Quotes from Rachel Starr Thomson

When they see beyond the sky, When they know beyond the mind, When they hear the song of the Burning Light; Take these Gifts of My Outstretched Hand, Weave them together. I shall come.

If you get up to fight a battle, you might lose. But if you choose never to fight, the loss is guaranteed.

Do you do this often?" Maggie asked. "Rescue people, I mean." "Is that what we did?" Nicolas asked. He seemed amused. "Can't say we've done much of it before, but after this we might have to make a habit of it. More fun than I've had in a while.

In Scripture, obedience is heavily relational. It's about allegiance and learning to share God's mind. Even the word for obedience comes from a root that indicates "to hear." Only someone who is in relationship with God and is listening to him can obey.

You Have a Gift, and It Is Immensely Valuable

Every person—including you—has been given a gift by God. Every gift is of immense value, no matter how it might compare to someone else's gifts. No one got a cheap or valueless gift from God. Every gift has the capacity to multiply (and is meant to do so). The gifts are essentially "on loan," meant to be stewarded.

Victory requires a fight. But the greatest risk of all is that you won't fight—that you'll allow fear to keep you on the couch, with your talent buried in the ground and all of its multiplying effects dormant and dead.

I long for a ruler. One who will be merciful and just. Who will be good, truly good. Life would be so small if we were all we had. We need something—someone—to make us look up.

It's simply to point out that biblical holiness has no inherent connection to oldness, or tradition, or even particularly to rules. It's an identity, a fundamental self-concept, a core understanding of one's self and one's place in the world: I am not my own; I am set apart for God.

Fear and unbelief are actually correlated: if we allow fear to control our lives, it is a choice not to trust God.

Salvation is not simply a matter of escaping the world after death. It is holistic, and it is now (and also later).

In my life, and in yours, may the graven images crumble before the Great I Am.

The kingdom has come. It is no longer far off, it is no longer future. It is at hand—reachable, touchable, present.