This Sunday’s readings: James 3:1-6

Reflections

Just as our love for God begins with listening to God’s Word, the beginning of love for other Christians is learning to listen to them.
~ Dietrich Bonhöffer

No one is a mere follower. If you are a follower of God, for instance, then you are called to lead. Every believer is called to help someone grow into maturity—and such is the core calling of a leader.
~ Dan B. Allender, Leading with a Limp

Speech has power. Words do not fade. What starts out as a sound, ends in a deed.
~ Abraham Joshua Herschel, 1907-1972, famed rabbi and theologian

---

Small deeds done are better than great deeds planned.
~ Peter Marshall, 1902-1949, Scottish-American Presbyterian Pastor

I am saddened that my tongue cannot live up to my heart.
~ Augustine of Hippo, 354-430, Theologian/Philosopher

All I need is a sheet of paper and something to write with, and then I can turn the world upside down.
~ Friedrich Nietzsche, 1844-1900, German philosopher and cultural critic

Talk low, talk slow, and don’t say too much.
~ John Wayne, 1907-1979, American Actor

Paul calls leaders not merely to be humble and self-effacing but to be desperate and honest. … He calls us to be a living portrayal of the very gospel we beseech others to believe. And that requires a leader to see himself as being equally prone to deceive as he is to tell the truth, to manipulate as he is to bless, to cower as he is to be bold. A leader is both a hero and a fool, a saint and a felon.
~ Dan B. Allender, Leading with a Limp: Take Full Advantage of Your Most Powerful Weakness

This Sunday’s readings: James 2:14-26

Reflections

Just as our love for God begins with listening to God’s Word, the beginning of love for other Christians is learning to listen to them.
~ Dietrich Bonhöffer

What God said to Abraham was not ‘Obey this law and I will bless you’, but ‘I will bless you; believe my promise’
~ John Stott, 1921-2011, Anglican Priest/Theologian

Faith is not the belief that God will do what you want. It is the belief that God will do what is right.
~ Max Lucado, 1955- , American Author/Minister

I find your lack of faith … disturbing.
~ Darth Vader, Cyborg Sith Lord

---

Hope has two beautiful daughters Their names are anger and courage; anger at the way things are, and courage to see that they do not remain the way they are.
~ Augustine of Hippo, 354-430, Theologian/Philosopher

The paradox of courage is that a man must be a little careless of his life even in order to keep it.
~ G.K. Chesterton, 1874-1936, Writer/Apologist

God will not have his work made manifest by cowards.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Those who have been justified are now being sanctified; those who have no experience of present sanctification have no reason to suppose they have been justified.
~ F.F. Bruce, 1910-1990, British Scholar/Theologian

“When we are securely rooted in personal intimacy with the source of life, it will be possible to remain flexible without being relativistic, convinced without being rigid, willing to confront without being offensive, gentle and forgiving without being soft, and true witnesses without being manipulative.”
~ Henri Nouwen, 1932-1996, Dutch Catholic priest

What are you doing right now that requires faith?
~ Francis Chan, Crazy Love