Consolation in Existing Churches

"Those who seek consolation in existing churches often pay for their peace of mind with a tacit agreement to ignore a great deal of what is known about the way the world works."

~ Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, 1990

Clergy and the Rest of the Nation

"It will, I believe, be everywhere found, that as the clergy are, or are not what they ought to be, so are the rest of the nation."

~ Jane Austen (1775 - 1817), Mansfield Park

Quotations by Author Randy K. Milholland

Quotations by Author Randy K. Milholland
Webcomic pioneer

Sometimes old things need to go away. That way, we have room for the new things that come into our lives.
~ Randy K. Milholland, Something Positive webcomic, 09-17-05

Never confuse the faith with the supposedly faithful.
~ Randy K. Milholland, Something Positive Comic, 10-19-06

The only time anyone's admitted they were a Christian before was when they were busy telling me why they're better than me.
~ Randy K. Milholland, Something Positive Comic, 10-19-06

We all have a few failures under our belt. It's what makes us ready for the successes.
~ Randy K. Milholland, Midnight Macabre, 10-18-05

In the end, we decide if we're remembered for what happened to us or for what we did with it.
~ Randy K. Milholland, Something Positive Comic, 06-29-06

In the end, you'll know which people really love you. They're the ones who see you for who you are and, no matter what, always find a way to be at your side.
~ Randy K. Milholland, Something Positive Comic, 08-23-05

Things aren't magically better if that's what you're hoping for. It's not that simple.
~ Randy K. Milholland, Something Positive Comic, 02-11-05

Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing.
~ Randy K. Milholland, Something Positive Comic, 07-03-05

It's a lot like nature. You only have as many animals as the ecosystem can support and you only have as many friends as you can tolerate the bitching of.
~ Randy K. Milholland, Something Positive Comic, 08-16-05

Sometimes people do things that hurt and it's not because they mean to. They just do. It doesn't necessarily have anything to do with you, but you end up hurt because of it.
~ Randy K. Milholland, Something Positive Comic, 08-23-05

It hurts to find out that what you wanted doesn't match what you dreamed it would be.
~ Randy K. Milholland, Something Positive Comic, 09-07-04

The only thing that lasts longer than a friend's love is the stupidity that keeps us from knowing any better.
~ Randy K. Milholland, Something Positive Comic, 09-07-06

The shortest verse in the Bible is 'Jesus wept.' The only thing wrong with it is the past tense.
~ Randy K. Milholland, Something Positive Comic, 10-10-06

Slow and steady wins the race, then wastes no time grinding salt-caked glass in your open wounds.
~ Randy K. Milholland, Something Positive Comic, 11-06-05

Sometimes the measure of friendship isn't your ability to not harm but your capacity to forgive the things done to you and ask forgiveness for your own mistakes.
~ Randy K. Milholland, Something Positive Comic, 11-07-05

There are people I know who won't hurt me. I call them corpses.
~ Randy K. Milholland, Something Positive Comic, 12-06-05

Could you imagine how horrible things would be if we always told others how we felt? Life would be intolerably bearable.
~ Randy K. Milholland, Something Positive Comic, 12-09-05

Why do we have to wait for special moments to say nice things or tell people we care about them?
~ Randy K. Milholland, Something Positive Comic, 12-09-05

The only way to be truly misogynistic is to be a woman.
~ Randy K. Milholland, Something Positive webcomic, 11-11-04

It's not a matter of whether or not someone's watching over you. It's just a question of their intentions.
~ Randy K. Milholland, Something Positive, 03-24-07

Success only hurts the first time.
~ Randy K. Milholland, Something Positive, 04-01-2006

I barely trust established sources of information. I have a hard time finding [Wikipedia], an encyclopedia that anyone can alter, to be a safe way to learn about anything except how many idiots think their opinions are a suitable substitute for facts.
~ Randy K. Milholland, Something Positive, 10-31-2006

I guess that's how death works. It doesn't matter if we're ready or not. It just happens.
~ Randy K. Milholland, Something Positive, 11-29-2006

Forgiveness is one of the many horrible side effects of loving someone.
~ Randy K. Milholland, Something Positive, 12-29-05

www.quotationspage.com/

Literary Equivalent

"I am the literary equivalent of a Big Mac and Fries."

~ Stephen King

Jesus of Nazareth - Introduction

from Jesus of Nazareth,
Joseph Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI

(underlining added)

Introduction

"Religions do not aim merely to answer the question about our provenance; all religions try in one way or another to lift the veil of the future. They seem important precisely because they impart knowledge about what is to come, and so show man the path he has to take to avoid coming to grief." (p. 2)

"[Jesus] shows us the face of God, and in so doing he shows us the path that we have to take." (p. 4)

Jesus, the new Moses promised in Deut. 18:15, knows God "face to face":

"Jesus is only able to speak about the Father in the way he does because he is the Son, because of his filial communion with the Father. The Christological dimension--in other words, the mystery of the Son as revealer of the Father--is present in everything Jesus says and does. ...
The disciple who walks with Jesus is thus caught up with him into communion with God. And that is what redemption means: this stepping beyond the limits of human nature, which had been there as a possibility and an expectation in man, God's image and likeness, since the moment of creation." (p. 7-8)

The great Christ-hymn of the Letter to the Philippians

"As early as twenty or so years after Jesus' death, the great Christ-hymn of the Letter to the Philippians (cf. Phil 2:6-11) offers us a fully developed Christology stating that Jesus was equal to God..." (p. xxii)

Philippians 2:5-15

5 Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, 7 but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, 8 he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death-- even death on a cross.

9 Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

12 Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence, but much more now in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

14 Do all things without murmuring and arguing, 15 so that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, in which you shine like stars in the world.

Women, wine and song

"Who loves not women, wine and song
remains a fool his whole life long."

~ Martin Luther

Prayer used by Mohandas Gandhi

a prayer/poem that Gandhi is said to have often recited to himself:

Let hundreds like me perish, but let Truth prevail.
Let us not reduce the standards of Truth
even by a hair's breadth
for judging erring mortals like myself.

In judging myself I shall try to be as harsh as truth,
as I want others also to be.
Measuring myself by that standard I must exclaim with Surdas*:

" Where is there a wretch
So wicked and loathsome as I?
I have forsaken my Maker,
So faithless have I been.

~ attributed to Mohandas K. Gandhi

*Surdas - a 14th century Indian poet/ Saint /mystic/ Holy man

Prayer for Healing - Gloria Copeland

quoted from And Jesus healed them all
by Gloria Copeland
1981

p. 35-36

T.L. Osborn says, “Any person can turn any promise of God into the power of God equal to what it promises by believing that promise enough to act upon it.” If you believe this Gospel that I’ve shared with you, NOW is the time to act.
As you proclaim your freedom in Jesus’ name, give action to the Word that you have heard.
If you are not born again, make Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior.
If you are blind, look and see.
If you are paralyzed, move.
If you are deaf, hear.
If you are lame, leap up and walk.
If there is something that you could not do before, DO IT NOW!
Say this out loud with all boldness:
“The Gospel that I have heard is the power of God unto salvation. I confess Jesus Christ as Lord over my life: spirit, soul, and body. I receive the power of God to make me sound, whole, delivered, saved, healed, now. I act on the Word of God and I receive the power of God.
“Sickness, disease, pain, I resist you in the name of Jesus. You are not the will of God. I enforce the Word of God on you. I will not tolerate you in my life. Leave my presence. I will never allow you back.
"My days of sickness and disease are over! I am the healed. I am the saved. The power of sickness has been forever broken over my life.
“Jesus bore my sickness, weakness and pain. And I am forever free. Sickness shall no longer lord it over me. Sin shall no longer lord it over me. Fear shall no longer lord it over me. Satan shall no longer lord it over me. I have been redeemed from the curse of the law. I proclaim my freedom in Jesus’ name.
“TODAY the Gospel is the power of God to me unto salvation. I receive the Gospel. I act on the Gospel. I am made whole in Jesus’ name!”
Act!
Praise. Move. See. Hear.
Straighten up! Be delivered! Be free. Be sound.
Be healed in the name of Jesus!

~ Gloria Copeland

What I Accomplished

Why Angelina Jolie says she doesn't care if people mock her for being so outspoken:

"I'm gonna be dead one day, and what people say about me is gonna be what I accomplished and what I did in my life," and not gossip. "I have a lot I want to do in this world."

TV interview on the Today show and Dateline NBC
May 23, 2007

Emotional and Mental Stability Factors

Peace Of Mind

Duke University did a study on “peace of mind.” Factors found to contribute greatly to emotional and mental stability are:

1. The absence of suspicion and resentment. Nursing a grudge was a major factor in unhappiness.
2. Not living in the past. An unwholesome preoccupation with old mistakes and failures leads to depression.
3. Not wasting time and energy fighting conditions you cannot change. Cooperate with life, instead of trying to run away from it.
4. Force yourself to stay involved with the living world. Resist the temptation to withdraw and become reclusive during periods of emotional stress.
5. Refuse to indulge in self-pity when life hands you a raw deal. Accept the fact that nobody gets through life without some sorrow and misfortune.
6. Cultivate the old-fashioned virtues—love, humor, compassion and loyalty
7. Do not expect too much of yourself. When there is too wide a gap between self-expectation and your ability to meet the goals you have set, feelings of inadequacy are inevitable.
8. Find something bigger than yourself to believe in. Self-centered egotistical people score lowest in any test for measuring happiness.

~ Source unknown

The Hope of Salvation for Infants Who Die Without Being Baptized

According to the Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox traditions
http://beta1.catholicculture.org/library/view.cfm?recnum=7529 as of 5/20/07 (bold added)

by International Theological Commission
"Communion and Stewardship: Human Persons Created in the Image of God," Vatican City, 2005 (Roman Catholic Church)

Introduction
1. St. Peter encourages Christians to be always ready to give an account of the hope that is in them (cf. 1 Pt 3:15-16). (1) This document deals with the hope that Christians can have for the salvation of unbaptized infants who die. It indicates how such a hope has developed in recent decades and what its grounds are so as to enable an account of that hope to be given.
. . .

1.2. The Greek Fathers

11. Very few Greek fathers dealt with the destiny of infants who die without baptism because there was no controversy about this issue in the East. Furthermore, they had a different view of the present condition of humanity.
For the Greek fathers, as the consequence of Adam’s sin, human beings inherited corruption, passibility and mortality, from which they could be restored by a process of deification made possible through the redemptive work of Christ. The idea of an inheritance of sin or guilt — common in Western tradition — was foreign to this perspective since in their view sin could only be a free, personal act.(11) Hence, not many Greek fathers explicitly deal with the problem of the salvation of unbaptized children.

passibility definition inserted by blogger:
American Heritage Dictionary
pas·si·ble adj. Capable of feeling or suffering; sensitive: a passible type of personality. [Middle English, from Old French, from Latin passibilis, from Latin passus, past participle of patī, to suffer; see pē(i)- in Indo-European roots.]

They do, however, discuss the status or situation — but not the place — of these infants after their death. In this regard the main problem they face is the tension between God's universal salvific will and the teaching of the Gospel about the necessity of baptism. Pseudo-Athanasius says clearly that an unbaptized person cannot enter the kingdom of God. He also asserts that unbaptized children will not enter the kingdom but neither will they be lost, for they have not sinned. (12)

Anastasius of Sinai expresses this even more clearly: For him, unbaptized children do not go to Gehenna. But he is not able to say more; he does not express an opinion about where they do go, but leaves their destiny to God's judgment.(13)

12. Alone among the Greek fathers, Gregory of Nyssa wrote a work specifically on the destiny of infants who die, De infantibus praemature abreptis libellum. (14) The anguish of the church appears in the questions he puts to himself: The destiny of these infants is a mystery, "something much greater than the human mind can grasp."(15) He expresses his opinion in relation to virtue and its reward; in his view there is no reason for God to grant what is hoped for as a reward. Virtue is not worth anything if those who depart this life prematurely without having practiced virtue are immediately welcomed into blessedness.
Continuing along this line, Gregory asks, "What will happen to the one who finishes his life at a tender age, who has done nothing, bad or good? Is he worthy of a reward?"(16) He answers, "The hoped for blessedness belongs to human beings by nature, and it is called a reward only in a certain sense."(17)

Enjoyment of true life (zoe and not bios) corresponds to human nature and is possessed in the degree that virtue is practiced. Since the innocent infant does not need purification from personal sins, he shares in this life corresponding to his nature in a sort of regular progress, according to his capacity. Gregory of Nyssa distinguishes between the destiny of infants and that of adults who lived a virtuous life. "The premature death of newborn infants does not provide a basis for the presupposition that they will suffer torments or that they will be in the same state as those who have been purified in this life by all the virtues."(18)
Finally, he offers this perspective for the reflection of the church: "Apostolic contemplation fortifies our inquiry, for the One who has done everything well, with wisdom (Ps 104:24), is able to bring good out of evil."(19)

13. Gregory of Nazianzus does not write about the place and status after death of infants who die without sacramental baptism, but he enlarges the subject with another consideration. He writes, namely, that these children receive neither praise nor punishment from the just judge because they have suffered injury rather than provoked it. "The one who does not deserve punishment is not thereby worthy of praise, and the one who does not deserve praise is not thereby deserving of punishment."(20)

The profound teaching of the Greek fathers can be summarized in the opinion of Anastasius of Sinai: "It would not be fitting to probe God's judgments with one's hands."(21)

14. On the one hand, these Greek fathers teach that children who die without baptism do not suffer eternal damnation, though they do not attain the same state as those who have been baptized. On the other hand, they do not explain what their state is like or where they go. In this matter the Greek fathers display their characteristic apophatic sensitivity.

apophatic definition inserted by blogger:
Webster's New Millennium™ Dictionary of English
Main Entry: apophatic
Part of Speech: adj
Definition: pertaining to a knowledge of God obtained through negation
Etymology: Gk. apophatikos
Usage: theology
WordNet
Apophatic adjective - of or relating to the belief that God can be known to humans
only in terms of what He is not (such as 'God is unknowable')
WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University.

ENDNOTES
1 All scriptural references in this document are to the Revised Standard Version of the Bible (Catholic edition).
2 Cf. International Theological Commission, "Communion and Stewardship: Human Persons Created in the Image of God," Vatican City, 2005.
11 Cf. D. Weaver, "The Exegesis of Romans 5:12 Among the Greek Fathers and Its Implication for the Doctrine of Original Sin: The 5th-12th Centuries," St. Vladimir's Theological Quarterly 29 (1985), 133-159, 231-257.
12 (Pseudo-)Athanasius, Quaestiones ad Antiochum Ducem, qn. 101 (Patrologia Cursus Completa, Series Graeca PGI, LP Migne (ed.), 28, 660C). Likewise qn. 115 (PG 28, 672A).
13 Anastasius of Sinai, Quaestiones et Responsiones, qn. 81 (PG 89, 709C).
14 De Infantibus Praemature Abreptis Libellum, ab H. Polack ad editionem praeparatum in Colloquio Leidensi testimonies instructum renovatis curis recensitum edendum curavit Hadwiga Horner, in I.K. Downing, I.A. McDonough, H. Homer (ed. cur.), Gregorii Nysseni Opera Dogmatica Minora, Part II, W. Jaeger, H. Langerbeck, H. Homer (eds.), Gregorii Nysseni Opera, Volume III, Part II, Leiden, New York, Copenhagen, Cologne 1987, 65-97.
15 Ibid., 70.
16 Ibid., 81-82.
17 Ibid., 83.
18 Ibid., 96.
19 Ibid., 97.
20 Gregory of Nazianzus, Oratio XL — In Sanctum Baptisma, 23 (PG 36,389B-C).
21 Anastasius of Sinai, Quaestiones et Responsiones, qn. 81 (PG 89, 709C).

Making Poetry -- by Frances Ridley Havergal

Poems By Frances Ridley Havergal

Making Poetry
…
Will you seek it? Will you brave it?
‘Tis a strange and solemn thing,
Learning long before your teaching,
Listening long before your preaching,
Suffering before you sing.
And the songs that echo longest,
Deepest, fullest, truest, strongest,
With your life-blood you will write.
…

http://books.google.com


Frances Ridley Havergal 1836-1879

Francis Ridley Havergal was born December14, 1836, in Astley, England and died 3 June 1879, in Oystermouth, Glamorganshire, Wales. The youngest child of a pastor, she is recognized as one of the most gifted and popular female hymn-writers in England in the last half of the nineteenth century. She was an avid student of the Bible and committed to memory the entire New Testament, the Psalms, Isaiah, and the minor prophets. Her Poetical Works were published in 1884.
Julian's Dictionary of Hymnology says, "her poems are permeated with the fragrance of her passionate love of Jesus."

http://hymnuts.luthersem.edu/hcompan/writers/fhavrgal.htm

Quotes from Andre Gide

Art is a collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does the better.

Be faithful to that which exists within yourself.

Everything has been said before, but since nobody listens we have to keep going back and beginning all over again.

In hell there is no other punishment than to begin over and over again the tasks left unfinished in your lifetime.

It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for something you are not.

It is easier to lead men to combat, stirring up their passion, than to restrain them and direct them toward the patient labors of peace.

It is not always by plugging away at a difficulty and sticking to it that one overcomes it; often it is by working on the one next to it. Some things and some people have to be approached obliquely, at an angle.

It is only in adventure that some people succeed in knowing themselves - in finding themselves.

Know thyself! A maxim as pernicious as it is ugly. Whoever observes himself arrests his own development. A caterpillar who wanted to know itself well would never become a butterfly.

Nothing prevents happiness like the memory of happiness.

One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.

The most decisive actions of life are most often unconsidered actions.

There are very few monsters who warrant the fear we have of them.

Through loyalty to the past, our mind refuses to realize that tomorrow's joy is possible only if today's makes way for it; that each wave owes the beauty of its line only to the withdrawal of the preceding one.

What another would have done as well as you, do not do it. What another would have said as well as you, do not say it; what another would have written as well, do not write it. Be faithful to that which exists nowhere but in yourself-and thus make yourself indispensable.

Work and struggle and never accept an evil that you can change.

~ Andre Gide, French Novelist (1869-1951)

Snarky Shock

Before you can work effectively in the church, you have to overcome Snarky Shock. The people in church are just as stupid and snarky as everybody else, including you.

~ Truthful Grace

You Attract What You Expect

You attract what you expect.

Mothers and Grief

A mother experiences more than one death, even though she herself will only die once. She fears for her husband; she fears for her children; again she fears for the women and children who belong to her children. … For each of these—whether for loss of possessions, bodily illness, or undesired misfortune—she mourns and grieves no less than those who suffer.

~ John Chrysostom (349–407)

Mother Teresa quotes

Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.

Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat.

Do not think that love, in order to be genuine, has to be extraordinary. What we need is to love without getting tired.

Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.

Each one of them is Jesus in disguise.

Everybody today seems to be in such a terrible rush, anxious for greater developments and greater riches and so on, so that children have very little time for their parents. Parents have very little time for each other, and in the home begins the disruption of peace of the world.

Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.

Good works are links that form a chain of love.

I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world.

I do not pray for success, I ask for faithfulness.

I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.

I know God will not give me anything I can't handle. I just wish that He didn't trust me so much.

I think I'm more difficult than critical.

I try to give to the poor people for love what the rich could get for money. No, I wouldn't touch a leper for a thousand pounds; yet I willingly cure him for the love of God.

I want you to be concerned about your next door neighbor. Do you know your next door neighbor?

If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.

If we want a love message to be heard, it has got to be sent out. To keep a lamp burning, we have to keep putting oil in it.

If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one.

If you judge people, you have no time to love them.

If you want a love message to be heard, it has got to be sent out. To keep a lamp burning, we have to keep putting oil in it.

In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love.

Intense love does not measure, it just gives.

It is a kingly act to assist the fallen.

It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish.

It is easy to love the people far away. It is not always easy to love those close to us. It is easier to give a cup of rice to relieve hunger than to relieve the loneliness and pain of someone unloved in our own home. Bring love into your home for this is where our love for each other must start.

It is impossible to walk rapidly and be unhappy.

It is not the magnitude of our actions but the amount of love that is put into them that matters.

Jesus said love one another. He didn't say love the whole world.

Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls.

Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.

Let us always meet each other with smile, for the smile is the beginning of love.

Let us more and more insist on raising funds of love, of kindness, of understanding, of peace. Money will come if we seek first the Kingdom of God - the rest will be given.

Let us not be satisfied with just giving money. Money is not enough, money can be got, but they need your hearts to love them. So, spread your love everywhere you go.

Let us touch the dying, the poor, the lonely and the unwanted according to the graces we have received and let us not be ashamed or slow to do the humble work.

Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty.

Loneliness is the most terrible poverty.

Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do... but how much love we put in that action.

Love begins by taking care of the closest ones - the ones at home.

Love is a fruit in season at all times, and within reach of every hand.

Many people mistake our work for our vocation. Our vocation is the love of Jesus.

One of the greatest diseases is to be nobody to anybody.

Our life of poverty is as necessary as the work itself. Only in heaven will we see how much we owe to the poor for helping us to love God better because of them.

Peace begins with a smile.

So many signatures for such a small heart.

Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.

Sweetest Lord, make me appreciative of the dignity of my high vocation, and its many responsibilities. Never permit me to disgrace it by giving way to coldness, unkindness, or impatience.

The biggest disease today is not leprosy or tuberculosis, but rather the feeling of being unwanted.

The greatest destroyer of peace is abortion because if a mother can kill her own child, what is left for me to kill you and you to kill me? There is nothing between.

The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.

The miracle is not that we do this work, but that we are happy to do it.

The most terrible poverty is loneliness and the feeling of being unloved.

The success of love is in the loving - it is not in the result of loving. Of course it is natural in love to want the best for the other person, but whether it turns out that way or not does not determine the value of what we have done.

There are no great things, only small things with great love. Happy are those.

There is always the danger that we may just do the work for the sake of the work. This is where the respect and the love and the devotion come in - that we do it to God, to Christ, and that's why we try to do it as beautifully as possible.

There is more hunger in the world for love and appreciation in this world than for bread.

There must be a reason why some people can afford to live well. They must have worked for it. I only feel angry when I see waste. When I see people throwing away things that we could use.

There should be less talk; a preaching point is not a meeting point. What do you do then? Take a broom and clean someone's house. That says enough.

We are all pencils in the hand of God.

We can do no great things, only small things with great love.

We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature - trees, flowers, grass- grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence... We need silence to be able to touch souls.

We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.

We shall never know all the good that a simple smile can do.

We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty.

Words which do not give the light of Christ increase the darkness.

~ Mother Teresa (1910-1997)
www.brainyquote.com

Doing the Impossible for the Ungrateful

We, the unwilling, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful.
We have done so much, for so long, with so little, we are now qualified to do anything with nothing.

~ author unknown

Poor Conscience

"The rich world has a poor conscience."

~ Christopher Hitchens, journalist

John Calvin quotes

A dog barks when his master is attacked. I would be a coward if I saw that God's truth is attacked and yet would remain silent.

All the blessings we enjoy are Divine deposits, committed to our trust on this condition, that they should be dispensed for the benefit of our neighbors.

Augustine does not disagree with this when he teaches that it is a faculty of the reason and the will to choose good with the assistance of grace; evil, when grace is absent.

Build a man a fire and he will be warm for a day; set him on fire and he will be warm for the rest of his life.

Every one of us is, even from his mother's womb, a master craftsman of idols.

For there is no one so great or mighty that he can avoid the misery that will rise up against him when he resists and strives against God.

God preordained, for his own glory and the display of His attributes of mercy and justice, a part of the human race, without any merit of their own, to eternal salvation, and another part, in just punishment of their sin, to eternal damnation.

God tolerates even our stammering, and pardons our ignorance whenever something inadvertently escapes us - as, indeed, without this mercy there would be no freedom to pray.

However many blessings we expect from God, His infinite liberality will always exceed all our wishes and our thoughts.

I consider looseness with words no less of a defect than looseness of the bowels.

Is it faith to understand nothing, and merely submit your convictions implicitly to the Church?

Knowledge of the sciences is so much smoke apart from the heavenly science of Christ.

Man's mind is like a store of idolatry and superstition; so much so that if a man believes his own mind it is certain that he will forsake God and forge some idol in his own brain.

No man is excluded from calling upon God, the gate of salvation is set open unto all men: neither is there any other thing which keepeth us back from entering in, save only our own unbelief.

Seeing that a Pilot steers the ship in which we sail, who will never allow us to perish even in the midst of shipwrecks, there is no reason why our minds should be overwhelmed with fear and overcome with weariness.

The torture of a bad conscience is the hell of a living soul.

There is no work, however vile or sordid, that does not glisten before God.

There is no worse screen to block out the Spirit than confidence in our own intelligence.

There is not one blade of grass, there is no color in this world that is not intended to make us rejoice.

We must remember that Satan has his miracles, too.

Yet consider now, whether women are not quite past sense and reason, when they want to rule over men.

You must submit to supreme suffering in order to discover the completion of joy.

~ John Calvin, French Theologian (1509-1564)
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Martin Luther quotes

All who call on God in true faith, earnestly from the heart, will certainly be heard, and will receive what they have asked and desired.

Be a sinner and sin strongly, but more strongly have faith and rejoice in Christ.

Be thou comforted, little dog, Thou too in Resurrection shall have a little golden tail.

Blood alone moves the wheels of history.

Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.

Every man must do two things alone; he must do his own believing and his own dying.

Everything that is done in the world is done by hope.

Faith is a living and unshakable confidence, a belief in the grace of God so assured that a man would die a thousand deaths for its sake.

Faith is a living, daring confidence in God's grace, so sure and certain that a man could stake his life on it a thousand times.

Faith is permitting ourselves to be seized by the things we do not see.

Faith must trample under foot all reason, sense, and understanding.

First I shake the whole Apple tree, that the ripest might fall. Then I climb the tree and shake each limb, and then each branch and then each twig, and then I look under each leaf.

For in the true nature of things, if we rightly consider, every green tree is far more glorious than if it were made of gold and silver.

For where God built a church, there the Devil would also build a chapel.

Forgiveness is God's command.

God writes the Gospel not in the Bible alone, but also on trees, and in the flowers and clouds and stars.

God writes the gospel not in the Bible alone, but on trees, and flowers, and clouds, and stars.

Grant that I may not pray alone with the mouth; help me that I may pray from the depths of my heart.

Here I stand; I can do no other. God help me. Amen!

How soon not now becomes never.

I am afraid that the schools will prove the very gates of hell, unless they diligently labor in explaining the Holy Scriptures and engraving them in the heart of the youth.

I am more afraid of my own heart than of the pope and all his cardinals. I have within me the great pope, Self.

I feel much freer now that I am certain the pope is the Antichrist.

I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God's hands, that I still possess.

I more fear what is within me than what comes from without.

I shall never be a heretic; I may err in dispute, but I do not wish to decide anything finally; on the other hand, I am not bound by the opinions of men.

If he have faith, the believer cannot be restrained. He betrays himself. He breaks out. He confesses and teaches this gospel to the people at the risk of life itself.

If I am not allowed to laugh in heaven, I don't want to go there.

If you are not allowed to laugh in heaven, I don't want to go there.

If you young fellows were wise, the devil couldn't do anything to you, but since you aren't wise, you need us who are old.

Justice is a temporary thing that must at last come to an end; but the conscience is eternal and will never die.

Let the wife make the husband glad to come home, and let him make her sorry to see him leave.

Make sure to send a lazy man the angel of death.

Music is the art of the prophets and the gift of God.

My heart, which is so full to overflowing, has often been solaced and refreshed by music when sick and weary.

Next to the Word of God, the noble art of music is the greatest treasure in the world.

Nothing good ever comes of violence.

Our Lord has written the promise of resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in springtime.

Peace if possible, truth at all costs.

Peace is more important than all justice; and peace was not made for the sake of justice, but justice for the sake of peace.

People must have righteous principals in the first, and then they will not fail to perform virtuous actions.

Pray, and let God worry.

Prayer is a strong wall and fortress of the church; it is a goodly Christian weapon.

Reason is a whore, the greatest enemy that faith has.

Reason is the enemy of faith.

Some plague the people with too long sermons; for the faculty of listening is a tender thing, and soon becomes weary and satiated.

Superstition, idolatry, and hypocrisy have ample wages, but truth goes a-begging.

The Bible is the cradle wherein Christ is laid.

The fewer the words, the better the prayer.

The God of this world is riches, pleasure and pride.

The human heart is like a ship on a stormy sea driven about by winds blowing from all four corners of heaven.

The Lord commonly gives riches to foolish people, to whom he gives nothing else.

The man who has the will to undergo all labor may win to any good.

The multitude of books is a great evil. There is no limit to this fever for writing.

The reproduction of mankind is a great marvel and mystery. Had God consulted me in the matter, I should have advised him to continue the generation of the species by fashioning them out of clay.

The will is a beast of burden. If God mounts it, it wishes and goes as God wills; if Satan mounts it, it wishes and goes as Satan wills; Nor can it choose its rider... the riders contend for its possession.

There is no more lovely, friendly and charming relationship, communion or company than a good marriage.

To gather with God's people in united adoration of the Father is as necessary to the Christian life as prayer.

War is the greatest plague that can affect humanity; it destroys religion, it destroys states, it destroys families. Any scourge is preferable to it.

War is the greatest plague that can afflict humanity, it destroys religion, it destroys states, it destroys families. Any scourge is preferable to it.

Whatever your heart clings to and confides in, that is really your God.

When I am angry I can pray well and preach well.

When schools flourish, all flourishes.

Who loves not women, wine and song remains a fool his whole life long.

You are not only responsible for what you say, but also for what you do not say.

You should not believe your conscience and your feelings more than the word which the Lord who receives sinners preaches to you.

~ Martin Luther, German Theologian (1483-1546)
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Carnivorous Sheep

The only place on earth you will find carnivorous sheep is in the church.

~ Jungle Jim, Australia (blog name)