The Gospel is not presented to mankind as an argument about religious principles. Nor is it offered as a philosophy of life. Christianity is a witness to certain facts — to events that have happened, to hopes that have been fulfilled, to realities that have been experienced, to a Person who has lived and died and been raised from the dead to reign for ever.

…Massey H. Shepherd, Jr. (1913- ), Far and Near

Some people are kind, polite, and sweet-spirited – until you try to sit in their pews.

Coincidence is when God chooses to remain anonymous.

“Dear Father: Bless the person reading this in whatever it is that You know they need.” Amen!

It has pleased God that divine verities should not enter the heart through the understanding, but the understanding through the heart.

…Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)

After a trip to Mexico [in 1984]… I fell ill… The illness was protracted… I suffered a mild depression… When [an episcopal priest] prayed for my recovery, I choked up and wept. The only prayer I knew word for word was the Pater Noster. On that day and in the days after it, I found myself repeating the Lord’s Prayer, again and again, and meaning every word of it. Quite suddenly, when I was awake one night, a light dawned on me, and I realized what had happened… After many years of affirming God’s existence and trying to give adequate reasons for that affirmation, I found myself believing in God.

… Mortimer Adler (1902-2001), quoted in

Philosophers Who Believe, Kelly James Clark, ed. [1993]

Feast of David, Bishop of Menevia, Patron of Wales, c.601

The first article of Christian faith is that man has one and only one true object of worship. There is one Holy God, creator of heaven and earth. He is Lord of all life. To Him we are beholden for our life in all its meaning and its hope. Monotheism for the Christian means that anything else which is put in the place of our loyalty to God is an idol. The worship of national power, or racial prestige, or financial success, or cultural tradition, is a violation of the one truth about life, that all created things come from God. To commit life to the one true God is to refuse to have any other gods at all. Values there are in abundance, interests, plans, programs, loyalties to family and nation. But these are not gods; they do not save us; they are not holy in themselves.

…Daniel Day Williams (1910-1973),Interpreting Theology, 1918-1952 [1953]

May I be patient! It is so difficult to make real what one believes, and to make these trials, as they are intended, real blessings.

…John Henry Newman (1801-1890)

How did Jesus show his authority? Not by making vast claims for himself, though such claims were implicit. His authority seemed to reside in what he was and what he did rather than in what he specifically claimed to be. Especially in Mark’s Gospel there is an elusive quality about his authority, the mystery of the hidden Messiah. His authority was at the same time most deeply hidden and most clearly expressed by his servanthood… The more the Church in its life shows forth the character of the Servant, the more will its teaching bear the marks of the authority of the Servant.

…Anthony T. Hanson (1916-1991), The Church of the Servant [1962]

Many folks want to serve God, but only as advisers