REFLECTION QUOTES

“No one is more hated than he who speaks the truth.”

~Plato (~424-348 BC), Athenian philosopher

“Mao thought he could eliminate religion. He thought he had accomplished this. It’s ironic – they didn’t. They actually failed completely.”

~Yang Fenggang, professor of sociology, on the rise of Christianity in China

“There are certain foundations against which the gates of hell cannot prevail, which time cannot shake, and which eternity will only confirm. If we venture to speak of these foundations being removed, it can only be in hypothetical terms, and with the word ‘if,’ for there must always be in our souls the conviction that the foundations of God stand sure.”

~Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892), famed London preacher

“In the ancient church it was not unusual to memorize the [entire Psalter]…. In one of the eastern churches this was a prerequisite for the pastoral office. The church father St. Jerome says that one heard the Psalms being sung in the fields and gardens in his time. The Psalter impregnated the life of the early Christianity. Yet more important than all of this is the fact that Jesus died on the cross with words of the Psalter on his lips”

~Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1909-1945), pastor-theologian, martyred by the Nazis

“Fear is strange. It will convince us to guard ourselves from the people that only want to love us. We think we’re keeping ourselves safe by keeping ourselves from love. God didn’t make our hearts to be impenetrable nor has He commanded us to make fear our refuge.”

“Unbelief will unravel our perceptions of both suffering and the blessedness of life and beckon us to skip self-denial at all costs with the faux promises of comfort that can’t extend beyond the grave.”

~Jack Hill Perry, writer and hip-hop artist

SERMON PASSAGE

Psalm 11 (NIV)

1 In the Lord I take refuge.
How then can you say to me:
“Flee like a bird to your mountain.
2 For look, the wicked bend their bows;
they set their arrows against the strings
to shoot from the shadows
at the upright in heart.
3 When the foundations are being destroyed,
what can the righteous do?”

4 The Lord is in his holy temple;
the Lord is on his heavenly throne.
He observes everyone on earth;
his eyes examine them.
5 The Lord examines the righteous,
but the wicked, those who love violence,
he hates with a passion.
6 On the wicked he will rain
fiery coals and burning sulfur;
a scorching wind will be their lot.

7 For the Lord is righteous,
he loves justice;
the upright will see his face.