"To believe in repentance is to believe there will be repentant murderers who will meet their victims in paradise, to believe there will be repentant slanderers who will meet those they slandered in heaven, to believe there will be repentant thieves who will meet those they've plundered in heaven." Leonard Sweet, Rings of Fire: Walking … Continue reading Quote of Note #170: Repentance
Tag: Quotations
Quote of Note #169: Forgiveness and Freedom
"To forgive is divine. It makes us look like our heavenly Father. And we accomplish forgiveness through His Spirit living within us. There is no other way. But it is a choice we must make individually to yield our right to strike back or to get even and to instead offer forgiveness. To pardon our … Continue reading Quote of Note #169: Forgiveness and Freedom
Quote of Note #168: Holiness, Grace, and Following Jesus
"What then is the way to holiness? It is a narrow way and leads through a strait gate, but we cannot with justice complain that it is difficult either to trace or to follow. Many other and harder ways have been tried. On the banks of the Ganges or on the pilgrim route to Mecca … Continue reading Quote of Note #168: Holiness, Grace, and Following Jesus
Quote of Note #167: Knowing God
"Under the image of the Trinity, we discover that we do not know God by defining him but by being loved by him and loving in return. The consequences of this are personally revelatory: another does not know me, nor do I know another, by defining or explaining, by categorizing or by psychologizing, but only … Continue reading Quote of Note #167: Knowing God
Quote of Note #166: Defining Marker of Christian Identity
"[H]ow we love one another is not just a matter of justice; it is a matter of evangelism. Scripture says that if we love one another well, people will identify us as Jesus' disciples, and through identifying and experiencing God's love in and through us, many will come to know God themselves. Therefore, how we … Continue reading Quote of Note #166: Defining Marker of Christian Identity
Quote of Note #165: “Love Your Enemies”
"Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction. So when Jesus says, … Continue reading Quote of Note #165: “Love Your Enemies”
Quote of Note #164: Self-sacrificial Love
"God does not force us to do anything, including love our neighbor. Therefore, love is a choice, not a given. Love is an inconvenient choice, one that costs us time, resources, and at times our safety. God's love empowered by the Spirit, compels us to be countercultural, bearing witness to who and whose we are … Continue reading Quote of Note #164: Self-sacrificial Love
Quote of Note #163: No National Gods
"There is only one God, Creator of all humanity, not nation-gods who conquer other nation-gods, and there are not racial or national differences before God. Most importantly, our people need to be sensitized to the God who works across national boundaries and loves children from Chihuahua as much as children from Chicago." Leonard Sweet, Rings … Continue reading Quote of Note #163: No National Gods
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 #161: The Biblical Mandate for Civility
photo by GAC "The truth is that civility is not something that stands over against biblically based convictions in a kind of 'tension' relationship. To put it bluntly: the obligation to be civil is itself a matter of biblical conviction. This is very clear, for example, in 1 Peter 3:15. . .'Always be prepared to … Continue reading Quote of Note #161: The Biblical Mandate for Civility
Gary Chorpenning's Notebooks 