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Sunday, 1/7/2007 Lord of the Flood, wash us with your Spirit that we may be your ark of life, your peace in the sea of violence. Water is life; water cleans; water kills. Frightened, we are tempted to make a permanent home on the ark. But you force us to seek dry ground. We can do so only because you have taught us to cling to our baptisms, where we are drowned and reborn by the water and fire of your Spirit. So reborn, make us unafraid. Stanley Hauerwas Jesus’ baptism is the identifying “mark” of our discipleship. . . . In baptism, the Human One dies to the patriarchal forces which destroy the imago Dei (image of God). All hierarchical orders of sinful powers are washed away in the water. No question of walking on water here. Whoever accepts the baptism with which Jesus was baptized accepts the death of a socially structured identity and the resurrection of a free human being. Imago Christi (Image of Christ). Heather Murray Elkins Baptism is an enactment of liberation, effected by water and the Spirit. We are freed of our damaging debt to a Market mind-set, liberated from the tyranny of social location and inherited roles. In place of constricting labels, the community announces us as beloved of God, and pronounces our name . Heather Murray Elkins May you come safely to shore across the dark ocean and know that even in the darkest depths there is hope to be found and peace . Mary Taylor May you come safely to shore across the dark ocean and know that even in the darkest depths there is hope to be found and peace. Mary Taylor Sunday, 1/14/2007 We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.   The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that . Martin Luther King, Jr. A man who won’t die for something is not fit to live. Martin Luther King, Jr Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and consciencious stupidity. Martin Luther King, Jr. Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase. Martin Luther King, Jr. Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase . Martin Luther King, Jr. Sunday, 1/21/2007 [The boy] Tarwater clenched his fists. He stood like one condemned, waiting at the spot of execution. Then the revelation came, silent, implacable, direct as a bullet. He did not look into the eyes of any fiery beast or see a burning bush. He only knew, with a certainty sunk in despair, that he was expected to baptize the child he saw and begin the life his great-uncle had prepared him for. He knew that he was being called to be a prophet and that the ways of his prophecy would not be remarkable. His black pupils, glassy and still, reflected depth on depth his own stricken image of himself, trudging into the distance in the bleeding stinking mad shadow of Jesus, until at last he received his reward, a broken fish, a multiplied loaf. The Lord out of dust had created him, had made him blood and nerve and mind, had made him to bleed and weep and think, and set him in a world of loss and fire to baptize one idiot child that He need not have created in the first place and to cry out a gospel just as foolish. He tried to shout, “NO!” but it was like trying to shout in his sleep. The sound was saturated in silence, lost. Flannery O’Connor From the Violent Bear It Away  When you’re little you ‘understand’ Mister God . . . later on you understand him to be a bit different. . . . Even though you understand him, he doesn’t seem to understand you! . . . In whatever way or state you understand Mister God, so you diminish his size. . . .  So Mister God keeps on shedding bits all the way through your life until the time comes when you admit freely and honestly that you don’t understand Mister God at all. At this point you have to let Mister God be his proper size and wham, there he is laughing at you. Flynn In artistic creation, as in human relationships, the authenticity of love is denied by the assurance of control. Love aspires for each that which, being truly an “other,” cannot be controlled. W. H. Vanstone I think the great difficulty about the invisible church is that one always chooses the members oneself. The invisible church is a kind of extension of the ego. The very essence of the church is that it is a visible body, and it is one body. Leslie Newbigin Sunday, 1/28/2007 Never, for sake of peace and quiet, deny your own experience or convictions . Dag Hammarskjöld The great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving. Oliver Wendell Holmes The enemies a person makes by taking a stand will have more respect for him than the friends he makes by being on the fence . Proverb Martyrdom has always been a proof of the intensity, never of the correctness of a belief. Arthur Schnitzler Sunday, 2/4/2007 Life is short, but truth works far and lives long; let us speak the truth. Arthur Schopenhauer Our world is so exceedingly rich in delusions that a truth is priceless. Carl Gustav Jung Love the truth though it may do you harm; hat the lie though it may please you. Arabian Proverb Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth. Henry David Thoreau It must be Sunday, everybody’s telling the truth . Phoebe Snow Sunday, 2/11/2007 No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as from our own standpoint; therefore we must be saved by the final form of love, which is forgiveness. Reinhold Niebuhr Forgiveness of sins is the very heart of Christianity, and yet it is a very dangerous thing to preach. Martin Luther I think that if God forgives us we must forgive ourselves. C. S. Lewis Forgiveness is the answer to the child’s dream of a miracle by which what is broken is made whole again, what is soiled is again made clean. Dag Hammarskjöld Sunday, 2/18/2007 We can believe what we choose. We are answerable for what we choose to believe. Cardinal Newman You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. You are responsible for your rose. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry A bad workman always blames his tools. Proverb Each person the architect of his own fate. Appius Caecus A bad workman always blames his tools. Proverb In dreams begins responsibility. W. B. Yeats Sunday, 2/25/2007 You’re a disgrace to our family name of Wagstaff, if such a thing is possible. Groucho Marx Few misfortunes can befall a boy which bring worse consequences than to have a really affectionate mother. W. Somerset Maugham It is a wise father that knows his own child. William Shakespeare I love all my children, but some of them I don’t like. Lillian Carter, The mother of Jimmy Carter. What a marvelous place to drop one’s mother-in-law! Marshal Foch, Remark on being shown the Grand Canyon Sunday, 3/4/2007 The cross of Christ destroyed the equation religion equals happiness. Dietrich Bonhoeffer Christ did not die a martyr. He died—infinitely more humble—a common criminal. Simone Weil Suffering love, the cross, stands at the heart of the church. T. Z. Koo The cross is real wood, the nails are real iron, the vinegar truly tastes bitter, and the cry of desolation is live, not recorded. Malcolm Muggeridge Sunday, 3/11/2007 God carries your picture in his wallet. Tony Campolo God comes padding after me like a Hound of Heaven. Malcolm Muggeridge God often visits us, but most of the time we are not at home. Polish Proverb The favorite place of God is in the heart of humans. Jewish Proverb Sunday, 3/18/2007 As Jesus was dying, his thirst too must have made his tongue like leather, only adding to the pain of crucifixion. The Journal of the American Medical Association once carried an article where doctors speculated about the symptoms Jesus must have suffered as he hung on the cross. They noted that Jesus suffered great emotional stress, as evidenced by hematidrosis (sweating blood), undoubtedly intensified by his disciples’ abandoning him and the humiliating physical beating. The brutal scourging would have caused intense pain and appreciable blood loss. These probably contributed to a state of preshock trauma. The most likely causes of death by crucifixion were hypovolemic shock and exhaustion asphyxia. Other possible contributing factors included dehydration, stress-induced arrhythmias, and congestive heart failure with a rapid accumulation of fluids. Anyone who was crucified would at least lose a great amount of body fluid and thus would experience dehydration. Even from a purely human viewpoint (which is never simply the way John presents his story of Jesus) it is not surprising that from his cross Jesus would say, “I am thirsty.” Michael H. Crosby It was common in that part of the Mediterranean for people to give drink to someone thirsty, understanding that such an action would be pleasing to God. What is surprising at Golgotha is that they shared it with the one they had crucified. These god-fearing folk who saw that a “jar full of sour wine was standing there. Put a sponge full of the wine on a branch of hyssop and held it to this mouth” (In. 19.29). It isn’t clear exactly who offered Jesus the wine, sour though it may have been. “They” could have included his mother or his other relatives or the beloved disciples. Most likely, if we rely on the synoptics, it was the soldiers who shared their drink with him. What appears clear, however-though contrary to popular opinion and populist piety-is that their action, at least here in John, seems prompted by mercy. Only Luke’s version makes the motivation of those who gave Jesus the sour wine possibly hostile, part mockery (Luke 23.36). Michael H. Crosby Thirst must be quenched! If our desires are not met by God, we will quickly find something else to alleviateour thirst. Erwin W. Lutzer Many of us are not thirsty for God because we have quenched our thirst at other fountains! Erwin W. Lutzer Sunday, 3/25/2007 It is always springtime in the heart that loves God. Saint Jean Baptise Marie Vianney On the whole, God’s love for us is a much safer subject to think about than our love for him. Nobody can always have devout feelings; and even if we could, feelings are not what God principally cares about. Christian love, either toward God or toward people, is an affair of the will. But the great thing to remember is that, though our feelings come and go, God’s love for us does not C. S. Lewis. A person’s spiritual health is exactly proportional to his love for God. C. S. Lewis The only way God’s love makes sense is when it is seen as personal (not mechanical). He doesn’t start your stalled car for you; but he comes and sits with you in the snowbank. Robert F. Capon Sunday, 4/1/2007 Woe is me. Me thinks I’m turning into a god. Vespasian, Roman Emperor, d. 79 AD Don’t let it end like this. Tell them I said something. Pancho Villa, Mexican Revolutinary, d. 1923 I have offended God and mankind because my work did not reach the quality it should have. Leonardo da Vinci, artist, d. 1519 I die hard but am not afraid to go. George Washington, US President, d. December 14, 1799 They couldn’t hit an elephant at this dist. . . . Killed in battle during US Civil War. General John Sedgwick, Union Commander, d. 1864 Sister, you’re trying to keep me alive as an old curiosity, but I’m done, I’m finished, I’m going to die. Spoken to his nurse . George Bernard Shaw, playwright, d. November 2, 1950 I’ve had eighteen straight whiskies, I think that’s the record. Dylan Thomas, poet, d. 1953 Lord help my poor soul. Edgar Allan Poe, writer, d. October 70 1849 I love you Sarah. For all eternity, I love you. Spoken to his wife. James K. Polk, US President, d. 1849 You can be a king or a street sweeper, but everyone dances with the Grim Reaper. Executed in California’s gas chamber. Robert Alton Harris, d. April 21, 1992 It is the duty of every good officer to obey any orders given him by his commander-in-chief . Shot by British as a spy. Nathan Hale, American hero, d. 1776 I am innocent, innocent, innocent. Make no mistake about this. I owe society nothing. I am an innocent man and something very wrong is taking place tonight. Executed by injection, Texas. Lionel Herrera, d. May 12, 1993 There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is God’s messenger . Executed by hanging at Camp Justice in the Baghdad suburb of Khadimiya. Saddam Hussein, d. December 30, 2006 I don’t hold any grudges. This is my doing. Sorry it happened. Executed in electric chair, Indiana. Steven Judy, d. March 9, 1981 Such is Life Executed by hanging. Ned Kelly, Australian bushranger, d. 1880 Farewell, my children, forever. I go to your Father. Executed by guillotine . Monsieur, I beg your pardon. Spoken to the executioner, after she stepped on his foot. Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, d. October 16, 1793 Today is a good day to die. I forgive all of you. I hope God does too. Executed by injection, Virginia . Mario Benjamin Murphy, d. September 17, 1997 Shoot me in the chest! To his executioners. Benito Mussolini, Italian dictator, d. 1945 Shoot straight you bastards and don’t make a mess of it! Executed by firing squad. Harry Harbord “Breaker” Morant, Australian poet & national hero, d. 1902 Capital punishment: them without the capital get the punishment. Executed in electric chair, Florida. John Spenkelink, d. May 25, 1979 Father, I place my life in your hands. Executed on a Roman Cross. Jesus of Nazareth, d, 40 CE Sunday, 4/8/2007 After thirty years of living and working ecumenically, I am convinced that in every circumstance where the Holy Spirit leads us, if we choose to follow, is to the place of gospel, of good news. This is the place where the marks are visible, where people hear their names called with love, where people break open their lives to share them, where people bear witness. This is where Jesus finds us, knows us, heals us, sets us free and calls us to follow him. Furthermore, I am convinced that the place of the gospel is rarely inside a church. The place of the gospel is the world. Kathy Galloway The stirring wildness of God calls brittle bones to leaping and stone hearts to soaring. Old women dance among the stars . Ann Weems Easter is not a part of the old accustomed divine order, of the ordered world in which we live, but it is an absolutely new, unexpected act of the living God, which interrupts and runs counter to the uniform rise and fall of the world’s rhythm. Here we have the beginning of something new. Martin Niemoller We beg you, make us really alive. Give us the spirit of light, that we may know you, the supremely true. Serapion, Bishop of Thmuis (fourth century) Sunday, 4/15/2007 Without the Holy Spirit, God is distant, Christ is a subject for ancient history, the Gospel is empty words, the church is a social club, church authority is manipulation, global missions is propaganda, the liturgy is hocus pocus, and the Christian life an enslaving moralism. Patriarch Althenagoras Be rain in our drought, be a river flowing through our landscape. You are the stream, and the gentle breeze which blows on our fields with your breath of love. Your water brings forth blossoms and fruit, and they are your fruits in our land . H. U. V. Balthasar Blessed are they who have not seen and have believed. Certainly this refers to us. We hold in our hearts one whom we do not see in his body. He refers to us, but only if we follow up our faith with our works. Those people truly believe who express their belief through their works. Gregory the Great After thirty years of living and working ecumenically, I am convinced that in every circumstance where the Holy Spirit leads us, if we choose to follow, is to the place of gospel, of good news. This is the place where the marks are visible, where people hear their names called with love, where people break open their lives to share them, where people bear witness. This is where Jesus finds us, knows us, heals us, sets us free and calls us to follow him. Furthermore, I am convinced that the place of the gospel is rarely inside a church. The place of the gospel is the world. Kathy Galloway Sunday, 4/22/2007 No philosophical theory which I have yet come across is a radical improvement on the words of Genesis, that “in the beginning God made Heaven and Earth.” C. S. Lewis To live, we must daily break the body and shed the blood of Creation. When we do this knowingly, lovingly, skillfully, reverently, it is a sacrament. When we do it ignorantly, greedily, clumsily, destructively, it is a desecration. In such desecration we condemn ourselves to spiritual and moral loneliness, and others to want. Wendell Berry God must have made some parts of creation for sheer fun—how else would you account for the kangaroo? G. K. Chesterton There is about us, if only we have eyes to see, a creation of such a spectacular profusion, spendthrift richness, and absurd detail, as to make us catch our breath in astonished wonder. Michael Mayne Sunday, 5/6/2007 A youth is a person who is going to carry on what you have started. He will assume control of your cities, states, and nations. He is going to take over your churches, schools, and corporations. You may adopt all the policies you please, but how they are carried out depends on him. So it might be well to pay him some attention. James C. Dobson Young people do the impossible before they find out it’s impossible—that’s why God used them so often. Loren Cunningham A youth is a person who is going to carry on what you have started. He will assume control of your cities, states, and nations. He is going to take over your churches, schools, and corporations. You may adopt all the policies you please, but how they are carried out depends on him. So it might be well to pay him some attention. James C. Dobson Young people do the impossible before they find out it’s impossible—that’s why God used them so often. Loren Cunningham Youth is wholly experimental. Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson Sunday, 5/13/2007 Men are born with two eyes and one tongue in order that they may see twice as much as they say. Romanian Proverb There are three kinds of people in the world; those who have sought God and found Him and now serve Him, those who are seeking Him but have not yet found Him, and those who neither seek Him nor find Him. The first are reasonable and happy, the second reasonable and unhappy, and the third unreasonable and unhappy . Blaise Pascal There is more to life than simply increasing its speed. Ghandi If I look at myself, I am depressed. If I look at those around me, I am often disappointed. If I look at my circumstances, I am discouraged. But if I look at Jesus, I am constantly, consistently, and eternally fulfilled! Author Unknown Sunday, 5/20/2007 Why stand we here trembling around calling on God for help, and not ourselves, in whom God dwells, stretching a hand to save the falling person. William Blake Let us not underestimate how hard it is to be compassionate. Compassion is hard because it requires the inner disposition to go with others to the place where they are weak, vulnerable, lonely, and broken. But this is not our spontaneous response to suffering. What we desire most is to do away with suffering by fleeing from it or finding a quick cure for it. Henri J. M. Nouwen Compassion means injustice. Meister Eckhart The dew of compassion is a tear. Lord George Noel Gordon Byron Sunday, 5/27/2007 The great idea is not that we are at work for God, but that God is at work in us . . . that God is working out a strong family likeness to the Son in us. The Holy Spirit cannot be located as a guest in a house. She invades everything. Oswald Chambers   Wherever the Son of God goes, the winds of God are blowing, the streams of living water are flowing, and the sun of God is smiling. Helmut Thielicke Beware of being in bondage to yourself or to other people. Oppression and depression never come from the Spirit of God. She never oppresses. She convicts and comforts. Oswald Chambers Why is it when you speak to the modern church about Pentecost that cold shivers go up and down in the spines of cultured people? E. Stanley Jones Sunday, 6/3/2007 There is a very old legend, and all legends that persist speak truth, concerning the return of the Lord Jesus Christ to heaven after his Ascension. It is said that the angel Gabriel met him at the gates of the city. ‘Lord, this is a great salvation that thou has wrought,’ said the angel. But the Lord Jesus only said, ‘Yes.’ ‘What plans hast thou made for carrying on the work? How are all to know what thou hast done?’ asked Gabriel. ‘I left Peter and James and John and Martha and Mary to tell their friends, their friends to tell their friends, till all the world should know.’ ‘But Lord Jesus,’ said Gabriel, ‘suppose Peter is too busy with the nets, or Martha with the housework, or the friends they tell are too occupied, and forget to tell their friends—what then?’  The Lord Jesus did not answer at once; then he said in his quiet wonderful voice: ‘I have not made any other plans. I am counting on them.’ George MacLeod All that is true, by whomsoever spoken, is from the Holy Spirit. Ambrose of Milan Last night there were thunderstorms: but today everything is beautiful. The leaves on the hickory tree by the cemetery are small and the flowers fill the branches with fringes of green lace. I hear the engine running down at the mill: only that, and the birds singing. Tomorrow is the Ascension, my favorite feast. At any time in the year I am liable to find the antiphons of Ascension Day ringing in my ears and they fill me with light and peace. “I go to prepare a place for you.” It is the feast of silence and interior solitude when we go up to live in heaven with Jesus: for he takes us there, after he has lived a little while on earth among us. That is the grace of Ascension Day: to be taken up into the heaven of our own souls, the point of immediate contact with God. To rest on this quiet peak, in the darkness that surrounds God. To live there through all trials and all business with the ‘tranquil God who makes all things tranquil.’ God be with me this day and forever. Thomas Merton Sunday, 6/10/2007 If I had ten thousand lives, I could freely and cheerfully lay down them all to witness in this matter. By God I have leaped over a wall; by God I have run through a troupe, and by God I will get through this death, and he will make it easy for me. Thomas Harrison (from the Scoffold) It is the cause, and not the death, that makes the martyr. Napoleon Bonaparte Rather let my head stoop to the block than these knees bow to any, save to the God of heaven. William Shakespeare The tyrant dies and his rule ends, the martyr dies and his rule begins . Soren Aabye Kierkegaard The more you mow us down, the more quickly we grow; the blood of Christians is fresh seed. Tertullian They never fail who die in a great cause. Lord George Noel Gordon Byron Sunday, 6/17/2007 Conversion is a deep work—a heart work. It goes throughout the person throughout the mind, throughout the members, throughout the entire life. Joseph Alleine Every Story of conversion is the story of a blessed defeat. C. S. Lewis My life collided with me. Christ, the master adjuster, investigated and cancelled my policy. Then he gave me his. Marilyn Bartlett God who made us also remade us. Saint Augustine of Hippo Conversion simply means turning around. Vincent McNabb We should think of conversion, not as the acceptance of a particular creed, but as a change of heart . Helen Adams Keller Sunday, 6/24/2007 Wherever the Son of God goes, the winds of God are blowing, the streams of living water are flowing, and the sun of God is smiling. Helmut Thielicke The Bible teaches—and Christian experience abundantly confirms—that the works of the Holy Spirit are unpredictable and by no means confined to the institutional church. Even the most narrow-minded Chris tian must admit, on occasion, that the Holy Spirit seems to be working in and through people who do not consciously profess faith in Christ. This should not surprise anyone who has read the New Testament. Jesus was always consorting with sinners, to the horror of pious types who thought he should have been exclusively concerned with them. Louis Cassels Why is it when you speak to the modern church about Pentecost that cold shivers go up and down the spines of cultured people? E. Stanley Jones The Holy Spirit does not obliterate a person’s personality; she lifts it to its highest use . Oswald Chambers Sunday, 7/1/2007 Christianity promises to make people free; it never promises to make them independent. William Ralph Inge Freedom comes by filling your mind with God’s thoughts. Erwin W. Lutzer The cause of freedom is the cause of God! William Lisle Bowles Without free will, man would not be created “in the image of God.” With it, he has the power to defy God’s wishes and to bring misery on himself and others. C. S. Lewis Sunday, 7/8/2007 Love makes the world go round, and the world hereafter too. Falling in love with God can be very similar to falling in love with a human being. You bump into each other one day, or trip over each other. You meet at a boring formal occasion, like the wedding service of a distant relation—and suddenly you know you want to meet again. Or you realize with wonder that the old familiar God you met years ago in Sunday school classes is alive and attractive (not very different from the boy or girl next door in class B movies). Or you start off by having values and find one day that they are alive. You can speak to them, they can answer back, and you can be in love with them as well as love them. They acquire a human face. If you are hooked, you start haunting the place where you first met. You want to go to that particular church or synagogue and no other. It takes time to realize that God is everywhere. Lionel Blue The justice rendered to the Other, my neighbor, gives me unsurpassable proximity to God. It is as intimate as the prayer and the liturgy which, without justice, are nothing. Justice is the term Judaism prefers to terms more evocative of sentiment. For love itself demands justice, and my relation with my neighbor can not remain outside the lines which this neighbor maintains with various third parties. The third party is also my neighbor. Emmanual Levinas Nobody will know what you mean by saying that “God is love” unless you act it as well. Lawrence Pearsall Jacks In real love you want the other person’s good. In romantic love you want the other person. Margaret Anderson Sunday, 7/15/2007 Through the call of Jesus [people] become individuals. Willy-nilly, they are compelled to decide, and that decision can only be made by themselves. It is no choice of their own that makes them individuals: it is Christ who makes them individuals by calling them. Dietrich Bonhoeffer The Christian life is not a way “out” but a way “through” life. Billy Graham Although the world is very full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it. Helen Keller Sunday, 7/22/2007 If you want to know what a man’s like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals. J. K. Rowling, “Padfoot Returns,” Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, 2000 Spoken by the Character Sirius Black Time is making fools of us again. J. K. Rowling, The Secret Riddle Harry Potter the Half-Blood Prince, 2005 Spoken by the Character Albus Dumbledore  It is the unknown we fear when we look upon death and darkness, nothing more . J. K. Rowling, The Cave Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,2005 Spoken by the Character Albus Dumbledore According to Madam Pomfrey, thoughts could leave deeper scarring than almost anything else. J. K. Rowling, The Second War Begins Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, 2003 It is my belief . . . that the truth is generally preferable to lies. J. K. Rowling, The Beginning Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, 2000 Spoken by the Character Albus Dumbledore We must try not to sink beneath our anguish, Harry, but battle on. J. K. Rowling, A Sluggish Memory Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, 2005 Spoken by the Character Albus Dumbledore As much money and life as you could want! The two things most human beings would choose above all—the trouble is, humans do have a knack of choosing precisely those things that are worst for them. J. K. Rowling, The Man with Two Faces Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, 1997 Spoken by the Character Albus Dumbledore Sunday, 8/5/2007 Stop worrying about whether or not you’re effective. Worry about what is possible for you to do, which is always greater than you imagine . Archbishop Oscar Romero We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails. Proverb What saves a man is to take a step. Then another step. Author Unknown Leave nothing to chance, and then leave everything to God. Author Unknown Sunday, 8/12/2007 If the eye were not sun-like, how could we ever see light? And if God’s own power did not dwell within us, how could we delight in things divine? Johann Wolfgang von Goethe And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: it is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye. Antoine De Saint-Exupéry The world is not a “prison house” but a kind of spiritual kindergarten where millions of bewildered infants are trying to spell God with the wrong blocks. Edward Arlington Robinson Be ours a religion which, like sunshine, goes everywhere; its temple, all space; its shrine, the good heart; its creed, all truth; its ritual, works of love; its profession of faith, divine living. Theodore Parker Sunday, 8/19/2007 Youth, large, lusty, loving—youth, full of grace, force, fascination, do you know that old age may come after you with equal grace, force, fascination? Walt Whitman Youth is happy because it has the capacity to see beauty. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old. William Hazlitt The destiny of any nation depends on the opinions of its citizens under twenty-five. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe In early youth, as we contemplate our coming life, we are like children in a theater before the curtain is raised, sitting there in high spirits and eagerly waiting for the play to begin . Arthur Schopenhauer Sunday, 8/26/2007 A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, and always with the same person. Mignon McLaughlin Sexiness wears thin after a while and beauty fades, but to be married to a man who makes you laugh every day, ah, now that’s a real treat. Joanne Woodward Grief can take care of itself, but to get the full value of joy, you must have somebody to divide it with. Mark Twain I love being married. It’s so great to find one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life . Rita Rudner I think men who have a pierced ear are better prepared for marriage. They’ve experienced pain and bought jewelry . Rita Rudner I am a good friend to my husband. I have tried to make my marriage vows mean what they say. I show up. I listen. I try to laugh. Anna Quindien Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing. Goethe Sunday, 9/2/2007 In Christianity God is not a static thing—not even a person—but a dynamic, pulsating activity, a life, almost a kind of drama. Almost, if you will not think me irreverent, a kind of dance. The union between the Father and Son is such a live concrete thing that this union itself is a Person. What grows out of the joint life of the Father and Son is a real Person, is, in fact, the Third of the three Persons who are God. The whole dance, or drama, a pattern of this three-Personal life is to be played out in each one of us or (putting it the other way round) each one of us has got to enter that pattern, take his place in that dance. C. S. Lewis A popular belief among Christians divides the work of God between the three Persons, giving a specific part to each: creation to the Father, redemption to the Son, and regeneration to the Holy Spirit. This is partly true but not wholly so, for God cannot so divide himself that one Person works while another is inactive. In the Scriptures the three Persons are shown to act in harmonious unity in all the mighty works that are wrought throughout the universe. A. W. Tozer God does not live in isolation—not in the solitude of a single person, but three persons in one essence. Louis Evely The trinity is a mystery which my faith embraces as revealed in the Word, but my reason cannot fathom. John Arrowsmith Sunday, 9/9/2007 The special person called to do missionary work is every person who is a member of the church of Christ. The call does not come to a chosen few, it is to every one of us. Oswald Chambers Some wish to live within the sound of church and chapel bell. I wish to run a rescue mission within a yard of hell. Charles Thomas Studd A missionary is a person who teaches cannibals to say grace before they eat him. Unknown I look upon foreign missionaries as the scaffolding around a rising building. The sooner it can be dispensed with, the better; or rather, the sooner it can be transferred to other places, to serve the same temporary use, the better. James Hudson Taylor Sunday, 9/16/2007 I think one reason the gospel has lost some of its compelling nature for this generation is because we have neutered its audacity. We have reduced its message to behavioral modification rather than spiritual transformation. Control has superseded passion, and we sound more like schoolmarms than prophets and priests; meanwhile the best story ever has become just another list of nice platitudes. Audacity marks many of the great movies and novels we love to quote, and it ought to mark our telling and our living of the gospel today. Charley Scandlyn In his book The Empty Church: The Suicide of Liberal Christianity, Thomas Reeves comments that we have introduced our teenagers not to the God of Israel, mighty in both his love and wrath, but rather to a God whois “wholly and merely nice.” Our big challenge to teenagers has simply been to call them to a life that is nice and harmless since our father in heaven is nice and harmless—kind of one part Jesus, two parts Oprah, and five parts Mr. Rogers. In our ministries we need to return to our mandate of making wild-eyed and dangerous disciples of Jesus. Ministry is more than finding the lost sheep; it’s turning lost sheep into young lions. Duffy Robbins A great deal of talent is lost in this world for want of a little courage. Sydney Smith Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear. Mark Twain Sunday, 9/23/2007 When your work speaks for itself, don’t interrupt. Henri J. Kaiser True humility makes no pretense of being humble and scarcely ever utters words of humility. Saint Francis of Sales Humility is often confused with the gentlemanly self-deprecation of saying you’re not much of a bridge player when you know perfectly well you are. Conscious or otherwise, this kind of humility is a form of gamesmanship. If you really aren’t much of a bridge player, you’re apt to be rather proud of yourself for admitting it so humbly. This kind of humility is a form of low comedy. True humility doesn’t consist of thinking ill of yourself but of not thinking of yourself much differently from the way you’d be apt to think of anybody else. It is the capacity for being no more and no less pleased when you play your own hand well than when your opponents do. Frederick Buechner We can be humble only when we know that we are God’s children, of infinite value and eternally loved. Madeleine L’Engle The humble man received praise the way a clean window takes the light of the sun. The truer and more intense the light is, the less you see of the glass. Thomas Merton There is nothing more awful than conscious humility; it is the most satanic type of price. Oswald Chambers Sunday, 9/30/2007 The Christian Discipline of simplicity is an inward reality that results in an outward life-style. Richard Foster Simplicity is making the journey of this life with just baggage enough. Charles Dudley Warner Be simple. Be humble. Be loving. Those are the three keys to liberation right there. Swani Sai Premananda Our houses are such unwieldy property that we are often imprisoned rather than housed in them. Henry Thoreau Sunday, 10/7/2007 Our houses are such unwieldy property that we are often imprisoned rather than housed in them. Henry Thoreau   Nobody, but nobody can make it out here alone. Maya Angelou If you’re going to care about the fall of the sparrow you can’t pick and choose who’s going to be the sparrow. It’s everybody. Madeleine L’Engle When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe. John Muir Sunday, 10/14/2007 I remember when I was a boy, if my father saw me sitting reading a book he would say, “Can’t you find something to do?” As an adult, I have found it very hard to rest. Other than on holiday, if I sit down with a novel, I feel guilty. There are always things to be done, people to see. I have had every waking hour filled with doing something useful. I have taken pride in my efficient use of time. When for any reason I have got held up, such as at traffic lights, I have felt irritated. Someone told me, “At a red traffic light, remember ‘R’ is for rest. You have been given a little rest.” John Hunt Rest and motion, unrelieved and unchecked, are equally destructive. Benjamin Nathan Cardozo Take rest; a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop. Ovid There is no music in a rest, but there is the making of music in it. John Ruskin Sunday, 10/21/2007 A wise old proverb says, “God comes to see us without a bell”: that is, as there is no screen or ceiling between our heads and the infinite heavens, so is there no bar or wall in the soul, where man, the effect, ceases, and God, the cause, begins. The walls are taken away. Ralph Waldo Emerson God does not die on the day when we cease to believe in a personal Deity, but we die on the day when ourlives cease to be illumined by the steady radiance, renewed daily, of a wonder, the source of which is beyond all reason. Dag Hammarskjold The glory of God is a person fully alive. Saint Irenaeus No man ever wanted anything so much as God wants to make the soul aware of him. God is ever ready, but we are so unready. God is in, we are out; God is at home, we are strangers. Meister Eckhart Sunday, 10/28/2007 Why do you think Job was singled out for a test of spiritual faith? Job might have sent in a postcard with his name on it and then he got to be the one. Thomas J., age 8 God wouldn’t let that mean Satan guy pick on a lady or any children. It had to be a grown-up man like Job. Ethan, age 7 Maybe he was just next in line. That’s how teachers do it. They go by who is next. Maybe God does it like that too. Cathy, age 6 I think he was rich and he had it good. So they were trying to see what would happen if he had troubles. But faith isn’t something you can take away that easy. Toni, age 11 What terrible things befell Job? Blindness and bad business deals. Lewis, age 11 His crops wouldn’t grow, and what made it worse was that he was a farmer. Kin C., age 8 He got robbed by somebody wearing a Frankenstein mask. Daniel, age 6 He got headaches all the time and there was no headache medicine back then. Jay, age 9 Job got really sad and he didn’t even know why. Nobody could cheer him up. Even the funny get-well cards didn’t work. Sheila, age 9 When, after these calamities, Job found himself in a whirlwind, what explanation did God offer him? Why are you complaining? You’re ungrateful! What have you ever done? Ever create a whole planet? Toni, Age 11 You know, you remind Me of a fellow named Noah. He was a nuisance too. I almost changed My mind about leaving him out. Ross, age 10 Look, Job, everybody has off days. Well, everybody. Diana, age 12 Don’t question My ways. You don’t know that much, even if you have a fancy education! Arlene, age 10 Based on the story of Job, how can we explain the relationship between God and Satan? God is like my mother and the Devil is like my little brother. Austin, age 8 God is the boss of the world and Satan is like a thief that is trying to steel everything the world owns. Tyrone, age 10 They used to be related to each other but then there was a family problem. Peter F., age 9 One is totally good and the other doesn’t bother tryin’. Ernie N., age 8 God prints books like the Bible and sometimes He has to make up characters like Satan. Most of the people in the bible are real, but Satan isn’t, he’s a made-up idea. He’s just there to show how you shouldn’t act. Clare, age 10 Lasting lessons from the book of Job. All wisdom comes from God. It is not our place to reason why, we should just do and try. Caitlin, age 12 Evil does exist, and it’s real tricky. Let God take care of it. You should stay away from it. Cynthia, age 9 You should be enjoying what you have because it’s hard to predict what will happen next in life. Diana, age 12 You might have to go through some small troubles or even big troubles so you can learn what you need to know . Terry B., age 8 God made the earth and the sun, but He really did save what He cares about most for last. That’s us. He loves us and we should love Him no matter what is happening around us. Melanie, age 11 Sunday 11/4/2007 All personality has a radiation. The radiations of those in whom God dwells are mighty beyond measurement . W. E Sangster The saint is saint, not because he is good but because he is transparent for something that is more than he himself is . Paul Tillich What is a saint? A particular individual completely redeemed from self-occupation; who, because of this, is able to embody and radiate a measure of eternal life. Evelyn Underhill A saint is a human creature devoured and transformed by love. Evelyn Underhill The way of the world is to praise dead saints and to persecute living ones. Nathaniel Howe Sunday, 11/11/2007 Creativity is the sudden cessation of stupidity. Edwin Land There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it’s going to be a butterfly. Buckminster Fuller There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it’s going to be a butterfly. Buckminster Fuller An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come. Victor Hugo Sunday, 11/18/2007 Authentic empowerment is the knowing that you are on purpose, doing God’s work, peacefully and harmoniously. Wayne Dyer Authentic Christianity never destroys what is good. It makes it grow, transfigures it and enriches itself from it. Sarah Ban Breathnach I resolve to take fate by the throat and shake the living out of her. Louisa May Alcott You were once wild here. Don’t let them tame you! Isadora Duncan You need to claim the events in your life to make yourself yours. When you truly possess all you have been and done, which may take some time, you are fierce with reality. Florida Scott-Maxwell Sunday, 11/25/2007 If the world is sane, then Jesus is mad as a hatter and the Last Supper is the Mad Tea Party. The world says, Mind your own business, and Jesus says, There is no such thing as your own business. The world says, Follow the wisest course and be a success, and Jesus says, Follow me and be crucified. The world says, Drive care fully—the life you save may be your own—and Jesus says, Whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. The world says, Law and order, and Jesus says, Love. The world says, Get and Jesus says, Give. In terms of the world’s sanity, Jesus is crazy as a coot, and anybody who thinks he can follow him without being a little crazy too is laboring less under a cross than under a delusion. Frederick Buechner When you betray somebody else, you also betray yourself. Isaac Bashevis Singer A person may betray Jesus by speaking too many words, and he may betray him through keeping his mouth shut. Oswald Chambers To say the truth, so Judas kiss’d his Master, and cried, “All hail,” whereas he meant all harm. William Shakespeare Sunday, 12/2/2007 Hope has a thick skin and will endure many a blow; it will put on patience as a vesment, it will wade through a sea of blood, it will endure all things if it be of the right kind, for the joy that is set before it. Hence patience is called “patience of hope,” because it is hope that makes the soul exercise patience and long-suffering under the cross, until the time comes to enjoy the crown. John Bunyan ( 1628-1688) In the kingdom of hope there is no winter . Russian Proverb Hope is grief’s best music . Henry George Bohn (1796-1884) Dark things reach out toward brightness. Eugenio Montale (1896-1981 Sunday, 12/9/2007 If there is righteousness in the heart, there will be beauty in the character. If there is beauty in the character, there will be harmony in the home. If there is harmony in the home, there will be order in the nation. If there is order in the nation, there will be peace in the world. Chinese Proverb Peace is not an absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice. Benedict Spinoza All people desire peace, but very few desire those things that make for peace. Thomas A Kempis Peace is not made at the council tables, or by treaties, but in the hearts of people. Herbert Hoover Sunday, 12/16/2007 The Advent wreath is really something of a dress rehearsal for the Paschal, or Easter, candle. In the Paschal candle, we see that candlelight symbolizes not only, as at Advent, Christ’s Incarnation, but also His Resurrection. Here the flame points to the light of Christ’s Resurrection triumphing over the darkness of death. Lauren Winner, Mudhouse Sabbath  The mystery of the humanity of Christ, that He sunk Himself into our flesh, is beyond all human understanding. Martin Luther, Table Talk Safety consists not in the absence of danger but in the presence of God. Unknown All actual life is encounter. Martin Buber Sunday, 12/23/2007 A Christmas list: fear less, hope more; eat less, chew more; whine less, breathe more; talk less, say more; hate less, love more; and all good things will be yours. Unknown

College Park Baptist Church 1601 Walker Avenue, Greensboro, NC 27403 cpbcgbo@bellsouth.net 336.273.1779