Let love be your greatest aim.

1 Corinthians 14:1

Christianity 2 - Christianity 3
Christianity 4

Note:  Our pages on Christianity are not at all intended to try to convert
anyone to the religion; rather, they're presented with the intent of giving
people food for thought about the religion, its purposes, and the people
who follow it and who call themselves Christians.

   

Christianity is different from all other religions.  They are the story of humanity's search for God.  The Gospel is the story of God's search for humans.

Dewi Morgan

      

I once read in a Bible commentary that the word "Christian" means "little Christs." What an honor to share Christ's name!  We can be bold to call ourselves Christians and bear the stamp of his character and reputation.  When people find out the you are a Christian, they should already have an idea of who you are and what
you are like simply because you bear such a precious name.

Joni Eareckson Tada

  

As soon as we lay ourselves entirely at His feet, we have enough light given to us to guide our own steps.  We are like the foot soldiers, who hear nothing of the councils that determine the course of the great battle they are in, but hear plainly enough the word of command that they must themselves obey.

George Eliot

   

In its essence the Gospel is a call to make the experiment of comradeship, the experiment of fellowship, the experiment of trusting the heart of things, throwing self-care to the winds, in the sure and certain faith that you will not be deserted, forsaken nor betrayed, and that your ultimate interests are perfectly secure in the hands of the Great Companion.  This insight is the center, the kernel, the growing point of the Christian religion, which, when we have it, all else is secure, and when we have it not, all else is precarious.

L.P. Jacks

  

An immortal soul, from its very nature, cannot find what it needs
anywhere except in God Himself.  True religion begins in the heart.
It is not a mere set of rules to be obeyed--an example to be
copied.  It is Christ coming into the heart and dwelling there.

James R. Miller

   

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Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves
with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.  Bear with each
other and forgive whatever grievances you have against one another.  Forgive
as the Lord forgave you.  And over all these virtues, put on love, which
binds them all together in perfect unity.

The Apostle Paul
in Colossians 3:12-14

  

The heart of the Christian Gospel is precisely that God is the all
holy One; the all powerful One is also the One full of mercy and
compassion.  He is not a neutral God inhabiting some inaccessible
Mount Olympus. He is a God who cares about His children and
cares enormously for the weak, the poor, the naked, the downtrodden,
the despised.  He takes their side not because they are good, since
many of them are demonstrably not so.  He takes their side because
He is that kind of God, and they have no one else to champion them.

Desmond Tutu

    

Christianity knows no truth which is not the
child of love and the parent of duty.

Phillips Brooks

   

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Why not make the following experiment, which will not only be thrillingly
interesting, but will certainly teach you more in one day than you could learn
from books or lectures in many weeks.
   Here is what you have to do:  For one whole day think, speak, and act exactly
as you would if you were absolutely convinced of the truth of the statements
that God has all power and infinite intelligence, and that His nature is
infinite goodness and love.
   To think in this manner all day will be the most difficult thing, because it is
so subtle.  To speak in accordance with these truths will be easier, if you
are vigilant.  To act in accordance with them will be the easiest part,
although it may require much in the way of moral courage.

Emmet Fox
  

True Christians, who have power over their own will, may live nobly and happily
and enjoy a clear heaven within the serenity of their own minds perpetually.
When the sea of this world is roughest and most tempestuous about them,
then they can ride safely at anchor within the haven by a sweet compliance
of their will with God's will.  They can look about themselves, and with an even
and indifferent mind behold the world either to smile or frown upon them.  Also,
they will not abate in the least their contentment for all the ill and unkind usage
they meet with in this life.  They who have mastery over their own will,
feel no violence from without, find no contests within.  When God calls them
out of this state of mortality, they find in themselves a power to lay
down their own lives, and it is not so much taken from them,
as quietly and freely surrendered up by them.

Dr. John Smith

  

We cannot say this or that trouble will not befall, yet we may,
by the help of the Spirit, say, Nothing that does befall
will make me do that which is unworthy of a Christian.

Richard Sibbes

  

Christianity 2 - Christianity 3

Humans need Jesus Christ as a necessity and not as a luxury.  You may
be pleased to have flowers, but you must have bread. . . . Jesus is not a
phenomenon, He is bread:  Christ is not a curiosity, He is water.  As surely
as we cannot live without bread, we cannot live truly without Christ:  If we
know not Christ we are not living, our movement is a mechanical flutter,
our pulse is but the stirring of an animal life.

Joseph Parker

   

Christianity might be a good thing if anyone ever tried it.

George Bernard Shaw

   

This is a cheerful world as I see it from my garden under the shadows
of my vines.  But if I were to ascend some high mountain and look out
over the wide lands, you know very well what I should see:  brigands
on the highways, pirates on the sea, armies fighting, cities burning;
in the amphitheaters men murdered to please applauding crowds;
selfishness and cruelty and misery and despair under all roofs.
It is a bad world, Donatus, an incredibly bad world.  But I have discovered
in the midst of it a quiet and holy people who have learned a great secret.
They have found a joy which is a thousand times better than any pleasure
of our sinful life.  They are despised and persecuted, but they care not.
They are masters of their souls.  They have overcome the world.
These people, Donatus, are the Christians--and I am one of them.

St. Cyprian

   

   
Jesus is God spelling himself out in language
that humans can understand.

S.D. Gordon

  

The Christian does not think God will love us because we are good,
but that God will make us good because He loves us.

C.S. Lewis

  

The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting.
It has been found difficult; and left untried.

G.K. Chesterton
What's Wrong with the World

  

I think the Christian view of the world is especially well suited to laughter.
For the Christian, life is ultimately a comedy, not a tragedy.  I am using
comedy in its highest and oldest sense, as a story with a happy ending.
Christians believe in a happy ending.  Despite the presence of great suffering
and evil in the world, we believe that God is bending the arc of human history
toward redemption.  He is in the process of redeeming his creation.  Evil and
death were defeated at Calvary and--miracle of miracles--all shall be well.
This is a view of life that promotes healthy laughter.
   Laughter is, I think, literally a gift of God.  It may even be part of what it
means to be made in God's image.  We can laugh because God does.
   Healthy laughter is a shared experience of a moment of joy.  It can also
reflect a needed recognition of our own shortcomings, foolishness, and failure.
   It is a common mistake to think that comedy and laughter are not serious.
This is not true at all.  Not only is comedy at the heart of the Christian vision
of reality, but laughter and suffering are often closely linked. . . .
   Healthy laughter accepts, celebrates, heals, and unifies.

Daniel Taylor
Letters to My Children

  

That day, a day of the following summer, Miss White and I knelt in her yard
while she showed me a magnifying glass.  It was a large, strong hand lens.
She lifted my hand and, holding it very still, focused a dab of sunshine on my
palm.  The glowing crescent wobbled, spread, and finally contracted to a
point.  It burned; I was burned; I ripped my hand away and ran home crying.
Miss White called after me, sorry, explaining,
but I didn't look back.
   Even  now I wonder:  if I meet God, will he take and hold my bare hand in
his, and focus his eye on my palm, and kindle
that spot and let me burn?
   But no.  It is I who misunderstood everything and let everybody down.  Miss
White, God, I am sorry I ran from you.  I am still running, running, from that
knowledge, that eye, that love from which there is no refuge.  For you meant
only love, and love, and I felt only fear, and pain.  So once in Israel love came
to us incarnate, stood in the doorway between two worlds, and we were all afraid.

Annie Dillard
Teaching a Stone to Talk

   

  

The Bible is very easy to understand.  But we Christians are a bunch of
scheming swindlers.  We pretend to be unable to understand it because
we know very well that the minute we understand,
we are obliged to act accordingly.

Søren Kierkegaard
Provocations

  

Yes, the long war on Christianity.  I pray that one day we may live in an
America where Christians can worship freely!  In broad daylight!  Openly
wearing the symbols of their religion, perhaps around their necks? And
maybe--dare I dream it?--maybe one day there can be an openly
Christian President.  Or, perhaps, 43 of them.  Consecutively.

Jon Stewart

  

Want to keep Christ in Christmas? Feed the hungry, clothe the naked,
forgive the guilty, welcome the unwanted, care for the ill, love your
enemies, and do unto others as you would have done unto you.

Steve Maraboli
Unapologetically You

  

     

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Yes, life can be mysterious and confusing--but there's much of life that's actually rather dependable and reliable.  Some principles apply to life in so many different contexts that they can truly be called universal--and learning what they are and how to approach them and use them can teach us some of the most important lessons that we've ever learned.
My doctorate is in Teaching and Learning.  I use it a lot when I teach at school, but I also do my best to apply what I've learned to the life I'm living, and to observe how others live their lives.  What makes them happy or unhappy, stressed or peaceful, selfish or generous, compassionate or arrogant?  In this book, I've done my best to pass on to you what I've learned from people in my life, writers whose works I've read, and stories that I've heard.  Perhaps these principles can be a positive part of your life, too!
Universal Principles of Living Life Fully.  Awareness of these principles can explain a lot and take much of the frustration out of the lives we lead.