If Jesus had used a management consultant:

MEMO

TO: Jesus, Son of Joseph
Woodcrafters Carpenter Shop
Nazareth 25922

FROM: Jordan Management Consultants
Jerusalem 20544

Dear Sir:

Thank you for submitting the resumes of the twelve men you have picked for management positions in your new organization. All of them have now taken our battery of tests, and we have not only run the results through our computer, but also arranged personal interviews for each of them with our psychologist and vocational aptitude consultant. The profiles of all tests are included, and you will want to study each of them carefully. As part of our service and for your guidance, we make some general comments, much as an auditor will include some general statements. This is given as a result of staff consultation and comes without any additional fee.

It is the staff opinion that most of your nominees are lacking in background, education, and vocational aptitude for the type of enterprise you are undertaking. They do not have the team concept. We would recommend that you continue your search for persons of experience in managerial ability and proven capability.

Simon Peter is emotionally unstable and given to fits of temper. Andrew has absolutely no leadership qualities. The sons of Zebedee, James and John, place personal interest above company loyalty. Thomas demonstrates a questioning attitude that would tend to undermine morale. We feel that it is our duty to tell you that Matthew has been blacklisted by the Greater Jerusalem Better Business Bureau. James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus definitely have radical leanings, and they both registered a high score on the manic-depressive scale.

One of the candidates, however, shows great potential. He is a man of ability and resourcefulness, meets people well, has a keen business mind and has contacts in high places. He is highly motivated, ambitious, and responsible. We recommend Judas Iscariot as your controller and right-hand man. All of the other profiles are self-explanatory.

We wish you every success in your new venture.

Sincerely yours,
Jordan Management Consultants

The Will of God

Remember...

The will of God will never take you
Where the grace of God cannot keep you,
Where the arms of God cannot support you,
Where the riches of God cannot supply your needs,
Where the power of God cannot endow you.

The will of God will never take you
Where the spirit of God cannot work through you,
Where the wisdom of God cannot teach you,
Where the army of God cannot protect you,
Where the hands of God cannot mold you.

The will of God will never take you
Where the love of God cannot enfold you,
Where the mercy of God cannot sustain you,
Where the peace of God cannot calm your fears,
Where the authority of God cannot overrule for you.

The will of God will never take you
Where the comfort of God cannot dry your tears,
Where the Word of God cannot feed you,
Where the miracles of God cannot be done for you,
Where the omnipresence of God cannot find you.

Everything happens for a purpose.
We may not see the wisdom of it all now
but trust and believe in the Lord that
everything is for the best.

~ Author Unknown

Thinking

"She seemed nervous ... you could tell by the expression on her face. Instead of just blocking everybody out and doing her thing, you could tell she was thinking about it."

I Wish I Could Help, But I Don't Want To

Joey : "Pheebs, you wanna help?"

Phoebe: "Oh, I wish I could, but I really don't want to."

Friends

Humor

There’s a story told about the young son of a Baptist minister who was in church one morning and saw for the first time baptism by immersion. He was greatly interested in it all, and the next morning proceeded to baptize (you might have guessed this) his three cats in the bathtub.

The youngest kitten bore it very well, and so did the younger cat, but the old family tomcat rebelled at the whole thing. He struggled with the boy, clawing and hissing and wriggling and finally got away.

With considerable effort again the boy caught the old tom and once more tried to proceed with the “ceremony”; but the old cat acted worse than ever, clawing, spitting and scratching the boy’s face. Finally, after barely getting the cat splattered with water, he dropped him on the floor in disgust and said, “Fine, be a Presbyterian if you want to!”

The Something I Can Do

I am only one,
but still I am one.
I cannot do everything,
But still I can do something;
And because I cannot do everything
I will not refuse to do the something I can do.

~ Edward Everett Hale

Count the Cost

A religion that gives nothing, costs nothing, and suffers nothing, is worth nothing.

~ Martin Luther

The Living Word

Harvard University chaplain Peter Gomes' definition of the Bible:

"the living Word from the living God for a needy people"


Peter Gomes, The Good Book

Identifying With the Poor: 9 Steps to Third World Living

Adbusters (Winter, 1998) (Poverty, Third World)

First, take out the furniture: leave a few old blankets, a kitchen table, maybe a wooden chair. You've never had a bed, remember?

Second, throw out your clothes. Each person in the family may keep the oldest suit or dress, a shirt or blouse. The head of the family has the only pair of shoes.

Third, all kitchen appliances have vanished. Keep a box of matches, a small bag of flour, some sugar and salt, a handful of onions, a dish of dried beans. Rescue the moldy potatoes from the garbage can: those are tonight's meal.

Fourth, dismantle the bathroom, shut off the running water, take out the wiring and the lights and everything that runs by electricity.

Fifth, take away the house and move the family into the tool shed.

Sixth, no more postman, fireman, government services. The two-classroom school is three miles away, but only two of your seven children attend anyway, and they walk.

Seventh, throw out your bankbooks, stock certificates, pension plans, insurance policies. You now have a cash hoard of $5.

Eighth, get out and start cultivating your three acres. Try hard to raise $300 in cash crops because your landlord wants one third and your moneylender 10 percent.

Ninth, find some way for your children to bring in a little extra money so you have something to eat most days. But it won't be enough to keep bodies healthy--so lop off 25 to 30 years of life.

A Surprise Party

It's like the story of a small lad whose mother, unknown to him, planned a surprise birthday party. After he got home, he went upstairs to his room. Then all his classmates and teachers gathered in the living room.
When his mother went to his room to get him, he was gone. He had climbed down a tree outside his window and was hiding in a nearby park. The rest of the children went on to enjoy a good time, but Johnny never turned up.
When he came in for supper his mother asked where he had been; he had missed a wonderful time, planned just for him. He tearfully confessed he had heard her call but hid until suppertime because he thought she had a chore for him to do!
How sad - for him and for us if we make the same mistake. There is a party being prepared. The guest list is all inclusive. No matter how many parties we have missed in this world, we don't have to miss out on this party. The One who throws this party is all loving, all gracious, all generous. We are invited even though there is nothing in this world we can do to repay our host. All that is asked is that we accept the invitation.

~ Eric S. Ritz, The Ritz Collection

Success that Counts

Mother Teresa was once asked, "How do you measure the success of your work?"
She thought about the question and gave her interviewer a puzzled look, and said, "I don't remember that the Lord ever spoke of success. He spoke only of faithfulness in love. This is the only success that really counts."

Writing From the Mind and the Heart

from The Bonesetter's Daughter, by Amy Tan, p. 197:

As he said this, Precious Auntie came back into my mind. I was remembering how she taught me that everything, even ink, had a purpose and a meaning: Good ink cannot be the quick kind, ready to pour out of a bottle. You can never be an artist if your work comes without effort.

That is the problem with modern ink from a bottle. You do not have to think. You simply write what is swimming on the top of your brain. And the top is nothing but pond scum, dead leaves, and mosquito spawn. But when you push an inkstick along an inkstone, you take the first step to cleansing your mind and your heart. You push and you ask yourself, What are my intentions? What is in my heart that matches my mind?

Learning to be an Eagle

There is a tale told about a certain man went through the forest seeking any bird of interest he might find. He caught a young eagle, brought it home and put it among the fowls and ducks and turkeys, and gave it chicken food to eat even though it was an eagle, the king of birds.

Five years later, a naturalist came to see him and, after passing through the garden, said 'That bird is an Eagle, not a chicken.'

'Yes' said the owner, 'but I have trained it to be a chicken. It is no longer an eagle, it is a chicken, even though it measures fifteen feet from tip to tip of its wings.'

'No,' said the naturalist, 'it is an eagle still; it has the heart of an eagle, and I will help it soar high up in to the heavens.'

'No,' said the owner. ' it is a chicken and will never fly.'

They agreed to test it. The naturalist picked up the eagle, held it up and said with great intensity. 'Eagle thou art an eagle; thou dost belong to the sky and not to this earth; stretch forth thy wings and fly.'

The eagle turned this way and that, and then looking down, saw the chickens eating their food, and down he jumped.

The owner said; 'I told you it was a chicken.'

'No,' said the naturalist, 'it is an eagle. Give it another chance tomorrow. '

So the next day he took it to the top of the house and said: 'Eagle, thou art an eagle; stretch forth thy wings and fly.' But again the eagle, seeing the chickens feeding, jumped down and fed with them.

Then the owner said: 'I told you it was a chicken.'

'No,' asserted the naturalist, 'it is an eagle, and it has the heart of an eagle; only give it one more chance, and I will make it fly tomorrow.'

The next morning he rose early and took the eagle outside the city and away from the houses, to the foot of a high mountain. The sun was just rising, gilding the top to the mountain with gold, and every crag was glistening in the joy of the beautiful morning.

He picked up the eagle and said to it: 'Eagle, thou art an eagle; thou dost belong to the sky and not to the earth; stretch forth thy wings and fly.'

The eagle looked around and trembled as if new life were coming to it. But it did not fly. The naturalist then made it look straight at the sun. Suddenly it stretched out its wings and, with the screech of an eagle, it mounted higher and higher and never returned. Though it had been kept and tamed as a chicken, it was an eagle.

Communion on the Moon

Apollo 11 landed on the surface of the moon on Sunday, July 20, 1969. Most of us are familiar with astronaut Neil Armstrong's historic statement as he stepped onto the moon's surface: "That's one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind."

But few know about the first meal eaten there. Buzz Aldrin had brought aboard the spacecraft a tiny Communion kit provided by his church. Aldrin sent a radio broadcast to Earth asking listeners to contemplate the events of that day and to give thanks.

Then, in radio blackout for privacy … [Aldrin] read, "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, bears much fruit." Silently, he gave thanks and partook.

~ Dennis Fisher, "Communion on the Moon," Our Daily Bread (June/July/August 2007)

Telling the Truth with Humor

If you're going to tell people the truth, be funny or they'll kill you.

~ Billy Wilder

I don't wanna . . .

I don't wanna do the dishes
I don't wanna do the wash
I sprinkled clothes a week ago
And now my iron is lost!!

I don't wanna rattle pots
I don't wanna rattle pans
I see the mail light flashin'
I wanna chat with friends!!

Oh the tables need some dustin'
and the floor could sure be mopped
But I know if I get started
there'll be no place to stop

The closets are so full things are falling off the shelves
I wish for cleaning fairies and magic little elves.
They could sprinkle fairy dust and twitch their little nose
The windows would be sparkling I would have no dirty clothes
Oh I know that I'm just dreamin' My head is in the sky

I must cook that meat that's graying and bake that apple pie
The Hubby needs a bath Doggy needs attention
Oh.. the other way around I mean my brain is in suspension
I am runnin' round in circles I am gettin' nothin' done,

I keep thinking of my web I am missing all the fun!!!
Well I know I'm not addicted though I hear that all the time
But I guess this stuff can wait on me Cause
Today I'll Be On Line!

~ author unknown

Find this article at: http://www.crosswalk.com/fun/general/1364114/

What's Unique: Grace

This story from Philip Yancey is probably well known:

`During a British conference on comparative religions, experts from around the world debated what, if any, belief was unique to the Christian faith. They began eliminating possibilities. Incarnation? Other religions had different versions of gods appearing in human form. Resurrection? Again, other religions had accounts of return from death. The debate went on for some time until C. S. Lewis wandered into the room.
"What's the rumpus about?" he asked, and heard in reply that his colleagues were discussing Christianity's unique contribution among world religions.
Lewis responded, "Oh, that's easy. It's grace."'
`Only Christianity dares to make God's love unconditional.'

Justice and Mercy

Students Shocked by Professor's Judgment

On the first day teaching his class of 250 college freshmen, R. C. Sproul carefully explained the assignment of three term papers. Each paper was due on the last day of September, October, and November. Sproul clearly stated there would be no extensions (except for medical reasons).
At the end of September, some 225 students dutifully turned in their papers, while 25 remorseful students quaked in fear. "We're so sorry," they said. "We didn't make the proper adjustments from high school to college, but we promise to do better next time."
He bowed to their pleas for mercy, gave them an extension, but warned them not to be late next month.
The end of October rolled around, and about 200 students turned in their papers, while 50 students showed up empty-handed.
"Oh, please," they begged, "it was homecoming weekend, and we ran out of time."
Sproul relented once more but warned them, "This is it. No excuses next time. You will get an F."
The end of November came, and only 100 students turned in their papers. The rest told Sproul, "We'll get it in soon."
"Sorry," Sproul replied. "It's too late now. You get an F."
The students howled in protest, "That's not fair!"
"Okay," Sproul replied, "you want justice, do you? Here's what's just: you'll get an F for all three papers that were late. That was the rule, right?"
"The students had quickly taken my mercy for granted," Sproul later reflected. "They assumed it. When justice suddenly fell, they were unprepared for it. It came as a shock, and they were outraged."

Matt Woodley, in the sermon "The Grieving Heart of God,"
PreachingToday.com

Christians So Unlike Christ

"I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians.
Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."

~ Mohandas Gandhi

An Ecumenical Parable

From Max Lucado’s “A Gentle Thunder”, pp. 139, 140

Some time ago I came upon a fellow on a trip who was carrying a Bible.
“Are you a believer?” I asked him.
“Yes,” he said excitedly.

I’ve learned you can’t be too careful.
“Virgin birth?” I asked.
“I accept it.”
“Deity of Jesus?”
“No doubt.”
“Death of Christ on the cross?”
“He died for all people.”

Could it be that I was face to face with a Christian? Perhaps. Nonetheless, I continued my checklist.
“Status of man.”
“Sinner in need of grace.”
“Definition of grace.”
“God doing for man what man can’t do.”
“Return of Christ?”
“Imminent.”
“Bible?”
“Inspired.”
“The church?”
“The body of Christ.”

I started getting excited. “Conservative or liberal?”
He was getting interested too. “Conservative.”

My heart began to beat faster.
“Heritage?”
“Southern Congregationalist Holy Son of God Dispensationalist Triune Convention.”

That was mine!
“Branch?”
“Pre-millennial, post-trib, noncharismatic, King James, one-cup Communion.”

My eyes misted. I had only one other question.
“Is your pulpit wooden or fiberglass?”
“Fiberglass,” he responded.

I withdrew my hand and stiffed my neck. “Heretic!” I said and walked away.

The Universality of the Golden Rule

Despairing of the possibility of ever bringing about religious unity through doctrinal, philosophical or theological dialogue, a great many people have latched onto the Golden Rule as the ultimate expression of their faith. It is provocative and inspiring to discover the remarkable universality of this ethical principle.

In Hinduism it is stated like this: "Those gifted with intelligence should always treat others as they themselves wish to be treated."
The Shinto version is: "The suffering of others is my suffering; the good of others is my good."
In Buddhism it is: "A person can minister to friends and familiars by ... treating them as he treats himself."
Taoists say: "Regard your neighbor's gain as your own gain and regard your neighbor's loss as your own loss."
In Islam: "None of you is a believer until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself."
For Sikhs it is: "As thou deemest thyself so deem others. Then shalt thou become a partner in heaven."
In Confucianism and Zoroastrianism the rule is stated in the same way as in the New Testament except that it is couched in negative terms: "Do not unto others what you would not they should do unto you."
The Jewish equivalent in Leviticus 19:18 is "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

~ Carl L. Jech, Channeling Grace, CSS Publishing Company

If I Should Die Before I Wake

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,
bless the bed that I lie on.
Before I lay me down to sleep,
I give my soul to Christ to keep.

Four corners to my bed,
four angels there aspread,
two to foot, and two to head,
and two to carry me when I'm dead.

I go by sea, I go by land,
the Lord made me by his right hand.
If any danger comes to me,
Sweet Jesus Christ, deliver me.

He's the branch, and I'm the flower,
pray God send me a happy hour.
And if I die before I wake,
I pray that Christ my soul will take.

~ an Old English prayer

Let Us Begin

"All of this will not be finished in the first one hundred days.
Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days...
Nor in the life of this administration,
Nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet.
But let us begin."

~ John F. Kennedy, January 20, 1961

Simpsons Quotes

Homer:
"Here's to alcohol, the cause of -- and solution to -- all life's problems."

Marge:
"Our differences are only skin deep, but our sames go down to the bone."

evil Mr. Burns:
"I'll keep it short and sweet -- Family. Religion. Friendship. These are the three demons you must slay if you wish to succeed in business."

Ned Flanders:
"Ive done everything the Bible says -- even the stuff that contradicts the other stuff!"

Go Ahead and Cry--I'm Here To Be With You

Fred Rogers:

People have said, "Don't cry" to other people for years and years, and all it has ever meant is, "I'm too uncomfortable when you show your feelings. Don't cry."
I'd rather have them say, "Go ahead and cry. I'm here to be with you."

from The World According to Mister Rogers: Important Things to Remember
Fred Rogers

Evil Cannot Stand Forgiveness

Fred Rogers:

One of my wise teachers, Dr. William F. Orr, told me, "There is only one thing evil cannot stand and that is forgiveness."

from The World According to Mister Rogers: Important Things to Remember
Fred Rogers

Age is Not Important

"Age is not important unless you're a cheese."

~ Helen Hayes

Ten Timeless Lessons from the Fourth-Century Desert Dwellers

"Go sit in your cell and your cell will teach you everything."
~ Abba Shepherd

"Many people living the secluded life have died like worldly people. It is better to live in the world and long for solitude than to live in solitude and long for the world."
~ Mother Matrona

"Never stay in a well-known place nor sit with a famous person nor lay foundation for building a cell someday."
~ Zeno, disciple of Silvanus

"To prepare for tomorrow means to cut away the fruit of the spirit and dry oneself up."
~ one of the hermits

"Never be sated with bread, and never run out of wine."
~ Mother Syncletice

"Teach your heart to follow what your tongue tells others."
~Abba Poemen

"Just as smoke drives out bees and takes their honey away from them, so a life of ease drives God from our souls and cancels our good deeds."
~ Abba Shepherd

"Never judge a fornicator. The person who said not to fornicate also said not to judge."
~ one of the old men

Serapion sold his Gospel and gave the money to the hungry. When we asked him why, he said he had sold the book that told him to feed the hungry.
~ the desert fathers

"The hen who stops sitting on the eggs will hatch no chicks; you, too, should stay where you are."
~ one of the mothers

from Spirituality & Health, May/June 2007, "Extreme Simplicity: Ten Lessons from the Fourth-Century Desert Dwellers", by Clair McPherson, p. 57.

She will not be crippled by resentment

from A Thousand Splendid Suns

Laila has decided that she will not be crippled by resentment. Mariam wouldn't want it that way. What's the sense? ... What good is it, Laila jo?

~ Khaled Hosseini

A way to be good again

Amir:

I wished Rahim Khan hadn't called me. I wished he had let me live on in my oblivion. But he had called me. And what Rahim Khan revealed to me changed things. Made me see how my entire life, long before the winter of 195, dating back to when that singing Hazara woman was still nursing me, had been a cycle of lies, betrayals, and secrets.
"There is a way to be good again," he'd said.
A way to end the cycle.

~ Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner, 226-7

Rahim Khan about Baba:

I loved him because he was my friend, but also because he was a good man, maybe even a great man. And this is what I want you to understand, that good, real good, was born out of your father's remorse.
Sometimes, I think everything he did, feeding the poor on the streets, building the orphanage, giving money to friends in need, it was all his way of redeeming himself. And that, I believe, is what true redemption is, Amir jan, when guilt leads to good.

I know that in the end, God will forgive. He will forgive your father, me, and you too. I hope you can do the same. Forgive your father if you can. Forgive me if you wish. But, most important, forgive yourself.

~ Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner, 302

Amelia Earhart quotes

Adventure is worthwhile in itself.

Better do a good deed near at home than go far away to burn incense.

Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace. The soul that knows it not, knows no release from little things; knows not the livid loneliness of fear.

Flying might not be all plain sailing, but the fun of it is worth the price.

I want to do it because I want to do it.

In soloing - as in other activities - it is far easier to start something than it is to finish it.

Never do things others can do and will do if there are things others cannot do or will not do.

Never interrupt someone doing what you said couldn't be done.

No kind action ever stops with itself. One kind action leads to another. Good example is followed. A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees. The greatest work that kindness does to others is that it makes them kind themselves.

Obviously I faced the possibility of not returning when first I considered going. Once faced and settled there really wasn't any good reason to refer to it.

Please know that I am aware of the hazards. I want to do it because I want to do it. Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail, their failure must be a challenge to others.

The more one does and sees and feels, the more one is able to do, and the more genuine may be one's appreciation of fundamental things like home, and love, and understanding companionship.

The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure, the process is its own reward.

The most effective way to do it, is to do it.

The woman who can create her own job is the woman who will win fame and fortune.

There are two kinds of stones, as everyone knows, one of which rolls.

There is so much that must be done in a civilized barbarism like war.

Women must pay for everything. They do get more glory than men for comparable feats, but, they also get more notoriety when they crash.

Women, like men, should try to do the impossible. And when they fail, their failure should be a challenge to others.

~ Amelia Earhart, American Aviator, 1898-1937

Do It!

"The most effective way to do it, is to do it."

~ Amelia Earhart, aviator

Better Truth than a Lie

"It hurts to say that," he said, shrugging. "But better to get hurt by the truth than comforted with a lie."

~ Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner, p. 58

Advancing in another direction

"We are not retreating - we are advancing in another direction."

~ Douglas MacArthur, U.S. W.W. II general in the Pacific

Dementors

Prof. Lupin to Harry Potter:

"Get too near a Dementor, and every good feeling, every happy memory, will be sucked out of you."

J.K. Rowling, Prisoner of Azkaban

A Prayer of Alan Paton

Help me, O Lord, to be more loving. Help me O Lord, not to be afraid to love the outcast, the leper, the unmarried pregnant woman, the traitor to the State, the man out of prison.
Help me by my love to restore the faith of the disillusioned, the disappointed, the early bereaved. Help me by my love to be the witness of your love.
And may I this coming day be able to do some work of peace for you.

~ Alan Paton, a South African writer,
author of "Cry the Beloved Country"
who made a courageous stand against racism

A Man Fell into a Pit

Once upon a time a man fell into a pit and couldn’t get himself out.
A sensitive person came along and said, “I feel for you down there.”
A practical person came along and said, “I knew you were going to fall in sooner or later.”
A Pharisee said, “Only bad people fall into a pit.”
A mathematician calculated how he far he fell.
A news reporter wanted an exclusive story on his pit.
An IRS agent asked if he was paying taxes on the pit.
A self-pitying person said, “You haven’t seen anything until you’ve seen my pit.”
A mystic said, “Just imagine that you’re not in a pit.”
An optimist said, “Things could be worse.”
A pessimist said, “Things will get worse.”
Jesus, seeing the man, took him by the hand and lifted him out of the pit!

~ Ray Pritchard, The Lawyer Who Wanted a Loophole

The Homeless Woman’s Poem

A homeless woman once approached a preacher for help, but because he was busy and helpless, he turned her away and offered to pray for her instead.

The homeless woman, it is said, wrote this poem as a response too that insensitive minister:
"I was hungry, and you formed a humanities group to discuss my hunger.
I was imprisoned, and you crept off quietly to my chapel and prayed for my release.
I was naked, and in your mind you debated the morality of my appearance.
I was sick, and you knelt and thanked God for your health.
I was homeless, and you preached to me the spiritual shelter of the love of God.
I was lonely, and you left me alone to pray for me.

You seem so holy, so close to God but I am still very hungry - and lonely - and cold."

~ Source unknown

Neighborly Prayer

Some of you may be familiar with a story by journalist Tom Junod. It is a true story of a young man afflicted with cerebral palsy. Cerebral palsy did not affect this young man’s mind, but it affected his motor skills and his ability to speak. The boy could only communicate through typing on his computer.
In addition to his physical disabilities, the boy suffered emotional problems after some of his care givers callously abused him. Overwhelmed with self-hatred, the boy often hit himself. Using his computer, he wrote to his mother that he wished he could die.
There was one thing that seemed to bring the boy comfort: watching “Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood.” The kindly, mild-mannered Mr. Rogers emphasized that all people are valuable and worthy of love. His calming demeanor and accepting message touched the boy’s heart and gave him hope.
One day a children’s foundation set up a meeting between the boy and his hero, Mr. Rogers. Upon meeting Mr. Rogers, the boy became so nervous that he began hitting himself, and his mother had to take him to another room to calm him down. When he returned, Mr. Rogers carried on their conversation as if nothing had happened.
And then Mr. Rogers ended the conversation by asking the boy a very special favor: would this boy pray for him? The boy was floored by this request. Would he pray for Mr. Rogers? He had always been the object of someone else’s prayers.
But from that day forward, the boy began praying for Fred Rogers, and he experienced a new sense of hope and self-esteem through this act of praying for a man he so admired. When Tom Junod complimented Fred Rogers on this idea, Rogers reacted with surprise. He had been sincere in his request for the boy’s prayers.
As he said, “I didn’t ask him for his prayers for HIM, I asked for me. I asked him because I think that anyone who has gone through challenges like that must be very close to God. I asked him because I wanted his intercession.”

King Duncan, Collected Sermons, adapted from Tom Junod, Esquire, November 1998

Procrastination

"Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday."

~ Don Marquis

Charles Kettering quotes

A person must have a certain amount of intelligent ignorance to get anywhere.

A problem well stated is a problem half-solved.

An inventor fails 999 times, and if he succeeds once, he's in. He treats his failures simply as practice shots.

An inventor is simply a fellow who doesn't take his education too seriously.

Believe and act as if it were impossible to fail.

Every time you tear a leaf off a calendar, you present a new place for new ideas and progress.

High achievement always takes place in the framework of high expectation.

I object to people running down the future. I am going to live all the rest of my life there.

If you have always done it that way, it is probably wrong.

If you want to kill any idea in the world, get a committee working on it.

In America we can say what we think, and even if we can't think, we can say it anyhow.

Inventing is a combination of brains and materials. The more brains you use, the less material you need.

It doesn't matter if you try and try and try again, and fail. It does matter if you try and fail, and fail to try again.

It is not a disgrace to fail. Failing is one of the greatest arts in the world.

Keep on going, and the chances are that you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it. I never heard of anyone ever stumbling on something sitting down.

Knowing is not understanding. There is a great difference between knowing and understanding: you can know a lot about something and not really understand it.

My definition of an educated man is the fellow who knows the right thing to do at the time it has to be done. You can be sincere and still be stupid.

My interest is in the future because I am going to spend the rest of my life there.

No one would have crossed the ocean if he could have gotten off the ship in the storm.

One fails forward toward success.

Our imagination is the only limit to what we can hope to have in the future.

People are very open-minded about new things - as long as they're exactly like the old ones.

People think of the inventor as a screwball, but no one ever asks the inventor what he thinks of other people.

Problems are the price of progress. Don't bring me anything but trouble. Good news weakens me.

The biggest job we have is to teach a newly hired employee how to fail intelligently. We have to train him to experiment over and over and to keep on trying and failing until he learns what will work.

The future can be anything we want it to be, providing we have the faith and that we realize that peace, no less than war, required "blood and sweat and tears."

The only difference between a problem and a solution is that people understand the solution.

The only time you mustn't fail is the last time you try.

The opportunities of man are limited only by his imagination. But so few have imagination that there are ten thousand fiddlers to one composer.

The world hates change, yet it is the only thing that has brought progress.

The Wright brothers flew right through the smoke screen of impossibility.

There exist limitless opportunities in every industry. Where there is an open mind, there will always be a frontier.

There is a great difference between knowing and understanding: you can know a lot about something and not really understand it.

Thinking is one thing no one has ever been able to tax.

We need to teach the highly educated man that it is not a disgrace to fail and that he must analyze every failure to find its cause. He must learn how to fail intelligently, for failing is one of the greatest arts in the world.

We often say that the biggest job we have is to teach a newly hired employee to fail intelligently... to experiment over and over again and to keep on trying and failing until he learns what will work.

We should all be concerned about the future because we will have to spend the rest of our lives there.

You can be sincere and still be stupid.

You can't have a better tomorrow if you are thinking about yesterday all the time.

You will never stub your toe standing still. The faster you go, the more chance there is of stubbing your toe, but the more chance you have of getting somewhere.

~ Charles Kettering
American Inventor, b. 1876, d. 1958
www.brainyquote.com

She thinks I'm real!

A family settled down for dinner at a restaurant. The waitress first took the order of the adults, then turned to the seven year old. 'What will you have?' she asked.
The boy looked around the table timidly and said, 'I would like to have a hot dog.'
Before the waitress could write down the order, the mother interrupted. 'No hot dogs,' she said, 'Get him a steak with mashed potatoes and carrots.'
The waitress ignored her. 'Do you want ketchup or mustard on your hot dog?' she asked the boy.
'Ketchup.'
'Coming up in a minute,' said the waitress as she started for the kitchen.
There was a stunned silence when she left. Finally the boy looked at everyone present and said, 'Know what? She thinks I'm real!'

~ Anthony deMello in The Heart of the Enlightened

No Theories

"Before I got married I had six theories about bringing up children; now I have six children and no theories."

~ John Wilmot

Denominations

“I don’t care what denomination you belong to, as long as you’re ashamed of it.”

~ Rabbi Irving “Yitz” Greenberg

Procrastination

"Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday."

~ Don Marquis

Reasoning Correctly

I prefer the company of peasants because they have not been educated sufficiently to reason incorrectly.

~ Michel de Montaigne

What You Heard is Not What I Meant

I know that you believe that you understood what you think I said, but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.

~ Robert McCloskey

How You are Old

"It is not how old you are, but how you are old."

~ Jules Renard

A Crystal-Clear Reflection of a Love

Today, throughout the world, Taizé’s name evokes peace, reconciliation, communion and the ardent expectation of a springtime of the Church:
“When the Church listens, heals, reconciles, then she becomes what she is in her most radiant aspect: a crystal-clear reflection of a love.” (Brother Roger)

http://www.taize.fr/en_article2468.html

We Went Up and Up

One of the elders used to say: In the beginning when we got together we used to talk about something that was good for our souls, and we went up and up, and ascended even to heaven.
But now we get together and spend our time in criticizing everything, and we drag one another down into the abyss.

~ Wisdom of the Desert Fathers

Manipulative Skills

Therapy doesn't actually help sociopaths--it further enables their bad behavior by sharpening their manipulative skills.

~ from a study by Samuel Yochelson and Stanton Samenow, psychiatrists specializing in the criminal mind

Charles M. Schulz quotes

A whole stack of memories never equal one little hope.

All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt.

Aunt Marion was right... Never marry a musician, and never answer the door.

Big sisters are the crabgrass in the lawn of life.

Decorate your home. It gives the illusion that your life is more interesting than it really is.

Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It is already tomorrow in Australia.

I have a new philosophy. I'm only going to dread one day at a time.

I know the answer! The answer lies within the heart of all mankind! The answer is twelve? I think I'm in the wrong building.

I love mankind; it's people I can't stand.

I think I've discovered the secret of life - you just hang around until you get used to it.

If I were given the opportunity to present a gift to the next generation, it would be the ability for each individual to learn to laugh at himself.

Life is like a ten speed bicycle. Most of us have gears we never use.

Life is like an ice-cream cone, you have to lick it one day at a time.

My life has no purpose, no direction, no aim, no meaning, and yet I'm happy. I can't figure it out. What am I doing right?

No problem is so formidable that you can't walk away from it.

No problem is too big to run away from.

Nothing takes the taste out of peanut butter quite like unrequited love.

Sometimes I lie awake at night, and I ask, "Where have I gone wrong?" Then a voice says to me, "This is going to take more than one night."

That's the secret to life... replace one worry with another.

The way I see it, it doesn't matter what you believe just so you're sincere.

There is no problem so big it cannot be run away from.

There's a difference between a philosophy and a bumper sticker.

Try not to have a good time... this is supposed to be educational.

Yesterday I was a dog. Today I'm a dog. Tomorrow I'll probably still be a dog. Sigh! There's so little hope for advancement.

You're a good man, Charlie Brown.

~ Charles M. Schulz

The spirit of man is the candle of the LORD

The spirit of man is the candle of the LORD, searching all the inward parts of the belly.

~ Proverbs 20:27 KJV

Be Careful What You Pretend to Be

"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be."

~ Kurt Vonnegut

Song of Solomon 8:6-10

6 Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; for love is strong as death, passion fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, a raging flame.
7 Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. If one offered for love all the wealth of his house, it would be utterly scorned.
8 We have a little sister, and she has no breasts. What shall we do for our sister, on the day when she is spoken for?
9 If she is a wall, we will build upon her a battlement of silver; but if she is a door, we will enclose her with boards of cedar.
10 I was a wall, and my breasts were like towers; then I was in his eyes as one who brings peace.

Nothing for Us to Do

"If there was nothing wrong in the world there wouldn't be anything for us to do."

~ George Bernard Shaw, Irish dramatist

Fools Corrupt Power

“Power does not corrupt men. Fools, however, if they get into a position of power, corrupt power.”

~ George Bernard Shaw, Irish dramatist

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)
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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)

Music in the Service of God

"I wish to see all arts, principally music, in the service of Him who gave and created them. I would not for all the world forego my humble share of music. Singers are never sorrowful, but are merry, and smile through their troubles in song. Music makes people kinder, gentler, more staid and reasonable. I am strongly persuaded that after theology there is no art that can be placed on a level with music; for besides theology music is the only art capable of affording peace and joy of the heart." ...

"The devil flees before the sound of music almost as much as before the Word of God.”

~ Martin Luther - foreword to the Wittenberg Gesangbuch, 1524