Quotes

From Old Paths New Power by Daniel Henderson, Moody Publishers, 2016, page 28

• If my activity is human in origin, it will fail.
• If my activity is from God, nobody will be able to stop it.

From Old Paths New Power by Daniel Henderson, Moody Publishers, 2016, page 28

Based on Acts 5:17-42

³⁸ Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. ³⁹ But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.”

Acts 5:38-39 (NIV)

Joshua opens up our eyes to tensions we all live with, including “living with the real in light of a future ideal.” And those aren’t the same, right?

Be encouraged by what God has promised you, by what he says is your inheritance, even if you can’t fully experience that inheritance yet. There is “land that yet remains” for all of us.

That’s sobering, but it’s a helpful reminder that it takes time to experience all that God has in store for us. 

Paraphrased from Bible Journey, Study 2: History & Poetry, Course 1-Joshua, Lesson 4 Wrap-up

Abraham Lincoln ranks among the top 3 Presidents of the United States, known for his patience and immaculate preparation to push through his agenda.

He once said:

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” ~ Abraham Lincoln

…if a man does not master his circumstances then he is bound to be mastered by them.

p. 18, A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles, ISBN 978-0-14-311043-9

There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.

Ayn Rand

God created humans with royalty, He wanted us to rule this Earth, but the danger is when people think they are the ultimate ruler on this Earth.

Bible Journey, Study 4: The Gospels, Course 2: Life, Ministry and Identity of Jesus, Lesson 1: Nativity & Early Years, Section “In Front | King of Kings & Lord of Lords”

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”

CALVIN COOLIDGE

“The Man In The Arena”
Theodore Roosevelt’s Speech at the Sorbonne
Paris, France
April 23, 1910

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

Excerpt from Theodore Roosevelt’s speech at the Sorbonne in Paris

With accomplishment comes confidence and with confidence come belief. It has to be in that order.

Coach K

Harry Truman once commented on the importance of polls to leadership with the following insight: “I wonder how far Moses would have gone if he’d taken a poll in Egypt? What would Jesus Christ have preached if he’d taken a poll in Israel? Where would the Reformation have gone if Martin Luther had taken a poll? It isn’t the polls or public opinion of the moment that counts. It is right and wrong and leadership—men with fortitude, honesty, and a belief in the right—that makes epochs in the history of the world.”

The church does not need brilliant personalities but faithful servants of Jesus and the brethren.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

1. Look around for “suspicious” behavior, i.e., behavior on the part of a private citizen that can be made to appear suspicious
2. Ruthlessly probe every element of the “suspect’s” life, using the effectively infinite resources of the State, until enough “suspicious” behavior has been amassed
3. Assemble a huge list of charges to place before a grand jury
4. Present the case in such a fashion as to promote the less plausible accusations and obscure the more plausible ones, thus securing a grab-bag indictment
5. Offer the indicted person a plea bargain that will spare him centuries in prison and complete pauperization at the bargain price of a few years and/or a few thousand dollars.

Francis Porretto

“The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”

Frederick Buechner in Wishful Thinking: A Theological ABC

H. Richard Niebuhr once described late-19th-century liberalism in these remarkably succinct words: “A God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Jesus without a cross.”* In recent decades, this distorted and emaciated gospel has also been seeping into the thinking and practice of popular Christendom. Terms like “wrath,” “sin,” “judgment,” and “cross” do not play well in a culture that has come to regard tolerance as more virtuous than truth. Through careful use of “text management,” we selectively focus on biblical images we want to hear and avoid the things in Scripture that seem harsh to our modern ears.

Notice how John the Baptist and our Lord in His early Galilean ministry both proclaimed the same disturbing message: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:2; 4:17). How well do you think these words would go over in the average church today? We would be wise to consider how tightly we have been gripped by the cultural agendas of our times and renew our minds by aligning our thinking with the whole counsel of Scripture.

*From Niebuhr’s book The Kingdom of God in America

When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.

Henry Ford

C.S. Lewis sums up humility when writes, “Humility isn’t thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less.”

People who are simultaneously, persistently, resiliently optimistic and at the same time, absolutely, frank-honest to the core-about reality

From the book Good to Great by Jim Collins

“The longevity of human life prior to the Flood turned out to be a curse that only increased human malevolence and wickedness.” From Handbook to Scripture

Based on information found in Genesis 6, “⁵ The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.” (NIV)

Story always drives the experience.

Walt Disney