Presbyterian Church in Winston-Salem
“Enemy-occupied territory—that is what this world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us all to take part in a great campaign of sabotage.”
CS Lewis
“Anything must be true before it can significantly claim other merits. Without truth all else is worthless.”
Felix Fernandez
“Truth is so obscure in these times, and falsehood so established, that unless we love the truth we cannot know it.”
Blaise Pascal
“The sins I once feared to lose became a delight to dismiss. You turned them out and took their place, pleasanter than any pleasure.”
Saint Augustine
“A religion that costs nothing is worth nothing! A cheap Christianity, without a cross, will prove in the end a useless Christianity, without a crown.”
J.C. Ryle
“You can survive on your own. You can grow strong on your own. You can even prevail on your own. But you cannot become human on your own. Surely that is why, in Jesus’ sad joke, the rich man has as hard a time getting into Paradise as that camel through the needle’s eye. Because with his credit card in his pocket, the rich man is so effective at getting for himself everything that he needs that he does not see that what he needs more than anything else in the world can be had only as a gift. He does not see that the one thing a clenched fist cannot do is accept, even from God himself, a helping hand.”
Frederick Buechner
“Things! Burn them, burn them! Make a beautiful fire! More room in your heart for love, for the trees! For the birds who own nothing – the reason they can fly.”
Mary Oliver, “Storage”
“The cross comes before the crown, and tomorrow is a Monday morning.”
C.S. Lewis
“The religious see God as useful; gospel-believing Christians see God as beautiful.”
Tim Keller
“To bind a Roman citizen is a crime, to flog him is an abomination, to kill him is almost an act of murder: to crucify him is – What? There is no fitting word that can possibly describe so horrible a deed.”
Cicero
“There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: ‘Mine!’”
Abraham Kuyper
“In Jesus Christ we witness the long-awaited vindication and effective demonstration of God’s kingship in the world. The coming of Christ is the climax of the whole history of redemption as recorded in the Scriptures. The rightful king has established a beachhead in his territory and calls on his subjects to press his claims ever farther in creation.”
Al Wolters, Creation Regained
“Laudetur Iesus Christus – Praise be to Jesus Christ!”
Edith Stein, responding to German soldiers greeting her in her church with the customary “Heil Hitler” salute.
36 One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and reclined at table. 37 And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, 38 and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment. 39 Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.” 40 And Jesus answering said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” And he answered, “Say it, Teacher.”
41 “A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?” 43 Simon answered, “The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt.” And he said to him, “You have judged rightly.” 44 Then turning toward the woman he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. 46 You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. 47 Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.” 48 And he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” 49 Then those who were at table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this, who even forgives sins?” 50 And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
Luke 7:36-50
The list goes on forever
Of all the ways I could be better, in my mind
As if I could earn God’s favor, given time
Or at least congratulations …
I’ve spent my whole life searching desperately
To find out that grace requires nothing of me
Sleeping at Last, “One”
“Your Christian life and mine don’t make any sense unless in the depth of our beings we believe that Jesus not only knows what hurts us, but knowing, seeks us out whatever our poverty, whatever our pain.”
Brennan Manning, “What It Means to Be Cool in Christ Jesus”
“The hands of the king are healing hands, and thus shall the rightful king be known.”
J.R.R. Tolkien, Return of the King
“Tell me
Tell me the story
The one about eternity
And the way it’s all gonna be
Wake up
Wake up dead man”
U2, “Wake Up Dead Man”
“Perhaps the most important lesson I’ve learned from the widows’ prayers is the lesson of gratitude. They are grateful to their Creator and Sustainer for the opportunity to get up one more time and walk with him again. Yes, there are many challenges that they have and offer prayers about: family, health, money, sadness, loss, violence, and yes, they cry when they pray, but they also sing and dance. I’ve learned so much from these spiritual mothers.”
Eduardo Centurion, Foreword to Spiritual Widowhood by Andy Mendonsa
“He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing.”
Deuteronomy 10:18
“Fatherlike he tends and spares us
Well our feeble frame he knows.
In his hands he gently bears us
Rescues us from all our foes.”
Henry Lyte, “Praise My Soul the King of Heaven”
“Salvation is membership in the family of God . . .The creation of a family with children is the reason for all of God’s activity. This is how he intends to show his glory . . . Our sonship to God is the apex of creation and the goal of redemption . . . The story of Paradise lost becoming Paradise regained is the story of God’s grace bringing us from alienation from him to membership in his family . . . Our self-image, if it is to be biblical, will begin just here. God is my Father (the Christian’s self-image always begins with the knowledge of God and who he is!); I am one of his children (I know my real identity); his people are my brothers and sisters (I recognize the family to which I belong and have discovered my deepest ‘roots’).”
Sinclair Ferguson
“If the love of the father will not make a child delight in him, what will?”
John Owen
“God speaks to us: not only to move us to do what he wants, but to enable us to know him so that we may love him. Therefore, God sends his word to us in the character of both information and invitation. It comes to woo us as well as to instruct us; it not merely puts us in the picture of what God has done and is doing but also calls us into personal communion with the loving Lord himself.”
JI Packer, Knowing God
“I am growing in the awareness that God wants my whole life, not just part of it. It is not enough to give just so much time and attention to God and keep the rest for myself. It is not enough to pray often and deeply and then move from there to my own projects. As I try to understand why I am still so restless, anxious, and tense, it occurs to me that I have not yet given everything to God. I notice this especially in my greediness for time. I am very concerned to develop my ideas, finish my projects, fulfill my desires. Thus, my life is in fact divided into two parts, a part for God and a part for myself. Thus divided, my life cannot be peaceful . . . I realize that God’s love is a jealous love. God wants not just a part of me, but all of me. Only when I surrender myself completely to God’s parental love can I expect to be free from endless distractions, ready to hear the voice of love, and able to recognize my own unique call.”
Henri Nouwen, The Road to Daybreak
“Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.”
Isaiah 6:5
“The night I fell in sorrow I knew I was alone.
A dozen good-time friendships but my heart is still unknown.
I thought I saw your footsteps in the sand along the shore
And I mumbled empty phrases that sang so well before.
Now inches from the water about to disappear,
I feel you behind me, but how did you find me here?”
David Wilcox, “How Did You Find Me Here?”
“The Son of Man came to seek and save the lost.”
Jesus, Luke 19:10
