Cyprian

I very much wonder where this practice has originated. This is contrary to the evangelical and apostolic discipline, in some places water is offered in the Lord’s cup. But water by itself cannot represent the blood of Christ. The Holy Spirit also is not silent in the Psalms on the sacrament of these things, when [...]

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Robert Murray McCheyne

I fear there are some Christians among you to whom Christ can say no such thing. Your haughty dwelling rises in the midst of thousands who have scarce a fire to warm themselves at and have but little clothing to keep out the biting frost; and yet you never darkened their door. You heave a [...]

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Eugene Peterson

Shun spirituality that does not require commitment. Personal commitment to the God personally revealed in Jesus is at the heart of spirituality. Faddish spiritualities, within or without the church, ignore or deny commitment…
Spirituality without commitment is analogous to sexuality without commitment—quick and casual, superficial and impersonal, selfish and loveless—eventually a parody of its initial [...]

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C.F. Blumhardt

You rack your brain to solve the mystery of the Savior, but you would do better to examine the puzzle of your own heart. You should be wondering why you are so impenetrable: why your intentions, which are always so noble, are followed by so few good deeds; why, despite your pious impulses, your life [...]

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Eugene Peterson

What happens here [in Mark’s Gospel] is that we are invited into becoming full participants in the story of Jesus and shown how to become such participants. We are not simply told that Jesus is the Son of God; we not only become beneficiaries of his atonement; we are invited to die his death and [...]

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Graham Tomlin

A church with a consumer mentality, where the laity are purely passive consumers of whatever is delivered from the front, will rarely be an evangelistic church. (Graham Tomlin, the Provocative Church, pg. 131)

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Thomas Howard

In the simple act of taking bread, and of blessing, breaking and giving it to His disciples, the Lord gathered up all the mystery of the gospel: that the Word must become flesh, and that this flesh must be broken for the life of the world…
At that supper table with His friends, Jesus revealed Himself [...]

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Christopher Moore

You two [Jesus and his friend, Biff] are the ninnies here. You both rail on them [the 12 apostles] about their intelligence, when that doesn’t have anything to do with why they’re here [following Jesus]. Have either one of you heard them preach? I [Mary Magdalene] have. Peter can heal the sick now. I’ve seen [...]

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George MacDonald

Jesus didn’t die in a Cathedral between two candles, but on a cross between two thieves, on the town garbage heap at a cross roads so cosmopolitan that they had to write his name in Hebrew and in Greek. (George MacDonald, late 19th c. writer and poet)

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Jay Howard and John Streck

In focusing on individual belief, evangelicals have necessarily focused on individuals…poverty, hunger, abortion, drug abuse, and other such issues are thus approached as personal failings rather than social problems. Systemic elements simply aren’t included in the equation. (Jay Howard and John Streck from Apostles of Rock: The Splintered World of Contemporary Christian Music)

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