No Longer Strangers Quotes

“the most foundational thing that we were called to do in response to loving God was to love our neighbor, for the simple reason that everyone is made in the image of God and deserves to be treated with dignity and respect because of whose image we bear.”
― Eugene Cho, No Longer Strangers: Transforming Evangelism with Immigrant Communities

“three options for God’s people—go, send, or disobey.”
― Eugene Cho, No Longer Strangers: Transforming Evangelism with Immigrant Communities

“Upon hearing the news of Judah, Nehemiah didn’t go to social media and post about it, nor did he go to his friends and start talking about it. He poured his heart and soul out to the Lord. It says in Nehemiah 1:4 that “When I heard these words I sat down and wept, and mourned for days, fasting and praying before the God of heaven.” Nehemiah then prays a prayer of worship and confession, and requests that God grant him success and favor in order to do what he felt was weighing heavy on his, and God’s, heart. When we are moved in our hearts and distressed about the circumstances around us, Nehemiah teaches us to take our heartaches and longings to the Lord first.”
― Eugene Cho, No Longer Strangers: Transforming Evangelism with Immigrant Communities

“Nehemiah is a classic example of a leader who used his voice, position, and resources to help defend and rebuild a system that he believed was needed to protect the people of Jerusalem. What we see in his story is that (1) his heart broke for the people of Jerusalem; (2) he prayed and fasted for God to work through him; (3) he used his voice to speak up to people in power; and (4) he gathered people around him who shared the vision with him.”
― Eugene Cho, No Longer Strangers: Transforming Evangelism with Immigrant Communities

“we are to affirm the image of God in every person through our words and deeds.”
― Eugene Cho, No Longer Strangers: Transforming Evangelism with Immigrant Communities

“God is a God of justice who advocates for the vulnerable, which include the “quartet of the vulnerable”—the poor, the widow, the orphan, and the immigrant. God acknowledged their vulnerabilities and instituted structures and systems to take care of them.”
― Eugene Cho, No Longer Strangers: Transforming Evangelism with Immigrant Communities

“On the one hand, we are called to play the Good Samaritan on life’s roadside, but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho Road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life’s highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.” Our service toward those who are hurting is a way to demonstrate love of neighbor, but altering systems and structures is also critical to ensure that our neighbors thrive.”
― Eugene Cho, No Longer Strangers: Transforming Evangelism with Immigrant Communities

“Churches are presented with the opportunity to be “home away from home.” We are provided an opportunity to embody and witness to the love of Christ. Not in what we say but in how we live”
― Eugene Cho, No Longer Strangers: Transforming Evangelism with Immigrant Communities

“people want a community to belong to before they want something to believe in.”
― Eugene Cho, No Longer Strangers: Transforming Evangelism with Immigrant Communities

“To truly enter this stage of solidarity in our relationships, we as the church need to be engaging our brothers and sisters with questions: What issues most impact you? What do you need? How can we stand with you? What can we celebrate with you? These are questions we should be asking consistently, both as a church community and as individuals.”
― Eugene Cho, No Longer Strangers: Transforming Evangelism with Immigrant Communities

“Immigrants, particularly the most vulnerable, are looking for people who will stand with them—not for them. They are inviting us to come and stand alongside them.”
― Eugene Cho, No Longer Strangers: Transforming Evangelism with Immigrant Communities

“Welcome isn’t just a word we speak but a way we live.”
― Eugene Cho, No Longer Strangers: Transforming Evangelism with Immigrant Communities

“Though we may begin with hospitality, where we are saying “we welcome you,” Scripture calls us to journey from that place, through a place of solidarity (“we stand with you”), and ultimately to mutuality (“we need you”), where we comprehend just how deeply the global community of Jesus followers need each other in order to be the people of God we are called by Scripture to be.”
― Eugene Cho, No Longer Strangers: Transforming Evangelism with Immigrant Communities

“prioritize relationships over “problem solving.”
― Eugene Cho, No Longer Strangers: Transforming Evangelism with Immigrant Communities

“To love our neighbors as ourselves is the natural outcome of our love toward God.”
― Eugene Cho, No Longer Strangers: Transforming Evangelism with Immigrant Communities

“We are all more alike than we like to think we’re all different. We find ourselves in days where it’s too often considered a radical, dangerous act to simply see our shared humanity. But in actual fact, maybe it’s far more dangerous when we can’t see that. What if we leaned in and listened to voices and stories and sat with the hope that we are family not because we have the same nationality—but because we bear the image of the same God. What if we were a society that wasn’t so profoundly image conscious but was more profoundly conscious of the image of God in each other? What if we were less devoted to projecting a certain image and were more devoted to protecting the image of God in each other? What if we took time to honestly ask ourselves: Why in the world are we all born where we are born? Where we live has to mean more than getting something—it has to mean that to those who have been given much, much will be required. It has to mean that those who have privilege can’t live indifferently but are meant to live differently so others can simply live. It has to mean that we are living meaningful lives only if we are helping others get to live meaningful lives.”
― Eugene Cho, No Longer Strangers: Transforming Evangelism with Immigrant Communities

“Where you’re from should never determine how anyone’s going to treat you. Regardless of citizenship, everyone, by God, has earned the dignity of personhood.”
― Eugene Cho, No Longer Strangers: Transforming Evangelism with Immigrant Communities