Jürgen Moltmann said: “The symbol of the cross in the church points to the God who was crucified not between two candles on an altar, but between two thieves in the place of the skull, where the outcasts belong, outside the gates of the city. It does not invite thought, but a change of mind. It is a symbol which therefore leads out of the church and out of religious longing into the fellowship of the oppressed and abandoned. On…
1. “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!” 2. “As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.” 3. “for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” 4. “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.”
Have you not heard that God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is God of the living? Doesn’t HE provide us with all things in holiness together that we ought to make the most of its own and rest content with it? HE is never lacking and will never lack to provide for us! Has HIM at any point done as such as possible to keep us going? Every one of the endowments which HE has at any point allowed us…
Meister Eckhart said: “For God does not give us anything in order that we should enjoy its possession and rest content with it, nor has he ever done so. All the gifts which he has ever granted us in heaven or on earth were made solely in order to be able to give us the one gift, which is himself.”
1. “Your love, O LORD, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies.” 2. “The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.” 3. “I trust in God’s unfailing love forever and ever.” 4. “And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep…
Some once asked, “can we ever have a true measure of love?” Could subjectivity ever help to answer questions related to a measure of love? Do you remember this quote – “This is the true measure of love: when we believe that we alone can love, that no one could ever have loved so before us and that no one will ever love in the same way after us.”? Is it a subject of a measure or sufficient evidence of…
Fleming Rutledge said: “When you reflect upon Jesus Christ hanging on the cross of shame, you understand the depth and weight of human sin. How do we measure the size of a fire? By the number of firefighters and fire engines sent to fight against it. How do we measure the seriousness of a medical condition? By the amount of risk the doctors take in prescribing dangerous antibiotics or surgical procedures. How do we measure the gravity of sin and…
1. “While you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” 2. “So Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” 3. “And his name—by faith in his name—has made this man strong whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all.” 4. “He said to…
Do you remember that Thomas Jefferson made his version of the Bible that removed all miracles content? Do you appreciate his dedication to taking out some of the most excellent parts of the Bible, like Seas parting, leprosy healed, and dead people coming back to life just because he couldn’t come up with a faith that miracles like this could happen or find them hard to believe? Teaching could be hard to believe (2 Peter 3:15-16). Meaning, if teaching could be hard to…
Flannery O’Connor said: “I think there is no suffering greater than what is caused by the doubts of those who want to believe. I know what torment this is, but I can only see it, in myself anyway, as the process by which faith is deepened. A faith that just accepts is a child’s faith and all right for children, but eventually you have to grow religiously as every other way, though some never do. What people don’t realize is…