#jesus

There was just such a man when I was young—an Austrian who invented a new way of life and convinced himself that he was the chap to make it work. He tried to impose his reformation by the sword, and plunged the civilized world into misery and chaos. But the thing which this fellow had overlooked, my friend, was that he had a predecessor in the reformation business, called Jesus Christ. Perhaps we may assume that Jesus knew as much as the Austrian did about saving people. But the odd thing is that Jesus did not turn the disciples into strom troopers, burn down the Temple at Jerusalem, and fix the blame on Pontius Pilate. On the contrary, he made it clear that the business of the philosopher was to make ideas available, and not to impose them on people. ↗

— T.H. White

#free-will #hitler #ideas #ideas-are-power #jesus

In 30 years Christians will have baptized their picture of Christ. He won't be a nice, banal, meek, and bearded man with softly permed hair. Instead, he will fill our imaginations more solidly, more invasively , more unexpectedly. Christ will become That Man who changes people, someone who jumps off a bumper sticker and mediocre praise songs and into lives. ↗

— Jonalyn Fincher

#christ #jesus #change

To take Christ into our well-ordered, well-kept lives is in many ways to ask for trouble, for he will not leave well enough alone. ↗

— Ronnie McBrayer

#jesus-christ #change

I had no real communication with anyone at the time, so I was totally dependent on God. And he never failed me. ↗

— Diet Eman

#holocaust #jesus-christ #prison #resistance #righteous

For outlandish creatures like us, on our way to a heart, a brain, and courage, Bethlehem is not the end of our journey but only the beginning - not home but the place through which we must pass if ever we are to reach home at last. ↗

— Frederick Buechner

#christianity #christmas #jesus #courage

Joshua se quedó asombrado. Pero no tan asombrado como yo por lo que acababa de decir. No hacía ni veinte horas que había plantado a Sven en el altar, ¿y ya quería salir con un tío sólo para verle reír? ↗

— David Safier

#jesus #love #smile #dating

Suffering, failure, loneliness, sorrow, discouragement, and death will be part of your journey, but the Kingdom of God will conquer all these horrors. No evil can resist grace forever. If you reject the ragamuffin gospel and turn your back on Christianity, do so because you find the answers of Jesus incredible, blasphemous, or hopelessly hopeful. ↗

— Brennan Manning

#jesus #death

There was only one guy in the whole Bible Jesus ever personally promised a place with him in Paradise. Not Peter, not Paul, not any of those guys. He was a convicted thief, being executed. So don't knock the guys on death row. Maybe they know something you don't. ↗

— Neil Gaiman

#criminals #god #good-and-bad #good-and-evil #heaven

Charles de Foucauld, the found of the Little Brothers of Jesus, wrote a single sentence that's ahad a profound impact on my life. He said, "The one thing we owe absolutely to God is never to be afraid of anything." Never to be afraid of anything, even death, which, after all, is but that final breakthrough into the open, waiting, outstretched arms of Abba. ↗

— Brennan Manning

#fear #god #jesus #death

And now brothers, I will ask you a terrible question, and God knows I ask it also of myself. Is the truth beyond all truths, beyond the stars, just this: that to live without him is the real death, that to die with him the only life? ↗

— Frederick Buechner

#christmas #cross #devotional #easter #jesus