LAMENT DEFINED

'Lament is the honest cry of a hurting heart wrestling with the paradox of pain and the promise of God's goodness.'

Mark Vroegop, Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy: Discovering the Grace of Lament, p.26.

THE IMPORTANCE OF LITURGY

'He was suddenly aware of the fact that he was defending the liturgy of the church. That had never happened before. But he sensed the danger of a new enslavement to forms developing which would force the spiritual life into an arbitrarily tailored straightjacket, which was both poorer and more rigid than the one that come down from their forebears.'

Bo Giertz, The Hammer of God, p.210.

A PASTOR'S BEST TEACHER

'The congregation is the best teacher the pastor can have.'
Bo Giertz, The Hammer of God, p.148.

THE NEED TO RUN A RISK ASSESSMENT ON OUR BELIEFS

'A crucial task... for those with any convictions is surely to identify the risks peculiar to those convictions.'

Mark Meynell, Roots of the Malaise? The "O Tempora! O Mores!" Blogposts, p.82.

ENVY

'Envy is being unhappy at other people's happiness.'
Timothy Keller with Kathy Keller, The Way of Wisdom, p.127.

THE LINK BETWEEN ANGER & LOVE

'Anger is energy released to defend something you love. God is angry toward the evil that dishonours him and ruins that which he loves. But the problem with human anger is this - we tend to overlove the wrong things.'

Timothy Keller with Kathy Keller, The Way of Wisdom, p.120.

MISSION AS SPIRITUAL CONFLICT

'The deepest motive for mission is simply to be with Jesus where he is, on the frontier between the reign of God and the usurped dominion of the devil.'

Lesslie Newbigin in Fleming Rutledge, Three Hours, p.78.

FROM FEAR TO FAITH

'...the life of a Christian is lived in the tension between "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" and "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit."'
Fleming Rutledge, Three Hours, p77.

THE KINDNESS OF JESUS

'Ah, holy Jesus, how hast thou offended,
That man to judge thee hath in hate pretended?
By foes derided, by thine own rejected, 

O most afflicted.

Who was the guilty? Who brought this upon thee?

Alas, my treason, Jesus hath undone thee.

'Twas I, Lord Jesus, I it was denied thee,

I crucified thee.

Lo, the Good Shepherd for the sheep is offered; 

The slave hath sinned, and the Son hath suffered;

For our atonement, while we nothing heeded,

God interceded.

For me, kind Jesus, was thy incarnation,

Thy mortal sorrow, and thy life's oblation;

Thy death of anguish and thy bitter passion,

For my salvation.

Therefore, kind Jesus, since I cannot pay thee.

I do adore thee, and will ever pray thee,

Think on thy pity, and thy love unswerving,

Not my deserving.'

Johann Heermann in Fleming Rutledge, Three Hours: Sermons for Good Friday, p.12.

WISDOM COMES THROUGH WORSHIP

'The best way to guard your heart for wisdom is worship, in which the mouth, the mind, the imagination, and even the body are all orientated to God.'

Timothy Keller with Kathy Keller, The Way of Wisdom, p.85.