Foreigners

George Orwell, 1984:
'If he were allowed contact with foreigners he would discover that they are creatures similar to himself and that most of what he has been told about them is lies. The sealed world in which he lives would be broken, and the fear, hatred, and self-righteousness on which his morale depends might evaporate.'

 

Unbelievable truth

I just heard a preacher say, 'This passage is so full of truth it's unbelievable.' That's unbelievable! What are we doing to Scripture for goodness sake?!

The practice of the love of God

"My sole occupation is love.
All my occupation now is the practice of the love of God, all the powers of soul and body, memory, understanding, and will, interior and exterior senses, the desires of spirit and of sense, all work in and by love. All I do is done in love; all I suffer, I suffer in the sweetness of love. There is nothing better, or more necessary, than love." - John of the Cross
Thanks Graham Hill for the quote

on the day of Mandela's death

“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.” —Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela 

The defining feature of our generation

The defining feature of our generation is not technology, medicine, invention or discovery. The defining feature of our generation is choice, and we are woefully unprepared for it.
Peter Drucker

19th Century Christianity

It was fatal for the evangelical Church and for Christianity in the 19th Century that theology in the last analysis had nothing more to offer than the “human” the “religious”, mystery and its noncommital “statements”, leaving the faithful to whatever impressions and influences from outside proved strongest.

- Karl Barth, Evangelical Theology in the 19th Century

(Thanks, David Bunce for this quote.)

Believing in the Church

The Church is an object of faith. In the Apostles' Creed we pray: "I believe in God, the Father ... in Jesus Christ, his only Son - in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting." We must believe in the Church! The Apostles' Creed does not say that the Church is an organization that helps us to believe in God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. No, we are called to believe in the Church with the same faith we believe in God.

Often it seems harder to believe in the Church than to believe in God. But whenever we separate our belief in God from our belief in the Church, we become unbelievers. God has given us the Church as the place where God becomes God-with-us.