented, unimplored, unsought,Happy for man, so coming; he her aidCan never seek, once dead in sins and lost;Atonement for himself or offering meet,Indebted and undone, hath none to bring:Behold Me then, Me for him, life for lifeI offer, on Me let Thine anger fall;Account Me man; I for his sake will leaveThy bosom, and this glory next to TheeFreely put off, and for him lastly dieWell pleased, on Me let death wreak all his rage;Under his gloomy power I shall not longLie vanquished; Thou hast given Me to possessLife in Myself forever, by Thee I live,Though now to death I yield, and am his dueAll that of Me can die, yet that debt paid,Thou wilt not leave Me in the loathsome graveHis prey, nor suffer My unspotted soulForever with corruption there to dwell;But I shall rise victorious, and subdueMy vanquisher, spoiled of his vaunted spoil;Death his death's wound shall then receive, and stoopInglorious, of his mortal sting disarmed.
— John Milton, Paradise Lost and Other Poems
Wherefore they understood the Holy Scripture rather literally than with understanding, and taste only the letter of it, still desiring many other books; and they get not to the marrow of it, because they have deprived themselves of the light, with which is found and expounded the Scripture; and they are annoyed and murmur, because they find much in it that appears to them gross and idiotic. And, nevertheless, they appear to be much illuminated in their knowledge of Scripture, as if they had studied it for long; and this is not remarkable, because they have of course the natural light from whence proceeds science. But because they have lost the supernatural light, infused by grace, they neither see nor know My Goodness, nor the grace of My servants. Wherefore, I saw to thee, that it is much better to go for counsel for the salvation of the soul, to a holy and upright conscience, than to a proud lettered man, learned in much science, because such a one can only offer what he has himself, and, because of his darkness, it may appear to thee, that, from what he says, the Scriptures offer darkness. The contrary wilt thou find with My servants, because they offer the light that is in them, with hunger and desire for the soul's salvation. This I have told thee, my sweetest daughter, that thou mightiest know the perfection of this unitive state, when the eye of the intellect is ravished by the fire of My charity, in which charity it receives the supernatural light. With this light the souls in the unitive state love Me, because love follows the intellect, and the more it knows the more can't it love. Thus the one feeds the other, and, with this light, they both arrive at the Eternal Vision of Me, where they see and taste Me, in Truth, the soul being separated from the body, as I told thee when I spoke to thee of the blissfulness that the soul received in Me. This state is most excellent, when the soul, being yet in the mortal body, tastes bliss with the immortals, and ofttimes she arrives at so great a union that she scarcely knows whether she be in the body or out of it; and tastes the earnest -money of Eternal Life, both because she is united with Me, and because her will is dead in Christ, by which death her union was made with Me, and in no other way could she perfectly have done so. Therefore do they taste life eternal deprived of the hell of their own will, which gives to man the earnest-money of damnation, if he yield to it.
— Catherine of Siena, The Dialogue of Saint Catherine of Siena
...it takes great humility to find oneself unjustly condemned and be silent, and to do this is to imitate the Lord Who set us free from all our sins. ... The truly humble person will have a genuine desire to be thought little of, and persecuted, and condemned unjustly, even in serious matters. ... It is a great help to meditate upon the great gain which in any case this is bound to bring us, and to realize how, properly speaking, we can never be blamed unjustly, since we are always full of faults, and a just man falls seven times a day, so that it would be a falsehood for us to say we have no sin. If, then, we are not to blame for the thing that we are accused of, we are never wholly without blame in the way that our good Jesus was. ... Thou knowest, my Good, that if there is anything good in me it comes from no other hands than Thine own. For what is it to Thee, Lord, to give much instead of little? True, I do not deserve it, but neither have I deserved the favors which Thou hast shown me already. Can it be that I should wish a thing so evil as myself to be thought well of by anyone, when they have said such wicked things of Thee, Who art good above all other good? ... Do Thou give me light and make me truly to desire that all should hate me, since I have so often let Thee, Who hast loved me with such faithfulness. ... What does it matter to us if we are blamed by them all, provided we are without blame in the sight of the Lord? ...meditate upon what is real and upon what is not. ... Do you suppose, ... that, if you do not make excuses for yourself, there will not be someone else who will defend you? Remember how the Lord took the Magdalen's part in the Pharisee's house and also when her sister blamed her. He will not treat you as rigorously as He treated Himself: it was not until He was on the Cross that He had even a thief to defend Him. His Majesty, then, will put it into somebody's mind to defend you; if He does not, it will be because there is no need. ...be glad when you are blamed, and in due time you will see what profit you experience in your souls. For it is in this way that you will begin to gain freedom; soon you will not care if they speak ill or well of you; it will seem like someone else's business. ... So here: it becomes such a habit with us not to reply that it seems as if they are not addressing us at all. This may seem impossible to those of us who are very sensitive and not capable of great mortification. It is indeed difficult at first, but I know that, with the Lord's help, the gradual attainment of this freedom, and of renunciation and self-detachment, is quite possible.
— Teresa of Ávila
And then this whole deal of new gods, old gods," said his friend. "You ask me, I welcome new gods. Bring the on. The god of guns. The god of bombs. All the gods of ignorance and intolerance, of self-righteousness, idiocy and blame. All the stuff they try and land me with. Take a lot of the weight off my shoulders.
— Neil Gaiman
There is much in our Lord's pantry that will satisfy his children, and much wine in his cellar that will quench all their thirst. Hunger for him until he fills you. He is pleased with the importunity of hungry souls. If he delays, do not go away, but fall a-swoon at his feet. Every day we may see some new thing in Christ. His love has neither brim nor bottom. How blessed are we to enjoy this invaluable treasure, the love of Christ; or rather allow ourselves to be mastered and subdued in his love, so that Christ is our all, and all other things are nothing. O that we might be ready for the time our Lord's wind and tide call for us! There are infinite plies in his love that the saint will never be able to unfold. I urge upon you a nearer and growing communion with Christ. There are curtains to be drawn back in Christ that we have never seen. There are new foldings of love in him. Dig deep, sweat, labour, and take pains for him, and set by as much time in the day for him as you can; he will be won with labour. Live on Christ's love. Christ's love is so kingly, that it will not wait until tomorrow, it must have a throne all alone in your soul. It is our folly to divide our narrow and little love. It is best to give it all to Christ. Lay no more on the earthly, than it can carry. Lay your soul and your weights upon God; make him your only and best-beloved. Your errand in this life is to make sure an eternity of glory for your soul, and to match your soul with Christ. Your love, if it could be more than all the love of angels in one, would be Christ's due. Look up to him and love him. O, love and live! My counsel is, that you come out and leave the multitude, and let Christ have your company. Let those who love this present world have it, but Christ is a more worthy and noble portion; blessed are those who have him.
— Samuel Rutherford
What insanity propels me to incessantly invest in a world that never ceases to fail me? And what ignorance bewitches me so thoroughly that it keeps me from investing in a God who never ceases to be unfailing?
— Craig D. Lounsbrough, Flecks of Gold on a Path of Stone: Simple Truths for Profound Living
But I will finally be with Jesus. That is my one consolation, and it is enough to make death almost no worry at all.
— Therese May, When Justice Prevails
In this world we like to follow the plot, to think we know what is happening, what is coming next. But these great quantum movies are like spiritual experiences. They start to dismantle the world as we know it, and we find ourselves knowing less and less about what is happening. We do not have to know; there is a Presence behind all this that knows what It is doing. Instead of feeling nervous when things start to dismantle and fall apart, we can accept that we personally do not know, and see it as a good thing.
— David Hoffmeister, Quantum Forgiveness: Physics, Meet Jesus
At this moment God might not necessarily be a necessity, but know that His absence will of necessity eventually result in His necessity.
— Craig D. Lounsbrough, An Intimate Collision: Encounters with Life and Jesus
The Holy Spirit has to convince us that reality is better than illusions and that eternity is better than linear time. It is actually beyond one being better than the other; it is a case of there being no comparison. One is real and one is not. If we are sincerely interested in experiencing True Happiness, if we really want to be in a miraculous state of mind, all it takes is the willingness to start to see the miracle offers us everything.
— David Hoffmeister, Quantum Forgiveness: Physics, Meet Jesus
With every rising of the sun, the Son's glory rises upon us.
— Steven Chopade
Seeing Jesus prolongs your life. Seeing Jesus keeps you healthy. Seeing Jesus makes you strong.
— Paul Silway
The basic fact is that Christianity as it was born in the mind of this Jewish thinker and teacher appears as a technique of survival for the oppressed. That it became, through the intervening years, a religion of the powerful and the dominant, used sometimes as an instrument of oppression, must not tempt us into believing that it was thus in the mind and life of Jesus. 'In him was life; and the life was the light of men.' Wherever his spirit appears, the oppressed gather fresh courage; for he announced the good news that fear, hypocrisy, and hatred, the three hounds of hell that track the trail of the disinherited, need have no dominion over them.
— Howard Thurman