Jay > Jay's Quotes

“One can never satisfy a closed mind”
― Craig S. Keener, Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts

“It helps when we view our struggles in light of what they provide for us spiritually rather than in light of what they take from us emotionally”
― Gary Thomas

“Unity without truth isn't even unity - it's pure individualism”
― Natasha Crain, Faithfully Different: Regaining Biblical Clarity in a Secular Culture

“When you come to knowing God, the initiative lies on his side. If He does not show Himself, nothing you can do will enable you to find Him. And, in fact, He shows much more of Himself to some people than to others - not because He has favourites, but because it is impossible for Him to show himself to a man whose whole mind and character are in the wrong condition. Just as sunlight, though it has no favourites, cannot be reflected in a duty mirror as clearly as in a clean one.”
― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

“In other words, The­ol­ogy is prac­ti­cal: espe­cially now. In the old days, when there was less edu­ca­tion and dis­cus­sion, per­haps it was pos­si­ble to get on with a very few sim­ple ideas about God. But it is not so now. Every­one reads, every­one hears things dis­cussed. Con­se­quently, if you do not lis­ten to The­ol­ogy, that will not mean that you have no ideas about God. It will mean that you have a lot of wrong ones — bad, mud­dled, out-of-date ideas. For a great many of the ideas about God which are trot­ted out as novel­ties to-day are simply the ones which real The­olo­gians tried cen­turies ago and rejected.”
― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

“if we latter-day believers are not able and willing to be faithful in the relatively small trials we face now, there is no reason to think we will have what it takes to endure serious persecution in the future.”
― Rod Dreher, Live Not by Lies: A Manual for Christian Dissidents

“By their indifference to solidarity, and surrendering to social disintegration as the new normal, Christians make it easier for those in power who hate us to control us.”
― Rod Dreher, Live Not by Lies: A Manual for Christian Dissidents

“Unlike the Bolsheviks, who were hardened revolutionaries, SJWs get their way not by shedding blood, but by shedding tears”
― Rod Dreher, Live Not by Lies: A Manual for Christian Dissidents

“If you can't find a single person who looks to you as a mentor, something is wrong with you. And social media doesn't count. I'm talking about flesh-and-blood humans who mimic your actions. This requires living a life that's worth duplicating, which is quite a bit harder than posting pictures and quotes”
― Francis Chan, Letters to the Church

“I (Josh) like to look at it this way: Imagine that after this life, you are standing in front of Jesus. All of your deed - both what you did for yourself and what you did to serve Jesus - are represented as a stack of wood, hay, and straw. You assume there are probably some jewels and gold in there, too. All of a sudden, a huge fire comes down and burns all the wood, hay, and straw, leaving behind only the things you did for Jesus: the only things that could not be burned. You look down in surprise to see a pile of gold and jewels small enough to fit in the palm of your hand.

You walk up to that small pile, your deeds for Jesus throughout your entire life, and you scoop them up. You approach Jesus on His throne. You see the scars in His hands and on His feet: the evidence of what He has done for you with His life. You hold out your hand to Jesus, present Him with your small handful of jewels and gold, and the only thing you can muster to say is the honest, yet tragic confession, "I love you this much.”
― Josh Peck, The Second Coming of the New Age: The Hidden Dangers of Alternative Spirituality in Contemporary America and Its Churches

“In effect, baptism in New Testament theology is a loyalty oath, a public avowal of who is on the Lord's side in the cosmic war between good and evil. But in addition to that, it is also a visceral reminder to the defeated fallen angels. Every baptism is a reiteration of their doom in the wake of the gospel and the kingdom of God....Early baptismal formulas included a renunciation of Satan and his angels for this very reason. Baptism was-and still is-spiritual warfare.”
― Michael S. Heiser, The Unseen Realm

“Truth, of course, must of necessity be stranger than fiction, for we have made fiction to suit ourselves.”
― G.K. Chesterton, Heretics

“It is only the last and wildest kind of courage that can stand on a tower before ten thousand people and tell them that twice two is four.”
― G.K. Chesterton, Heretics / Orthodoxy

“There is the great lesson of 'Beauty and the Beast,' that a thing must be loved before it is lovable.”
― G.K. Chesterton