Unspoken thought of a grieving parent

"If you mention my child’s name, I may cry. But if you don’t mention it, you will break my heart."
~ author unknown

“Resentment is like taking poison and hoping the other person dies.”

quotes:

“Resentment is like taking poison and hoping the other person dies.”
~ St. Augustine (354-430)

“No Scientific Christian ever considers hatred or execration to be ‘justifiable’ in any circumstances, but whatever your opinion about that might be, there is no question about its practical consequences to you. You might as well swallow a dose of prussic acid in two gulps, and think to protect yourself by saying, ‘This one is for Robespierre; and this one for the Bristol murderer.’ You will hardly have any doubt as to who will receive the benefit of the poison.”
~ The Sermon on the Mount (1938) by Emmet Fox—a text that later became popular with Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), where the saying was disseminated widely.

In 2003, American actress and author Carrie Fisher wrote: “She’d worked so hard to turn her boiling grudge against Leland down to a low-simmering ache. It was best put by what she’d heard someone in AA say a few years back: ‘Resentment is like drinking a poison and then waiting for the other person to die.’”
Fisher repeated the quote in 2008 in her book Wishful Drinking.

“In fact, not forgiving is like drinking rat poison and then waiting for the rat to die.”
~ Anne Lamott, Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith (1999)

"Forgiveness does not mean ignoring what has been done, or putting a false label on an evil act. It means rather that the evil act no longer remains as a barrier to the relationship."
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

"To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you."
~ Lewis B. Smedes

“Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.”
~ Mother Teresa (1910-1997)

“Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of  throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.”
~ Buddha in the Suttas (Buddhist scriptures)

many of these quotes are from
https://www.quora.com/Who-said-holding-a-grudge-is-like-drinking-poison-and-waiting-for-the-other-person-to-die

Revenge is an example of the sunk costs fallacy. Forgiveness is a decision to move forward regardless of sunk costs.

quote, underlines and italics added by blogger:

The Paradox of Revenge
Revenge originates from the primal need for self-defense. In today's world, it is often abused as a destructive and futile response to anger or humiliation. . . .
Most strategies for revenge fail because they attempt to change the past. Unfortunately once the damage is done and the injury, insult, humiliation, or other loss occurs, the clock cannot be turned back and the loss is permanent. In addition, the value of the loss to the offended is seen as much greater than any benefit gained by the offender. As a result the offense represents an unrecoverable loss to society as a whole. Successful strategies for revenge look far into the future and recognize that the cycle of vengeance and retaliation can only spiral toward tragedy and are best stopped before they are started..
Revenge is a doomed attempt to eliminate shame and increase stature by asserting dominance. It fails because asserting dominance does not increase stature, instead it usually increases violence. Also, remorse cannot be coerced, it has to be discovered.
Evidence indicates that forgiveness increases self-esteem and decreases anxiety.
Sunk Costs
Economics and business decision-making recognize sunk costs as the costs that have already been incurred and which can never be recovered to any significant degree. Economic theory proposes that a rational actor does not let sunk costs influence a decision because past costs cannot be recovered in any case. This is also called the bygones principle; let bygones be bygones. This recognizes that you cannot change the past. The fallacy of sunk costs is to consider sunk costs when making a decision. Sound business decisions are based on a forward-looking view, ignoring sunk costs.
Revenge is an attempt to recover sunk costs; it is an example of the sunk costs fallacy. Forgiveness is a decision to move forward regardless of sunk costs. Sound emotional decisions, like sound business decisions, are based on a forward-looking view.

http://www.emotionalcompetency.com/revenge.htm

Carrie Fisher Dies at 60

quote:
Iconic Star Wars Actress Carrie Fisher Dies at 60: 'She Was Loved by the World and She Will Be Missed Profoundly'
BY LINDSAY KIMBLE•@LEKIMBLE
POSTED ON DECEMBER 27, 2016 AT 12:44PM EST
http://people.com/movies/carrie-fisher-dies/
Carrie Fisher, the actress best known as Star Wars‘ Princess Leia Organa, has died after suffering a heart attack. She was 60.
Family spokesman Simon Halls released a statement to PEOPLE on behalf of Fisher’s daughter, Billie Lourd:
“It is with a very deep sadness that Billie Lourd confirms that her beloved mother Carrie Fisher passed away at 8:55 this morning,” reads the statement.
“She was loved by the world and she will be missed profoundly,” says Lourd. “Our entire family thanks you for your thoughts and prayers.”
Fisher was flying from London to Los Angeles on Friday, Dec. 23, when she went into cardiac arrest. Paramedics removed her from the flight and rushed her to a nearby hospital, where she was treated for a heart attack. She later died in the hospital.
The daughter of showbiz veteran Debbie Reynolds and entertainer Eddie Fisher, Fisher was brought up in the sometimes tumultuous world of film, theatre and television.
. . .
The star’s substance abuse problem was well-known, starting at only age 13 when she first started smoking marijuana, Fisher previously told The Telegraph. She said she later dabbled in drugs like cocaine and LSD. Fisher’s addiction was largely profiled in her 1987 best-selling, semi-autobiographical novel, Postcards from the Edge, which was later turned into a movie starring Meryl Streep.
“I never could take alcohol. I always said I was allergic to alcohol, and that’s actually a definition to alcoholism — an allergy of the body and an obsession of the mind,” Fisher told the Herald-Tribune in 2013. “So I didn’t do other kinds of drugs until I was about 20. Then, by the time I was 21 it was LSD. I didn’t love cocaine, but I wanted to feel any way other than the way I did, so I’d do anything.”
In 1985, Fisher was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, she told the Herald-Tribune, and subsequently became an outspoken advocate for mental health awareness.
Throughout much of the ’90s, Fisher focused on her writing career, publishing Surrender the Pink and Delusions of Grandma. In addition, Fisher reportedly helped craft the scripts for numerous Hollywood films, going uncredited, for films like The Wedding Singer, Hook and Sister Act.

end of quote

You Forgot About Grace Again: How a Gracious God's Grace-filled Grace Graces Us All, by Mark Galli

The Galli Report - Dec. 23, 2016 email
Mark Galli, editor, Christianity Today

RE: imaginary top 10 books of 2016 by Christian authors :-)

"when one CT editor asked the staff what would be a book by Mark Galli that would make this list, one clever associate said: You Forgot About Grace Again: How a Gracious God's Grace-filled Grace Graces Us All.
Uh, I stand convicted. . . ."

Christmas past and present

Christmas is a time when everybody wants his past forgotten and his present remembered.
What I don't like about office Christmas parties is looking for a job the next day.
~ Phyllis Diller

also read:

Christmas is a time when every girl wants her past forgotten and her present remembered.

Forgiveness has freed me of him completely

QUOTATION OF THE DAY

"He is not a part of my life anymore. Forgiveness has freed me of that, of him completely. I'm not going to make him a lifetime partner."

THE REV. ANTHONY B. THOMPSON, whose wife was killed by Dylann S. Roof in the shooting at a church in Charleston, S.C.

New York Times, Dec. 16, 2016

go after what you want

“If you don’t go after what you want, you’ll never have it.
If you don’t ask, the answer is always no.
If you don’t step forward, you’re always in the same place.”
~ Nora Roberts

just beyond our comfort zone

"We can do anything we want, the trick is, it’s usually waiting for us just beyond our comfort zone."
~ Julia Pimsleur

“faire grâce” - to forgive

the phrase “faire grâce” in French means to forgive, to spare, to remit

"faire" means to make
“grâce” means grace or favor

"to see the light you have to feel a little heat"

"There's an old saying in Washington that sometimes 'to see the light you have to feel a little heat'"

"When you can't make them see the light, make them feel the heat."
~ Ronald Reagan
www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/r/ronaldreag383264.html

Decisively and with confidence

"A business of high principle generates greater drive and effectiveness because people know that they can do the right thing decisively and with confidence."
~ Marvin Bower

Ancient Healing Prayer

"Let us pray. God of heavenly power, by Your word You drive away all weakness and sickness from the bodies of men. In your mercy, be with Your servant now so that his (her) infirmity may depart, his (her) full strength and health may return, and he (she) may bless Your holy name. Through Christ our LORD. Amen."

~ Francis MacNutt, "Healing," Ave Maria Press, Notre Dame, Indiana, 1999, p. 69

"Jesus did not heal people to prove that He was God; He healed them because He was God."

~ Francis MacNutt, "Healing," p. 85

"Jesus saves us from personal sin and from the effects of original sin, which include ignorance, weakness of will, disoriented emotions, physical illness, and death."

~ Francis MacNutt, "Healing," p. 39

If you want to make peace . . .

"If you want to make peace, you don't talk to your friends.  You talk to your enemies."

~ Moshe Dayan  (1915-1981)

Healing and New Life

As Francis MacNutt says in his book Healing, Jesus came to free us “from sin, from ignorance, . . . from weakness of purpose, from disoriented emotions, and from physical sickness—from all the sickness, therefore, that destroys or lessens our humanity—in order to give us new life, a new relationship of love and union with his Father through the power of the Holy Spirit.  The saving power of Jesus frees us from all those elements of evil that prevent us from entering our new life with God.”

~ Francis MacNutt, Healing, Ave Maria Press, Notre Dame, Indiana, 1999, p. 39-40.

The most important thing in communication

"The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn't being said."

~ Peter F. Drucker

“In every good marriage, it helps sometimes to be a little deaf.”

http://www.nytimes.com/newsletters/2016/10/03/evening-briefing?nlid=14249205

“In every good marriage, it helps sometimes to be a little deaf.”
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said that advice on marriage, given to her by her mother-in-law on her wedding day, had helped in her career as well.

Receiving Grace

"Grace is something that if God doesn't give it to you,
you can't have it."

~ Author Unknown

Bad Habits You Must Eliminate from Your Daily Routine

Bad Habits You Must Eliminate from Your Daily Routine
Published on September 28, 2016

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/bad-habits-you-must-eliminate-from-your-daily-routine-bradberry

Dr. Travis Bradberry
Coauthor Emotional Intelligence 2.0 & President at TalentSmart
(Note: underlines added by blogger)

You are the sum of your habits. When you allow bad habits to take over, they dramatically impede your path to success. The challenge is bad habits are insidious, creeping up on you slowly until you don’t even notice the damage they’re causing.
“Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken.”
– Warren Buffett
Breaking bad habits requires self-control—and lots of it. Research indicates that it’s worth the effort, as self-control has huge implications for success.
University of Pennsylvania psychologists Angela Duckworth and Martin Seligman conducted a study where they measured college students’ IQ scores and levels of self-control upon entering university. Four years later, they looked at the students’ grade point averages (GPA) and found that self-control was twice as important as IQ in earning a high GPA.
The self-control required to develop good habits (and stop bad ones) also serves as the foundation for a strong work ethic and high productivity. Self-control is like a muscle—to build it up you need to exercise it. Practice flexing your self-control muscle by breaking the following bad habits:
Using your phone, tablet, or computer in bed. This is a big one that most people don't even realize harms their sleep and productivity. Short-wavelength blue light plays an important role in your mood, energy level, and sleep quality. In the morning, sunlight contains high concentrations of this blue light. When your eyes are exposed to it directly, the blue light halts production of the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin and makes you feel more alert. In the afternoon, the sun's rays lose their blue light, which allows your body to produce melatonin and start making you sleepy. By the evening, your brain doesn’t expect any blue light exposure and is very sensitive to it.
Most of our favorite evening devices—laptops, tablets, and mobile phones—emit short-wavelength blue light brightly and right in your face. This exposure impairs melatonin production and interferes with your ability to fall asleep as well as with the quality of your sleep once you do nod off. As we’ve all experienced, a poor night’s sleep has disastrous effects. The best thing you can do is to avoid these devices after dinner (television is OK for most people as long as they sit far enough away from the set).
Impulsively surfing the Internet. It takes you 15 consecutive minutes of focus before you can fully engage in a task. Once you do, you fall into a euphoric state of increased productivity called flow. Research shows that people in a flow state are five times more productive than they otherwise would be. When you click out of your work because you get an itch to check the news, Facebook, a sport’s score, or what have you, this pulls you out of flow. This means you have to go through another 15 minutes of continuous focus to reenter the flow state. Click in and out of your work enough times, and you can go through an entire day without experiencing flow.
Checking your phone during a conversation. Nothing turns people off like a mid-conversation text message or even a quick glance at your phone. When you commit to a conversation, focus all your energy on the conversation. You will find that conversations are more enjoyable and effective when you immerse yourself in them.
Using multiple notifications. Multiple notifications are a productivity nightmare. Studies have shown that hopping on your phone and e-mail every time they ping for your attention causes your productivity to plummet. Getting notified every time a message drops onto your phone or an e-mail arrives in your inbox might feel productive, but it isn’t. Instead of working at the whim of your notifications, pool all your e-mails/texts and check them at designated times (e.g., respond to your e-mails every hour). This is a proven, productive way to work.
Saying “yes” when you should say “no.” Research conducted at the University of California in San Francisco shows that the more difficulty that you have saying no, the more likely you are to experience stress, burnout, and even depression, all of which erode self-control. Saying no is indeed a major self-control challenge for many people. “No” is a powerful word that you should not be afraid to wield. When it’s time to say no, emotionally intelligent people avoid phrases like “I don’t think I can” or “I’m not certain.” Saying no to a new commitment honors your existing commitments and gives you the opportunity to successfully fulfill them. Just remind yourself that saying no is an act of self-control now that will increase your future self-control by preventing the negative effects of over commitment.
Thinking about toxic people. There are always going to be toxic people who have a way of getting under your skin and staying there. Each time you find yourself thinking about a coworker or person who makes your blood boil, practice being grateful for someone else in your life instead. There are plenty of people out there who deserve your attention, and the last thing you want to do is think about the people who don’t matter when there are people who do.
Multitasking during meetings. You should never give anything half of your attention, especially meetings. If a meeting isn’t worth your full attention, then you shouldn’t be attending it in the first place; and if the meeting is worth your full attention, then you need to get everything you can out of it. Multitasking during meetings hurts you by creating the impression that you believe you are more important than everyone else.
Gossiping. Gossipers derive pleasure from other people’s misfortunes. It might be fun to peer into somebody else’s personal or professional faux pas at first, but over time, it gets tiring, makes you feel gross, and hurts other people. There are too many positives out there and too much to learn from interesting people to waste your time talking about the misfortune of others.
“Great minds discuss ideas, average ones discuss events, and small minds discuss people.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
Waiting to act until you know you’ll succeed. Most writers spend countless hours brainstorming their characters and plots, and they even write page after page that they know they’ll never include in the books. They do this because they know that ideas need time to develop. We tend to freeze up when it’s time to get started because we know that our ideas aren’t perfect and that what we produce might not be any good. But how can you ever produce something great if you don’t get started and give your ideas time to evolve? Author Jodi Picoult summarized the importance of avoiding perfectionism perfectly: “You can edit a bad page, but you can’t edit a blank page.”
Comparing yourself to other people. When your sense of pleasure and satisfaction are derived from comparing yourself to others, you are no longer the master of your own happiness. When you feel good about something that you’ve done, don’t allow anyone’s opinions or accomplishments take that away from you. While it’s impossible to turn off your reactions to what others think of you, you don’t have to compare yourself to others, and you can always take people’s opinions with a grain of salt. That way, no matter what other people are thinking or doing, your self-worth comes from within. Regardless of what people think of you at any particular moment, one thing is certain—you’re never as good or bad as they say you are.
Bringing It All Together
By practicing self-control to break these bad habits, you can simultaneously strengthen your self-control muscle and abolish nasty habits that have the power to bring your career to a grinding halt.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Dr. Travis Bradberry is the award-winning co-author of the #1 bestselling book, Emotional Intelligence 2.0, and the cofounder of TalentSmart, the world's leading provider of emotional intelligence tests and training, serving more than 75% of Fortune 500 companies. His bestselling books have been translated into 25 languages and are available in more than 150 countries. Dr. Bradberry has written for, or been covered by, Newsweek, BusinessWeek, Fortune, Forbes, Fast Company, Inc., USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and The Harvard Business Review.

Avoiding Perfectionism When Writing

“You can edit a bad page, but you can’t edit a blank page.”

~ Author Jodi Picoult

Chains of Habit

“Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken.”

~ Warren Buffett

Insecurity, Impulse Control and a Superiority Complex

"A blend of insecurity, impulse control and a superiority complex makes some groups and individuals disproportionately successful."

~ from The Triple Package by Amy Chua and Jed Rubenfeld

'The Magnificent Seven's' Haley Bennett

'The Magnificent Seven's' Haley Bennett

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-magnificent-7-haley-bennett-20160907-snap-story.html

Quotes:
"Haley was always there floating above the heat of the fray with pure positivity."
“Throughout, she was the lone woman in the middle of an absolute tsunami of testosterone,” Hawke adds. “But she kept her cool.”

A Brief Summary of Scripture

quote:

A friend of mind describes the whole of Scripture in this way:

Old Testament:
They tried to kill us.  We survived.
Let's eat!

New Testament:
I love you! I forgive you!
Let's eat!

~ Leonard Sweet

It was only an idol

Anything that abandons you or fails you or lets you down was only an idol. Idols always disillusion you. If something let you down, it was only an idol. God will never fail you or forsake you.
~ Truthful Grace

Be Normal?

comment from a male colleague who resented my efforts to excel at my work:

"Why can't you just be normal?"

~ Truthful Grace

Owning Our Story

"When we deny our stories, they define us.
When we own our stories, we get to write the ending."
~ Brené Brown

“Jesus called. He wants His religion back!”

observed a bumper sticker:
“Jesus called. He wants His religion back!”

Finding the Time

"It's really hard to find the time to work out when you really don't want to."

~ comedian Jim Gaffigan

Time and Money

"The poor sell their time for scraps of money.
 The wealthy give scraps of money to buy time."

~ author unknown

“Words that come from the heart enter the heart.”

“Words that come from the heart enter the heart.”
~ talmudic rabbis

God's Way leads to an Endless Hope

"Man's way leads to a hopeless end while God's way leads to an endless hope."

~ unknown

15 Quotes from "Frozen"

15 LOVELY QUOTES FROM FROZEN TO WARM YOUR HEART
 quoted from www.christianquotes.info/movie-quotes/15-lovely-quotes-frozen-warm-heart/

Disney’s Frozen is a movie all about love. We all love loyal Sven the reindeer, happy Olaf the snowman, and of course Princess Anna, the girl who wouldn’t give up on her sister. Here we’ve collected fifteen funny, wise, and heart-warming quotes from this magical winter wonderland movie about love.

15
I like warm hugs!
Olaf (Josh Gad)
14
You don’t have to live in fear, ’cause for the first time in forever, I will be right here.
Anna (Kristen Bell)
13
Let it go!
Elsa (Idina Menzel)
12
People make bad choices, if they’re mad or scared or stressed. But throw a little love their way, and you’ll bring out their best!
Bulda (Maia Wilson)
11
Some people are worth melting for.
Olaf (Josh Gad)
10
They say have courage, and I’m trying to. I’m right out here for you, just let me in.
Anna (Kristen Bell)
9
You can’t marry a man you just met.
Elsa (Idina Menzel)
8
I don’t have a skull. Or bones.
Olaf (Josh Gad)
7
It’s not nice to throw people!
Anna (Kristen Bell)
6
Your life awaits! Go enjoy the sun and open up the gates.
Elsa (Idina Menzel)
5
Why do you shut the world out? What are you so afraid of?
Anna (Kristen Bell)
4
Love is putting someone else’s needs before yours, like you know how Kristoff brought you back here to Hans and left you forever.
Olaf (Josh Gad)
3
I like the open gates.
Anna (Kristen Bell)
2
What is that amazing smell? Chocolate!
Elsa and Anna (Idina Menzel and Kristen Bell)
1
An act of true love will thaw a frozen heart.
Olaf (Josh Gad)

There are so many other heart-warming quotes from Frozen, because the story is about true love of every kind. Next time you’re feeling sad or lonely, just remember these quotes, and reach out to someone else with some love. You’ll find that an act of love can warm your heart.

www.christianquotes.info/movie-quotes/15-lovely-quotes-frozen-warm-heart/

12 B.B. Warfield Quotes

12 B.B. WARFIELD QUOTES   from CHRISTIAN QUOTES

"Let us, then, cultivate an attitude of courage as over against the investigations of the day. None should be more zealous in them then we. None should be more quick to discern truth in every field, more hospitable to receive it, more loyal to follow it wherever it leads."
- B.B. Warfield

Topics: Truth, Discernment, Zeal

"The one is addressed generally to all intelligent creatures, and is therefore accessible to all men; the other is addressed to a special class of sinners, to whom God would make known His salvation. The one has in view to meet and supply the natural need of creatures for knowledge of their God; the other to rescue broken and deformed sinners from their sin and its consequences."
- B.B. Warfield

Topics: Sin

"He who begins by seeking God within himself may end by confusing himself with God."
- B.B. Warfield

Topics: Self-love

"Grace is free sovereign favor to the ill-deserving."
- B.B. Warfield

Topics: Grace

"Why may we not believe that the God who brings his purposes to fruition in his providential government of the world, without violence to second causes or to the intelligent free agency of his creatures, so superintends the mental processes of his chosen instruments for making known his will, as to secure that they shall speak his words in speaking their own?"
- B.B. Warfield

Topics: Government, Holy Spirit

"It is never on account of its formal nature as a psychic act that faith is conceived in Scripture to be saving. It is not, strictly speaking, even faith in Christ that saves, but Christ that saves through faith. The saving power resides exclusively, not in the act of faith or the attitude of faith or nature of faith, but in the object of faith."
- B.B. Warfield

Topics: Faith, Salvation

"Our faith itself, though it be the bond of our union with Christ through which we receive all His blessings, is not our savior. We have but one Savior; and that one Savior is Jesus Christ our Lord. Nothing that we are and nothing that we can do enters in the slightest measure into the ground of our acceptance with God. Jesus did it all."
- B.B. Warfield

Topics: Jesus, Salvation

"The marvel of marvels is not that God, in His infinite love, has not elected all this guilty race to be saved, but that He has elected any."
- B.B. Warfield

Topics: Grace

"A firm faith in the universal providence of God is the solution of all earthly troubles."
- B.B. Warfield

Topics: Providence

"When the Christian asserts his faith in the divine origin of his Bible, he does not mean to deny that it was composed and written by men or that it was given by men to the world. He believes that the marks of its human origin are ineradicably stamped on every page of the whole volume. He means to state only that it is not merely human in its origin."
- B.B. Warfield

Topics: The Bible

"In the infinite wisdom of the Lord of all the earth, each event falls with exact precision into its proper place in the unfolding of His divine plan. Nothing, however small, however strange, occurs without His ordering or without its particular fitness for its place in the working out of His purpose; and the end of all shall be the manifestation of His glory, and the accumulation of His praise."
- B.B. Warfield

Topics: Providence

"The Bible is authoritative, for it is the Word of God; it is intelligible, for it is the word of man. Because it is the word of man in every part and element, it comes home to our hearts. Because it is the word of God in every part and element, it is our constant law and guide."
- B.B. Warfield

Topics: The Bible

http://www.christianquotes.info/quotes-by-author/b-b-warfield-quotes/

Humility Conquers the Devil

"The most powerful weapon to conquer the devil is humility. For, as he does not know at all how to employ it, neither does he know how to defend himself from it."
~ Vincent de Paul, as quoted in A Year with the Saints (1891) by Anonymous, p. 47

Adaptability to the Future

“The Fates lead those who come willingly, and drag those who do not.”
~ the Stoics

quotes from CHRISTIAN QUOTER

quotes below were copied from CHRISTIAN QUOTER
http://christianquoter.blogspot.com/2008/01/christianity-christiansquotingorguk.html

quoted page:

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Christianity - christiansquoting.org.uk

I don't understand Christianity, nor do I understand electricity, but I don't intend to sit in the dark until I do!

When we look at other Christians, let's not dwell on the burned-out stumps of their former life. Instead, let's celebrate and affirm the exciting new growth in their lives.

The Christian is not one who has gone all the way with Christ. None of us has. The Christian is one who has found the right road.
--Charles L. Allen (1913- )

The distinction between Christianity and all other systems of religion consists largely in this, that in these others men are found seeking after God, while Christianity is God seeking after men.
THOMAS ARNOLD

The evidence for Christian truth is not exhaustive, but it is sufficient. Too often, Christianity has not been tried and found wanting -- it has been found demanding, and not tried.
John Baillie (1886-1960)

We may not understand how the spirit works; but the effect of the spirit on the lives of men is there for all to see; and the only unanswerable argument for Christianity is a Christian life. No man can disregard a religion and a faith and a power which is able to make bad men good.
William Barclay (1907-1978), The Gospel of John (Vol.1)

Casual Christians Become Christian Casulties.
-- K. A. Barden

The essence of the Christian religion consists therein: that the creation of the Father, destroyed by sin, is again restored in the death of the Son of God and recreated by the grace of the Holy Spirit to a Kingdom of God.
--Herman Bavinck

See that your chief study be about heart, that there God's image may be planted, and his interest advanced, and the interest of the world and flesh subdued, and the love of every sin cast out, and the love of holiness succeed; and that you content not yourselves with seeming to do good in outward acts, when you are bad yourselves, and strangers to the great internal duties. The first and great work of a Christian is about his heart.
- RICHARD BAXTER

Christianity works while infidelity talks. She feeds the hungry, clothes the naked, visits and cheers the sick, and seeks the lost, while infidelity abuses her and babbles nonsense and profanity. "By their fruits ye shall know them."
-- Henry Ward Beecher

No civilization other than that which is Christian, is worth seeking or possessing.
-- Otto von Bismarck

Furthermore, [the unchristian environment] is the place where we find out whether the Christian's meditation has led him into the unreal, from which he awakens in terror when he returns to the workaday world, or whether it has led him into a real contact with God, from which he emerges strengthened and purified. Has it transported him for a moment into a spiritual ecstasy that vanishes when everyday life returns, or has it lodged the Word of God so securely and deeply in his heart that it holds and fortifies him, impelling him to active love, to obedience, to good works? Only the day can decide.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), Life Together

Christianity helps us face the music even when we don't like the tune.
--Phillips Brooks

No true Christian is his own man.
JOHN CALVIN

The Christian must be consumed with the infinite beauty of holiness and the infinite damnability of sin.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881)

Christians neutralized into inactivity will be spectators of their country's free fall to collapse.
-- John W. Chalfant, _Abandonment Theology_, 1996

My worth to God in public is what I am in private.
--Oswald Chambers

The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.
G. K. Chesterton, What's Wrong With the World, pt. 1, ch. 5, 1910

Christianity has died many times and risen again; for it has a God who knew his way out of the grave. G. K. Chesterton

At least five times, . . . with the Arian and the Albigensian, with the Humanist sceptic, after Voltaire and after Darwin, the Faith has to all appearance gone to the dogs. In each of these five cases it was the dog that died.
--G K Chesterton, The Everlasting Man, Garden City, NY: Doubleday Image, 1925, p. 254}

There are those who hate Christianity and call their hatred an all-embracing love for all religions.
- G.K. Chesterton ILN, 1/13/06

These are the days when the Christian is expected to praise every creed except his own.
- G.K. Chesterton - ILN 8-11-28

As Christian feel the changing winds of political climate, the blasts against their values in the media, the exclusion of the Christian faith from educational institutions, they begin to sense the dangers of complacency and of pietistical world flight.
-- Edmund P. Clowney, The Christian and American Law. 1998

Let any of those who renounce Christianity write fairly down in a book all the absurdities they believe instead of it, and they will find it requires more faith to reject Christianity than to embrace it.
~ Charles Caleb Colton

Christophobia: the irrational fear of Christianity, and the moral system that it promotes. Usage: "You can't be serious! Anyone that thinks that way is just a 'Christophobe!' There's no point in considering what they say!"
--Clayton Cramer

This seems a cheerful world, Donatus, when I view it from this fair garden, under the shadow of these vines. But if I climbed some great mountain and looked out over the wide lands, you know very well what I would see--brigands on the high roads, pirates on the seas; in the amphitheaters men murdered to please applauding crowds; under all roofs misery and selfishness. It is really a bad world, Donatus, an incredibly bad world. Yet in the midst of it I have found a quiet and holy people. They have discovered a joy which is a thousand times better than any pleasures of this sinful life. They are despised and persecuted, but they care not. They have overcome the world. These people, Donatus, are the Christians -- and I am one of them.
- Cyprian (?-258), a letter

There is no leveler like Christianity, but it levels by lifting all who receive it to the lofty table-land of a true character andof undying hope both for this world and the next.
-- Jonathan Edwards

It seems to me to be the best proof of an evangelical disposition, that persons are not angry when reproached, and have a Christian charity for those that ill deserve it.
The Colloquies of Erasmus (1466?-1536)

I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians, Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.
-- Mahatma Gandhi

Men are tending to materialism. Houses, lands, and worldly goods attract their attention, and as a mirage lure them on to death. Christianity, on the other hand leads only the natural body to death, and for the spirit, it points out a house not built with hands, eternal in the heavens... Let me urge you to follow Him, not as the Nazarene, the Man of Galilee, the carpenter's son, but as the ever living spiritual person, full of love and compassion, who will stand by you in life and death and eternity.
- James A. Garfield, preaching before he became president of the USA.

What we have been told is how we men can be drawn into Christ - can become part of that wonderful present which the young Prince of the universe wants to offer to His Father that present which is Himself and therefore us in Him. It is the only thing we were made for. And there are strange, exciting hints in the Bible that when we are drawn in, a great many other things in Nature will begin to come right. The bad dream will be over: it will be morning.
C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), Mere Christianity [1952]

Jill transported to the land of Aslan is stranded in a strange forest because of pride and foolishness. She becomes extremely thirsty, finds a stream but a lion is there. The Lion bids her to come and drink. The voice was not like a man's but "deeper, wilder, and stronger" - a "sort of heavy golden voice".
"May I - could I - would you mind going away while I do?", said Jill. The Lion answered this only by a look and a very low growl. And as Jill gazed at its mountainous bulk, she realized that she might as well have asked the whole mountain to move aside for her convenience. The delicious rippling noise of the stream was driving her nearly frantic.
"Will you promise not to - do anything to me if you do come?", said Jill.
"I make no promise, " said the Lion. Jill was so thirsty now that, without noticing it, she had come a step nearer.
"Do you eat girls?", she said.
"I have swallowed up girls and boys, women and men, kings and emperors, cities and realms", said the Lion. It didn't say this as if it were boasting, nor as if it were sorry, nor as if it were angry. it just said it.
"I daren't come and drink", said Jill.
"Then you will die of thirst", said the Lion.
"Oh dear!", said Jill coming a step nearer.
"I suppose I must go and look for another stream then."
"There is no other stream", said the Lion.
C. S. LEWIS, Silver Chair

The whole being of any Christian is Faith and Love...Faith brings the man to God, love brings him to men. ... Martin Luther (1483-1546)

The Christian should be a conscience in his group. His presence must never be used to provide a Christian justification for evil. To stand as a co-belligerent and not an ally will be to rally the middle ground for a genuine Third Way without mediocre compromise. The Third Way will not be easy. It will be lonely. Sometimes the Christian must have the courage to stand with the establishment, speaking boldly to the radicals and pointing out the destructive and counter-productive nature of their violence. At other times, he will stand as a co-belligerent with the radicals in their outrage and just demands for redress. The Christian is a co-belligerent with either or both when either or both are right, but... fearless in his opposition to either or both when they are wrong.
Os Guinness, The Dust of Death [1973]

The Christian's life should put his minister's sermon in print.
- WILLIAM GURNALL

The only reason reason any one should believe Christianity is that it is true. Its truth rests on historical facts which do not change, truths which are open to tests norammly applied to other events or claims. It is not a matter of whether it sells or whether it works or whether it feels good or provides meaningful experiences. What Christianity teaches is the correct explanation of reality.
--DICK HALVERSON

That many Roman Catholics, past and present, are true Christians, is a palpable fact. It is a fact which no man can deny without committing a great sin. It is a sin against Christ not to acknowledge as true Christians those who bear his image, and whom He recognizes as his brethren. It is a sin also against ourselves. We are not born of God unless we love the children of God. If we hate and denounce those whom Christ loves as members of his own body, what are we? It is best to be found on the side of Christ, let what will happen. It is perfectly consistent, then, for a man to denounce the papacy as the man of sin, and yet rejoice in believing, and in openly acknowledging, that there are, and ever have been, many Romanists who are the true children of God.
-Charles Hodge , Systematic Theology:

To the frivolous Christianity is certainly not glad tidings, for it wishes first of all to make them serious.
--Kierkegaard, _Journal_, 1847

We are living "between the times" -- the time of Christ's resurrection and the new age of the Spirit, and the time of fulfillment in Christ. Life in the Spirit is a pledge, a "down-payment", on the final kingdom of shalom. In the meantime, we are to be signs of the kingdom which is, and which is coming.
David Kirk (1935- )

Reality, in fact, is always something you couldn't have guessed. That's one of the reasons I believe Christianity. It's a religion you couldn't have guessed.
-- C.S. Lewis--The Case for Christianity

I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.
C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), "Is Theology Poetry?"

Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.
CS Lewis

I didn't go to religion to make me happy. I always knew a bottle of port would do that. If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don't recommend Christianity.
-- C. S. Lewis

It is the duty of every Christian to be Christ to his neighbor.
MARTIN LUTHER

The Christian cannot be satisfied so long as any human activity is either opposed to Christianity or out of connection with Christianity. Christianity must pervade not merely all nations but also all of human thought.
J. Gresham Machen

Jesus promised His disciples three things: that they would be entirely fearless, absurdly happy, and that they would get into trouble.
--W. Russell Maltby

Likewise, it's easy to see why the left fears Christians. People who worship political power, who want government to direct (and thus control) all things, who have effectively deified the state, cannot imagine anyone feeling otherwise. Like Tolkein's Sauron, the thought that anyone would choose to destroy the ring of power is beyond them. And because that power is today so pervasive, they not only covet it, but cannot permit it's falling into the hands of men with whom they disagree.
- Rod D. Martin, TOWARD A CHRISTIAN CULTURE July 2002

We who formerly delighted in fornication, but now embrace chastity alone; we who formerly used magical arts, dedicated ourselves to the good and unbegotten God, who valued above all things the acquisition of wealth and possessions, now bring what we have into common stock, and communicate to everyone in need; we who hated and destroyed one another, and on account of their different tribe, now since the coming of Christ, live familiarly with them, and pray for our enemies, and endeavour to persuade those who hate us unjustly, to the end that they may become partakers of the same joyful hope of a reward from God the ruler of all.
--Justin Martyr

Enough has... been said to show that the impoverished secularised versions of Christianity which are being urged upon us for our acceptance today rest not upon a serious application of the methods of scientific scholarship nor upon a serious intuitive appreciation of the Gospels as a whole in their natural context, but upon a radical distaste for the supernatural.
E. L. Mascall, The Secularisation of Christianity [1965]

The only way to keep a broken vessel full is to keep it always under the tap.
--Dwight L. Moody

There is one single fact, which we may oppose to all the wit and argument of infidelity, namely that no man ever repented of being a Christian on his deathbed.
~ Hannah More (1745-1833)

Marx and Freud are the two great destroyers of Christian civilization, the first replacing the gospel of love by the gospel of hate, the other undermining the essential concept of human responsibility.
--Malcom Muggeridge, My Life in Pictures, NY: William Morrow & Co., 1987, p. 94

One can find innumerable dumb things said and done by Christians in the name of Christianity, both in the past and at present--perhaps especially at present. The propensity to say and do dumb things, and even wicked things, is simply part of human nature. One can blame the Church or Christianity for such things only on the thoroughly unwarranted assumption that Christianity claims to have abolished human nature.
-- Richard John Neuhaus

The greatest artists, saints, philosophers and, until quite recent times, scientists, through the Christian centuries, . . . have all assumed that the New Testament promise of eternal life is valid, and that the great drama of the Incarnation which embodies it, is indeed the master-drama of our existence. To suppose that these distinguished believers were all credulous fools whose folly and credulity in holding such beliefs has now been finally exposed, would seem to me untenable; and anyway I'd rather be wrong with Dante and Shakespeare and Milton, with Augustine of Hippo and Francis of Assisi, with Dr Johnson, Blake and Dostoevsky than right with Voltaire, Rousseau, the Huxleys, Herbert Spencer, H.G. Wells and Bernard Shaw.
Malcom Muggeridge, Vintage Muggeridge, ed. Geoffrey Barlow, Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1985, pp. 32-33

I believe I am not mistaken in saying that Christianity is a demanding and serious religion. When it is delivered as easy and amusing, it is another kind of religion altogether.
--Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death

Few things are more striking than the change which has taken place during my own lifetime in the attitude of the intelligentsia towards the spokesmen of Christian opinion. When I was a child, bishops expressed doubts about the Resurrection, and were called courageous. When I was a girl, G. K. Chesterton professed belief in the Resurrection, and was called whimsical. When I was at college, thoughtful people expressed belief in the Resurrection "in a spiritual sense", and were called advanced; (any other kind of belief was called obsolete, and its professors were held to be simpleminded). When I was middle-aged, a number of lay persons, including some poets and writers of popular fiction, put forward rational arguments for the Resurrection, and were called courageous. Today, any lay apologist for Christianity... whose works are sold and read, is liable to be abused in no uncertain terms as a mountebank, a reactionary, a tool of the Inquisition, a spiritual snob, an intellectual bully, an escapist, an obstructionist, a psychopathic introvert, an insensitive extrovert, and an enemy of society. The charges are not always mutually compatible, but the common animus behind them is unmistakable, and its name is fear. Writers who attack these domineering Christians are called courageous.
--Dorothy L. Sayers (1893-1957)

Evangelism is a calling, but not the first calling. Building congregations is a calling, but not the first calling. A Christian's first call is to step from the line of Cain into the line of Abel, upon the basis of the shed blood of the Lamb of God -- to return to the first commandment to love God, to love the brotherhood, and then to love one's neighbor as himself.
--Schaeffer, Francis A., Genesis in Time and Space, The Complete Works of Francis A. Schaeffer, (Westchester, IL: Crossway Books) 1985.

The primary emphasis of biblical Christianity is the teaching that the infinite-personal God is the final reality, the Creator of all else, and that an individual can come openly to the holy God upon the basis of the finished work of Christ and that alone. Nothing needs to be added to Christ's finished work, and nothing *can* be added to Christ's finished work.
-- Francis Schaeffer, The Great Evangelical Disaster

Christianity is the easiest religion in the world, because it is the only religion in which God does everything; it is the hardest religion because it robs us completely of being autonomous.
- Francis Shaeffer--The God Who is There

The Gospel is not presented to mankind as an argument about religious principles. Nor is it offered as a philosophy of life. Christianity is a witness to certain facts -- to events that have happened, to hopes that have been fulfilled, to realities that have been experienced, to a Person who has lived and died and been raised from the dead to reign for ever.
Massey H. Shepherd, Jnr., Far and Near

Christianity might be a good thing if anyone ever tried it.
-- George Bernard Shaw

Modernized, the Easter message means that God recycles human garbage. He can turn prostitutes like Magdalene into disciples, broken reeds like Simon Peter into rocks, and political-minded Simon Zealots into martyrs for the faith. God is the God of the second chance.
-Fulton John Sheen (1895-1979), Those Mysterious Priests, [1974]

While sitting on the bank of a river one day, I picked up a solid round stone from the water and broke it open. It was perfectly dry in spite of the fact that it had been immersed in water for centuries. The same is true of many people in the Western world. For centuries they have been surrounded by Christianity; they live immersed in the waters of its benefits. And yet it has not penetrated their hearts; they do not love it. The fault is not in Christianity, but in men's hearts, which have been hardened by materialism and intellectualism.
--Sadhu Sundar Singh (1889-1929)

Obedience to Christ includes obedience to his commission to go into the world, to preach the good news, and to make disciples. But we cannot do this without taking account of the context in which people live their lives, or of the alter-natives to the gospel which they find attractive. Some of our evangelism has been very superficial on this account. We need to develop new strategies of evangelistic penetration that will take seriously the cultural bondage in which people are held and the need to soak ourselves in their culture in order to interpret the gospel to them from inside.
John R. W. Stott (1921- ), "Obeying Christ in a Changing World"

Christianity is not a system of philosophy, nor a ritual, nor a code of laws; it is the impartation of a divine vitality. Without the way there is not going, without the truth there is no knowing, without life there is no living.
MERRILL TENNEY on Jn 14:6

I think back to many discussions in my early life when we all agreed that if you try to take the fruits of Christianity without its roots, the fruits will wither. And they will not come again unless you nurture the roots. But we must not profess the Christian faith and go to church simply because we want social reforms and benefits or a better standard of behaviour - but because we accept the sanctity of life, the responsibility that comes with freedom and the supreme sacrifice of Christ expressed so well in the hymn: 'When I survey the wondrous Cross/ on which the Prince of Glory died/ My richest gain I count but loss/ and pour contempt on all my pride.'
--Margaret Thatcher, speech to the Church of Scotland General Assembly, 21.5.88

The true ground of most men's prejudice against the Christian doctrine is because they have no mind to obey it.
--John Tillotson (1630-1694)

A Christian is one who has bet his life that Christ was right.
-- David Elton Trueblood (1900-1994)

The best argument for Christianity is Christians: their joy, their certainty, their completeness. But the strongest argument against Christianity is also Christians -- when they are somber and joyless, when they are self-righteous and smug in complacent consecration, when they are narrow and repressive, then Christianity dies a thousand deaths.
--Sheldon Vanauken

If Christians want us to believe in a Redeemer, let them act redeemed.
--Voltaire

Oh, Christians, look to your steps! When you have prayed against sin, then watch against temptation. Such as are more excellent than others, God expects some singular thing from them. They should bring more glory to God and, by their exemplary piety, make proselytes to religion. Better fruit is expected from a vineyard than from a wild forest.
- THOMAS WATSON

Though we as Christians are like Christ, having the first fruits of the Spirit, yet we are unlike Him, having the remainders of the flesh.
THOMAS WATSON

If the marks of discipleship were merely an orthodox creed‚ excited feeling‚ denominational zeal‚ flaming partisanship, then there are many that "find the way." But if the true travellers are men of broken heart‚ poor in spirit‚ who mourn for sin‚ who know the music of the Shepherd's voice‚ who follow the Lamb‚ who delight in the throne of grace‚ and who love the place of the cross, then there are but ‚ few‚ with whom the true saints journey to heaven in fellowship and communion.
Octavius Winslow, Midnight Harmonies

Prayer of the Heart - John Baillie

Give me a stout heart to bear my own burdens.
Give me a willing heart to bear the burdens of others.
Give me a believing heart to cast all burdens upon Thee, O Lord.
~ John Baillie (1886-1960), A Diary of Private Prayer
Theologian and Church of Scotland minister

The evidence for Christian truth - John Baillie

"The evidence for Christian truth is not exhaustive, but it is sufficient. Too often, Christianity has not been tried and found wanting -- it has been found demanding, and not tried."

~ John Baillie (1886-1960), Theologian and Church of Scotland minister

Do We Have Soul Mates?

Crosswalk.com
Thursday, April 28, 2016
Crosswalk Singles
Do We Have Soul Mates?
by Eric Metaxas
quotes:

Once I wrote a tribute to C.S. Lewis’s “The Screwtape Letters” called “Screwtape Proposes a Divorce,” in which Wasphead, my invented senior devil, says the following to Gallstone, the junior devil: :
“That [soul mates] do not exist is to be kept TOP SECRET. … Let’s be blunt: these humans are scouring the globe for someone with whom a relationship will require absolutely no work or compromise. … Many adult humans who have long ago dismissed Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny as myths somehow persist in believing this person to exist.”

As J. R. R. Tolkien once wrote to his son, “No man, however truly he loved his betrothed and bride as a young man has lived faithful to her as a wife in mind and body without deliberate conscious exercise of the will, without self-denial.”

Conflict Can Be Constructive

Thomas a Kempis wrote centuries ago:
"It is good that we at times endure opposition and that we are evilly and untruly judged when our actions and intentions are good. Often such experiences promote humility and protect us from vainglory. For then we seek God's witness in the heart."

"Letting evil run its course is not a Christian option."

Out of This World
What this Lutheran learned when he visited the Amish.
By Uwe Siemon-Netto

http://www.ctlibrary.com/ct/2009/september/36.58.html

 

"Letting evil run its course is not a Christian option."

Advocating Christianity?

"What is worst of all is to advocate Christianity, not because it is true, but because it might be beneficial."
~ T.S. Eliot

Comment: 
Of course Christianity is beneficial.  It is both true and beneficial because God created us and God loves us.  God is a good parent and Christianity is an act of love.
~ Truthful Grace

Protestant Sacerdotalism

Protestant Sacerdotalism

Evangelical Protestantism has been one of the most dynamic of Christian movements. Evangelical Protestantism is also one of the most dysfunctional of Christian movements. Our dysfunctions are many, but not necessarily worse than those found in Catholicism or Orthodoxy. But they still deserve our attention. Take this one, which includes a cogent quote by the great theologian Thomas Torrance:

But what has happened in Protestant worship and ministry? Is it not too often the case that the whole life and worship of the congregation revolves around the personality of the minister? He is the one who is in the center; he offers the prayers of the congregation; he it is who mediates "truth" through his personality, and he it is who mediates between the people and God through conducting the worship entirely on his own. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the case of the popular minister where everything centers on him, and the whole life of the congregation is built around him. What is that but Protestant sacerdotalism...?

As with most critiques, it's not true in every respect, but it is true enough to give one pause.

~ from The Galli Report, Weekly Must-Reads from the Editor of Christianity Today, Friday, Feb. 26, 2016

"Not Christian" to build walls, not bridges

Pope Francis Suggests Donald Trump Is ‘Not Christian’

Jim Yardley, Feb. 18, 2016
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/19/world/americas/pope-francis-donald-trump-christian.html

Inserting himself into the Republican presidential race, Pope Francis on Wednesday suggested that Donald J. Trump “is not Christian” because of the harshness of his campaign promises to deport more immigrants and force Mexico to pay for a wall along the border.

“A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian,” Francis said when a reporter asked him about Mr. Trump on the papal airliner as he returned to Rome after his six-day visit to Mexico. . . .

Mr. Trump has staked out controversial positions on immigration, vowing to force Mexico to build a wall and also increase deportations. He has also made inflammatory comments accusing Mexican immigrants of being rapists and criminals.

Asked whether he would try to influence Catholics in how they vote in the presidential election, Francis said he “was not going to get involved in that” but then repeated his criticism of Mr. Trump, with a caveat.

“I say only that this man is not Christian if he has said things like that,” Francis said. “We must see if he said things in that way and in this I give the benefit of the doubt.”
. . .

"it was you and the people who love you who put you there"

Taylor Swift, accepting album of the year, calls out Kanye West

Less than a week after West drew backlash for his song Famous, in which he suggested that he made Swift famous by crashing the stage during her 2009 MTV Video Music Awards acceptance speech, the pop star indirectly responded to his diss. Accepting album of the year for her blockbuster 1989, Swift took a moment to address "the young women out there".

"There are going to be people along the way who will try to undercut your success, or take credit for your accomplishments or your fame," Swift said. "But if you just focus on the work and you don't let those people sidetrack you, someday, when you get where you're going, you'll look around and you will know that it was you and the people who love you who put you there, and that will be the greatest feeling in the world."

Our presence

"The most precious gift we can offer is our presence.

When mindfulness embraces those we love,

they will bloom like flowers.”

~ Thich Nhat Hahn

Expecting flowers to bloom

“If your heart is a volcano,
how shall you expect flowers to bloom?”

~ Khalil Gibran