#gospel

The precepts “Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, bless them that curse you” ... are born from the Gospel’s profound spirit of individualism, which refuses to let one’s own actions and conduct depend in any way on somebody else’s acts. The Christian refuses to let his acts be mere reactions—such conduct would lower him to the level of his enemy. The act is to grow organically from the person, “as the fruit from the tree.” ... What the Gospel demands is not a reaction which is the reverse of the natural reaction, as if it said: “Because he strikes you on the cheek, tend the other”—but a rejection of all reactive activity, of any participation in common and average ways of acting and standards of judgment. ↗

— Max Scheler

#love

God not only loves me as I am, but also knows me as I am. Because of this I don't need to apply spiritual cosmetics to make myself presentable to Him. I can accept ownership of my poverty and powerlessness and neediness. ↗

— Brennan Manning

#love

I had been feeling that it was more important for me to understand how much Jesus loved me than it was for me to figure out how to love Him. ↗

— Jared Wilson

#love

We must help young women immerse themselves in a selfless work, perhaps receiving little public praise or attention. Instead, they must feel the Lord’s great love for them and their efforts through the influence of the Holy Ghost. ↗

— Neill F. Marriott

#gospel #lds #young-women-s #love

The Gospel takes away our right forever, to discriminate between the deserving and the undeserving poor. ↗

— Dorothy Day

#christianity #gospels #poor #poverty #gospel

I think the greatest weakness in the church today is that almost no one believes that God invests His power in the Bible. Everyone is looking for power in a program, in a methodology, in a technique, in anything and everything but that in which God has placed it—His Word. He alone has the power to change lives for eternity, and that power is focused on the Scriptures. ↗

— R.C. Sproul

#god #gospel #scripture #change

The great commandment is that we preach the gospel to every creature, but neither God nor the Bible says anything about forcing it down people's throats. ↗

— Louis Zamperini

#billy-graham #god #gospel #jesus-christ #preach

Don't let anyone charge you for what God has freely given. ↗

— Paul Ellis

#grace #jesus-christ #love-of-god #love

Rags-to-riches story? I've heard that gospel before, no thanks. I find no greater inspiration than the riches-to-rags story of redemption, the story of God leaving His golden throne to pursue a wretch like me. ↗

— T. William Watts

#gospel #inspiration #rags #riches #wealth

It (trying to keep the law) grants you the power to judge others and feel superior to them. You believe you are living to a higher standard than those you judge. Enforcing rules, especially in its more subtle expressions like responsibility and expectation, is a vain attempt to create certainly out of uncertainty. And contrary to what you might think, I have a great fondness for uncertainty. Rules cannot bring freedom; they only have the power to accuse. ↗

— Wm. Paul Young

#control #control-freaks #god #law #law-and-gospel