Pieces and perspectives on normality
A faith without some doubts is like a human body without any antibodies
in it. People who blithely go through life too busy or indifferent to
ask hard questions about why they believe as they do will find
themselves defenseless against either the experience of tragedy or the
probing questions of a smart skeptic. A person’s faith can collapse
almost overnight if she has failed over the years to listen to her own
doubts, which should only be discarded after long reflection. Believers
should acknowledge and wrestle with doubts—not only their own but their
friends’ and neighbors’. [Tim Keller]
What gives us conviction of sin is not the number of sins we have committed, it is the sight of the holiness of God [Martin Lloyd-Jones]
He was created of a mother whom He created. He was carried by hands that He formed. He cried in the manger in wordless infancy. He, the Word, without whom all human eloquence is mute. [Augustine]
Christmas is built on a beautiful and intentional paradox; that the birth of the homeless should be celebrated in every home [G.K. Chesterton]
Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it. [William Arthur Ward]
Agnostics talk cheerfully of man's search for God but they might as well talk about the mouse's search for the cat. [CSLewis]
"He who sings prays twice." [Augustine]
"... pragmatism, which says, 'nothing means anything, objectively. Whatever meaning is, you'll only find it by making it yourself. And you'll know when it's real, because it'll work.' -- the delusion of modern spirituality! [Near the end of http://bit.ly/1e1gMVI]
"The world of nominal, cultural Christianity that took the American dream and added Jesus to it in order to say, 'you can have everything you ever wanted and Heaven too,' is soon to be gone. Good riddance." [Russell Moore]
There are many trails up the mountain, but there is only one way to the summit. [Everett L. Worthington Jr.]
A feast of Chesterton:
Forgive your enemies, it messes with their minds! [anon]
I was on the point of breaking off the conversation, for nothing puts me so completely out of patience as the utterance of a wretched commonplace when I am talking from my inmost heart. [Johann Wolfgang von Goethe]
Delight in smooth sounding platitudes, refusal to face unpleasant facts ... genuine love of peace and pathetic belief that love can be its sole foundation ... the utter devotion of the Liberals to sentiment apart from reality ...though free from wickedness or evil design, played a definite part in the unleashing upon the world of horrors and miseries (WWII) [Winston Churchill]
When Catholicism goes bad it becomes the religion of amulets and holy places and priestcraft: Protestantism, in its corresponding decay, becomes a vague mist of ethical platitudes [C S Lewis]
When I hear somebody sigh, 'Life is hard,' I am always tempted to ask, 'Compared to what?' [Sydney J. Harris]
One hundred religious persons knit into a unity by careful organizations do not constitute a church any more than eleven dead men make a football team. The first requisite is life, always. [A.W. Tozer]
To gather with God's people in united adoration of the Father is as necessary to the Christian life as prayer. [Martin Luther]
Sometimes the thing that brings us together also pulls us apart. Sort of like a zipper. [Jarod Kintz]
A depressed Christian is a contradiction in terms, and he is a very poor recommendation for the gospel. Nothing is more important, therefore, than that we should be delivered from a condition which gives other people, looking at us, the impression that to be a Christian means to be unhappy, to be sad, to be morbid, and that the Christian is one who "scorns delights and lives laborious days." [Martyn Lloyd-Jones]
When there is no enemy within, the enemies outside cannot hurt you. [Winston Churchill]
Before any great achievement, some measure of depression is very usual. [Charles Spurgeon]
Humility is like underwear; essential, but indecent if it shows. [Helen Nielsen]
Humility is to be no more than you are, and no less than you are
Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else [Galatians 6:4]
On the highest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own bottom. [Michel de Montaigne]
Whoever loves becomes humble. Those who love have, so to speak, pawned a part of their narcissism. [Freud]
The real problem is not why some pious, humble, believing people suffer, but why some do not. [C. S. Lewis]
Humility is the displacement of self by the enthronement of God. [Andrew Murray]
Humility is nothing but the disappearance of self in the vision that God is all. [Andrew Murray]
A dead Christ I must do everything for; a living Christ does everything for me. [Andrew Murray]
Coming before God in quietness and waiting upon Him in silence can accomplish more than days of feverish activity. [AW Tozer]
If we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased. [CS Lewis]
I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.
[G. K. Chesterton]
The devil loves it when we say we believe then prioritize everything in our lives ahead of God. [AW Tozer]
Frustration is the compost from which the mushrooms of creativity grow. [Tumerica]
People need trouble -- a little frustration to sharpen the spirit on, toughen it. Artists do; I don't mean you need to live in a rat hole or gutter, but you have to learn fortitude, endurance. [William Faulkner]
What then are we to do about our problems? We must learn to live with them until such time as God delivers us from them...we must pray for grace to endure them without murmuring. Problems patiently endured will work for our spiritual perfecting. They harm us only when we resist them or endure them unwillingly. [A. W. Tozer]
Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. [Proverbs 3:5-6]
My recipe for dealing with anger and frustration: set the kitchen timer for twenty minutes, cry, rant, and rave, and at the sound of the bell, simmer down and go about business as usual. [Phyllis Diller]
Art, like morality, consists in drawing the line somewhere. [G. K. Chesterton]
It takes two wings for an eagle to fly. If an eagle were to try to fly with just one wing he would only spin around in circles on the ground. The same is true with many people who are trying to soar spiritually on their faith, but have not added patience. These just keep going around in circles, getting more and more frustrated and kicking up a lot of dust. Any truth that we teach without this counter balancing truth will lead us to frustration, not fulfillment. [Rick Joyner]
"Handing off a ministry is rarely simple; a calling is rarely easy to release" [Adam and Christine Jeske]
"Not choosing becomes a lack of trust in the God who ordains the decisions we will make" [Barry Cooper]
"We were created to be co-creators and stewards. If you don't give people something to steward, they're missing out on [one reason] why they were created" [Riet Shumack]
"Jesus saves, religion doesn't" [John Travis]
“It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it's called Life.” [Terry Pratchett]
"Blessed are the cracked, for they shall let in the light" [Groucho Marx]
“Stories of imagination tend to upset those without one.” [Terry Pratchett]
(try replacing "interesting" with "Christian") “Jeremy tried to be an interesting person. The trouble was that he was the kind of person who, having decided to be an interesting person, would first of all try to find a book called How to Be An Interesting Person and then see whether there were any courses available.” [Terry Pratchett]
When we were children we were grateful to those who filled our stockings at Christmas time. Why are we not grateful to God for filling our stockings with legs? [G K. Chesterton]
Once again we find ourselves enmeshed in the Holiday Season, that very special time of year when we join with our loved ones in sharing centuries-old traditions such as trying to find a parking space at the mall. We traditionally do this in my family by driving around the parking lot until we see a shopper emerge from the mall, then we follow her, in very much the same spirit as the Three Wise Men, who 2,000 years ago followed a star, week after week, until it led them to a parking space. [Dave Barry]
Oh look, yet another Christmas TV special! How touching to have the meaning of Christmas brought to us by cola, fast food, and beer... Who'd have ever guessed that product consumption, popular entertainment, and spirituality would mix so harmoniously? [Bill Watterson]
There has been only one Christmas -- the rest are anniversaries. [JW Cameron]
The threat of Christmas hung in the air, visible already in the fretful look of passersby as they readied themselves for the meaningless but necessary rites of false jovialities and ill-considered gifts. [Peter Dickinson]
Most people are bothered by those passages of Scripture they do not understand, but the passages that bother me are those I do understand. [Mark Twain]
The Bible tells us to love our neighbours, and also to love our enemies; probably because they are generally the same people. [G K Chesterton]
In the Lord's Prayer, the first petition is for daily bread. No one can worship God or love his neighbour on an empty stomach. [Woodrow Wilson]
The trouble with some of us is that we have been inoculated with small doses of Christianity which keep us from catching the real thing. [Leslie Weatherhead]
"Maybe," the Grinch thought, "Christmas doesn't come from a store" [Dr. Seuss]
What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. [Ecclesiastes 1:9]
History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme. [Mark Twain]
"Underneath the thin veneer of my religiosity lived a pervasive and deeply entrenched self-referenced being which was driven by its own agendas, its own desires, its own purposes." [Robert Mulholland]
"It is true that sin is the cause of all this pain; but it is all going to be all right, it is all going to be all right, everything is going to be all right." [Lady Julian of Norwich (14th century)]
Joy is the serious business of heaven [CS Lewis]
Give us days to be filled with small rebellions
Senseless brutal acts of kindness from us all
If we stand between the fear and firm foundation
Push against the current and the fall
[Jars of Clay]
Stop for the one. [Heidi Baker]
Prosperity cannot be a proof of God's favor, since it is what the devil promises to those who worship him. (Matt. 4:9) [John Piper]
Having true spiritual discernment rather than pious shoptalk is about as popular as a skunk at a picnic." [AW Tozer]
There is always the danger of confusing Christian Culture with Religion and Faith
As evangelicals, we believe that God can be known intimately, so we urge believers toward 'a personal relationship with Jesus.' But from what I've witnessed, it can become so personal it ends up being about the wrong person - me. [Leslie Leyland Fields]
God Has perfect timing; never early, never late.
It takes a little patience and faith,
but its worth the wait. [Anonymous]
"When I understand that everything happening to me is to make me more Christlike, it resolves a great deal of anxiety." [AW Tozer]
Q: Are there particular ruts in prayer life?
A: I think we are prone to several. One is that we define prayer as a conversation, making verbal skill a requirement and ruling out silence. Another is that we think of prayer almost exclusively as asking for things - petition and intercession. We sometimes talk about the "Power of prayer" as if that meant our power to get God to answer. I have very little sympathy with approaches that seem to reverse Jesus' prayer: "Lord, not thy will but mine be done" [Gary Neal Hansen]
What gives us conviction of sin is not the number of sins we have committed, it is the sight of the holiness of God [Martin Lloyd-Jones]
He was created of a mother whom He created. He was carried by hands that He formed. He cried in the manger in wordless infancy. He, the Word, without whom all human eloquence is mute. [Augustine]
Christmas is built on a beautiful and intentional paradox; that the birth of the homeless should be celebrated in every home [G.K. Chesterton]
Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it. [William Arthur Ward]
Agnostics talk cheerfully of man's search for God but they might as well talk about the mouse's search for the cat. [CSLewis]
"He who sings prays twice." [Augustine]
"... pragmatism, which says, 'nothing means anything, objectively. Whatever meaning is, you'll only find it by making it yourself. And you'll know when it's real, because it'll work.' -- the delusion of modern spirituality! [Near the end of http://bit.ly/1e1gMVI]
"The world of nominal, cultural Christianity that took the American dream and added Jesus to it in order to say, 'you can have everything you ever wanted and Heaven too,' is soon to be gone. Good riddance." [Russell Moore]
There are many trails up the mountain, but there is only one way to the summit. [Everett L. Worthington Jr.]
A feast of Chesterton:
- “It is one thing to describe an interview with a... creature that does not exist. It is another thing to discover that the rhinoceros does exist and then take pleasure in the fact that he looks as if he didn’t.”
- “Exactly what does breed insanity is reason. Poets do not go mad; but chess-players do. Mathematicians go mad, and cashiers; but creative artists very seldom.”
- “Only one great English poet went mad, Cowper. And he was definitely driven mad by logic, by the ugly and alien logic of predestination. Poetry was not the disease but the medicine.... He was damned by John Calvin.”
- “The poet only desires exaltation and expansion, a world to stretch himself in. The poet only asks to get his head into the heavens. It is the logician who seeks to get the heavens in to his head. And it is his head that splits.”
- “The madman is not the man who has lost his reason. The madman is the man who has lost everything but his reason.”
- “Mysticism keeps men sane. As long as you have mystery you have health. When you destroy mystery you create morbidity.”
- “The ordinary man... has always cared more for truth than for consistency. If he saw two truths that seemed to contradict each other, he would take the two truths and the contradictions along with them.”
- “When we are very young children we do not need fairy tales: we only need tales. Mere life is interesting enough. A child of seven is excited by being told that Tommy opened the door and saw a dragon. But a child of three is excited by being told that Tommy opened a door.”
- “Man is more himself, man is more manlike, when joy is the fundamental thing in him, and grief the superficial. Melancholy should be an innocent interlude, a tender and fugitive frame of mind; praise should be the permanent pulsation of the soul. Pessimism is at best an emotional half-holiday; joy is the uproarious labor by which all things live.”
- “Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about.”
Forgive your enemies, it messes with their minds! [anon]
I was on the point of breaking off the conversation, for nothing puts me so completely out of patience as the utterance of a wretched commonplace when I am talking from my inmost heart. [Johann Wolfgang von Goethe]
Delight in smooth sounding platitudes, refusal to face unpleasant facts ... genuine love of peace and pathetic belief that love can be its sole foundation ... the utter devotion of the Liberals to sentiment apart from reality ...though free from wickedness or evil design, played a definite part in the unleashing upon the world of horrors and miseries (WWII) [Winston Churchill]
When Catholicism goes bad it becomes the religion of amulets and holy places and priestcraft: Protestantism, in its corresponding decay, becomes a vague mist of ethical platitudes [C S Lewis]
When I hear somebody sigh, 'Life is hard,' I am always tempted to ask, 'Compared to what?' [Sydney J. Harris]
One hundred religious persons knit into a unity by careful organizations do not constitute a church any more than eleven dead men make a football team. The first requisite is life, always. [A.W. Tozer]
To gather with God's people in united adoration of the Father is as necessary to the Christian life as prayer. [Martin Luther]
Sometimes the thing that brings us together also pulls us apart. Sort of like a zipper. [Jarod Kintz]
A depressed Christian is a contradiction in terms, and he is a very poor recommendation for the gospel. Nothing is more important, therefore, than that we should be delivered from a condition which gives other people, looking at us, the impression that to be a Christian means to be unhappy, to be sad, to be morbid, and that the Christian is one who "scorns delights and lives laborious days." [Martyn Lloyd-Jones]
When there is no enemy within, the enemies outside cannot hurt you. [Winston Churchill]
Before any great achievement, some measure of depression is very usual. [Charles Spurgeon]
Humility is like underwear; essential, but indecent if it shows. [Helen Nielsen]
Humility is to be no more than you are, and no less than you are
Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else [Galatians 6:4]
On the highest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own bottom. [Michel de Montaigne]
Whoever loves becomes humble. Those who love have, so to speak, pawned a part of their narcissism. [Freud]
The real problem is not why some pious, humble, believing people suffer, but why some do not. [C. S. Lewis]
Humility is the displacement of self by the enthronement of God. [Andrew Murray]
Humility is nothing but the disappearance of self in the vision that God is all. [Andrew Murray]
A dead Christ I must do everything for; a living Christ does everything for me. [Andrew Murray]
Coming before God in quietness and waiting upon Him in silence can accomplish more than days of feverish activity. [AW Tozer]
If we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased. [CS Lewis]
I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.
[G. K. Chesterton]
The devil loves it when we say we believe then prioritize everything in our lives ahead of God. [AW Tozer]
Frustration is the compost from which the mushrooms of creativity grow. [Tumerica]
People need trouble -- a little frustration to sharpen the spirit on, toughen it. Artists do; I don't mean you need to live in a rat hole or gutter, but you have to learn fortitude, endurance. [William Faulkner]
What then are we to do about our problems? We must learn to live with them until such time as God delivers us from them...we must pray for grace to endure them without murmuring. Problems patiently endured will work for our spiritual perfecting. They harm us only when we resist them or endure them unwillingly. [A. W. Tozer]
Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. [Proverbs 3:5-6]
My recipe for dealing with anger and frustration: set the kitchen timer for twenty minutes, cry, rant, and rave, and at the sound of the bell, simmer down and go about business as usual. [Phyllis Diller]
Art, like morality, consists in drawing the line somewhere. [G. K. Chesterton]
It takes two wings for an eagle to fly. If an eagle were to try to fly with just one wing he would only spin around in circles on the ground. The same is true with many people who are trying to soar spiritually on their faith, but have not added patience. These just keep going around in circles, getting more and more frustrated and kicking up a lot of dust. Any truth that we teach without this counter balancing truth will lead us to frustration, not fulfillment. [Rick Joyner]
"Handing off a ministry is rarely simple; a calling is rarely easy to release" [Adam and Christine Jeske]
"Not choosing becomes a lack of trust in the God who ordains the decisions we will make" [Barry Cooper]
"We were created to be co-creators and stewards. If you don't give people something to steward, they're missing out on [one reason] why they were created" [Riet Shumack]
"Jesus saves, religion doesn't" [John Travis]
“It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it's called Life.” [Terry Pratchett]
"Blessed are the cracked, for they shall let in the light" [Groucho Marx]
“Stories of imagination tend to upset those without one.” [Terry Pratchett]
(try replacing "interesting" with "Christian") “Jeremy tried to be an interesting person. The trouble was that he was the kind of person who, having decided to be an interesting person, would first of all try to find a book called How to Be An Interesting Person and then see whether there were any courses available.” [Terry Pratchett]
When we were children we were grateful to those who filled our stockings at Christmas time. Why are we not grateful to God for filling our stockings with legs? [G K. Chesterton]
Once again we find ourselves enmeshed in the Holiday Season, that very special time of year when we join with our loved ones in sharing centuries-old traditions such as trying to find a parking space at the mall. We traditionally do this in my family by driving around the parking lot until we see a shopper emerge from the mall, then we follow her, in very much the same spirit as the Three Wise Men, who 2,000 years ago followed a star, week after week, until it led them to a parking space. [Dave Barry]
Oh look, yet another Christmas TV special! How touching to have the meaning of Christmas brought to us by cola, fast food, and beer... Who'd have ever guessed that product consumption, popular entertainment, and spirituality would mix so harmoniously? [Bill Watterson]
There has been only one Christmas -- the rest are anniversaries. [JW Cameron]
The threat of Christmas hung in the air, visible already in the fretful look of passersby as they readied themselves for the meaningless but necessary rites of false jovialities and ill-considered gifts. [Peter Dickinson]
Most people are bothered by those passages of Scripture they do not understand, but the passages that bother me are those I do understand. [Mark Twain]
The Bible tells us to love our neighbours, and also to love our enemies; probably because they are generally the same people. [G K Chesterton]
In the Lord's Prayer, the first petition is for daily bread. No one can worship God or love his neighbour on an empty stomach. [Woodrow Wilson]
The trouble with some of us is that we have been inoculated with small doses of Christianity which keep us from catching the real thing. [Leslie Weatherhead]
"Maybe," the Grinch thought, "Christmas doesn't come from a store" [Dr. Seuss]
What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. [Ecclesiastes 1:9]
History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme. [Mark Twain]
"Underneath the thin veneer of my religiosity lived a pervasive and deeply entrenched self-referenced being which was driven by its own agendas, its own desires, its own purposes." [Robert Mulholland]
"It is true that sin is the cause of all this pain; but it is all going to be all right, it is all going to be all right, everything is going to be all right." [Lady Julian of Norwich (14th century)]
Joy is the serious business of heaven [CS Lewis]
Give us days to be filled with small rebellions
Senseless brutal acts of kindness from us all
If we stand between the fear and firm foundation
Push against the current and the fall
[Jars of Clay]
Stop for the one. [Heidi Baker]
Prosperity cannot be a proof of God's favor, since it is what the devil promises to those who worship him. (Matt. 4:9) [John Piper]
Having true spiritual discernment rather than pious shoptalk is about as popular as a skunk at a picnic." [AW Tozer]
There is always the danger of confusing Christian Culture with Religion and Faith
As evangelicals, we believe that God can be known intimately, so we urge believers toward 'a personal relationship with Jesus.' But from what I've witnessed, it can become so personal it ends up being about the wrong person - me. [Leslie Leyland Fields]
God Has perfect timing; never early, never late.
It takes a little patience and faith,
but its worth the wait. [Anonymous]
"When I understand that everything happening to me is to make me more Christlike, it resolves a great deal of anxiety." [AW Tozer]
Q: Are there particular ruts in prayer life?
A: I think we are prone to several. One is that we define prayer as a conversation, making verbal skill a requirement and ruling out silence. Another is that we think of prayer almost exclusively as asking for things - petition and intercession. We sometimes talk about the "Power of prayer" as if that meant our power to get God to answer. I have very little sympathy with approaches that seem to reverse Jesus' prayer: "Lord, not thy will but mine be done" [Gary Neal Hansen]
