Not a Silent Night Quotes

“The world calls us to self-indulgence, but Jesus calls us to self-denial. The world calls us to seek our own glory, but Jesus calls us to seek God’s glory. The world calls us to pursue a greatness involving accolades and recognition, but Jesus redefines greatness as serving others and calls us to serve without any praise. The world calls us to pursue riches, but Jesus tells us that abundance has nothing to do with possessions. The world calls us to demand justice, but Jesus calls us to demonstrate mercy.”
― Adam Hamilton, Not a Silent Night: Mary Looks Back to Bethlehem

“follow Jesus, not because I think he’s going to make me rich or keep bad things from happening to me. I follow him because I believe that in his life he shows me who God is. In his teachings he shows me how to live. In his death he shows me mercy. And in his resurrection he shows me hope. That’s why I follow him.”
― Adam Hamilton, Not a Silent Night: Mary Looks Back to Bethlehem

“we follow Jesus because we believe that his life, death, resurrection, and teachings offer us the truth about life, strength for the journey, and hope in the face of despair. Following him doesn’t change our life situation, but it does change how we look at it and how we live in it.”
― Adam Hamilton, Not a Silent Night: Mary Looks Back to Bethlehem

“Christmas is about God’s grace—the kindness, love, forgiveness, and blessings being given to us though we do not deserve them.”
― Adam Hamilton, Not a Silent Night: Mary Looks Back to Bethlehem

“gifts, and the nice kids do. But an interesting thing happens to Fred as he does this task. Looking at the kids who have been labeled naughty, he begins to see things differently. The kids are not naughty. Sure, they do naughty things, but there’s something special about every one of them. What’s more, often the reason they do naughty things is because they were hurt or wounded or misled or misguided. Fred comes to believe that the kids most in need of a gift are the naughty ones. Maybe that gift—receiving kindness when they don’t deserve it—would change them.”
― Adam Hamilton, Not a Silent Night: Mary Looks Back to Bethlehem

“Fred Claus, a movie that came out a few years ago, is the story of Santa’s long-lost brother. Fred is in trouble and needs financial help, so he calls his brother Nick at the North Pole. Nick says, “Well, I’ll give you the help you need if you’ll come and work with me this Christmas.” Fred, who is desperate, agrees. Santa puts him to work at a specific task: determining whether children have been naughty or nice. We’re familiar with the routine, right? The naughty children don’t receive”
― Adam Hamilton, Not a Silent Night: Mary Looks Back to Bethlehem

“relationships, and reconcile people and even nations. Grace changes the one who receives it, and it also changes the one who gives it.”
― Adam Hamilton, Not a Silent Night: Mary Looks Back to Bethlehem

“Grace has power. When you give kindness, compassion, goodness, and love to someone who does not deserve it, that graceful act has the power to change hearts, heal broken”
― Adam Hamilton, Not a Silent Night: Mary Looks Back to Bethlehem

“God’s love, mercy, and kindness are offered to us all. He showed us grace.”
― Adam Hamilton, Not a Silent Night: Mary Looks Back to Bethlehem

“grace has the power to change our lives.”
― Adam Hamilton, Not a Silent Night: Mary Looks Back to Bethlehem

“Grace is God’s kindness, his love, his care, his work on our behalf, his blessings, his gifts, his goodness, his forgiveness, and his salvation. But it is more than that—it is all these things when they are undeserved, when they are pure gift.”
― Adam Hamilton, Not a Silent Night: Mary Looks Back to Bethlehem

“You either humble yourself, or God will do it for you.”
― Adam Hamilton, Not a Silent Night: Mary Looks Back to Bethlehem

“Pride is a dangerous sin. It eats away at our soul.
It convinces us that we are better than others,”
― Adam Hamilton, Not a Silent Night: Mary Looks Back to Bethlehem

“those with doctorates in theology. No, he chose fishermen, tax collectors, and other unlikely candidates. He taught them humility by washing their feet at the Last Supper and then told them, “I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you” (John 13:15). Jesus told his disciples, “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). This theme of humility is seen throughout the New Testament. The entire Christmas story is, in part, a story about the reversal”
― Adam Hamilton, Not a Silent Night: Mary Looks Back to Bethlehem

“Jesus chose disciples, he didn’t select the seminary-trained or”
― Adam Hamilton, Not a Silent Night: Mary Looks Back to Bethlehem

“idea of who receives God’s favor is a consistent theme in Scripture. God chooses the humble, the unlikely, and the lowly. God chose the elderly Abraham and Sarah to bring forth the chosen people. He chose Moses, a fugitive from the law, a man who stuttered and was tending sheep, to be the lawgiver and deliverer of Israel. He chose David, the shepherd boy, the youngest and scrawniest son of Jesse, to be Israel’s greatest king. And he chose Mary, a”
― Adam Hamilton, Not a Silent Night: Mary Looks Back to Bethlehem

“and is relentless in his love and mercy and grace toward you.”
― Adam Hamilton, Not a Silent Night: Mary Looks Back to Bethlehem

“you have a Father who knit you together in your mother’s womb, who loves you more than you can possibly imagine, who walks with you, cares for you,”
― Adam Hamilton, Not a Silent Night: Mary Looks Back to Bethlehem

“be free. God is the God of the second chance. And Jesus came to save us from our sins and from ourselves. What wondrous love is this!”
― Adam Hamilton, Not a Silent Night: Mary Looks Back to Bethlehem

“Our Advent journey, preparing our hearts to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, takes us to the cross, where we remember that the Child whose birth we celebrate would be tortured and killed, and that on that cross he gave his life that we might receive life. He bore our sins that”
― Adam Hamilton, Not a Silent Night: Mary Looks Back to Bethlehem

“we might”
― Adam Hamilton, Not a Silent Night: Mary Looks Back to Bethlehem

“The cross of Christ points us to the brokenness of humankind. But it also demonstrates the magnitude of God’s love for us and offers peace with God and salvation through Jesus Christ. The salvation that you and I have received cost Jesus his life. It cost Mary her son.”
― Adam Hamilton, Not a Silent Night: Mary Looks Back to Bethlehem

“The profound gift of Christmas is our salvation and forgiveness. The babe born in Bethlehem would give his life to save us from our sin.”
― Adam Hamilton, Not a Silent Night: Mary Looks Back to Bethlehem

“seriousness
of our sin, the costliness of our forgiveness,
and the magnitude of his love.”
― Adam Hamilton, Not a Silent Night: Mary Looks Back to Bethlehem

“Sin alienates us from God, but on the cross
God was seeking to help us see the”
― Adam Hamilton, Not a Silent Night: Mary Looks Back to Bethlehem

“Our mission at Christmas is not to get stuff for people to open on Christmas morning. It is to be people of hope who let Jesus’ light shine through them, who act as his witnesses so that others see him in us, who offer hope and help, who pray and work so that our world looks more like the kingdom Jesus proclaimed.”
― Adam Hamilton, Not a Silent Night: Mary Looks Back to Bethlehem

“Our mission at Christmas is not to get stuff for people to open on Christmas morning. It is to be people of hope who let Jesus’ light shine through them.”
― Adam Hamilton, Not a Silent Night: Mary Looks Back to Bethlehem