“The most radical form of self-denial is to give up not cigarettes or whiskey but one s own body, an act which is traditionally known as martyrdom. The martyr yields up his or her most precious possession, but would prefer not to; the suicide, by contrast, is glad to be rid of a life that has become an unbearable burden. If Jesus wanted to die, then he was just another suicide, and his death was as worthless and futile as a suicide bomber s messy finale. Martyrs, as opposed to suicides, are those who place their deaths at the service of others. Even their dying is an act of love. Their deaths are such that they can bear fruit in the lives of others. This is true not only of those who die so that others may live (taking someone s place in the queue for the Nazi gas chambers, for example), but also of those who die in the defense of a principle which is potentially life-giving for others. The word martyr means witness ; and what he or she beas witness to is a principle without which it may not be worth living in the first place. In this sense, the martyr s death testifies to the value of life, not to its unimportance.”
“Carry your cross, follow Christ.”
“Say, do you know why he was crucified - the one you are perhaps thinking of at this moment? Well, there were heaps of reasons for that. There are always reasons for murdering a man. On the contrary, it is impossible to justify his living. That s why crime always finds lawyers, and innocence only rarely. But, besides the reasons that have been very well explained to us for the past two thousand years, there was a major one for that terrible agony, and I don t know why it has been so carefully hidden. The real reason is that *he* knew he was not altogether innocent. If he did not bear the weight of the crime he was accused of, he had committed others - even thought he didn t know which ones. Did he really not know them? He was at the source, after all; he must have heard of a certain Slaughter of the Innocents. The children of Judea massacred while his parents were taking him to a safe place - why did they die if not because of him? Those blood-splattered soldiers, those infants cut in two filled him with horror. But given the man he was, I am sure he could not forget them. And as for that sadness that can be felt in his every act, wasn t it the uncurbable melancholy of a man who heard night after night the voice of Rachel weeping for her children and refusing all comfort? The lamentation would rend the night, Rachel would call her children who been killed for him, and he was still alive!”
“Thus I by my loquacious tongue From the heaven of silence am led Into perils unknown and dark. Not as Peter, disciple true, Confident in his virtue and faith, I am as one whose unnumbered sins Have shipwrecked on the rolling seas.… How easily can I be shipwrecked, One untaught in seafaring arts, Unless you, almighty Christ, Stretch forth your hand with help divine. (How Easily Can I Be Shipwrecked, Contra Symmachum)”
“Eternal Jesus! it is Thyself Who hast thus bidden us either despise Thee or worship Thee. Thou wouldest have us despise Thee as our fellow-man, if we will not worship Thee as our God. Gazing on Thy Human beauty, and listening to Thy words, we cannot deny that Thou art the Only Son of God Most High; disputing Thy Divinity, we could no longer clearly recognise Thy Human perfections. But if our ears hearken to Thy revelations of Thy greatness, our souls have already been won to Thee by Thy truthfulness, by Thy lowliness, and by Thy love. Convinced by these Thy moral glories, and by Thy majestic exercise of creative and healing power, we believe and are sure that Thou hast the words of eternal life. Although in unveiling Thyself before Thy creatures, Thou dost stand from age to age at the bar of hostile and sceptical opinion; yet assuredly from age to age, by the assaults of Thine enemies no less than in the faith of Thy believing Church, Thou art justified in Thy sayings and art clear when Thou art judged. Of a truth, Thou art the King of Glory, O Christ; Thou art the Everlasting Son of the Father.”
“Christ is love and we are His therefore let the true love of Christ flow in and through us, illuminating lives and places.”
“Poetry brings calmness of mind just like a mind set on Christ is peace.”
“All unbelievers in Jesus Christ is a House Divided Against Itself; it cannot stand against Jesus Christ.”
“I know in whom I have believed; I am not ignorant whose precious blood has been shed for me; I have a Shepherd full of kindness, full of care, and full of power: unto him I commit myself. His own finger hath engraven this sentence on the tables of my heart: Satan hath desired to winnow thee as wheat, but I have prayed that thy faith fail not. Therefore, the assurance of my hope I will labour to keep as a jewel unto the end, and by labour, through the gracious mediation of his prayer, I shall keep it. (Sermon of the Certainty and Perpetuity of Faith in the Elect, p. 532)”
“Christ is our Comforter in every circumstance.”
“Do not cry that that there is no one to help you. Call on Christ to save you in any situation.”
“Jesus is baffled by Tinder. He wants to love his matches, but is strictly celibate. The Holy Ghost does all of Jesus’ fucking for him. Apparently, Jesus calls his penis Lazarus because he has to raise it from the dead. It takes a miracle to get it up. Only torture porn gets him hard.”
“those whose business it is to open doors, so often mistake and shut them”
“Let us remember that we are all in the same condition as Abraham. Our circumstances are all in opposition to the promises of God. He promises us immortality: yet we are surrounded by mortality and corruption. He declares that He accounts us just: yet we are covered with sins. He testifies that Her is propitious and benevolent towards us: yet outward signs threaten His wrath. What then are we to do? We must close our eyes, disregard ourselves and all things connected with us, so that nothing may hinder or prevent us from believing that God is true. Calvin s Commentaries: The Epistles of Paul The Apostle to the Romans and to the Thessalonians, eds. David W Torrance and T. F. Torrance (Edinburgh, 1961), p. 99.”
“Charity is a character of Christ.”
“Only the power of gospel of Christ changes the human hearts.”
“Nothing penetrate the spirit of man s heart than the power of the gospel of Christ.”