Reflections
The word gospel or good news is the essential core, the thing that makes Christianity, Christianity. It’s the essential core. There are a lot of things that are true of a Christian. A Christian is [hopefully] a good person. A Christian is [hopefully] a loving person. But that’s not the gospel. I mean, if somebody said to you, “You’re a surgeon. What is it that surgeons do?” and you said, “Surgeons wear green shirts,” that’s true, but that doesn’t tell you what a surgeon is. That’s not the core. That’s not the essence. There are other people who wear green shirts who are not surgeons.
~ Tim Keller, Pastor /Author
Your real, new self (which is Christ’s and also yours, and yours just because it is His) will not come as long as you are looking for it…. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.
~ C.S. Lewis (1898-1963), writer, lay theologian and professor
There was already a deep black wordless conviction in him that the way to avoid Jesus was to avoid sin.
~ Flannery O’Connor, Wise Blood , Author, 1925-1964
A well-known story is told of Margaret Thatcher during the time she was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. She was visiting an old people’s home, going from room to room and meeting senior citizens who had lived there a long time. One old lady showed no sign of realizing that she was shaking hands with a world-famous politician. “Do you know who I am?” asked Mrs Thatcher. “No, dear,” replied the old lady, “but I should ask the nurse if I were you. She usually knows.”
~ Illustrated from N.T. Wright in his commentary on Galatians