BUCKETS: Quotes

On unequal distribution:

'...the top 1 percent have as much loot as the bottom 50 percent— and where the richest eighty-five people have as much as the bottom three and a half billion.

That same brutal principle of unequal distribution applies outside the financial domain— indeed, anywhere that creative production is required. The majority of scientific papers are published by a very small group of scientists. A tiny proportion of musicians produces almost all the recorded commercial music. Just a handful of authors sell all the books. A million and a half separately titled books (!) sell each year in the US. However, only five hundred of these sell more than a hundred thousand copies. 12 Similarly, just four classical composers (Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, and Tchaikovsky) wrote almost all the music played by modern orchestras. Bach, for his part, composed so prolifically that it would take decades of work merely to hand-copy his scores, yet only a small fraction of this prodigious output is commonly performed. The same thing applies to the output of the other three members of this group of hyper-dominant composers: only a small fraction of their work is still widely played. Thus, a small fraction of the music composed by a small fraction of all the classical composers who have ever composed makes up almost all the classical music that the world knows and loves. This principle is sometimes known as Price’s law, after Derek J. de Solla Price, 13 the researcher who discovered its application in science in 1963.

It also applies to the population of cities (a very small number have almost all the people), the mass of heavenly bodies (a very small number hoard all the matter), and the frequency of words in a language (90 percent of communication occurs using just 500 words), among many other things. Sometimes

Peterson, Jordan B.. 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos (p. 9). Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition. 

On modern problems:

Tyler Durden from Fight Club: We are the middle children of history - no purpose or place. We have no great war, no great depression. Our great war is a spiritual war. Our great depression is our lives. We've all be raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires and movie gods and rock stars. But we won't. We're slowly learning that fact. And we're very very pissed off.'

Michael Stipe - R.E.M.: We are floundering more - culturally, politically, spiritually - than I can imagine anyone has been in several centuries. It's hard to imagine that so many people are confused about who they are, what their dreams, hopes, and aspirations and desires are - and who's pulling the strings.'

Historian Arnold Toynbee: of the 21 greatest civilisations that have existed on the planet, the modern West is the first that does not have or teach its citizens any answer to the question of why they exist.

On Jesus' influence:

Inscription at the entrance to the Rockefeller Center, NYV: Man's ultimate destiny depends not on whether he can learn new lessons or make new discoveries and conquests but on the acceptance of the lesson taught him close upon two thousand years ago.

Napoleon Bonaparte: I know me and I tell you that Jesus Christ is no mere man. Between him and every other person in the world there is no possible comparison. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I have founded empires. But on what did we rest the creation of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded his empire upon love; and at this hour millions of men would die for him.

Newsweek magazine ran a cover story: '2000 years of Jesus: Holy Wars and Helping Hands - how Christianity shaped the modern world.' and said: By any secular standard, Jesus is also the dominant figure of Western culture. Like the millennium itself, much of what we now think of as Western ideas, inventions, and values finds its source or inspiration in the religion that worships God in his name. art and science, the self and society, politics and economics, marriage and the family, right and wrong, body and soul - all have been touched and often radically transformed by the Christian influence.'

H.G. Wells: I am an historian, I not a believer, but I must confess as a historian that this penniless preacher from Nazareth is irrevocably the very centre of history. Jesus Christ is easily the most dominant figure in all history.

On religion and grace:

Christianity is the unreligion. It turns all our religious instincts on their heads… The ancient Greeks told us to be moderate by knowing our inclinations. The Romans told us to be strong by ordering our lives. Buddhism tells us to be disillusioned by annihilating our consciousness. Hinduism tells us to be absorbed by merging our souls. Islam tells us to be submissive by subjecting our wills. Agnosticism tells us to be at peace by ignoring our doubts. Moralism tells us to be good by discharging our obligations. Only the gospel tells us to be free by acknowledging our failure. Christianity is the unreligion because it is the one faith whose founder tells us to bring not our doing, but our need.” (Dane Ortlund, Defiant Grace, EP Books, 2011, p. 38; 

On Doubt:

Tim Keller in 'Counterfeit Gods' says : doubt isn't wrong but resting in its shallows can be.

"A little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion." - Sir Francis Bacon

Mark Lilla, professor at Chicago University. Upon hearing a man say he wanted to become a Christian found himself trying to stop him and then realised:

I thought I was out of that business, but maybe not. It took years to acquire the education I missed as a young man, an education not only in books, (and here, Lilla is so self-knowing) but in a certain comportment toward myself and the world around me. Doubt, like faith, has to be learned. It’s a skill. But the curious thing about skepticism is that its adherents, ancient and modern, have so often been proselytizers. Why do they care? Skepticism offers no good answer to that question…and I don’t have one myself.

On Christianity:

Christianity is a religion of the heart -- Jonathan Edwards

On Loving God:

So much as we see of the love of God, so much shall we delight in him, and no more       -- John Owen

 On God as Father:

Martin Luther is once alleged to have said: 'I have difficulty praying the Lord's Prayer because when I do I think of my own Father who was hard, unyielding and relentless. I cannot help but think of God that way.'

If you should ask me to state in one phrase what I regard as the greatest defect in most Christian lives I would say that it is our failure to know God as our Father as we should know him. -- Martin Lloyd Jones

On Worship in difficulty:

Is there nothing to sing about today? Then borrow a song from tomorrow, sing of what is yet to be. -- Charles Spurgeon

On Control:

Many welcome spontaneous zeal as long as there is not too much of it. We pray for the wind of the Spirit but not for a mighty rushing wind. I believe in a rushing wind and pray or its presence at all costs to our restrictions. -- Rolland Allen

 On Revival:

Lord send us revival without defects but if this is not possible send revival defects and all. Careful people will assess the fruit of manifestations. Wise people will rejoice at what can be rejoiced in but will be slow to put all the phenomena down to God. It seems we are going to have to live in the tension of rejoicing with caution. -- John Wesley 

On the manifestation of the Spirit:

On Saturday George Whitfield and I discussed outward signs which has so often accompanied the inward work of God. I found his objections were chiefly grounded on gross misrepresentations he had heard concerning these facts. The next day he had the opportunity of informing himself better, for no sooner had he begun to invite sinners to believe in Christ than four persons collapsed close to him. One of the them lay without either sense or motion. A second shook exceedingly. Te third had strong convulsions over his entire body but made no noise other than groans. The fourth convulsed equally and called upon God with strong cries and tears. From this time I trust we shall all allow God to carry on his work in the way that pleases him. -- John Wesley (from his diary)

On Loving yourself:

Jesus said that we are to love our neighbour as we love ourselves. If we don't love ourselves, God help our neighbour. -- Peter Jackson 

On Happiness:

It is a Christian duty to be as happy as he can. -- C.S. Lewis  

God threatens terrible things if we will not be happy. -- Jeremy Taylor 

My first duty in the morning is to get happy in God -- George Mueller 

On spiritual gifts:

Spiritual gifts are for using, not collecting. -- Andrew Wilson 

From Atheists on Christianity:

Egalitarian universalism, from which sprang the ideas of freedom and social solidarity, of an autonomous conduct of life and emancipation, of the individual morality of conscience, human rights and democracy, is the direct heir of the Judaic ethic of justice and the Christian ethic of love. This legacy, substantially unchanged, has been the object of continual critical appropriation and reinterpretation. To this day, there is no alternative to it. And in light of the current challenges of a postnational constellation, we continue to draw on the substance of this heritage. Everything else is just idle postmodern talk           --Jurgen Habernas  

On Leadership:

specifically on the Queen becoming the longest serving monarch. A times editorial wrote: Succesful kingship relies not upon intellectual brilliance or superlative talent of any kind, but upon the moral qualities of steadiness, staying power and self-sacrifice.

On Atheism:

The New atheists act like 'intellectual colonialists' says James Smith in 'How to be secular'

On Irresisitble Grace:

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/adrianwarnock/2007/08/unstoppable-saviour-irresistable-grace/

On Friendship:

I came across an enriching definition of friendship while reading this week from Sacred Unions, Sacred Passions, by Dan Brennan:

A friend is one whose presence is joy, ever-deepening relationship and love, ever available in direct address, in communion and presence. A friend is one who remains fundamentally a mystery, inexhaustible, never fully known, always surprising. Yet a friend is familiar, comforting at home. A friend is one who urges human freedom and autonomy in decision, yet one who is present in the community of interdependence. ---Anne E Carr

On Humanity:

Edward Wilson, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and author of The Origins of Creativity: “The real problem of humanity is the following: we have Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions, and god-like technology.”

Matthew 6: Secrets of Christian Living, sermon research

For God, not men: What matters is motive.

Two ways of living, as an orphan or as a son/daughter. Orphans are parent-less. Alone they live in search of praise and affirmation from others. Sons live differently however. 

Simon Holley:

story about the Father's love:

On one occasions I was visiting a church and noticed as I walked into the meeting an older gentleman and a boy of about 13. The boy had very severe cerebral palsy. He was sitting in a wheelchair with a head restraint and clearly had no real ability to control his limbs or even to hold his head up. I smiled at the gentleman as I sat down. I later found out tha he was the boy’s grandfather. We stood to sing and I forgot about those around me as I began to worship God. About halfway through I sat down and as I did so I noticed that the man had lifted the boy onto his lap and was cradling him in his arms, with the boy’s head on his shoulder. He was looking right into the boy’s eyes, his face only inches away. As he held him, rocking backwards and forwards, I could clearly hear what he was saying. Over and over he was telling the boy. ‘God loves you and I love you. You’re a really special boy. god loves you and I love you. You’re a really special boy.’ The boy could do nothing, not even stop the dribble running down his chin. As I watched this scene I was overcome with emotion and began to weep. I saw in an instant a picture of the unconditional love of God. I really could do nothing for him or anything of any account for myself. Yet he loved me. 

Raniero Cantalamessa: The love of God is the answer to all the whs in the Bible: the why of Creation, the why of the Incarnation, the why of Redemption… If the written word of the Bible could be changed into a spoken word and become one single voice, this voice, more powerful than the roaring of the sea, would cry out: The Father loves you!"

Nicky Gumbel:

Story of a successful sailor being lost at sea due to the weight on his keel coming off and the weight distribution being ‘wrong’ and the boat being unable to right itself after being capsized. ‘In this section of the SM Jesus examines the part of our Christian life that is below the waterline. The same principle is true. There must be more weight below the waterline than there is above it. The ‘below the waterline’ bit is the parts of our C life that no one else can see.

Don’t be like: the actors or the orphans/hypocrites and pagans

When you give… 

Jews would give in two ways 1) tithe (law commands) 2) alms which was beyond the law.

Martin Luther: three conversions take place ‘the mind, the heart and the wallet.’ 

C.S. Lewis: there are appropriate and inappropriate rewards. Money is an inappropriate reward for love. It is wrong to marry for money but it is not wrong to desire marriage as the reward for love. a general who fights for fame fights for the wrong motive, but one who fights for victory fights for the right one. Being rewarded by God then is the appropriate reward to be desired in our giving/praying and fasting.

Steven Covey: author of 7 habits of highly effective people said ‘the key is not to prioritise our schedule but to schedule our priorities. 

C.S. Lewis: the moment your wake up each morning all your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists simply in shoving them all back, in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger, quieter life come rushing in.

The rewards of prayer include: experiencing the joy of God’s presence & receiving God’s peace.

Jesus on prayer: 

• keep it real. 
• keep it quiet
• keep it simple

Tom Wright:

At its lowest prayer is shouting into the void on the off chance there may be someone out there listening. At its highest, prayer merges into love, as the presence of God becomes so real that we pass beyond words and into a sense of his reality, generosity, delight and grace.

Leon Morris:

v14: it is not that the act of forgiving merits eternal reward, but rather it is evidence that the grace of God is at work in the forgiving person and that that same grace will bring him forgiveness in due course. 

Mounce:

v14: this is not a quid pro quo arrangement where God assess our relations and withholds forgiveness until we have forgiven everyone who wronged us but rather… that forgiving others follows on naturally having been forgiven by God.