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| Link | Quote | Stars | Tags | Author |
| 936c061 | Church isn't perfect. It's practice. | lutheran | Nadia Bolz-Weber | |
| 78b1369 | The Gospels are the canon within the canon. The Bible, as martin Luther said, is the cradle that holds Christ. The point of gravity is the story of Jesus, the Gospel. The closer a text of the Bible is to that story or to the heart of that story's message, the more authority it has. The father away it is, the less its authority. It's a story of how the God who spoke through prophets and poets was the same God who showed up later in a human b.. | jesus | Nadia Bolz-Weber | |
| 5fe4b5b | Very often I will avoid the truth until my face goes red like a toddler avoiding her nap; until limp limbed, she finally stops flailing and falls asleep and receives rest--the very thing she needs and the very thing she fights. When someone like me, who will go to superhero lengths to avoid the truth, runs out of options--when I am found out or too exhausted to pretend anymore or maybe just confronted by my sister--it feels like the truth m.. | Nadia Bolz-Weber | ||
| 60d4f95 | Many of us were taught that if you do not fit inside the circle of the church's behavioral codes, God is not pleased with you, so we whittled ourselves down to a shape that could fit those teachings, or we denied those parts of ourselves entirely. | Nadia Bolz-Weber | ||
| 4671fc1 | we should not be more loyal to an idea, a doctrine, or an interpretation of a Bible verse than we are to people. If the teachings of the church are harming the bodies and spirits of people, we should rethink those teachings. | Nadia Bolz-Weber | ||
| 0f9890b | sometimes the origin of the harm can be the most powerful source of its healing. | Nadia Bolz-Weber | ||
| 6a1e4af | As the social philosopher and mystic Simone Weil said, "Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity." | Nadia Bolz-Weber | ||
| 019ae99 | Holiness is the thing I never saw coming that makes me catch my breath because I know the sacred has interrupted my isolation. | Nadia Bolz-Weber | ||
| d608dda | Moments of unity--holiness--actually alleviate isolation, which is not the same as simply distracting us from our isolation. | Nadia Bolz-Weber | ||
| 401e5fa | I was slightly irritated to be reminded of Jesus' message by a new Christian when what I rather would've done was rant about the shit that was making me hate people. | Nadia Bolz-Weber | ||
| 67b5bf7 | all the misguided harmful messages of my religious upbringing, I still cherish that I was raised in a family where things mattered. Our lives bore a continual inflection of faith. I belonged to a community that connected the events in our lives to the divine. We searched ancient scripture for meaning and guidance. We sang our hearts out. We called each other "brother" and "sister." We belonged to each other. I learned that from the church o.. | Nadia Bolz-Weber | ||
| c7db8fb | And every single time I die to something--my notions of my own specialness, my plans and desires for something to be a very particular way--every single time I fight it and yet every single time I discover more life and more freedom than if I had gotten what I wanted. | Nadia Bolz-Weber | ||
| f2b83cf | The Jesus whom God sent to claim and save us is what keeps me in Christianity, despite a hundred reasons to pack up and leave. | Nadia Bolz-Weber | ||
| d55220c | Allowing ourselves to name the harm and be angry about the past is not a bad place to be; it's just a terrible place to stay. | Nadia Bolz-Weber | ||
| 8a1d581 | the violence and fear, it's still always worth it to love God and to love people. And always, always, it is worth it to sing alleluia in defiance of the devil, who surely hates the sound of it. On the Sunday after the massacre, I stood before our congregation, grasping the music stand, which holds my sermon notes, and I looked at my now slightly faded tattoo of Mary Magdalene. In the image, she stands tall with one hand in a gesture of open.. | Nadia Bolz-Weber | ||
| a639ba0 | the basement of a bar. | Nadia Bolz-Weber | ||
| de91362 | Singing in the midst of evil is what it means to be disciples. Like Mary Magdalene, the reason we can stand and weep and listen for Jesus is because we, like Mary, | Nadia Bolz-Weber | ||
| efbe7b6 | Christianity is not a program for avoiding mistakes; it is a faith of the guilty. There is no "right" or perfect way to be. We learn from our mistakes; we extend grace to others and ourselves." | Nadia Bolz-Weber | ||
| 9defaa5 | Next to Alma on our All Saints' table was an icon of another accidental saint, Harvey Milk (the first openly gay person elected to public office in California, who was shot to death by a fellow city employee in 1978). The icon showed Milk standing in front of the Golden Gate Bridge with five silver bullet holes in his chest and a golden halo behind his head. The icon was created by Bill, one of our congregation's artists, who called me late.. | Nadia Bolz-Weber | ||
| 7a85400 | there are times when the truth won't let us go. Sure, I can avoid other people's scrutiny by telling my bullshit side of the story over and over to anyone who will listen. But I know the truth. And sometimes it all catches up with me at night as I lie in bed -- in that not-quite-awake and not-quite-asleep place. In those moments, my ego is turned off, perhaps for the only time all day. In that consciousness-minus-ego state, the truth fights.. | Nadia Bolz-Weber | ||
| 836a35c | Oddly, it's in these times that I feel closest to God. Not when I'm on a mountaintop, but when I'm lying in bed half-asleep, feeling defenseless. But as soon as my ego reengages, it's game over. | Nadia Bolz-Weber | ||
| a4807b7 | my own experiences of personal rejection and my years of theological education, countless prayers, an ordination, and a life centered on serving the church, I still have the same personality I was born with. I am often impatient and cranky. And my first response to almost everything is "fuck you." I don't often stay there, but I almost always start there. I'm still me. Yet the fact that I manage to now move from "fuck you" to something less.. | Nadia Bolz-Weber | ||
| dc73b1e | Repentance in Greek means something much closer to "thinking differently afterward" than it does "changing your cheating ways." Of" | Nadia Bolz-Weber | ||
| 96902d7 | Mary Magdalene would have very little tolerance for the Christian platitudes and vapid optimism that seem to swirl around these kinds of tragic events. Those platitudes are tempting, but they're nothing but luxuries for people who've never had demons (or at least have never admitted to them). But equally, she would reject nihilism, or the idea that there is no real meaning in life or death--ideas present in so much of postmodernity. Those i.. | Nadia Bolz-Weber | ||
| 8ce9b7e | from demons. | Nadia Bolz-Weber | ||
| 6324404 | estamos llenos del Espiritu Santo cuando estamos llenos de la Palabra, la cual el inspiro y a la que le dio poder. Cuando | John F. MacArthur Jr. | ||
| 22187c9 | resurrection, we are made new. On the third day, Jesus rose again, and we do not need to be afraid. To sing to God amidst sorrow is to defiantly proclaim, like Mary Magdalene did to the apostles, and like my friend Don did at Dylan Klebold's funeral, that death is not the final word. To defiantly say, once again, that a light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot, will not, shall not overcome it. And so, evil be damned, because eve.. | Nadia Bolz-Weber | ||
| 6ff65ba | A basic principle of spiritual life is that we are not earthbound people. Fully trusting our heavenly Father dispels anxiety. And the more we know about Him, the more we will trust Him. | John F. MacArthur Jr. | ||
| 29bb5da | Autobiographies tell more lies than all but the most self-indulgent fiction. | Autobiography | ||
| aa9843e | 23The poor man uses entreaties, But the rich answers roughly. | John F. MacArthur Jr. | ||
| 8359096 | Some people assume worry is the result of too much thinking. Actually, it's the result of too little thinking in the right direction. | John F. MacArthur Jr. | ||
| 4227a04 | The fact is, every believer must be continually in the presence of God, constantly breathing in His truths to be fully functional. | John F. MacArthur Jr. | ||
| 74e5526 | For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that a.. | John F. MacArthur Jr. | ||
| 7fa5a5f | Peter and others who experienced the special filling on Pentecost Day (2:4) were filled with the Spirit again and again (4:8, 31; 6:5; 7:55) and so boldly spoke the word of God. That was just the beginning. The fullness of the Spirit affects all areas of life, not just speaking boldly ( | John F. MacArthur Jr. | ||
| 587f27a |
Lo que es particularmente interesante acerca de la determinacion de Pablo de tener el solo proposito de predicar el evangelio no diluido es su admision inmediata de que luchaba con los mismos sentimientos de aprension e intimidacion que todos nosotros experimentamos ante nuestro deber de proclamar el evangelio. Al reflexionar sobre su temprano ministerio en Corinto, Pablo lo caracterizo de esta manera: <|
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John F. MacArthur Jr. |
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| 2d33091 | Al ser la perfecta revelacion de Dios, la Biblia refleja el glorioso caracter de su Autor. Debido | John F. MacArthur Jr. | ||
| 9eb2daa | CRISTO EN ... GENESIS LA ENTRADA DE JESUS A LA HUMANIDAD estuvo planeada desde antes del principio de los tiempos. Dios aliviano el castigo de la maldicion que resulto del pecado de Adan y Eva al ofrecer la promesa de que algun dia se levantaria una Simiente que aplastaria a la serpiente (3.15). Asi como la muerte llego a traves de Adan, la venida de Cristo trajo vida a la humanidad (Ro 5.12-21). | John F. MacArthur Jr. | ||
| d0d2f2c | Cuando alguno es tentado, no diga que es tentado de parte de Dios; porque Dios no puede ser tentado por el mal, ni el tienta a nadie. SANTIAGO 1.13 El curso completo de todos los eventos y circunstancias esta ordenado en el decreto divino, desde el hito mas profundo del plan divino hasta el detalle mas insignificante. Dios tambien determina el numero de cabellos de nuestra cabeza (Mateo 10.30). En ultima instancia, tenemos que admitir que e.. | John F. MacArthur Jr. | ||
| 56a3729 | It means absolutely nothing to profess Christ if your life doesn't back it up. That's why Peter said that if you can't add virtue to your faith, you're not going to know if you're actually redeemed (see 2 Pet. 1:5-11?). That's what James meant when he said faith minus works equals zero (see James 2:17). The kind of "faith" that makes a verbal profession while the heart continues to pursue sin is no true faith at all. I think the epitome of .. | John F. MacArthur Jr. | ||
| 072bb26 | Jesus was trying to get the Pharisees to come off of their proud, high tower and see the spiritual bankruptcy in their own lives. The Pharisees had no regard for spirituality of soul, purity of heart, integrity of behavior, or obedience to God, and they were building their big spiritual structure on sand. Sure, they prayed and fasted and gave alms, but they did so only to impress God, to parade their supposed spirituality, and to enhance th.. | John F. MacArthur Jr. | ||
| db1e63d | Our fellowship with God is not meant to wait until we are in heaven. | John F. MacArthur Jr. | ||
| 7558e6d | Again, this does not mean they live like unbelievers, but rather that they refrain from doing things that are offensive to unbelievers. | John F. MacArthur Jr. | ||
| 80ba7d8 | The man who came to his friend to ask for bread did not recite some formula request; he pleaded for what he needed. | John F. MacArthur Jr. | ||
| 4dfa25c | for God had given him very much property. | John F. MacArthur Jr. |