Meta•theologica:

“…the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.”

—

James.  Chapter 3, verses 17 and 18.

Sometimes, with the stress put on divine inspiration, “words from the (H)oly (S)pirit”, and the importance of holiness in the life of the believer, people tend to forget that the wisdom from God is not adverse or opposed to wisdom, to reason, or to impartiality.

October 26, 2009, 2:44pm  Comments

“How can we embrace poverty as a way to God when everyone around us wants to become rich? Poverty has many forms. We have to ask ourselves: “What is my poverty?” Is it lack of money, lack of emotional stability, lack of a loving partner, lack of security, lack of safety, lack of self-confidence? Each human being has a place of poverty… …When we are not afraid to confess our own poverty, we will be able to be with other people in theirs. The Christ who lives in our own poverty recognizes the Christ who lives in other people’s. Just as we are inclined to ignore our own poverty, we are inclined to ignore others’. We prefer not to see people who are destitute, we do not like to look at people who are deformed or disabled, we avoid talking about people’s pains and sorrows, we stay away from brokenness, helplessness, and neediness… …The poor have a treasure to offer precisely because they cannot return our favors. By not paying us for what we have done for them, they call us to inner freedom, selflessness, generosity, and true care.”

—

Henri Nouwen

(via azspot)

October 26, 2009, 2:17pm  Comments

“The doctrine of justification itself, as preached by an Arminian, is nothing but the doctrine of salvation by works…”

—

C.H. Spurgeon

(related: “Are You Sure You Like Spurgeon?”)

October 12, 2009, 12:40pm  Comments

“The tragedy of life is what dies inside a man while he lives.”

— Albert Schweitzer. 

philosopher, theologian, musician, Winner of the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize.

September 14, 2009, 9:19pm  Comments

“True godliness does not turn men out of the world, but enables them to live better in it, and excites their endeavors to mend it.”

— William Penn,
English Quaker and pacifist, who was instrumental in establishing the American colony of “Penn-sylvania” (sylvania is Latin for “forest or woods”).

September 09, 2009, 12:09pm  Comments

“To pray is to descend
with the mind
into the heart,
and there to stand
before the face of the Lord,
ever-present, all seeing,
within you.”

— Theophan the Recluse

September 09, 2009, 11:52am  Comments

“I am not a pacifist because pacifism in this fallen world in which we live means that we desert the people who need our greatest help. Consider the following illustration: I am walking down the street. I see a great big, burly man who is beating a helpless little girl to death. I come up and I plead with him to stop. If he won’t stop, what does love mean? Love means I stop him in any way I can including, quite frankly, hitting him.

To me this is necessary Christian love in a fallen world. What about the little girl? If I desert the little girl to the bully, I have deserted the true meaning of Christian love and responsibility to my neighbor. Now extend this illustration to violence at a national level. We have in World War II the clearest possible illustration with Hitler’s terrorism. There was no possible way to stop the awful terror that was occurring in Hitler’s Germany except by the use of force.

As far as I’m concerned, this is the necessary outworking of Christian love. The world is an abnormal world. Because of the fall it is not the way God meant it to be.”

— Francis A. Schaeffer, Speech in Washington D.C. (1982)

August 19, 2009, 1:04pm  Comments

“Whatever Christians would not wish others to do to them, they do not to others. And they comfort their oppressors and make them their friends; they do good to their enemies…. Through love towards their oppressors, they persuade them to become Christians.”

— The Apology of Aristides

August 19, 2009, 12:58pm  Comments

“Christians could never slay their enemies. For the more that kings, rulers, and peoples have persecuted them everywhere, the more Christians have increased in number and grown in strength.”

— Origen

August 19, 2009, 12:54pm  Comments