Perilous folly
The Marxist promise that utopia will follow the abolition of private property is merely one of the more naïve versions of the Enlightenment’s secular humanism.
Christians know this is dangerous nonsense.
—Ronald J. Sider in Completely Pro-Life
Breakdown
One proud, surly, lordly word, one needless contention, one covetous action may cut the throat of many a sermon, and blast the fruit of all that you have been doing.
—Richard Baxter in Gildas Salvanus: The Reformed Pastor
What price danger?
No one can quantify the risk of transmission [of AIDS] in the population at large. But whether it is one in ten or one in 10,000 for a single encounter, I am tired of people saying that all life is risk.… If someone showed you 10,000 guns and said that only one was loaded, would you pick one up and fire it at your temple if the prize were a toaster?
—Katie Leishman in The Atlantic (Oct. 1987)
So near, yet so far
God … can be received only through appreciation and conscious appropriation. He comes only through doors that are purposely opened for him. A person may live as near to God as the bubble is to the ocean and yet not find him. He may be “closer than breathing, nearer than hands or feet,” and still be missed.
—Rufus M. Jones in The Double Search
God’s gift: Our effort
The paradox of prayer is that it asks for a serious effort while it can only be received as a gift. We cannot plan, organize or manipulate God; but without a careful discipline, we cannot receive him either.
—Henri J. M. Nouwen in Reaching Out
Play it again …
You see or hear something once. You take no particular notice. A second time and you are intrigued for a moment, a third time and you take notice.
The Bible works that way. It does not shriek something, it merely repeats it, showing us something again and again until it begins to register.
—Herbert O’Driscoll in And Every Wonder True
Heaven is a wonderful place
A little girl was taking an evening walk with her father. Wonderingly, she looked up at the stars and exclaimed; Oh, Daddy, if the wrong side of heaven is so beautiful, what must the right side be!”
—Charles L. Allen in Home Fires
Our level best
We have nothing to do with how much ability we’ve got, or how little, but with what we do with what we have. The man with great talent is apt to be puffed up, and the man with little [talent] to belittle the little. Poor fools! God gives it, much or little. Our part is to be faithful, doing the level best with every bit and scrap. And we will be if Jesus’ spirit controls.
—S. D. Gordon in The Bent-knee Time
