Quote of Note #162: Worldly Power vs. Christ-like Love

photo by GAC "Ever since the snake said, 'The day you eat of the tree your eyes will be open and you will be like gods knowing good and evil' (Genesis 3:5), we have been tempted to replace love with power. Jesus lived that temptation in the most agonizing way from the desert to the … Continue reading Quote of Note #162: Worldly Power vs. Christ-like Love

Quote of Note #159: The Politics of Humility

photo by GAC "But for most people, to be able to simplify issues so as to see only the definite external enemy is extremely exhilarating and brings about the bright eye and the springy step that go so well with the political uniform. This is an exhilaration that the Christian must deny himself. It comes from an … Continue reading Quote of Note #159: The Politics of Humility

Quote of Note #157: Love vs. Power

photo by GAC "What makes the temptation of power so seemingly irresistible? Maybe it is that power offers an easy substitute for the hard task of love. It seems easier to be God than to love God, easier to control people than to love people, easier to own life than to love life. Jesus asks, … Continue reading Quote of Note #157: Love vs. Power

Quote of Note #144: Success & Power

Photo by GAC "You could say I was successful, but success is such a fleeting, arbitrary notion. Who decides what it is? Who determines whether you've achieved it? Does being crucified on a dung heap outside the walls of Jerusalem, cursed as someone lower than the beasts, spat upon, and mocked as he cried out … Continue reading Quote of Note #144: Success & Power

Quote of Note #113: Legitimacy of Government

Photo by GAC "The [ancient] Jews didn't, it seems, care very much how rulers became rulers; so much for our modern ideals of 'legitimacy through voting.' They cared very much what the rulers did once they were in power. Power itself wasn't the problem; it was what you did with it that counted. In our … Continue reading Quote of Note #113: Legitimacy of Government

Bible Note #20 — Deuteronomy 22:6-7 and Cruelty to the Vulnerable and Weak

Deuteronomy 22:6-7 [ESV] “If you come across a bird's nest in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs and the mother sitting on the young or on the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young.  You shall let the mother go, but the young you may take for yourself, that it … Continue reading Bible Note #20 — Deuteronomy 22:6-7 and Cruelty to the Vulnerable and Weak