Reflect, Resonate, Reevaluate, Respond

To love God with heart and soul and mind and strength… is the first and greatest commandment, so the first and greatest sin is not to love God with heart and soul and mind and strength. For this there is no remedy, save what God himself has provided—in love.
~ D.A. Carson, 1946- , Theologian, professor of New Testament

If you are anything like me, you do a lot of listening to yourself everyday.
~ C.J. Mahaney, 1953- , Am. Minister, Living the Cross Centered Life

James 4:13-17

Perhaps the less we have, the more we are required to brag.
~ John Steinbeck, East of Eden

To really be gripped by your identity in God’s greatness you must wade out of the shallow waters of self-absorption into the deep waters of praising Him at all times for all things. Remember, God formed you for that very purpose. Embrace your identity as a forgiven worshiper of this all-patient God.
~ James McDonald, 1960- , Pastor, Gripped by the Greatness of God

Brian: “Look, you’ve got it all wrong. You don’t need to follow me. You don’t need to follow anybody. You’ve got to think for yourselves. You’re all individuals.”
Crowd: “Yes, we’re all individuals!”
Individual: “I’m not!”
~ Monty Python, Life of Brian

Pride makes us artificial and humility makes us real.
~ Thomas Merton, 1915-1968, monastic theologian & author

The will of God will not take us where the grace of God cannot sustain us.
~ Billy Graham, 1918-2018, Evangelist

The gospel changes the way you see all of your life from Monday through Sunday, and it begins to help you understand how big the gospel is and the expanse of God’s heart.
~ David Kim, Executive Director of the Center for Faith & Work

Reflections

He who knows how to flatter also knows how to slander.
~ Napoleon Bonaparte

Slander is worse than cannibalism.
~ John Chrysostom

Judging others makes us blind, whereas love is illuminating. By judging others we blind ourselves to our own evil and to the grace which others are just as entitled to as we are.
~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 1906-1945, pastor and Nazi dissident

James 4:11-12, 5:12

The current popular notion that judging others is in itself a sin leads to such inappropriate maxims as ‘I’m okay and you’re okay.’ It encourages a conspiracy of moral indifference which says, “If you never tell me that anything I’m doing is wrong, I’ll never tell you that anything you’re doing is wrong.”
~ Elisabeth Elliot, missionary and speaker, Leadership, Vol. 3, no. 1

If you haven’t got anything nice to say about anybody come sit next to me.
~ Alice Roosevelt Longworth, 1884-1980, writer & socialite

It would be a good contest amongst Christians, one to labor to give no offence and the other to labour to take none.
~ Richard Sibbes, 1577-1635, Church of England pastor and theologian

We reveal most about ourselves when we speak about others.
~ Kamand Kojouri, contemporary author & poet

…the only way there could ever be reconciliation is going to be a personal revival. A personal revival, where God cleanses the heart and the attitudes and the soul of a person, and in many ways that’s why I could learn to forgive.
~ Robert Soto, 1952- , pastor and Apache tribal leader