Quotes About Faith

Richard began going to Jehovah's Witnesses meetings on Sapian Street with his friend Eddie. At the meetings, he heard about the treacherous, terrible power of Satan—how if a man wasn't careful, he'd be in the grip of Satan before he knew it, destined to all kinds of pains in hell. Richard often had thoughts of violence fused with sex that were far from Christian. He knew they were diametrically opposed to the teachings of the Church.

Hän uskoi sisimmässään, että mitä hirvittävämpiä ja pahempia hänen hyökkäyksensä olivat, sitä tyytyväisempi saatana olisi ja soisi hänelle tulisen siunauksensa.

Mercedes was not a strong woman. Her bones and limbs seemed too fragile, as if they could break easily if she were pushed or fell. It had taken her months to recover from each birth. She was an extremely sensitive woman, and the brutalities she had observed in life had given her a seriousness beyond her years. She put her faith in God and believed Satan was always there, tempting people with all things bad. One always had to be vigilant against the forces of evil.

Richard didn't know why he had these uncontrollable desires involving bondage and rape, but they were there, and he had no say over their comings and goings (as with his epileptic attacks). He knew they were wrong—were against the Church—but they, to him, were bigger than the Church, bigger than life itself, and not about to go away.

In El Paso, Mercedes, Julian, and the rest of the Ramirez clan went to church and prayed Richard wouldn't be given the death sentence. In her prayers to Mary, Mercedes explained it was a big, Satan-inspired mistake, that her son could not have done the things they said he'd done, that Satan's hand was at work here. She implored Mary to speak to her son and tell him the truth.

All who drink of this treatment recover in a short time, except those whom it does not help, who all die," he wrote. "It is obvious, therefore, that it fails only in incurable cases."5

The true sons of Abraham are not identified biologically, but Christologically.

Martin Luther said, "A Christian is not someone who has no sin or feels no sin; he is someone to whom, because of his faith in Christ, God does not impute his sin.

The Christian worldview is liturgical as well as cerebral; it culminates with an everlasting crescendo of praise.

When a mind is in love with Jesus, this is what it sees: a world full of the wonders he has made.

In the words of the Puritan William Perkins, "The promises made to Abraham are first made to Christ, and then in Christ to all that believe in him."6

Salvation in Christ does not rest on a law that we inevitably break; it rests on a promise that God cannot break.

From start to finish, the whole Christian life is by grace through faith. A new life in Christ commences with faith, continues by faith, and will be completed by faith.

A Christian view of art thus stands in opposition to the postmodern assumption that there are no absolutes.

the Christian life requires a continual turning away from sin. But it also requires constant faith, for the Christian daily looks to Christ for loving care. The penitent believer never stops trusting in the saving power of the crucified and risen Saviour.

Yet even Christians who are dismissive of art continue to use it. Doing so is inescapable. Every time we build a sanctuary, arrange furniture in a room, or produce a brochure, we are making artistic decisions. Even if we are not artists in our primary vocation, there is an inescapably artistic aspect to our daily experience.

God is not intimidated by such hard and testing questions, nor is he unable to answer them. But we must come with the right kind of skepticism—not the kind that refuses to believe anything at all, but the kind that is committed to believe only what is really true.

Moses was a prophet, but the tabernacle needed an artist.

The composer Igor Stravinsky wisely said, "I take no pride in my artistic talents; they are God-given and I see absolutely no reason to become puffed up over something that one has received."3

The place where we most belong is not our neighborhood, our nation, our company, or even our family, but our church—the city of God—that caring community where we are known and loved, and where we find deeply supportive faith-building relationships.

The call of the new covenant is the same as the old: in loving God, we give him our "all.

When the bottom dropped out of his normally successful world, Job goes into 'free-fall', but when he hits the rock-bottom of reality it turns out to be the everlasting arms of a tough but tender, redemptive God.

This is how foreign grace was to her, that when she heard it she mistook it for heresy. There are some people, I am sorry to say, who wouldn't recognize grace if it stood at their door wearing a name tag.

Many false claims are made about God. They exact a heavy toll on people who believe every utterance from the pulpit must surely be the gospel truth.