Showing posts with label quotopia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label quotopia. Show all posts
Thursday, December 4, 2008
“Religion has declined not because it had been successfully argued against, but because it has become irrelevant, dull, oppressive, uninteresting. When faith is replaced by creed, worship by discipline, love by habit; when the crises of today are ignored because of the remembered splendor of the past; when faith becomes an inherited heirloom rather than a living fountain; when religion speaks only in the name of authority and rules rather than the voice of compassion, its message becomes meaningless.”
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
"O, Divine Master, Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console; To be understood as to understand; To be loved as to love; For it is in giving that we receive; It is in pardoning that we are pardoned; And it is in dying to ourselves that we are born to eternal life. Amen."
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Every moment and every event of every man's life on earth plants something in his soul. Most of these seeds are lost to him because he doesn't understand how to root them, prune them, and bring forth fruit from them. But God is not hard to find, his words and wisdom are, as the book of Proverbs says, in the ants and in the air all around us. Finding God in such a light becomes almost comical, for awareness is all that is needed. Like a blindfolded man submerged in lonliness who is suddenly given sight and looks around to see that he is in a stadium full of people. It is when we finally awaken from our great darkness of spiritual slumber that we finally see that God is surrounding us with seeds. Seeds of love, hope, teaching, grace, compassion, mercy and a million other things. Yet again, most men never find God because they never slow down long enough to find themselves. And what hope does a man have of finding God, if he cannot find himself?
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Quote from V for Vendetta that I have adjusted for my own use
1 comments Posted by david sherwood at 9:22 AM
Good morning, Christiandom. Allow me first to apologize for this interruption. I do, like many of you, appreciate the comforts of every day routine- the security of the familiar, the tranquility of repetition. I enjoy them as much as any bloke. But in the spirit of commemoration, thereby those important events of the past usually associated with someone's death or the end of some awful bloody struggle, a celebration of a nice holiday, I thought we could mark this day as if it were Easter, a day that is sadly no longer remembered with much more than eggs and chocolate, by taking some time out of our daily lives to sit down and have a little chat. There are of course those who do not want us to speak. I suspect even now, orders are being shouted, and demons with flaming arrows will soon be on their way. Why? Because while the truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power. Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth. And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with christianity, isn't there? Legalism and Cowardice, Judgment and Apathy. And where once you had the passion to act, to think and speak as you felt led, you now have censors and systems of ministry coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission. Gladiators have become consumers, and maryres are now mere materialists. How did this happen? Who's to blame? Well certainly there are those more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable, but again truth be told, if you're looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror. I know why you did it. I know you were afraid. Who wouldn't be? personal failure, satanic attacks, religious freaks. There were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense. Fear got the best of you, and in your panic you turned to the now high chancellor, Satan. Oh you may not have known you turned to him in your compromising, but you did. He promised you happiness, he promised you peace, and all he demanded in return was your silent, obedient consent. 2 thousand years ago Jesus sought to end that silence of slavery and conformity. He destroyed the Old Temple system, to remind his people of what they had forgotten. More than 2000 years ago our great God wished to embed the Cross forever in our memory. His hope was to remind the world that fairness, justice, and freedom are more than words, they are perspectives and things which he paid for with his own blood. So if you've seen nothing, if the crimes of this age remain unknown to you then I would suggest you allow today to pass unmarked. But if you see what I see, if you feel as I feel, and if you would seek as I seek, then I ask you to stand beside me with Christ...even today, outside the gates of Hell and in the streets of Ashland, and together we shall give them a church that shall never, ever be forgot.
"When I get a little money I buy books; and if there is any left, I buy food and clothes."
Erasmus
and I have a picture with this quote in my library at the house
"It is not the critic that counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement. And at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat. "
thanks Nate
Monday, June 11, 2007
Brook Shields quoting Plato in Rolling Stone interview
0 comments Posted by david sherwood at 9:38 PM
Brook Shields quoting Plato in Rolling Stone interview:
When asked about the changes in her life while attending Yale university, she talked about taking an introduction to philosophy class that just stunned her with this quote from Plato:
"The unexamined life is not worth living"
This she said forced her to re-evaluate her life for the 1st time.
Then she bought the interviewer a copy of "mere Christianity" by CS Lewis, as they walked through a bookstore on the last day of thier interview.
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Dwight Moody was asked by a small town to come and preach a revival. He was not feeling led in that direction but kept being pestered by the city leaders and so eventually he relented and came to visit them to dialogue about it.
Once there he was disturbed by the leaders belief that "he" could bring revival to the city. They were meeting in the towns school house so Mr Moody gave all the city leaders a piece of chalk and made them spread out across the room. He then said.
"Take the piece of chalk in your hand good people, and draw a circle around where you are standing."
When they had all completed this he then said.
he paused to let it sink in...then said:
indeed
what will it be?
Every morning I think about this...I think about my own circle and ask if revival is happening in it. This post isn't about me likening myself to Moody, it is about all of us asking God to birth revival in us first, and then in those around us whom we touch. This is the 1st question I ask myself every day, this and a habit of Jonathan Edwards that I will tell you about later.
What's going on in your circle today?
Once there he was disturbed by the leaders belief that "he" could bring revival to the city. They were meeting in the towns school house so Mr Moody gave all the city leaders a piece of chalk and made them spread out across the room. He then said.
"Take the piece of chalk in your hand good people, and draw a circle around where you are standing."
When they had all completed this he then said.
"God's desire to revive his people is always
unquestioned. But for you to expect me to bring revival is an abdicaton of your own personal responsability. Do you see that circle around your feet? Look hard at it...that is where revival must begin! In you right now! If you desire to see your town catch fire...catch fire yourself; if you want to see healing rains fall...pray for the rains for yourself; and if you desire to see others become true followers...become one yourself!"
he paused to let it sink in...then said:
"When the circle that surrounds you contains revival, and you begin to move through your city expanding that circle, you will find that you needed only Christ and not me...that you needed only to find yourself...not an outsider. So then gentlemen...what will it be?"
indeed
what will it be?
Every morning I think about this...I think about my own circle and ask if revival is happening in it. This post isn't about me likening myself to Moody, it is about all of us asking God to birth revival in us first, and then in those around us whom we touch. This is the 1st question I ask myself every day, this and a habit of Jonathan Edwards that I will tell you about later.
What's going on in your circle today?
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Thomas Merton when asked about spiritual maturity commented:
"We must resolve ourselves that not only are we
just beginners, but that, that is all we will ever be."
Thursday, May 24, 2007
quotes matter to me. Somehow they tattoo my insides just like scripture does. Thus, they become values and ways of seeing life and assistants in times of decision. This is why it is SO important what you allow your mind and heart to be exposed to. Some things [good and bad] that I have seen or heard are attached to me permanently. As I have grown older I have learned to have more discernment and discretion about what I allow into my temple, and which things I allow to visit and which things I invite to stay. Be sure when you let someone into your house, that you are prepared for the consequences!
The Bible itself says "Whatever things [speaking of non-biblical information] that are good, noble, and have a good reputation...let you mind dwell upon."
AW
Tozer: "It is questionable
if God has ever
used a man greatly whom he has
not 1st wounded
deeply"
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