Quotes Tagged "christianity"

We all have to rely on God’s infinite grace and keep trying, keep loving, keep believing, and do the best we can.

When you pray, you are sending a message forward to a time you will not see.

My soul is a witness for my Lord. There was an awful silence at the bottom of John's mind, a dreadful weight, a dreadful speculation. And not even a speculation, but a deep, deep turning, as of something huge, black, shapeless, for ages dead on the ocean floor, that now felt its rest disturbed by a faint, far wind, which bid it: 'Arise

He longed for a light that would teach him, forever and forever, and beyond all question, the way to go; for a power that would bind him, forever and forever, and beyond all crying, to the love of God... For it was time that filled his mind, time that was violent with the mysterious love of God

Now that I was learning that converting to Christianity entailed a whole lot more than pats on the back and potluck lunches in affluent North Texas churches. God and I had to have a serious conversation about how I was to handle the realities of being a Muslim convert and facing what was likely to be a hostile environment.

Idolatry is the thing that will always get in the way of and ultimately destroy your relationship with God, your heavenly father.

Those whom the Lord uses will have to be willing to be misunderstood and persecuted by people who have historically meant a great deal to them.

Studies have consistently revealed that a lot of people who attend church do not really have a personal relationship with God. My friend, that is a staggering revelation, and the implications for the church are far-reaching!

Materialistic conceptions of the world and life, philosophies which do not recognize the spiritual and eternal element in man cannot escape error in their efforts to construct a truly human society because they cannot satisfy the requirements of the person, and, by that very fact, they cannot grasp the nature of society. Whoever recognizes this spiritual and eternal element in man, recognizes also the aspiration, immanent in the person, to transcend, by reason of that which is most sublime in it, the life and conditions of temporal societies.

God is in control + God is good + God loves you = Your peace

We'll trust God for our eternal salvation, but not trust him in the small details of our day-to-day life?

I give you comfort. I give you peace. I give you joy. I give you hope. I give you life.” Jesus kept talking to her. “I give you strength. I give you love. I give you power. I give you Me.” Jennifer started jumping up and down and hugging Jesus.

If a thing is free to be good it is also free to be bad. And free will is what has made evil possible. Why, then, did God give them free will? Because free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having.

At what point will I look beyond the rank pessimism of my own attitude and step beyond the jaded opinions of a culture gone sour in order to see that the opportunity for good will always outweigh the schemes of evil?

Art is powerful. It has both the ability to create chaos and to unify. We respond to art on an emotional level and it moves us to rethink how we go about our living in the world and living with each other.

The oldest story is one of making. God created. God made. God formed.

Our creating is a part of the unfolding, generative process of God’s goodness filling the earth. Our desire to create is an imprint of the divine, designed into the fabric of our existence. Artists and creatives feel this acutely.

Good art subverts empire. It runs counter to the narratives of greed, dehumanization, stockpile, consumerism and the power that enforces them.

As creativity becomes intertwined with our identity and livelihood, we forget its intrinsic value. We think everything must have a practical purpose – but isn’t life more than a series of accomplishments? We’ve forgotten that pleasure isn’t sinful, and so we scramble for ways to justify that which brings us joy.

The call of the creative is the call to imagine an- other reality. Whether it’s by shedding light on the ways in which our current living falls short of God’s vision for humanity, or by articulating the possibilities of a shalom here on earth — the creative ultimately helps us locate ourselves within the larger story of God’s unfolding work in all of creation.