247 results for tag: Quote for today

Reflections Along the Jesus Way

July 20, 2023 - Quote for the Day: “Legalism is the ‘foundation’ of spiritual cosmetics.  It compels us to put on an act to impress others who are themselves putting on an act to impress us.  The act we put on may be good – the actions and behaviors may be good things to do, but we are doing them for the wrong reasons – and in the process we become spiritual imposters.” Originally published in: Bad News Religion ------------------------------------- Help Us Help Others - Give Now

Reflections Along the Jesus Way

July 18, 2023 - Quote for the Day: “Grace is like water and rain, but it is also like the wind.  We have no idea where wind comes from but there is no doubt that wind is also a metaphor of God’s grace – The wind blows wherever it pleases.  You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going.  So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit (John 3:8)…The grace of God is like pollen carried by the wind, spreading life.  The grace of God is like the wind filling our sails.”  Originally published in: Wonders of His Grace ------------------------------------- Help Us Help Others ...

Reflections Along the Jesus Way

July 16, 2023 - Quote for the Day: “There’s an old story about the latest group of new arrivals in heaven who were huddled together in front of the pearly gates, waiting for St. Peter to greet them and welcome them inside. A few adventurous ones climbed up on the wrought iron fence, peering through, trying to see what heaven was really like. Suddenly, those who were looking through the fence saw someone who they all remembered as a great sinner on earth. The new arrivals were scandalized. One person demanded, ‘What’s he doing here?’ Another new arrival said, ‘After all I went through to get here and after all my hard work, now ...

Reflections Along the Jesus Way

July 13, 2023 - Quote for the Day: “The Bible does not guarantee that our lives in this flesh will consist of us skipping through some idyllic park, ice cream cones in hand. God’s plan for us is not centered on the here and now. This life is not all there is. There is more to life than what we see and understand and experience. God’s plan is primarily concerned with eternity, not the earthly days and daze of our lives.”  Originally published in: Between Religious Rocks and Life’s Hard Places ------------------------------------- Help Us Help Others - Give Now

Reflections Along the Jesus Way

July 11, 2023 - Quote for the Day: “The real Jesus, and the authentic Christianity he gives, are buried, like barnacles on a boat, by layers of religious rituals, rules and regulations.”  Originally published in: Bad News Religion ------------------------------------- Help Us Help Others - Give Now

Reflections Along the Jesus Way

July 9, 2023 - Quote for the Day: “Christ-less religions that fly the flag of Christ… are themselves guilty of massive attacks, savagery and brutalities of others – simply because ‘others’ do not appear to be Christians. We must not forget the Crusades, the Inquisitions, the bloody wars in Europe centering on the Reformation and afterwards. We must not forget the attempt to ‘evangelize’ pagans by the various Christian empires of Europe as they attempted to colonize the not-so-advanced areas of the world – like Africa, India, Asia, North and South America. Several centuries ago the largest church within Christendom felt ...

Reflections Along the Jesus Way

July 6, 2023 - Quote for the Day: “When I was a young boy, I loved sports (still do). Sports fascinated me. I wanted to make either participation in or reporting about athletic endeavors my life. My mother, though she and my stepfather were often hard pressed to pay all their bills, recognized my desire and purchased a subscription to Sports Illustrated (SI) for me... Over the years SI apparently determined to grow its circulation and demographic appeal by catering to a wider audience than simply sports fans who wish to read unembellished accounts of athletic endeavors. In a thinly veiled (pun intended) attempt to increase circulation, SI ...

Reflections Along the Jesus Way

July 4, 2023 - Quote for the Day: “One of the major lessons of the book of Revelation is that religion and the state often combine as enemies of the true gospel, so much so that Revelation 18:4 calls to the people of God, who follow Christ alone, to Come out of her, my people. The book of Revelation provides a warning and chronicle of what happens when those who profess Christ jump into bed with either Christ-less religion or the idolatry of Caesar worship – the worship of a nationalistic human empire – or a combination of both.  Just as there have been religious institutions in the past that were merely pawns of a nationalistic ...

Reflections Along the Jesus Way

July 2, 2023 - Quote for the Day: “Sadly, many within Christendom see ‘God’s justice’ through the prism of human experience and limitations.  They attribute human definitions and desires to God.  God’s justice conforms, as they perceive it, to their own sense and definition of justice… Christ-less religion places the focus on the need for humans to reimburse and repay, to compensate and remunerate for damages inflicts whereas the grace of God we find in Christ-centered faith is all about forgiveness – writing off the debt – as Jesus said on his cross, ‘It is done,’ once and for all.”  Originally ...

Reflections Along the Jesus Way

June 29, 2023 - Quote for the Day: “Many Christians are missing the point of Revelation because they’re reading it as though it were a newspaper, with verses lined up and seemingly corresponding to an event in today’s news, or the news they’ve been told will almost certainly be printed in the newspaper in the next month or next year. Reading the book of Revelation as if it were an advance copy of next week’s or next month’s newspaper has resulted in many people losing faith in God when world events don’t work out the way they were told they would.  Whose fault is that?  Is it God’s fault, or the bogus interpreta...

Reflections Along the Jesus Way

June 27, 2023 - Quote for the Day: “When I was a young boy my mother and I used to sit on my grandmother’s front porch, on North 8th Street in Herington, Kansas, looking into the summer sky.  I never knew my father, since he was killed when I was only 15 months old, so my mother would tell me that my father was one of the stars twinkling up in the sky.  So because my mother, the ultimate authority in my world at the time, told me so, I thought my father was ‘up there’ with God. As I grew older I realized that my father was not a twinkling star up in the heavens, any more than Santa Claus delivers presents to all the ...

Reflections Along the Jesus Way

June 25, 2023 - Quote for the Day: “Christ-less religion convinces its followers that they have a need to be right on all the issues, and further, according to religion (especially fundamentalist religion) its followers believe that they need to categorize all those who differ with them as having less religious value than themselves.  Out of such warped thinking comes terms like heathen, heretic, unsaved, unbeliever and pagan – words that are used to describe the ‘other side.’”  Originally published in: Spiritual Soup for the Hungry Soul, Volume 1 ------------------------------------- Help Us Help Others - ...

Reflections Along the Jesus Way

June 22, 2023 - Quote for the Day: “1) In terms of your relationship with God, do you think of what you do as more important that what you are?  By God’s grace, we are friends of Jesus.  He offers us that intimate relationship so that we can…bring forth fruit (John 15:16). We are enabled to bring forth the fruit Jesus desires because he is our friend.  Our flesh is capable of bringing forth fruit.  But, if we are not friends of Jesus then any fruit we produce is not worthy of him – it will always fall short of the kind of fruit he can produce.  Any fruit we are capable of producing is not worthy to be ...

Reflections Along the Jesus Way

June 20, 2023 - Quote for the Day: “…the most popular religious messages on billboards across the United States are statements attributed to a direct quote from God: 1) ‘Don’t make me come down there,’ and 2) ‘You think it’s hot here?’ (usually found in the south and in sunbelt states). Legalistic religion is selling us a bill of goods.  Performance-based religion is convincing us that God is angry, and of course that’s easy for us to believe because we already believe God has every reason to be angry with us.  We know Jesus Christ is justified in coming back to this world, wiping us all out, and starting all ...

Reflections Along the Jesus Way

June 18, 2023 - Quote for the Day: “Some say that they are mad at God because, in spite of everything they have done for him (!?), he hasn’t given them what they feel they deserve.  Is that what we want – really?  Do we want God to give us what we deserve?”  Originally published in: Christianity Without the Religion magazine, August 2021 ------------------------------------- Help Us Help Others - Give Now

Reflections Along the Jesus Way

June 15, 2023 - Quote for the Day: “You and I need a big God.  A really, really big God – not a small god who religion attempts to shrink down so we can relate to him.  We need a God who can encompass this whole planet – for that matter, this entire universe.  We need a God whose relentless love is big enough for all of us – for everyone who has ever lived or ever will live.  We need a God for all people, all languages, all cultures, all colors and all religions.”  Originally published in: Spiritual Soup for the Hungry Soul, Volume 1 ------------------------------------- Help Us Help Others - Give Now

Reflections Along the Jesus Way

June 13, 2023 - Quote for the Day: “I believe that physical death is not the end of God’s pursuit of us, and I base that belief primarily on the full and complete (as I understand it) revelation of God within the pages of the Bible… My hopeful perspective of God’s pursuit of all of us – and I do mean ALL – is that he will do whatever it takes to win us.  However, I also think he allows us to make choices and respects our choices – many biblical passages speak to this, perhaps none better than the Prodigal Son, when the father ‘lets’ the son leave his house.  He honors the son’s request for his inheritance – he respects ...

Reflections Along the Jesus Way

June 11, 2023 - Quote for the Day: “God’s grace is proof that our currency – our medium of spiritual and religious exchange – is not accepted in the kingdom of heaven.  We cannot pay for or earn any standing with God because he doesn’t accept our ‘money.’  Christ-less religious institutions would have us believe that the religious currency it prints in the church basement will enable us to buy a ticket to heaven.  But God’s grace says that God’s ‘money’ is free.  Of course, within legalistic, authoritarian religious institutions God’s grace doesn’t really count for much because their legalisms blind them so they ...

Reflections Along the Jesus Way

June 8, 2023 - Quote for the Day: “I believe that a Christ-follower may be more liberal than friends and family or more conservative than friends and family and still be a Christ-follower.  Christ-followers are not political yellow pencils. Within reason, excepting fanaticism (and definitions of fanaticism vary!), we can differ about political opinions while remaining respectful and understanding.  Unfortunately, some feel as if their task is to bulldoze everyone into submission so that all agree with their political perspectives.  This ‘warfare’ happens within Christendom as well – in fact, in some quarters especi...

Reflections Along the Jesus Way

June 6, 2023 - Quote for the Day: “God’s grace is not about human perceptions of entitlement or justice.  It is perfectly natural to feel resentful about those who appear to be ‘getting away’ with something. Our sense of human justice cries out for them to ‘get theirs.’  We start this behavior early in life, as children we point out the shortcomings of others to authority figures such as parents and teachers, hoping they will be punished and penalized.  There is, of course, one person whose shortcomings we do not point out to the authorities – our own.” Originally published in: Between Religious Rocks and ...