Classic and contemporary excerpts.
Truths about the church
The Reverend Andrew Greeley’s first two laws of the church: (1) “When other people have abandoned something, we discover it”; (2) “When people discover something wonderful that we have, we have just abandoned it.”
—Cited by Michael Leach in America (May 2, 1992)
Servant love
When [Jesus] wrapped a towel around his waist, poured water into a basin, and began to wash his disciples’ feet (see John 13:4–5), Simon Peter objected that this was beneath the dignity of the Master. We the disciples are to be the servants, I want to insist along with Peter. But Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part in me.”
This is a stunning and stupendous thought. Unless I can believe in this much love for me, unless I can and will accept Him with faith as my servant as well as my God, unless I truly know that it’s my good He seeks, not His glory … then I cannot have his companionship.
What an amazing revelation!
—Catherine Marshall in A Closer Walk
The Great Commission is no burden
It is our privilege to have world evangelism as a passion, not our responsibility to have as a burden.
—Attributed to Mary Nordstrom; quoted by Gary Ginter in a sermon
Defining salvation
Salvation isn’t what liberals or conservatives in this country think it is. It’s about getting my life straight. It’s not about ultimate significance. Salvation is about an adventure that was made possible through the death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, through which I am made part of a community who will tell me who I am. You are not free to make up your life as a Christian. Your life is not like a gift, your life is a gift. That is a very important grammatical point. Until you earn to receive your life gift, you are lost. And people are lost.
—Stanley Hauerwas, interviewed in The Door (May/June 1993)
Splitting hairs?
People in general, Christian people in particular, tend to divide sins into two categories: their sins and our sins. The Bible, of course, knows no such distinction. Sin is sin, without partiality shown to the sins of God’s people—our sins.
—Joe Bayly in Out of My Mind: The Best of Joe Bayly
True morality
Whenever we place a higher priority on solving our problems than on pursuing God, we are immoral.
—Larry Crabb in Finding God
Good for the soul
We need not “sin that grace may abound.” We are sinners and need only to confess that grace may abound.
—C. FitzSimons Allison in Fear, Love, and Worship
You can’t take it with you
We are afraid that heaven is a bribe, and that if we make it our goal we shall no longer be disinterested. It is not so. Heaven offers nothing that a mercenary soul can desire. It is safe to tell the pure in heart that they shall see God, for only the pure in heart want to.
—C. S. Lewis in The Problem of Pain
