May 8, 2008

"With some of our leading intellectuals assuring us that we have pulled ourselves up by our bootstraps and we therefore have no need for God, the only thing missing from our lives seems to be the tune of "Forever Young" playing in the cosmic background. A visitor from Outer Space would probably conclude that only the very unlucky ones die, while the rest of us are guaranteed endless thrill rides through space aboard this green planet.

But such a visitor would promptly be treated to the rude awakening that even the most self-assured of human beings are still in transit. While it is possible to sustain a facade of total control within the confines of material comforts, a functional government, and a reasonable distance from the darker side of human suffering, this opportunity is not equally shared around the globe."
- J.M. Njoroge, (www.rzim.org) "The Last Enemy"

April 19, 2008

"It grew harder and harder. Even within these four walls there was too much misery, too much seemingly pointless suffering. Every day something else failed to make sense, something else grew too heavy. 'Will You carry this too, Lord Jesus?'

But as the rest of the world grew stranger, one thing became increasingly clear. And that was the reason the two of us were here. Why others should suffer we were not shown. As for us, from morning until lights-out, whenever we were not in ranks for roll call, our Bible was the center of an ever-widening circle of help and hope. Like waifs clustered around a blazing fire, we gathered about it, holding out our hearts to its warmth and light. The blacker the night around us grew, the brighter and truer and more beautiful burned the word of God. 'Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? . . . Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.' "
- Corrie ten Boom, "The Hiding Place" (p 194-195)

February 15th, 2008

"Often, we ask God why we are compelled into the wilderness. We grumble and complain in our lament, and try to hurry our way into the Promised Land by forcing our own way, or else we seek to return to Egypt to meet our needs in our time and through our own methods. The journey of all Christ's followers is a journey through the wilderness toward the Cross. We cannot escape it, nor can we go around it. And yet, the wilderness, the Cross, and the ultimate resurrection of Jesus all demonstrate that no matter the wilderness we find ourselves in, God will bring us through to life on the other side. We will not be removed from the suffering of the wilderness, but with God's help we can be transformed by it."
- Margaret Manning (www.rzim.org), "Compelled Into the Wilderness"

January 24th, 2007

"It is indelibly hard for us to see how there could be glory in suffering. But it is not hard to see that the death of Christ carries with it the force of something much more. The glory of the suffering Messiah lies in the magnitude of the love he showed on the Cross.
It was this very point that Jesus' disciples missed until his resurrection, and it is a point that many are still missing today. The Messiah's glory was not shown through his power, though it easily could have been, nor was it shown in status or position. But it was shown in his suffering and his love, and this remains a far-reaching hope."
-Stuart McAllister (http://www.rzim.org/) A Slice of Eternity - "Messianic Hope"

"An earthly society in which man is free to choose atheism is better than one in which he is compelled to choose theism."
- Carl F. H. Henry "The Christian Mindset in a Secular Society" (p 59)

"Western humanists, to be sure, champion human rights. They do so even though humanism as a philosophy provides no metaphysical basis adequate to preserve those rights in distinction from other principles that humanism relegates to a socio-cultural by-product of a particular period of history."
- Carl F. H. Henry "The Christian Mindset in a Secular Society" (p 65)