Quotes

I love quotes. So much gets said in such a few words.
Here are a few I have come across recently:

This adventure is not about me but Jesus, and apart from Him and the grace of the Spirit and Abba’s love in this process I would be lost and destroyed, or dead already. So let’s be people who rock the world, who fight for the unity of the heart, who embrace powerlessness and a love that is so wondrously painful that it threatens daily to pull us out of this age and into the presence of the One we so desperately love.

Paul Young, Author of The Shack, found in most recent edition of Body Life by Wayne Jacobsen

The hijacking of the concept of morality began, of course, when we reduced Scripture to formula and a love story to theology, and finally morality to rules. It is a very different thing to break a rule than it is to cheat on a Lover.”

Donald Miller, In Search of God Knows What

“The mind of a Pharisee thinks truth is more important than love
but Jesus showed us that love is the most important part of truth.”

Don Francisco--Rocky Mountain Ministries

“When religion replaces the actual experience of the living Jesus, when we lose the authority of personal knowing and rely on the authority of books, institutions, and leaders, when we let religion interpose between us and the primary experience of Jesus as the Christ, we lose the very reality that religion itself describes as ultimate.”

Brennan Manning in The Wisdom of Tenderness

"Much Christian leadership is exercised by people who do not know how to develop healthy, intimate relationships and have opted for power and control instead. Many Christian empire builders have been people unable to give and receive love."

Henri Nouwen

“Nothing makes people n the church more angry than grace. It’s ironic: we stumble into a party we weren’t invited to and find the uninvited standing at the door making sure no other uninviteds get in. Then a strange phenomenon occurs: as soon as we are included in the party because of Jesus’ irresponsible love, we decide to make grace 'more responsible' by becoming self-appointed Kingdom Monitors, guarding the kingdom of God, keeping the riffraff out (which as I understand it, are who the kingdom of God is supposed to include.)"

Michael Yaconelli in Messy Spirituality

"Even in its ruined condition a human being is regarded by God as something immensely worth saving. Sin does not make you worthless, but only lost."

Dallas Willard in The Renovation of the Heart

"Why, then, is there so much unfreedom in religious circles today? The sad truth is that many Christians fear the responsibility of being free. It's often easier to let others make the decisions or to rely exclusively on the letter of the law. Some men and women want to be slaves."

Brennan Manning in The Wisdom of Tenderness

"Not forgiving is like swallowing rat poison and waiting for the rat to die."

Anne Lamott in Traveling Mercies

And we'll finish with one more from Brother Brennan:

"Anyone God uses significantly is always deeply wounded... We are, each and every one of us, insignificant people who God has called and graced to use in a significant way... On the last day, Jesus will look us over not for medals, diplomas, or honors, but for scars."

Brennan Manning in Ruthless Trust