Some Quotes for Reflection

Pride: "The more pride we have, the more other people's pride irritates us." C.S. Lewis

Love (not force): "The tremendous truth of Christianity is that the coercion of God is not of force but of love. God chose the dangerous way of love (not force or coercion), and love in the end will triumph." William Barclay

Rom 12:9: "Love must be without hypocrisy" (HCSB). "Let love be genuine" (ESV). "Love must be sincere" (NIV). "Don't just pretend that you love others. Really love them" (NLT). "Love from the center of who you are; don't fake it" (MSG). "Let love be without dissimulation [deception]" (KJV).

Leadership: "The (true) leader must lead his followers towards a responsibility to the orders of life, a responsibility to father, teacher, judge, state. He must radically refuse to become the appeal, the idol, i.e. the ultimate authority of those whom he leads. He must limit himself to his task with all soberness." Dietrich Bonhoeffer

"God can work wonders if he can get a suitable man. Men can work wonders if they can get God to lead them." E. M.Bounds

"Jesus leadership is not one of power and control but of powerlessness and humility, in which the suffering servant of God, Jesus Christ is made manifest. Power must constantly be abandoned in favor of love." Henri Nouwen

Faith and works: "We are saved by faith alone (not by works); but not by faith that remains alone." Martin Luther

Law: "A low view of law always produces legalism; a high view of law makes a person a seeker after grace." J. Gresham Machen

Sin: "The greatest of sins is to be conscious of no sin." William Barclay

Repentence: "To truly become Christians we must also repent of the reasons we ever did anything right. Pharisees only repent of their sins, but Christians repent for the very root of their righteousness, too." Tim Keller, The Prodigal God, p. 78

Dependency: "The Church that is dependent on its past history for its miracles of power and grace is a fallen Church." E.M.Bounds

Being hurt: "This bruising is required before conversion that so that Spirit may make way for himself into the heart by leveling all proud, high thoughts, and that we may understand ourselves to be what indeed we are by nature. After conversion we need bruising so that reeds may know themselves to be reeds, and not oaks." Richard Sibbes, The Bruised Reed

Preaching: "To preach is to woo. The main scope of all [preaching] is, to allure us to the entertainment of Christ's mild, safe, wise, victorious government." Richard Sibbes

"Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim…silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented." Elie Weisel

Gospel: "The truth of the Gospel is the principle article of all Christian doctrine...Most necessary is it that we know this article well, teach it to others, & beat it into their heads continually." Martin Luther

Grace: "The very center and core of the whole Bible is the doctrine of the grace of God--the grace of God which depends not one whit upon anything that is in man but is absolutely underserved, resistless and sovereign. ...and Christian experience also depends for its depth and for its power upon the way in which that blessed doctrine is cherished in the depths of the heart. The center of the Bible, and the center of Christianity, is found in the grace of God; and the necessary corollary of the grace of God is salvation through faith alone." J. Greshan Machen

"In the NT, 'grace' is a word of central importance - the keyword, in fact, of Christianity. The thought of grace is the key that unlocks the NT; and it is the only key that does so. However well we may know the NT, we cannot get inside its meaning till we know something of what grace is." J.I. Packer

"Grace is the hardest thing for us to be reconciled to, because it implies the renouncing of our pretensions, our power, our pomp and circumstance. It is opposite of everything our 'religious' sentiments are looking for." Jacques Ellul (French philosopher, law professor, lay theologian)

"Put bluntly, the church today accepts grace in theory but denies it in practice. We say we believe that the fundamental structure of reality is grace, not works–but our lives refute our faith. By and large, the gospel of grace is neither proclaimed, understood, nor lived. Too many Christians are living in a house of fear and not in the house of love." Brennan Manning

"Religious people don't like grace because it messes up their authority and directives of giving advice, telling people what to do and not to do, being a boss. Grace undermines condemnation, fear, and threat, which are the best tools for religion." Justine Holcomb

Let go: "As I felt the anger rising up, I thought to myself, 'They have already had you for twenty-seven years. And if you keep hating them, they'll have you again.' And I said, 'I want to be free.' And so I let it go. I let it go." Nelson Mendela

Who am I: "I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world; but still I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God I am what I am." John Newton