REFLECTION QUOTES

“Everything that is done in this world is done by hope.”

“You have as much laughter as you have faith.”

~Martin Luther (1483-1546), religious reformer

“Reason would never submit unless it judged that there are occasions when it ought to submit. It is right, then, that reason should submit when it judges that it ought to submit.”

“Faith indeed tells what the senses do not tell, but not the contrary of what they see. It is above them and not contrary to them.”

“Submission and use of reason; that is what makes true Christianity.”

~Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), French mathematician and philosopher

“That the Western nations today are in the midst of a crisis of authority is sensed very widely.”

~Glenn Tinder, professor emeritus of Political Science
at the University of Massachusetts, Boston

“The self is an illusion—the sense of being an ego, an ‘I’, a thinker of thoughts in addition to the thoughts, an experiencer in addition to the experience…. There’s not one unitary self that is carried through from one moment to the next unchanging.”

~Sam Harris, neuroscientist and famed atheist

“I don’t respect people who don’t proselytize. I don’t respect that at all. If you believe that there’s a heaven and hell and people could be going to hell or not getting eternal life or whatever, and you think that it’s not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward…. How much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them that?”

~Penn Jillette, famed atheist, illusionist and comedian

SERMON PASSAGE

selections from 1 Peter 1-3

1 Peter 1 (ESV)

13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 2 (NASB)

11 Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul. 12 Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation.

1 Peter 3 (ESV)

13 Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? 14 But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, 15 but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, 16 having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. 17 For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.