#christianity

God is not a celestial prison warden jangling the keys on a bunch of lifers--he's a shepherd seeking for sheep, a woman searching for coins, a father waiting for his son. ↗

— Clarence Jordan

#philosophy #religion #faith

Hannah's faith was the answer to her stress. And, through that faith, she found peace, even though her life remained far from peaceful. Her faith resulted in God working on her behalf. Hannah did not find peace because she left a stressful situation – she found peace because she had learned to depend on God’s strength to rise above her stress. ↗

— Tracie Miles

#faith #god-s-strength #hannah #peace #stress

Christianity revitalized life in Greco-Roman cities by providing new norms and new kinds of social relationships able to cope with many urgent urban problems. To cities filled with the homeless and the impoverished, Christianity offered charity as well as hope. To cities filled with newcomers and strangers, Christianity offered an immediate basis for attachments. To cities filled with orphans and widows, Christianity provided a new and expanded sense of family. To cities torn by violent ethnic strife, Christianity offered a new basis for social solidarity. And to cities faced with epidemics, fires, and earthquakes, Christianity offered effective nursing services. ↗

— Rodney Stark

#cities #urbanization #family

O Earth, lie heavily upon her eyes; Seal her sweet eyes weary of watching Earth; Lie close around her; leave no room for mirth With its harsh laughter, nor for sound of sighs. She hath no questions, she hath no replies. ↗

— Jeffrey Eugenides

#christianity #death #earth #funeral #poem

Every time you ask for forgiveness, you declare that your life does not belong to you, but has been created for the purpose of Another. ↗

— Paul David Tripp

#christianity #forgiveness #forgiveness

That belief in Christ is to some a matter of life and death has been a stumbling block for readers who would prefer to think it a matter of no great consequence. ↗

— Flannery O'Connor

#christianity #prologue #death

We love and reason because God loves and reasons and holds our hand while we do it...But unfortunetly we now need God's help in order to do something which God, in his own nature, never does at all - to surrender, to suffer, to submit, to die. ↗

— C. S. Lewis

#love

No human society has ever been able to maintain both order and freedom, both cohesiveness and liberty apart from the moral precepts of the Christian religion… Should our republic ever forget this fundamental precept of governance this great experiment will then be surely doomed. ↗

— John Jay

#christianity #government #experience

I woke up to singing and found myself singing too ↗

— Don Piper

#death

How do you give something away with the knowledge that you will get it back in three days, and then claim it to be the 'Ultimate Sacrifice'? ↗

— Jake Jesser

#crucifixion #death #mythology #perspective #religion