knowledge and wisdom

There are those who desire to acquire knowledge for its own value – and this is a base vanity. But there are others who desire to have it to edify others – and this is charity. And there are others who desire it so that they may be edified – and this is wisdom.
Bernard of Clairvaux, The Song of Solomon

be unconventional, don't always choose "safe"

The path to effectiveness is often unconventional. The conventional approach is often the easy, risk-free, uninspiring path of low impact. It often seems safer, but actually isn’t. Organizations that make a difference are those that “stand for a truly distinctive set of ideas about where [their] industry should be going.” (Mavericks at Work: Why the Most Original Minds in Business Win)

- Matt Perman

dream big and then push hard to get to those dreams. they may fail, but you may also achieve something previously unthinkable, even in failure.

management

It’s not your role to “motivate” and closely supervise people, but to hire people who are self motivated, make sure they know the purpose of their role, make sure they have the knowledge they need, and make sure there are some helpful (but not overbearing) structures and systems that provide a context for the work. And then let them direct themselves.

matt perman

never give up

Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.

Thomas A. Edison

the job of ministers

Ministers are set as guides and teachers, and are represented in Scripture as lights set up in the churches; and in the present state meet their people from time to time in order to instruct and enlighten them, to correct their mistakes, and to be a voice behind them, saying, “This is the way, walk in it” [Is. 30:21]; to evince and confirm the truth by exhibiting the proper evidences of it, and to refute errors and corrupt opinions, to convince the erroneous and establish the doubting.
- Jonathan Edwards, “Farewell Sermon”

the need for preaching

It is authority that the world chiefly needs and the preaching of the hour lacks, an authoritative Gospel in a humble personality.

PT Forsyth, Positive Preaching and the Modern Mind, (1907) p. 136, cited in Stott, Between two Worlds, p. 59

preach with your words too

Unless you preach everywhere you go, there is no use to go anywhere to preach.

- Francis of Assisi

motives

motives are a funny thing. everyone's motives are pure in their own mind.

Laura

insane sports

Mountain climbers are roped together to keep the sane ones from going home.

- quoted in Dave Harvey, Rescuing Ambition,

you always marry the wrong person

Destructive to marriage is the self-fulfilling prophecy that assumes marriage and family are primary institutions of personal fulfillment. The assumption today is that there is someone just right for you to marry and if you look close enough you will find that right person. This fails to appreciate a simple fact: that you always marry the wrong person. We may never know whom we marry, we just think we do. Or, if you do marry the right person, just give it time and they will change. For marriage, being the enormous thing that it is, means that we are not the same person ourselves, even after we have entered into it. That means the primary challenge of marriage is learning how to love and care for the stranger to whom you often find yourself married.
- Stanley Hauerwas

"...scholars are divided on the issue..."

...more and more evangelical churches and institutions are overthrowing their heritage, sometimes on the superficial basis that scholars are divided on the issue. The truth is that scholars are divided on most theological issues, including even the doctrines of God's incarnation in the person of Jesus Christ and the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ that validates him as the Son of God. In other words, giving up a doctrine on the basis that scholars differ in their opinions shows that no doctrine is secure and the more liberal perspective and practice will prevail.

- Watlke, An OT Theology, p. 236

mean christians don't disprove christianity

Take the case of a sour old maid, who is a Christian, but cantankerous. On the other hand, take some pleasant and popular fellow, but who has never been to Church. Who knows how much more cantankerous the old maid might be if she were not a Christian, and how much more likeable the nice fellow might be if he were a Christian? You can't judge Christianity simply by comparing the product in these two people; you would need to know what kind of raw material Christ was working on in both cases.

CS Lewis, God in the Dock

resolving moral conflicts

Unless you have been trained in the areas where the commandments clearly apply, you are really not prepared to deal with a conflict situation. Unless you are trained in the value of truthfulness, unless you are used to telling the truth, and unless veracity is one of your personal characteristics, you will not see the dilemma when protection of innocent life is at stake. If you lie every day for convenience, then it is certainly not going to be a problem to lie for some beneficial purpose. So, it is only people who have been trained in veracity and truthfulness who, when they are faced with this dilemma in an emergency situation, recognize it is a dilemma.

- David Jones, Christian Ethics, Lecture 13

anxiety

Pray, and let God worry.

- Luther

the emperor's new clothes

"... At worst it is simply playing to a sympathetic audience who will always tend to assume that scholarly emperors would never parade naked in public."

Trueman, Wages of Spin, p. 91, criticizing Thiselton's misrepresentation of Warfield

reconciliation

It is a poor reconciliation which is obtained only by agreeing never to speak of the past. (xii)

A generation that was distinguished by its wars is followed by one that is devoted to the arts of peace; and sons may be proud of the deeds of their fathers, and yet not think it a part of loyalty to keep alive their hatreds. (xiii)

- Henry M. Field, introduction to The Life and Letters of General Thomas J. Jackson (Stonewall Jackson)

communion with God, Trinity

The revelation of the Trinity, as opposed to the implied unitarianism of Judaism, can be explained only by the transformation of perspective brought about by Jesus. The Trinity belongs to the inner life of God, and can be known only by those who share in that life. As long as we look at God on the outside, we shall never see beyond his unity; for, as the Cappadocian Fathers and Augustine realized, the external works of the Trinity are undivided. This means that an outside observer will never detect the inner reality of God, and will never enter the communion with him which is promised to us in Christ. Jews may recognize God's existence, and know his law, but without Christ they cannot penetrate the mystery of that divine fellowship which Christians call the Holy Trinity.

- Gerald Bray, The Doctrine of God, pp. 119-120

getting buzzed vs. being drunk

"It is possible to tolerate a little elevation, when a man takes a drink or two too much after working hard and when he is feeling low. This must be called a frolic. But to sit day and night, pouring it in and pouring it out again, is piggish... all food is a matter of freedom, even a modest drink for one's pleasure. If you do not wish to conduct yourself this way, if you are going to go beyond this and be a born pig and guzzle beer and wine, then, if this cannot be stopped by the rulers, you must know that you cannot be saved. For God will not admit such piggish drinkers into the kingdom of heaven [cf. Gal. 5:19-21]... If you are tired and downhearted, take a drink; but this does not mean being a pig and doing nothing but gorging and swilling... You should be moderate and sober; this means that we should not be drunken, though we may be exhilarated."

- Luther, Sermon on Soberness and Moderation, May 18, 1539

on robes

“...no creature looks more stupid than a Dissenting preacher in a gown which is of no manner of use to him. I could laugh till I held my sides when I see our doctors in gowns and bands, puffed out with their silks, and touched up with their little bibs, for they put me so much in mind of our old turkey-cock when his temper is up, and he swells to his biggest. They must be weak folks indeed who want a man to dress like a woman before they can enjoy his sermon, and he who cannot preach without such milliner’s trumpery may be a man among geese, but he is a goose among men.”

- C.H. Spurgeon, John Ploughman's Talk

preaching-only is not good preaching

If you put in too much time in your study on your sermon you put in too little time being out with people as a shepherd and a leader. Ironically, this will make you a poorer preacher. It is only through doing people-work that you become the preacher you need to be–someone who knows sin, how the heart works, what people’s struggles are, and so on. Pastoral care and leadership (along with private prayer) are to a great degree sermon preparation. More accurately, it is preparing the preacher, not just the sermon. Through pastoral care and leadership you grow from being a Bible commentator into a flesh and blood preacher.

- Keller