"There is good biblical evidence that God not only suffered in Christ, but that God in Christ suffers with his people still. . . . It is wonderful that we may share in Christ's sufferings; it is more wonderful still that he shares in ours."
- John R. W. Stott, The Cross of Christ

"Unless God is on the balance and throws his weight as a counterbalance, we shall sink to the bottom of the scale. If it is not true that God died for us, but only a man died, we are lost. But if God's death and God lie dead in the opposite scale, then his side goes down and we go upward like a light or empty pan. But he could not have sat in the pan unless he became a man like us, so that it could be said: God dead, God's passion, God's blood, God's death."
- Martin Luther, Formula of Concord

"It is a good think to learn early that God and suffering are not opposites but rather one and the same thing and necessarily so; for me, the idea that God himself suffers is far and away the most convincing piece of Christian doctrine."
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison

Suffering

"Fashion is one of the top issues for teen girls and one of the facets of the larger discussion about sexual purity. Teaching girls to look at their attire through God's perspective is one of those places where the rubber meets the road in both parenting and youth ministry."

- Dannah Gresh commenting in her article, "Fashionable and Modest? Absolutely!"

Sexual Purity

"O Jesus! Meek and humble of heart, hear me. From the desire of being esteemed, deliver me, Jesus. From the desire of being loved, deliver me, Jesus. From the desire of being extolled...from the desire of being honored...from the desire of being praised...from the desire of being preferred to others...from the desire of being consulted...from the desire of being approved...from the fear of being humiliated...from the fear of being despised...from the fear of suffering rebukes...from the fear of being calumniated...from the fear of being forgotten...from the fear of being ridiculed....from the fear of being wronged...from the fear of being suspected...."

- from Litany of Humility

Desire and Fear

“The concern, of course, is that a church who weds the spirit of this age will find itself a widow in the next.” - W. R. Inge, former Dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London

Church

"Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me;Christ within me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me;Christ to right of me, Christ to left of me;Christ in my lying, Christ in my sitting, Christ in my rising;Christ in the heart of all who think of me,Christ on the tongue of all who speak of me,Christ in the eye of all who see me,Christ in the ear of all who hear me." - Saint Patrick

Christian Living

"Giving frees us from the familiar territory of our own needs by opening the mind to the unexplained worlds occupied by the needs of others."
- Barbara Bush

"We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give."
- Winston Churchill

"Liberality is not giving largely but giving wisely."
- Thomas Fuller

"People who think they're generous to a fault usually think that's their only fault."
- Sydney J. Harris

"The whole modern scientific organization of charity is a consequence of the failure of simply giving alms."
- William James

"Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook the circumstances of economic injustice which make philanthropy necessary."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"There is a wonderful mythical law of nature that the three things we crave most in life--happiness, freedom and peace of mind--are always attained by giving them to someone else."
- Peyton Conway March

"We'd all like a reputation for generosity, and we'd like to buy it cheap."
- Mignon McMaughlin

"Think of giving not as a duty but as a privilege."
- John D. Rockefeller, Jr.

"The truly beneficent never relapses into a creditor."
- Henry David Thoreau

"Generosity gives assistance rather than advice."
- Vauvenargues

"Money is like manure; it's not worth a thing unless it's spread around encouraging young things to grow."
- Thornton Wilder

Generosity

"Reformations always start with the peasants; they don't start with the elites."
- Rick Warren

Reform

“Every truly great library is a multigenerational library. Books must be able to stand the test of time, demonstrating quality both physically and in terms of content.” - Douglas Phillips

Books

"I look around at people my age and I can see it in their eyes - a kind of bittersweet reflection: 'I didn't live the life that I wanted, and now I've got all this stuff I want to say but nobody want to hear it…. You see billionaires who have everything, yet inside they're still the same lonely, insecure people. You think you've got it all figured out, but then you turn 60 and there's still this little hole inside you. You realize, we're always going to be somewhat half full."
- Sylvester Stallone (NEWSWEEK , December 18, 2006)

Aging

"The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is today."
- Chinese Proverb

"If You are planning for a year, sow rice.
If you are planning for a decade, plant trees.
If you are planning for a lifetime, educate people."
- Chinese Proverb

Vision

"What we've got to do in the music business is destroy the image that has got through…which has [given] God Almighty and Jesus Christ…an image of a weakling. A slightly effeminate image. A sort of Sunday image. A religious image. This is not the case…This is something we're trying in U2 to do something about."
- Bono

Jesus Christ