Not Much Has Changed

"In the days of the early church, the declaration 'Jesus is Lord!' was a seditious and blasphemous rejection of the emperor's authority, and they killed Christians for saying it. Today, the declaration, 'Jesus is Lord' is an intolerant and bigoted rejection of pluralism, and the world reviles us for it."

What is the Gospel?
Greg Gilbert

Mountain or Maze?

"Many who urge that all religions do lead to God offer us the image of a mountain, with a number of routes going to the top. It does not matter which route you take: any of them will get you to the top. I want to offer a different analogy. What if the real situation is like people trying to find their way through a maze? There are lots of routes that bring us to a dead end and fail to get us out of the maze. There is just one way through.

Michael Green
But Don't All Religions Lead to God?

Outlive Your Life

"You want to do good. You want your life to matter. You want to live in such a way that the world will be glad you did."

-Outlive Your Life by Max Lucado-

Courage

"Courage is fear holding out for just a few minutes longer."

--Marcia Byalick--
Quit It

Perseverance vs. Obstinancy

"The difference between perseverance and obstinancy is that one often comes from a strong will, and the other from a strong won't."

--Henry Ward Beecher--

Substitution at the Heart of the Gospel

"The concept of substitution may be said, then to lie at the heart of both sin and salvation. For the essence of sin is man substituting himself for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for man. Man asserts himself against God and puts himself where only God deserves to be; God sacrifices himself for man and puts himself where only man deserves to be. Man claims prerogatives which belong to God alone; God accepts penalties which belong to man alone."

--John Stott--
The Cross of Christ

Mercy and Grace

"Because of His mercy, we don't get what we deserve:
Because of His grace, we get what we don't deserve."

Pia Thompson

What is Christianity About?

"How could anyone imagine that Christianity is about sin rather than the forgiveness of sin? How could anyone look at the cross and see only the shame of what we did to Christ rather than the glory of what he did for us? The prodigal had to 'come to himself' (acknowledge his self-centredness) before he could 'come to his father.' The humiliation of penitence was necessary before the joy of reconciliation. There would be no ring, no robe, no kiss, no feast if he had remained in the far country or returned impenitent. A guilty conscience is a great blessing, but only if it drives us to come home."

John Stott
The Cross of Christ

Benefits of the Cross of Christ

"It is in the substitutionary death of Christ that sin is overcome and wrath is averted, so that God can look upon man with pleasure, and man can look upon God without fear. Sin is expiated and God's wrath is propitiated."

-John Stott-

Never Too Late

It's never too late to be who you might have been. - George Eliot

Agnostics

"To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation."

Yann Martel
Life of Pi

Augustine quotes

A thing is not necessarily true because badly uttered, nor false because spoken magnificently.

Beauty is indeed a good gift of God; but that the good may not think it a great good, God dispenses it even to the wicked.

Charity is no substitute for justice withheld.

Complete abstinence is easier than perfect moderation.

Do you wish to be great? Then begin by being. Do you desire to construct a vast and lofty fabric? Think first about the foundations of humility. The higher your structure is to be, the deeper must be its foundation.

Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending. You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility.

Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.

Find out how much God has given you and from it take what you need; the remainder is needed by others.

Forgiveness is the remission of sins. For it is by this that what has been lost, and was found, is saved from being lost again.

God had one son on earth without sin, but never one without suffering.

God judged it better to bring good out of evil than to suffer no evil to exist.

God loves each of us as if there were only one of us.

Grant what thou commandest and then command what thou wilt.

He that is jealous is not in love.

He that is kind is free, though he is a slave; he that is evil is a slave, though he be a king.

Hear the other side.

The Soldier

The Soldier
By Charles M. Province

It is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press.
It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech.
If you can read this message thank a teacher,
If you are reading it in English of your own free will THANK A SOLDIER!
It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given us the freedom to demonstrate.
It is the soldier, not the lawyer, who has given us the right to a fair trial.
It is the soldier, who salutes the flag, who serves under the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag,
who allows the protester to burn the flag.
To all the brave men and women who have dedicated or given their lives
to protecting this country and it's freedoms:
Thank you.

Perspective

"Earth is all the believer will know of hell,
and all the unbeliever will know of heaven."

--John MacArthur--

Soldiers in a Totalitarian Regime

This quote is from the book,
From A to X by John Berger

"I felt old, I could still remember the time when soldiers were warriors, when mothers, however anxious, were proud of their soldier sons.
Across the world, uniformed, highly armed, commanded soldiers operate against unarmed civilians, temporarily isolated and surrounded. This is the new military profession. Soldiers have been transformed into bastards.
The old military orders of Advance or Withdraw or Offer Covering Fire have become obsolete because there is no front line and no opposing army. Nobody will say of one of these bastards that he died nobly.
If one of them happens to get killed, those close to him will mourn his death, but about its circumstances they will keep quiet, and say nothing.
The single word that counted on Wednesday was the one that came from the muzzle of a gun, addressed to somebody on their knees."

Injustice

"An injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Pride and Shame

"Pride and shame. You'd never know they were sisters. They appear so different. Pride puffs out her chest. Shame hangs her head. Pride boasts. Shame hides. Pride seeks to be seen. Shame seeks to be avoided.
But don't be fooled, the emotions have the same parentage. And the emotions have the same impact. They keep you from your Father.
Pride says, 'You're too good for Him.'
Shame says, 'You're too bad for Him.'
Pride drives you away. Shame keeps you away.
If pride is what goes before a fall, then shame is what keeps you from getting up after one."

--Max Lucado--
He Chose the Nails

Criticism

“Criticism is something we can avoid easily by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.”

-Aristotle-

The Brevity of Life

"Farrah Fawcett (62), Michael Jackson (50) and 150,000 others:
"A flower of the field; the wind passes, and it is gone."

-John Piper

Pride

"Boasting is the voice of pride in the heart of the strong.
Self-pity is the voice of pride in the heart of the weak."

-John Piper-