Quotes that caught my attention in my reading the last couple of weeks

Pastor's notes for 28 April 2013 bulletin

Quotes that caught my attention in my reading this week

I thought I would share some of the quotes that caught my attention the last couple of weeks.

Consider that the chief dangers which confront the coming century will be religion without the Holy Ghost, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without God, and heaven without hell.

-           Quote attributed to William Booth (a Methodist minister who founded the Salvation Army(  made at the end of the 19th century.

 I do not tire of telling everyone, especially young people who long for their people's liberation, that I admire their social and political sensitivity, but it saddens me when they waste it by going on ways that are false. Let us, too, all take notice that the great leader of our liberation is the Lord's Anointed One, who comes to announce good news to the poor, to give freedom to the captives, to give news of the missing, to give joy to so many homes in mourning, so that society may be renewed as in the sabbatical years of Israel.

-          Quote attributed by Archbishop Oscar Romero (a Roman Catholic Archbishop of San Salvador who was assassinated on 24 March 1980 for refusing to stop speaking out against government repressions and violations of human rights

Each of us has a mission in life.  Jesus prays to his Father for his followers, saying:  "As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world" (John 17:18).

 We seldom realise fully that we are sent to fulfill God-given tasks.  We act as if we have to choose how, where, and with whom to live.  We act as if we were simply plopped down in creation and have to decide how to entertain ourselves until we die.   But we were sent into the world by God, just as Jesus was.  Once we start living our lives with that conviction, we will soon know what we were sent to do.

-          Henri Nouwen (from “Bread for the Journey”)

How can I persuade a person to live by faith and not by works if I have to juggle my schedule constantly to make everything fit into place?

-          Eugene Peterson (from “The Contemplative Pastor”)