Philippians

“Ideally . . . the church is not made up of natural ‘friends.’ It is made up of natural enemies. What binds us together as the church is not common education, common race, common income levels, common politics, common nationality, common accents, common jobs, or anything else of that sort. Christian come together . . . because . . . they have all been loved by Jesus himself. They are a band of natural enemies who love one another for Jesus’ sake.” 

Donald Carson

“When the grace of Jesus sinks in, we will be among the least offended and most loving people in the world.” 

Scott Sauls

“Better is open rebuke than hidden love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend; deceitful are the kisses of an enemy . . . Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.” 

Proverbs 27: 5-6, 17

“If you read history you will find that the Christians who did the most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next…It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at Heaven and you will get earth “thrown in”: aim at earth and you will get neither.” 

CS Lewis, Mere Christianity, on “Hope”

“Honestly, I want to be like Christ. But honestly, I want to be like the Christ who turned the water into wine, not the Christ who thirsted on the cross. I want to be the clothed Christ, not the one whose garment was stripped and gambled away. I want to be the Christ who fed the five thousand, not the one who hungered for forty days in the wilderness. I want to be the free Christ, walking through the wheatfields with his disciples, not the imprisoned Christ who was deserted by them.”  

Ken Gire, The Reflective Life

“Just because we will not ultimately succeed in restoring shalom in our lifetime does not mean we should throw up our hands in despair. We may not be able to correct every slight and meet every need, but we can still make headway. We can bring a slice of shalom to our corner of the planet, to our sphere of influence, and so become a sign or firstfruit of the kingdom that Christ is bringing. We must wait for Christ’s return, but it can be an active rather than passive waiting. While we wait, why not choose to participate in the activities that herald the coming shalom? Simply put, regardless of our prospects for immediate success, we who follow the Prince of Peace must seek to increase the net gain of shalom in the world.”

Michael Wittmer, Heaven is a Place on Earth

“If I grapple with sin in my own strength, the devil knows that he may go to sleep.” 

Thomas Adams

 “The sin I once feared to lose became a delight to dismiss. You turned them out and took their place, pleasanter than any pleasure.” 

Augustine

“How little people know who think that holiness is dull. When one meets the real thing, it is irresistible.” 

C.S. Lewis

“The deepest word that can be spoken about sanctification is that it is a progress towards true humanity. Salvation is, essentially considered, the restoration of humanity to people . . . The greatest saints of God have been characterized, not by haloes and an atmosphere of distant unapproachability, but by their humanity. They have been intensely human and lovable people with a twinkle in their eyes.”

 James Phillips

“We all long for Eden and are constantly glimpsing it: our whole nature is soaked with the sense of exile.”

J.R.R. Tolkien

“The enthusiasms of my conversion have worn off. For whole stretches since the dream, since the baptism, my belief has faltered, my sense of God’s closeness has grown strained, my efforts at living in accord with what I take to be the call of the gospel have come undone…. Once upon a time, I thought I had arrived. Now I have arrived at a middle.”

Lauren Winner, Still: Notes on a Mid-Faith Crisis

“Yea, amen, let all adore Thee,
High on thine eternal throne
Savior take the power and glory
Claim the Kingdom for thine own
O come quickly, O come quickly,
Alleluia, come, Lord, come.”

Charles Wesley, “Lo! He Comes With Clouds Descending”

“Is anything more destructive than self-rule? Is anything more incessantly boring than self-absorption? Is anyone so boundlessly interesting as Jesus?” 

Knox Chamblin

“Either you will be getting your identity vertically, from who you are in Christ, or you will be shopping for it horizontally in the situations, experiences, and relationships of your daily life.” 

Paul Tripp

“If we remember God’s grace, then we lose the pride that would make us a Pharisee and the despair that would make us a cynic.” 

Merold Westphal

“Great is the rest and gladness of sitting down at our Redeemer’s feet, the door shut and the key turned upon our self-applause.” 

Henry Moule

“The Christian life after all is a life, it is a power, it is an activity. This is the thing we so constantly tend to forget. It is not just a philosophy, it is not just a point of view, it is not just a teaching that we take up and try to put into practice. It is all that, but it is something infinitely more. The very essence of the Christian life, according to the New Testament teaching everywhere, is that it is a mighty power that enters into us; it is a life, if you like, that is pulsating in us. It is an activity, and an activity on the part of God.”

 Martyn Lloyd-Jones

“I have come to feel that the primary reality of which we have to take account in seeking for a Christian impact on public life is the Christian congregation. How is it possible that the gospel should be credible, that people should come to believe that the power which has the last word in human affairs is represented by a man hanging on a cross?

I am suggesting that the only answer, the only hermeneutic of the gospel, is a congregation of men and women who believe it and live by it. I am, of course, not denying the importance of the many activities by which we seek to challenge public life with the gospel—evangelistic campaigns, distribution of Bibles and Christian literature, conferences, and even books such as this one.

But I am saying that these are all secondary, and that they have power to accomplish their purpose only as they are rooted in and lead back to a believing community.”

Lesslie Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1989), 227.