I ran across this while studying for my class tomorrow:
We cannot expect to drift into heaven on a cloud of pious thoughts. —Unknown author, Atonement and the Cross (Adult Teachers Sabbath School Study Guide edition), week of November 2–8, 2008
I think what most strikes me about that quote is how clearly it reminds us that mere belief is not the basis of salvation, but character-transforming faith. “Who am I?” is a much more meaningful question for the Christian than “What do I think?”
From Justin Kim’s Notes on Facebook:
Quote from Physicist Richard Feynman: “There are 10^11 stars in the galaxy. That used to be a huge number. But it’s only a hundred billion. It’s less than the national deficit! We used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we should call them economical numbers.”
Dr. Frank Lauback: “Heaven trembles lest we may prove too small and too late, lest we be bound by our weak habits when God summons us to great deeds…. I’m afraid of some … who have neither fire nor vision … who begin to see why this might be hard, or unprecedented, or premature if not properly surveyed, or too informal, or too big. The put-on-the-brakes type, the go-slow type … can ruin God’s program. O ye of little faith, keep your foot off the brake…. Who ever heard of God holding us back? He weeps over us as He did over Jerusalem. We have nothing to fear; we shall not fall when God is pushing us. I tell you what we need to fear: Fear the way we are now, for we aren’t good enough, hot enough, daring enough, far-visioned enough, for this splendid hour.” Quoted by Robert Pierson in So You Want to be a Leader, p. 11.
Dan Augsburger recently posted a collection of short but inspiring quotes — General Charles Gordon: Selected Thoughts. It is refreshing to read the words of someone who is past the “form” of Christianity, and deals candidly with matters of the heart. Charles Gordon was a British general who lived in the 1800s.
Martin Luther: ”If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point that the world and the devil are at the moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages is where the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battlefield besides is merely flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.”