Out Of The Ordinary Quotes

“The Essenes of Qumran thought Melchizedek was an angel. The philosopher Philo believed he was the divine Logos. The Jewish historian Josephus said he was only a man, but so righteous that he was “by common consent . . . made a priest of God.” David saw Melchizedek as a prototype of the promised Messiah who would establish a new order of king-priests (Psalm 110:1–4).”
― David Roper, Out of the Ordinary: God's Hand at Work in Everyday Lives

“as Josephus correctly noted, Melchizedek was also just a man, and as such is an example of the kind of man I want to be. I want to be a friend of souls. I want to stand by the side of the road, as Melchizedek did, waiting for weary travelers, in the places “where the ragged people go.”4 I want to look for those who have been battered and wronged by others, who carry the dreary burden of a wounded and disillusioned heart. I want to nourish and refresh them with bread and wine and send them on their way with a benediction.”
― David Roper, Out of the Ordinary: God's Hand at Work in Everyday Lives

“There are hermit souls that live withdrawn In the peace of their self-content; There are souls, like stars, that dwell apart In a fellowless firmament; There are pioneer souls that blaze their paths Where highways never ran; But let me live by the side of the road, And be a friend to man. —Samuel Walter Foss”
― David Roper, Out of the Ordinary: God's Hand at Work in Everyday Lives

“Once you give up your integrity, everything else is a piece of cake. —J. R. Ewing”
― David Roper, Out of the Ordinary: God's Hand at Work in Everyday Lives

“The devil hates our laughter. “Joy,” C. S. Lewis’s demon, Screwtape, writes to his nephew, “is a disgusting and a direct assault to the realism, dignity and austerity of hell.”
― David Roper, Out of the Ordinary: God's Hand at Work in Everyday Lives

“G. K. Chesterton claimed that joy, “which is the small publicity of the pagan, is the gigantic secret of the Christian . . . and the dominant theme of Christian faith. By its creed (i.e., what we believe) joy becomes something gigantic and sadness something special (occasional) and small.”
― David Roper, Out of the Ordinary: God's Hand at Work in Everyday Lives

“It is a commonplace of Christian thought that joy is deep tranquility. Yet it seems to me that biblical joy is something more: it is “holy laughter”—the laughter of Sarah, for example: “God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me” (Genesis 21:6).”
― David Roper, Out of the Ordinary: God's Hand at Work in Everyday Lives

“Fairy tales do not deny the existence of . . . sorrow and failure: the possibility of these is necessary to the joy of deliverance; it denies (in the face of much evidence if you will) universal final defeat . . . giving a glimpse of Joy, Joy beyond the walls of the world, poignant as grief. —J. R. R. Tolkien”
― David Roper, Out of the Ordinary: God's Hand at Work in Everyday Lives

“Melchizedek blessed Abram, saying, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High.” As Billy Graham would say, he blessed him real good.”
― David Roper, Out of the Ordinary: God's Hand at Work in Everyday Lives