Quotes
On Jesus
“My hope lives not because I am not a sinner, but because I am a sinner for whom Christ died; my trust is not that I am holy, but that being unholy, he is my righteousness. My faith rests not upon what I am, or shall be, or feel, or know, but in what Christ is, in what he has done, and in what he is now doing for me.”
Charles Spurgeon in Morning and Evening Romans 3:26 September 25
“The highest of missionary motives is neither obedience to the Great Commission (important as that is), nor love for sinners who are alienated and perishing (strong as that incentive is, especially when we contemplate the wrath of God . . .), but rather zeal—burning and passionate zeal—for the glory of Jesus Christ. . . . Only one imperialism is Christian . . . and that is concern for His Imperial Majesty Jesus Christ, and for the glory of his empire.”
- John Stott, Romans: God’s Good News for the World (Downers Grover, Ill.: InterVarsity, 1994), 53.
“Be of good courage and cast these dreadful thoughts out of your mind. Whenever the devil pesters you with these thoughts, at once seek out the company of men, drink more, joke and jest, or engage in some other form of merriment. . . . When the devil throws our sins up to us and declares that we deserve death and hell, we ought to speak thus: ‘I admit that I deserve death and hell. What of it? Does this mean that I shall be sentenced to eternal damnation? By no means. For I know One who suffered and made satisfaction in my behalf. His name is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Where he is, there I shall be also.’”
Martin Luther, in Theodore G. Tappert, editor, Luther: Letters of Spiritual Counsel (Philadelphia, 1955), pages 86-87.
Preaching on Isaiah 7:14, C. H. Spurgeon closed with this flourish:
“God with us.” It is hell’s terror. Satan trembles at the sound of it; the black-winged dragon of the pit quails before it. Let him come to you suddenly, and do you but whisper that word, “God with us,” back he falls, confounded and confused. “God with us” is the laborer’s strength; how could he preach the gospel, how could he bend his knees in prayer, how could the missionary go into foreign lands, how could the martyr stand at the stake, how could the confessor own his Master, how could men labor, if that one word were taken away? “God with us” is the sufferer’s comfort, the balm of his woe, the alleviation of his misery, the sleep which God gives to his beloved, their rest after exertion and toil. “God with us” is eternity’s sonnet, heaven’s hallelujah, the shout of the glorified, the song of the redeemed, the chorus of angels, the everlasting oratorio of the great orchestra of the sky.”
C. H. Spurgeon
“All praise to the name of the savior who reigns.
He’s taken our blame, embraced all our shame,
He’s raised from the grave so his fame we proclaim.
Salvation by grace through faith in his name.
Jesus, the beautiful and blessed Son,
Immutable, majestic one
Who was resurrected from the grave
for the depraved.
He paved the path for some
Place faith in His passion, son
Be saved from the wrath to come…”
– Shai Linne in “Spread His Fame.”
“In Jesus Christ, (Edwards) says, meet infinite highness and infinite condescension; infinite justice and infinite grace; infinite glory and lowest humility; infinite majesty and transcendent meekness; deepest reverence toward God and equality with God; worthiness of good and the greatest patience under the suffering of evil; a great spirit of obedience and supreme dominion over heaven and earth; absolute sovereignty and perfect resignation; self-sufficiency and an entire trust and reliance on God.”
Piper quoting Jonathan Edwards, “The Excellency of Christ,” The Works of Jonathan Edwards, 1, ed. Sereno Dwight (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1976), 680–683.
“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”
- C. S. Lewis
There is nothing in us or done by us, at any stage of our earthly development, because of which we are acceptable to God. We must always be accepted for Christ’s sake, or we cannot ever be accepted at all. This is not true of us only when we believe. It is just as true after we have believed. It will continue to be trust as long as we live. Our need of Christ does not cease with our believing; nor does the nature of our relation to Him or to God through Him ever alter, no matter what our attainments in Christian graces or our achievements in behavior may be. It is always on His “blood and righteousness” alone that we can rest.
- B. B. Warfield
“In Jesus’ case, we have the story of the holiest man who ever lived, and yet it was the prostitutes and thieves who adored Him, and the religious who hated His guts.”
- Rebecca Manley Pippert
“One of the best tests of the Christian character of any claim to be Christian ministry or movement is this question. Does it draw attention to Jesus Christ? Does it exalt him? Does it bring glory to Him and His name? That is the question and if our answer is yes than the movement or ministry concerned is a truly Christian ministry inspired by the Holy Spirit.”
- John Stott :: The work of the Spirit B023-02a :: Trinitarian Truth :: All Souls Church, England
On Theology
“If you do not listen to theology, that will not mean that you have no ideas about God. It will mean that you have a lot of wrong ideas – bad, muddled, out of date ideas. For a great many of the ideas about God that are trotted out as novelties today, are simply the ones which real theologians tried centuries ago and rejected – to believe in these popular ideas is retrogression – like believing the earth is flat.”
- C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 136.
On Praying
“Let us humble ourselves in the dust before God, yet pleading the merits of Jesus, and we shall find that God is ever ready in His pity and compassion to forgive us. Then with renewed earnestness let us begin to pray.”
- George Muller in Pray On! Pray On!
“In all states of dilemma or of difficulty, prayer is an available source. The ship of prayer may sail through all temptations, doubts and fears, straight up to the throne of God; and though she may be outward bound with only griefs, and groans, and sighs, she shall return freighted with a wealth of blessings!”
- C. H. Spurgeon
The Crying Need of the Hour by John Piper
So the truth is reaffirmed: God has given us prayer because Jesus has given us a mission. We are on this earth to press back the forces of darkness, and we are given access to headquarters by prayer to advance this cause. When we try to turn it into a civilian intercom to increase our conveniences, it stops working, and our faith begins to falter. We have so domesticated prayer that for many of us it is no longer what it was designed to be-a wartime walkie-talkie for the accomplishment of Christ’s mission.
We simply must seek for ourselves and for our people a wartime mentality. Otherwise the biblical teaching about the urgency of prayer and the vigilance of prayer and the watching in prayer and the perseverance of prayer and the danger of abandoning prayer will make no sense and find no resonance in our hearts. Until we feel the desperation of a bombing raid or the thrill of a new strategic offensive for the gospel, we will not pray in the spirit of Jesus.
The crying need of the hour is to put the churches on a wartime footing. Mission leaders are crying out, "Where is the church’s concept of militancy, of a mighty army willing to suffer, moving ahead with exultant determination to take the world by storm? Where is the risk-taking, the launching out on God alone?" The answer is that it has been swallowed up in a peacetime mentality.
We are a "third soil century." In the parable of the soils, Jesus says that the seed is the Word. He sows his urgent Word of kingdom power. But instead of taking it up as our sword (or bearing fruit), we "are those who hear the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful" (Mark 4:18-19).
This is why Paul says that all of life is war—-every moment. Before we can even engage in the mission of the church, we have to fight against the "the deceitfulness of riches" and "desires for other things." We must fight to cherish the kingdom above all "other things"-that is our first and most constant battle. That is the fight of faith. Then, when we have some experience in that basic battle, we join the fight to commend the kingdom to all the nations.
Let The Nations Be Glad! by John Piper
The Supremacy of God In Missions through Prayer: page 51
www.desiringgod.org/
On praying when you preach
“And so our Christian orator, while he says what is just, and holy, and good (and he ought never to say anything else), does all he can to be heard with intelligence, with pleasure, and with obedience; and he need not doubt that if he succeed in this object, and so far as he succeeds, he will succeed more by piety in prayer than by gifts of oratory; and so he ought to pray for himself, and for those he is about to address, before he attempts to speak. And when the hour is come that he must speak, he ought, before he opens his mouth, to lift up his thirsty soul to God, to drink in what he is about to pour forth, and to be himself filled with what he is about to distribute.”
- Augustine of Hippo, On Christian Doctrine
“Bear up the hands that hang down, by faith and prayer; support the tottering knees. Have you any days of fasting and prayer? Storm the throne of grace and persevere therein, and mercy will come down.”
- John Wesley
On Scripture
“…Paul subordinates himself, all preachers, all the angels of heaven, everybody to the Sacred Scriptures. We are not the masters, judges, or arbiters, but witnesses, disciples, and confessors of the Scriptures, whether we be pope, Luther, Augustine, Paul, or an angel from heaven.”
Luther on Galatians 1:9
“To the question ‘What is Romans all about?’ a variety of answers might be given. . . . An interesting point emerges if we approach the epistle statistically. . . . It comes as no surprise that the word Paul uses most frequently is some form or other of the definite article (1105x). Nor that this is followed in order by ["and"] (274x), ["in"] (172x) and ["he"] (156x). These are all common words and are bound to occur frequently. But not everybody would expect that Paul’s next most frequent word in this epistle is “God,” which is found no less than 153x. We may gauge something of the significance of this by noting that even some very common words do not occur as often. Thus ["but, however"] is found but 147x, the verb ["to be"] in its various forms 113x, and the preposition ["into"] 119x. . . . It is clear that in Romans Paul speaks of God so often that no other subject comes even remotely near it.”
Leon Morris, “The Theme of Romans,” in W. Ward Gasque and Ralph P. Martin, editors, Apostolic History and the Gospel, pages 249-250.
Mission Quotes
“…I say the name missionary is one of the highest most glorious titles that can ever be put on a justified sinner, and of them the world is not worthy…”
- John Piper – I Will Build My Church From All Peoples
A challenging word from missionary martyr Jim Elliot:
“Our young men are going into the professional fields because they don’t ‘feel called’ to the mission field. We don’t need a call; we need a kick in the pants. We must begin thinking in terms of ‘going out,’ and stop our weeping because ‘they won’t come in.’ Who wants to step into an igloo? The tombs themselves are not colder than the churches. May God send us forth.”
- Elisabeth Elliot, Shadow of the Almighty: The Life and Testament of Jim Elliot (New York: Harper, 1958), 54
When James Calvert went out as a missionary to the cannibals of the Fiji Islands, the ship captain tried to turn him back, saying, “You will lose your life and the lives of those with you if you go among such savages.” To that, Calvert replied, “We died before we came here.”
“God and eternal things are my only pleasure.”
Anglican missionary to Persia, Henry Martyn wrote this in his journal
“You can give without loving. But you cannot love without giving.”
- Amy Carmichael, missionary to India
“I claimed Aniwa for Jesus, and by the grace of God, Aniwa now worships at the Savior’s feet.”
- John G. Paton, Missionary to the New Hebrides: An Autobiography Edited by His Brother
(1889, 1891; reprint, Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth, 1965), p. 312.
“People who do not know the Lord ask why in the world we waste our lives as missionaries. They forget that they too are expending their lives … and when the bubble has burst, they will have nothing of eternal significance to show for the years they have wasted.”
- Nate Saint, missionary martyr
“I have but one candle of light to burn, and would rather burn it out where people are dying in darkness than in a land which is flooded with lights.”
-anonymous missionary
“At the moment I put the bread and wine into those dark hands, once stained with the blood of cannibalism, now stretched out to receive and partake the emblems and seals of the Redeemer’s love, I had a foretaste of the joy of glory that well nigh broke my heart to pieces. I shall never taste a deeper bliss, till I gaze on the glorified face of Jesus Himself.”
- John G. Paton
On Relationships / Dating / Marriage
“Your greatest need is not a spouse. Your greatest need is to be delivered from the wrath of God—and that has already been accomplished for you through the death and resurrection of Christ. So why doubt that God will provide a much, much lesser need? Trust His sovereignty, trust His wisdom, trust His love.”
- C. J. Mahaney
Adoniram Judson asks a father’s permission to marry Adoniram’s 1st wife Ann
I have now to ask, whether you can consent to part with your daughter early next spring, to see her no more in this world; whether you can consent to her departure, and her subjection to the hardships and sufferings of missionary life; whether you can consent to her exposure to the dangers of the ocean, to the fatal influence of the southern climate of India; to every kind of want and distress; to degradation, insult, persecution, and perhaps a violent death. Can you consent to all this, for the sake of him who left his heavenly home, and died for her and for you; for the sake of perishing, immortal souls; for the sake of Zion, and the glory of God? Can you consent to all this, in hope of soon meeting your daughter in the world of glory, with the crown of righteousness, brightened with the acclamations of praise which shall redound to her Savior from heathens saved, through her means, from eternal woe and despair?
- Adoniram Judson by Courtney Anderson, To the Golden Shore: The Life of Adoniram Judson (Grand Rapids, MI:Zondervan, 1956), p. 45.
The ultimate thing we can say about marriage is that it exists for God’s glory. That is, it exists to display God. Now we see how: Marriage is patterned after Christ’s covenant relationship to his redeemed people, the church. And therefore, the highest meaning and the most ultimate purpose of marriage is to put the covenant relationship of Christ and his church on display. That is why marriage exists. If you are married, that is why you are married. If you hope to be, that should be your dream.
- John Piper, This Momentary Marriage, p. 25.
Luther on Celibacy and Women
“Listen! In all my days I have not heard the confession of a nun, but in the light of Scripture I shall hit upon how matters fare with her and know I shall not be lying. If a girl is not sustained by great and exceptional grace, she can live without a man as little as she can without eating, drinking, sleeping, and other natural necessities. Nor, on the other hand, can a man dispense with a wife. The reason for this is that procreating children is an urge planted as deeply in human nature as eating and drinking. That is why God has given and put into the body the organs, arteries, fluxes, and everything that serves it. Therefore what is he doing who would check this process and keep nature from running its desired and intended course? He is attempting to keep nature from being nature, fire from burning, water from wetting, and a man from eating, drinking, and sleeping.”
- E.M. Plass, ed., What Luther Says (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1959), vol. II, pp. 888-889.
“If we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in the slum because he can not imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
C. S. Lewis – Weight of Glory
On Dealing with Criticism / Controversy
“If you account [your opponent] a believer, though greatly mistaken in the subject of debate between you, the words of David to Joab concerning Absalom are very applicable: ‘Deal gently with him for my sake.’ The Lord loves him and bears with him; therefore you must not despise him, or treat him harshly. The Lord bears with you likewise, and expects that you should show tenderness to others, from a sense of the much forgiveness you need yourself. In a little while you will meet in heaven; he will then be dearer to you than the nearest friend you have upon earth is to you now. Anticipate that period in your thoughts; and though you may find it necessary to oppose his errors, view him personally as a kindred soul, with whom you are to be happy in Christ forever.”
John Newton in “On Controversy”
On Dieing to Self
“I have now concentrated all my prayers into one, and that one prayer is this, that I may die to self, and live wholly to him.”
- Spurgeon
“Self can only be removed in a spiritual experience, never by mere instruction. Try to instruct leprosy out of your system. There must be a work of God in destruction before we are free.”
- Tozer in the The Pursuit of God
“I was not born to be free. I was born to adore and to obey.”
- C. S. Lewis
“I thank God for my handicaps, for through them, I have found myself, my work and my God.”
- Helen Keller
“When Jesus calls a man. He bids him come and die.”
- Dietrich Bonheoffer
On Worry
“Worry & anxiety aren’t merely bad habits or idiosyncracies. They are sinful fruits that blossom from the root of unbelief.”
Kevin DeYoung
On Suffering
John Paton writes after he lost his wife, child, while enduring misery and suffering
“Whatever trials have befallen me in my Earthly Pilgrimage, I have never had the trial of doubting that perhaps, after all, Jesus had made some mistake. No! my blessed Lord Jesus makes no mistakes! When we see all His meaning, we shall then understand, what now we can only trust- fully believe that all is well—best for us, best for the cause most dear to us, best for the good of others and the glory of God.”
- John G. Paton, Missionary to the New Hebrides: An Autobiography Edited by His Brother (1889, 1891; reprint, Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth, 1965), p. 488.
“May the sake of the gospel become our great desire, overthrowing the fleshly desires of self-interest and self-protection. May we, like Paul, see the salvation of the lost and the spiritual growth of believers as the task worthy of our suffering, pain, and even of death.”
- Bob Duffenbaugh on Acts.
“Nothing proves the sincerity of our beliefs like our willingness to suffer for them.”
- Stott on Paul’s ministry at the end of the book of Acts. (Stott 1990: 404).
Tyndale’s words in a letter sent to John Frith, just before Frith was burned alive.
“Your cause is Christ’s gospel, a light that must be fed with the blood of faith… If when we be buffeted for well-doing, we suffer patiently and endure, that is acceptable to God; for to that end we are called. For Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we should follow his steps, who did no sin.
Hereby have we perceived love, that he had lain down his life for us; therefore we ought also to lay down our lives for the brethren. . . . Let not your body faint. . . . If the pain be above your strength, remember, Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, I will give it you. And pray to our Father in that name, and he will ease your pain, or shorten it. . . . Amen.”
- Foxe’s Book of Martyrs.
“Don’t Waste Your Cancer.” from John Piper
May the Lord use this to help each of us think through God’s glory, sovereignty, compassion, and care with regard to sickness and health and in view of the coming days of death and glory, pain and peace.
Here’s the outline:
You will waste your cancer if you do not believe it is designed for you by God.
You will waste your cancer if you believe it is a curse and not a gift.
You will waste your cancer if you seek comfort from your odds rather than from God.
You will waste your cancer if you refuse to think about death.
You will waste your cancer if you think that “beating” cancer means staying alive rather than cherishing Christ.
You will waste your cancer if you spend too much time reading about cancer and not enough time reading about God.
You will waste your cancer if you let it drive you into solitude instead of deepen your relationships with manifest affection.
You will waste your cancer if you grieve as those who have no hope.
You will waste your cancer if you treat sin as casually as before.
You will waste your cancer if you fail to use it as a means of witness to the truth and glory of Christ.
“Don’t Waste Your Cancer.”
On Church Music
“The fathers desired that music should always abide in the Church. But when natural music is sharpened and polished by art, then one begins to see with amazement the great and perfect wisdom of God in His wonderful work of music, where one voice takes a simple part and around it sing three, four, or five other voices, leaping, springing round about, marvelously gracing the simple part, like a square dance in heaven with friendly bows, embracings and hearty swinging of the partners. He who does not find this an inexpressible miracle of the Lord is truly a clod and is not worthy to be considered a man.”
- Martin Luther. Here I Stand – A Life of Martin Luther By Roland Bainton p. 343
On Music
“I keep a lighter in my back pocket all the time. I’m not a smoker, I just really like certain songs.”
- Demetri Martin
Beauty
“The splendor of a soul in grace is so seductive that it surpasses the beauty of all created things.”
- Thomas Aquinas
“A christian, above all people, should live artistically, aesthetically, and creatively. If we have been made in the image of an Artist, then we should look for expressions of artistry, and be sensitive to beauty, responsive to what has been created for our appreciation.”
- Edith Schaeffer
On Spiritual Authority and Leadership
“It is not won by promotion, but by many prayers and tears. It is attained by confessions of sin, and much heart searching and humbling before God; by self-surrender, a courageous sacrifice of every idol, a bold, deathless, uncompromising and uncomplaining embracing of the cross, and by an eternal, unfaltering looking unto Jesus crucified. It is not gained by seeking great things for ourselves, but rather, like Paul, by counting those things that are gain to us as loss for Christ. That is a great price, but it must be unflinchingly paid by him who would be not merely a nominal but a real spiritual leader of men, a leader whose power is recognized and felt in heaven, on earth and in hell.”
-Samuel Logan Brengle was one of the truly great leaders of the Salvation Army.
On Sin
“When the devil accuses us and says, ‘You are a sinner and therefore damned,’ we should answer, ‘Because you say I am a sinner, I will be righteous and saved.’ ‘No,’ says the devil, ‘you will be damned.’ And I reply, ‘No, for I fly to Christ, who gave himself for my sins. Satan, you will not prevail against me when you try to terrify me by setting forth the greatness of my sins and try to bring me into heaviness, distrust, despair, hatred, contempt and blasphemy against God. On the contrary, when you say I am a sinner, you give me armor and weapons against yourself, so that with your own sword I may cut your throat and tread you under my feet, for Christ died for sinners. . . . As often as you object that I am a sinner, so often you remind me of the benefit of Christ my Redeemer, on whose shoulders, and not on mine, lie all my sins. So when you say I am a sinner, you do not terrify me but comfort me immeasurably.’”
- Martin Luther, commenting on Galatians 1:4, “. . . the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins.”
“All sin is founded in a secret atheism”
Stephen Charnock, Existence and Attributes of God, p. 93
“We can forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.”
- Plato
“We’re not merely imperfect people who need to grow – we are rebels who need to lay down our arms.”
- C. S. Lewis
On Your Vocation / Calling
“Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called.” 1 Corinthians 7:20
Some persons have the foolish notion that the only way in which they can live for God is by becoming ministers, missionaries, or Bible women. Alas! how many would be shut out from any opportunity of magnifying the Most High if this were the case. Beloved, it is not office, it is earnestness; it is not position, it is grace which will enable us to glorify God. God is most surely glorified in that cobbler’s stall, where the godly worker, as he plies the awl, sings of the Saviour’s love, aye, glorified far more than in many a prebendal stall where official religiousness performs its scanty duties. The name of Jesus is glorified by the poor unlearned carter as he drives his horse, and blesses his God, or speaks to his fellow labourer by the roadside, as much as by the popular divine who, throughout the country, like Boanerges, is thundering out the gospel. God is glorified by our serving him in our proper vocations. Take care, dear reader, that you do not forsake the path of duty by leaving your occupation, and take care you do not dishonour your profession while in it. Think little of yourselves, but do not think too little of your callings. Every lawful trade may be sanctified by the gospel to noblest ends. Turn to the Bible, and you will find the most menial forms of labour connected either with most daring deeds of faith, or with persons whose lives have been illustrious for holiness. Therefore be not discontented with your calling. Whatever God has made your position, or your work, abide in that, unless you are quite sure that he calls you to something else. Let your first care be to glorify God to the utmost of your power where you are. Fill your present sphere to his praise, and if he needs you in another he will show it you. This evening lay aside vexatious ambition, and embrace peaceful content.”
- Charles Spurgeon’s Morning & Evening for June 27
Humility
“If you should ask me what are the ways of God, I would tell you that the first is humility, the second is humility, and the third is humility. Not that there are no other precepts to give, but if humility does not precede all that we do, our efforts are fruitless.”
- St. Augustine
“And what kind of habitation pleases God? What must our natures be like before he can feel at home within us? He asks nothing but a pure heart and a single mind. He asks no rich paneling, no rugs from the Orient, no art treasures from afar. He desires but sincerity, transparency, humility, and love. He will see to the rest.”
- A. W. Tozer
Joy
“God is most glorified in man when man is most satisfied in God.”
- John Piper
“Whatever man loves, that is his god. For he carries it in his heart; he goes about with it night and day; he sleeps and wakes with it, be it what it may – wealth or self, pleasure or renown.”
- Martin Luther
“Joy in the Lord is the ripest fruit of grace, all revivals and renewals lead up to it. By our possession of it we may estimate our spiritual condition, it is a sure gauge of inward prosperity. A genuine revival without joy in the Lord is as impossible as spring without flowers, or daydawn without light.”
Spurgeon on Psalm 85:6
On Christmas
In Holy Subversion by Trevin Wax, there is a chapter on how the church should subvert the world’s understanding of power. This excerpt is particularly relevant for this time of year, as it contrasts the power of God’s kingdom with the power of Caesar’s rule:
Consider Jesus of Nazareth alongside Caesar Augustus.
At the time of Christ’s birth, Caesar had issued a call to the Roman world that everyone be counted and properly taxed. As he enjoyed luxurious accommodations in his Roman palace, he hoped to demonstrate his own greatness before a watching world by publicizing the great number of people under his domain. And yet in an unnoticed corner of Caesar’s kingdom, in a simple stable, sleeping in a feeding trough, the Son of God had come to show the glory of his Father.
The nature of infancy teaches us something about weakness, and it teaches us something about our God. Every Christmas we celebrate not Caesar’s triumphant census, but our Emmanuel: God with us.
The Apostle Paul tells us that Jesus made himself a servant. The infinite God enclosed himself in a woman’s womb for nine months. God the Son was wrapped in swaddling clothes and placed in a manger for a bed. God made himself vulnerable.
Picture Jesus, the firstborn above all creation, the one through whom God spoke the creation of the universe, sitting on his mother Mary’s lap, learning to read and write! Such mysteries can never be fully explained. But it is the story of God coming to earth – God’s being with us – that lies at the heart of the Christian worldview.
Imagine Caesar in his palace and Jesus in the manger. Which one looks more like a king?
What would you do if you were in Bethlehem at the time and you had to choose to pledge your allegiance to either a baby boy who excited a few rugged shepherds, or the ruler of the known world with an army of thousands at his command?
Who was more powerful? Caesar or Jesus? Things are not always as they appear.
Christians must have a radically different conception of power. After all, when Jesus was crucified, it appeared that he was dying as a weak man at the hands of the strong. Pilate appeared to have the authority and power. “We have no king but Caesar!” the people shouted.
Caesar ruled by conquering lands and subjugating people. Jesus conquered sin, death, and the grave by suffering and dying – by bearing the full weight of God’s wrath towards the evil of the world and then rising again to new life.
On The Entertainment Industry
“It’s amazing the wackos you meet in this industry. All we are is overpaid carnys”
- disgruntled electrician
“The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There’s also a negative side.”
- Hunter S. Thompson
On Education
“Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire.”
- William Butler Yeats
On Food
Chick-fil-a proves the doctrine of inaugurated eschatology.
- Ethan Bustad
