... decorum. Positions of responsibility were held by seasoned adults, elders, those with titles, and training, and a proven track record of accomplishments. But here Jesus breaks the big ice! God is not interested in our accomplishments. God is not interested or impressed by our multitudes of degrees, or our successes in business, our adherence to traditions, or even our vast encyclopedic knowledge of scripture. God is interested in the humility, love, and most of all faith of our hearts. God is interested in ...
... But please notice, the motivation is the same in both cases. We are to go out into the harvest fields because of our compassion for people. That’s who we are and what we’re about. We’re not a business enterprise. Our motive is not a more impressive bottom line. Our goal is not to enhance our institutional pride. Our aim is not to be the biggest and the best church in town. We are called to go out into the world because there are people outside the walls of this church who are confused, angry, hurting ...
... Pastor named Reuben Youngdahl tells. It is about a young man he met while visiting in Dublin, Ireland one summer. Youngdahl noticed this young man had on the desk in his study a plaque with two words on it. The words were “But God.” Pastor Youngdahl was so impressed by this plaque that he had one made up just like it for his own desk. Visitors to his office would ask him, “What do you mean by those two words— “But God”? He explained that in his hour of deepest need he had learned to say, “But ...
... asked family, friends and fans to donate money to Charity: Water in honor of their birthday. Rachel Beckwith isn’t a celebrity, but she decided to donate her birthday, with a goal of raising $300 for the charity. She raised $220. That’s a really impressive amount of money for a child to raise. Just a few weeks after her ninth birthday, however, Rachel died in a car accident. News media across our country spread the story of this generous child and her tragic death, and strangers began making donations ...
... read this passage and think that Jesus was being insensitive to this mother’s pain. But remember, it may be that Jesus did come on foot to this faraway Gentile town 50 miles from home just to meet this one desperate woman in her need. Even more impressive, he came from the right hand of God to this lonely planet to help us all in our times of desperation. Desperate times call for Jesus. In 2015, Kate Bowler was diagnosed with stage IV cancer in her abdomen. She was a divinity professor at Duke University ...
He who is not impressed by sound advice, lacks faith.
When we, through our educational culture, through the media, through the entertainment culture, give our children the impression that human beings cannot control their passions, we are telling them, in effect, that human beings cannot be trusted with freedom.
I know people that could serve me canned tuna and saltine crackers and have me feel more at home at their table than some people who can cook circles around me. The more you try to impress people, generally the less you do.
A sense is what has the power of receiving into itself the sensible forms of things without the matter, in the way in which a piece of wax takes on the impress of a signet-ring without the iron or gold.
If we divine a discrepancy between a man's words and his character, the whole impression of him becomes broken and painful; he revolts the imagination by his lack of unity, and even the good in him is hardly accepted.
It is easy for Christians to have the false impression that once we have established a relationship with Christ, which we believe sets us right with God, the problems of life will somehow scoot away or they will slowly be removed from our lives.
Beauty must appeal to the senses, must provide us with immediate enjoyment, must impress us or insinuate itself into us without any effort on our part.
The paranoiac is the exact image of the ruler. The only difference is their position in the world. One might even think the paranoiac the more impressive of the two because he is sufficient unto himself and cannot be shaken by failure.
I have never been especially impressed by the heroics of people convinced that they are about to change the world. I am more awed by those who struggle to make one small difference after another.
In the true sense one's native land, with its background of tradition, early impressions, reminiscences and other things dear to one, is not enough to make sensitive human beings feel at home.
It is well known to all experienced minds that our firmest convictions are often dependent on subtle impressions for which words are quite too coarse a medium.