GOD'S GRACE, HUMAN WEAKNESS

'There is a story frequently told in monastic circles that is attributed in a generic way to "the Fathers". I have not been able to trace it back to an original source. No matter. The story expresses something so universal that it is everyone's. Every one of us can rightly claim to be its author while equally claiming to have it on ancient authority. The story goes like this, with minor variations. 'A pilgrim asked an old monk: "Father, what do you do all day in the monastery?" The old monk replied: "I fall, and I am raised up again. I fall, and I am raised up again."'

Erik Varden, Alight with Hidden Glory, p.51.

GOOD TEACHING

'...the best teacher is the one who wants you to find meaning in the things that have given him pleasure, too, so that the appreciation of their beauty will outlive him. In this way - because it arises from an acceptance of the inevitability of death - good teaching is like good parenting.'

Daniel Mendelsohn, An Odyssey: A Father, a Son and an Epic, p.215.

OUR UNIQUE PATH TO HOLINESS

'I cannot become holy by copying another's path. Like the novice in the desert, I must watch the elders and learn the shape and rhythm of being Christian from those who have walked further and worked harder; but then I have to take my own steps, and create a life that has never beeen lived before. At the Day of Juidgment, as we are often reminded, the question will not be why we failed to be someone else; I shall not be asked why I wasn't Martin Luther King or Mother Teresa, but why I wasn't Rowan Williams. The journey is always one that leads into more not less uniqueness; all to do once agan with the call to be persons, not individuals.'

Rowan Williams, Silence and Honey Cakes, p.95.

BEWARE!

'...the chief intoxicant of spiritual life: self-righteous ingratitude.'
Erik Varden, The Shattering of Loneliness, p.42.

ENJOYING GOD

'Our job is to go sunbathing in the Father's love! Close your eyes, sit back in your chair and feel the warmth of his love on your skin.'

Tim Chester, Enjoying God, p.39.

COURTESY

'...she had courtesy, which implied a great deal more than civility and good manners. It meant that while being completely yourself, you were all the time helping the other person to be himself, through your appreciation of his point of view, your respect for his individuality, your sensibility, and your quick awareness of how he thought and felt and what he was.'

John Moore, The Waters Under the Earth, p.239.

READ SCRIPTURE SUBMISSIVELY

'We will be spiritually safe in our use of the Bible if we follow a simple rule: Read in a submissive manner. Read with readiness to surrender all you are, all your plans, opinions, possessions, positions. Study as intelligently as possible, with all available means, but never merely to find the truth, and still less merely to prove something. Subordinate your desire to find the truth to your desire to do it, act it out!'

Dallas Willard, Hearing God, p.155.

THE CENTRALITY OF UNION WITH CHRIST

'To make real in ourselves the good which Christ offers us in the redeemed life, we must at some point begin to appreciate the literal character of the Scriptures which speak of Christ being "in" us.'

Dallas Willard, Hearing God, p.149.

HOW GOD'S SPIRIT DISCIPLES THROUGH GOD'S WORD

The Holy Spirit, therefore, has generously and advantageously planned Holy Scripture in such a way that in the easier passages He relieves our hunger; in the more obscure He drives away our pride. Practically nothing is dug out from those obscure texts which is not discovered to be said very plainly in another place.'

Augustine of Hippo in Mark D Thompson, A Clear and Present Word: The clarity of Scripture, p.110.

THE IMPLICATIONS OF FOLLOWING A KING BORN IN A MANGER

'The manger at Christmas means that, if you live like Jesus, there won't always be room for you in a lot of inns.' 

Timothy Keller, Hidden Christmas, p.119. 

CHRISTIANITY IS COMMUNAL

'...an isolated, independent, separated, and self-hiding Christian life is alien to the Christianity of the New Testament. Biblical Christianity is thoroughly and foundationally relational. No one can live outside the essential ministries of the body of Christ and remain spiritually healthy.' 

Paul David Tripp, Lead, p.148.

DISCLESHIP IS ALLEGIANCE

'Discipleship is fundamentally a call to allegiance.'
Darrell L Bock, Luke 9:51-24:53, p.1284.

THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY

'I have written so much in this book about churches, and monasteries, and universities; but these were never where the mass of the Christian people were most influentially shaped. It was always in the home that children were likeliest to absorb the revolutionary teachings that, over the course of two thousand years, have come to be so taken for granted as almost to seem human nature. The Christian revolution was wrought above all at the knees of women.' 

Tom Holland, Dominion, p.519.

CHEAP WORDS?

'Although we throw the word "sin" around easily and often, especially within evangelicalism, we do not take seriously enough the extent to which it will afflict and subvert our piety - both our practice and our doctrine - if it is not always challenged by the gospel.'
Grant Macaskill, Living in Union with Christ, p.7.

JESUS VALUES WOMEN

'Jesus values women. Women will travel with him, provide for him and his ministry, be healed by him, turn a whole town of enemies to him, and witness the gospel accounts of the crucifixion, burial, and resurrection. Women will be the first to share the gospel to the apostles and enter the upper room with them to pray. They will prophecy, plant the first churches with the apostles, help correct evangelists, co labor with the men in gospel work, host churches, and hand-deliver Scripture.'

Aimee Byrd, Recovering from Biblical Manhood & Womanhood, p.187.

JOY = HAPPINESS

'The notion that we can have joy without happiness has perverted the meaning of both words and helped spawn a culture of Christian curmudgeons. Feeling morally superior, they may affirm that they have the joy of Jesus deep in their hearts, but apparently it's so deep it never makes the way to their faces.' 

Randy Alcorn, Does God Want Us to Be Happy? p.48. 

A BEAUTIFUL PRAYER

'Guard Thou my soul,
strengthen my body,
elevate my senses,
direct my course,
order my habits,
shape my character,
bless my actions,
fulfill my prayers,
inspire holy thoughts,
pardon the past,
correct the present,
prevent the future.'
Lancelot Andrewes, Private Devotions - Seventh Day: Intercessions (Edited by Alexander Whyte), p.25. 

CONVERSION DEFINED

'Conversion is not an arrival at our final destination; its the acquisition of a compass.'
James KA Smith, On the Road with Saint Augustine: A Real-World Spirituality for Restless Hearts, p.50. 

WHAT WILL YOUR MORAL LEGACY?

'We all grew up in one moral ecology or another. We all create microcultures around us by the way we live our lives and the vibes we send out to those around us, One of the greatest legacies a person can leave is a moral ecology - a system of belief and behavior that lives on after they die.'

David Brooks, The Second Mountain, p.4.

WHY LOVE NEEDS COMMITMENT

'A commitment is falling in love with something and then building a structure of behavior around it for those moments when love falters.' 

David Brooks, The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life, p.xviii.