The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'
Martin Luther King, Jr.
I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
I submit to you that if a man hasn't discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
If we are to go forward, we must go back and rediscover those precious values - that all reality hinges on moral foundations and that all reality has spiritual control.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
We must use time creatively.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can't ride you unless your back is bent.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Showing posts with label love. Show all posts
Showing posts with label love. Show all posts
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Monday, February 22, 2010
"The Mark of the Christian" by Francis Schaeffer
Spoiler alert = the mark of the Christian is love.
This simple book is an argument for Christians to adorn themselves with love. Not just for outsiders; but for each other. Not just for each other, but for outsiders (those who don't know God) too. He claims that this balanced love-giving is not automatic; and takes discipline to maintain.
Our love, as Christians, is supposed to show the world something about God. And our love should be according to, or similar to, the love Christ has for us. "According to the Scripture and the teaching of Christ, the love that is shown is to be exceedingly strong. It is not just something you mention in words once in a while." (p.21)
Visible love includes apologizing and giving forgiveness. Also, we must have a deep unity according to John 17 - not merely a shallow organizational unity.
He gets into church discipline and true disagreement; but maintains that this is not unloving - quite the opposite! it is not true love to merely tolerate each other and watch as we each destroy ourselves.
Schaeffer rebukes churches for acting snobby and rejecting toward fellow believing churches - a rebuke that is good for Xenos people to hear. He mentions that the non-Christian world doesn't understand all of the little theological differences, and that we would have a better witness to them if we could focus on the good things in other churches that can be agreed upon. As Believers, we don't need to rely on fakery or shallow love - we literally do have a unifying factor between ourselves and other Christians = God's Spirit. So, when we preserve the unity He gives us, we are allowing His Spirit to show something to the world about God.
He concludes: "In short, we are to practice and exhibit the holiness of God and the love of God, for without this we grieve the Holy Spirit. Love - and the unity it attests to - is the mark Christ gave Christians to wear before the world. Only with this mark may the world know that Christians are indeed Christians (Jn.13:34-35) and that Jesus was sent by the Father (Jn.17)."
This simple book is an argument for Christians to adorn themselves with love. Not just for outsiders; but for each other. Not just for each other, but for outsiders (those who don't know God) too. He claims that this balanced love-giving is not automatic; and takes discipline to maintain.
Our love, as Christians, is supposed to show the world something about God. And our love should be according to, or similar to, the love Christ has for us. "According to the Scripture and the teaching of Christ, the love that is shown is to be exceedingly strong. It is not just something you mention in words once in a while." (p.21)
Visible love includes apologizing and giving forgiveness. Also, we must have a deep unity according to John 17 - not merely a shallow organizational unity.
He gets into church discipline and true disagreement; but maintains that this is not unloving - quite the opposite! it is not true love to merely tolerate each other and watch as we each destroy ourselves.
Schaeffer rebukes churches for acting snobby and rejecting toward fellow believing churches - a rebuke that is good for Xenos people to hear. He mentions that the non-Christian world doesn't understand all of the little theological differences, and that we would have a better witness to them if we could focus on the good things in other churches that can be agreed upon. As Believers, we don't need to rely on fakery or shallow love - we literally do have a unifying factor between ourselves and other Christians = God's Spirit. So, when we preserve the unity He gives us, we are allowing His Spirit to show something to the world about God.
He concludes: "In short, we are to practice and exhibit the holiness of God and the love of God, for without this we grieve the Holy Spirit. Love - and the unity it attests to - is the mark Christ gave Christians to wear before the world. Only with this mark may the world know that Christians are indeed Christians (Jn.13:34-35) and that Jesus was sent by the Father (Jn.17)."
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Faith, Hope, and Love by C.S. Lewis
I wanted to share a few things that I read today about faith, hope, and love.
Faith =
"The question of faith arises after a man has tried his level best to practice the Christian virtues, and found that he fails, and seen that even if he could he would only be giving back to God what was already God's own. In other words, he discovers his bankruptcy. Now, once again, what God cares about is not exactly our actions. What He cares about is that we should be creatures of a certain kind of quality - the kind of creatures He intended us to be - creatures related to Himself in a certain way. I do not add "and related to one another in a certain way" because that is included: if you are right with Him, you will inevitably be right with your fellow creatures, just as if all the spokes of a wheel are fitted rightly to the hub and the rim, they are bound to be in right positions to one another."
Hope =
"Aim at Heaven and you will get earth "thrown in": aim at Earth and you will get neither. We must learn to want something more. The real want for heaven is present in us, but we do not recognize it. Most people, if they had really learned to look into their own hearts, would know that they do want, and want acutely, something that cannot be had in this world. There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never quite keep their promise."
Love =
"Our [agape, giving love] must be a real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner - no mere tolerance or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment."
Faith =
"The question of faith arises after a man has tried his level best to practice the Christian virtues, and found that he fails, and seen that even if he could he would only be giving back to God what was already God's own. In other words, he discovers his bankruptcy. Now, once again, what God cares about is not exactly our actions. What He cares about is that we should be creatures of a certain kind of quality - the kind of creatures He intended us to be - creatures related to Himself in a certain way. I do not add "and related to one another in a certain way" because that is included: if you are right with Him, you will inevitably be right with your fellow creatures, just as if all the spokes of a wheel are fitted rightly to the hub and the rim, they are bound to be in right positions to one another."
Hope =
"Aim at Heaven and you will get earth "thrown in": aim at Earth and you will get neither. We must learn to want something more. The real want for heaven is present in us, but we do not recognize it. Most people, if they had really learned to look into their own hearts, would know that they do want, and want acutely, something that cannot be had in this world. There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never quite keep their promise."
Love =
"Our [agape, giving love] must be a real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner - no mere tolerance or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment."
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