Nile > Nile's Quotes

“Father Alexander Schmemann is an Orthodox scholar who wrote a book called For the Life of the World. He says the liturgy is a journey that proceeds from the kingdom of this world into a brief encounter with the kingdom of God, and then back out again to bear witness to it.”
― Ian Morgan Cron, Chasing Francis: A Pilgrim’s Tale

“the object of all great art is beauty, and it makes us nostalgic for God. Whether we consider ourselves people of faith or not, art arouses in us what the pope calls a ‘universal desire for redemption.”
― Ian Morgan Cron, Chasing Francis: A Pilgrim’s Tale

“But there is an old Rwandan proverb: ‘He who seeks vengeance is like a man who drinks poison, hoping that it will kill his enemy,’ ” Emmanuel said, a fleeting smile appearing”
― Ian Morgan Cron, Chasing Francis: A Pilgrim’s Tale

“We cannot and must not soften the blow; we cannot and must not pretend that evil isn't that bad after all.”
― N.T. Wright, Evil and the Justice of God

“God's justice is a saving, healing, restorative justice, because the God to whom justice belongs is the Creator God who has yet to complete his original plan for creation and whose justice is designed not simply to restore balance to a world out of kilter but to bring to glorious completion and fruition the creation, teeming with life and possibility, that he made in the first place.”
― N.T. Wright, Evil and the Justice of God

“The fact is that when we forgive someone we not only release them from the burden of our anger and its possible consequences; we release ourselves from the burden of whatever it was they had done to us, and from the crippled emotional state in which we shall go on living if we don't forgive them and instead cling to our anger and bitterness.”
― N.T. Wright, Evil and the Justice of God

“No amount of money, power, and planning can prevent bereavement, dire illness, relationship betrayal, financial disaster, or a host of other troubles from entering your life. Human life is fatally fragile and subject to forces beyond our power to manage. Life is tragic.”
― Timothy Keller, Walking with God through Pain and Suffering

“When pain and suffering come upon us, we finally see not only that we are not in control of our lives but that we never were.”
― Timothy Keller, Walking with God through Pain and Suffering

“I always knew, in principle, that ‘Jesus is all you need’ to get through. But you don’t really know Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have.”
― Timothy Keller, Walking with God through Pain and Suffering

“Christianity teaches that, contra fatalism, suffering is overwhelming; contra Buddhism, suffering is real; contra karma, suffering is often unfair; but contra secularism, suffering is meaningful. There is a purpose to it, and if faced rightly, it can drive us like a nail deep into the love of God and into more stability and spiritual power than you can imagine.”
― Timothy Keller, Walking with God through Pain and Suffering

“Only when our greatest love is God, a love that we cannot lose even in death, can we face all things with peace.”
― Timothy Keller, Walking with God through Pain and Suffering

“Hope comes not in the solution to the problem but in focusing on Christ, who facilitates the change.”
― Timothy Keller, Walking with God through Pain and Suffering

“Theologians sometimes have spoken of the “impassibility of God;” namely that God could not be capable of emotions, of either joy and pleasure or pain and grief.237 But this goes beyond the language and teaching of the Scripture.”
― Timothy Keller, Walking with God through Pain and Suffering

“All the beauty we have looked for in art or faces or places—and all the love we have looked for in the arms of other people—is only fully present in God himself.”
― Timothy Keller, Walking with God through Pain and Suffering

“If you seek God as the nonnegotiable good of your life, you will get happiness thrown in. If, however, you aim mainly at personal happiness, you will get neither.”
― Timothy Keller, Walking with God through Pain and Suffering

“God does not say, “If you go through the fire” and flood and dark valleys but when you go. The promise is not that he will remove us from the experience of suffering. No, the promise is that God will be with us, walking beside us in it.”
― Timothy Keller, Walking with God through Pain and Suffering

“The attempt of a nation to defy the course of its judgment, apart from repentance, will, instead, set in motion a chain of events to bring about the very calamity it sought to avert.”
― Jonathan Cahn, The Harbinger: The Ancient Mystery that Holds the Secret of America's Future

“Researchers have estimated that 90 percent of us could live to age 90 with some simple lifestyle choices.”
― Tom Rath, Eat Move Sleep: How Small Choices Lead to Big Changes

“It says in verse 7, “the peace of God . . . will guard your hearts and your minds.” The Greek word translated as “guard” means to completely surround and fortify a building or a city to protect it from invasion. If you have an army all around you protecting you, then you can sleep really well—that’s the idea.”
― Timothy Keller, Walking with God through Pain and Suffering

“The propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself hath ordained.6”
― Jonathan Cahn, The Harbinger: The Ancient Mystery that Holds the Secret of America's Future

“From its creation in 1913, the most important Fed mandate has been to maintain the purchasing power of the dollar; however, since 1913 the dollar has lost over 95 percent of its value. Put differently, it takes twenty dollars today to buy what one dollar would buy in 1913.”
― James Rickards, Currency Wars: The Making of the Next Global Crisis

“The peace of God is not the peace of stoicism or passivity. It is the most intense activity.”
― Oswald Chambers, Devotions for a Deeper Life

“New research shows that tackling multiple elements at the same time increases your odds of success, compared to initiating a new diet or exercise program in isolation. Eating, moving, and sleeping well are even easier if you work on all three simultaneously. These three ingredients for a good day build on one another. When these elements are working together, they create an upward spiral and progressively better days.”
― Tom Rath, Eat Move Sleep: How Small Choices Lead to Big Changes

“To make the best use of your life, you must never forget two truths: First, compared with eternity, life is extremely brief. Second, earth is only a temporary residence. You won’t be here long, so don’t get too attached.”
― Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?

“There are three dimensions to the peace that God offers to us through Christ: peace with God, peace with one another, and peace within ourselves.”
― Ken Sande, The Peacemaker

“If you believe that God is watching over you with perfect love and unlimited power, you will be able to serve him faithfully as a peacemaker, even in the most difficult circumstances.”
― Ken Sande, The Peacemaker

“There are three barriers that block our total surrender to God: fear, pride, and confusion. We don’t realize how much God loves us, we want to control our own lives, and we misunderstand the meaning of surrender.”
― Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?

“When you think about a problem over and over in your mind, that’s called worry. When you think about God’s Word over and over in your mind, that’s meditation. If you know how to worry, you already know how to meditate! You just need to switch your attention from your problems to Bible verses. The more you meditate on God’s Word, the less you will have to worry about.”
― Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?

“Until we mature enough to understand that God uses everything for good in our lives, we harbor resentment toward God over our appearance, background, unanswered prayers, past hurts, and other things we would change if we were God. People often blame God for hurts caused by others. This creates what William Backus calls “your hidden rift with God.”
― Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?

“Pain is the fuel of passion — it energizes us with an intensity to change that we don’t normally possess. C. S. Lewis said, “Pain is God’s megaphone.” It is God’s way of arousing us from spiritual lethargy. Your problems are not punishment; they are wake-up calls from a loving God. God is not mad at you; he’s mad about you, and he will do whatever it takes to bring you back into fellowship with him.”
― Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?