Best 3954 quotes in «church quotes» category

A disciple of Jesus Christ is a visible verbal follower of Jesus Christ at the expense of the ones and things that they hold dear. It's that serious.

A friend of mine commented yesterday that she has experienced similar insights that I talked about that all enlightened Masters and founders of religion are actually talking about the same ocean, the same invisible life source, the same God. She also said that she worked in a Christan environment at the time that she received these insights, and when she tried to share these insights with the Christians she was accused of being "impure" and of being associated with the "Devil". Christians hold on to the idea that Jesus was the only son of God, without realizing that we are all son's and daughter's of God. By holding on to the idea that Jesus is the only son of God, they do not either to realize that all enlightened Masters are talking about the same God. Jesus did not talk about faith, he talked about trust. He talked about discovering a trust in yourself and in relationship to God. Jesus said that the kingdom of God is within you. In Christianity, the church has become the intermediate between man and God, and people who claim that they have found a direct relationship to God are accused of blasphemy. The Christan church has become a barrier between man and God, and anyone who has declared that he has found a direct relationship to God are immediately banned by the church, for example Master Eckhart and Franciskus of Assisi. I have always had a deep love for Jesus, but it is not the picture of Jesus that the Christian church presents. I was a disciple of Jesus in a former life, and was thrown to the lions in Colosseum in Rome as one of the early Christians. Jesus had many more disciples than the twelve disciples mentioned in The Bible. In this life, I resigned my automatic membership in the church as soon as I could think for myself when I was 15 years old. I was also disgusted with an organization that said that they preached love and which has murdered more people than Hitler. My experience with these rare and precious insights are that they expand our consciousness of reality. They are gradual initiations into reality. They may fade away, but we will never be the same again after receiving them. They will also come more and more, the more committment we have to our spiritual growth.

Against all odds, when the 'no' out-weighs the 'yes' faith become the only bridge to your answer

A good wife behaves like a disciple unto her husband

A holiness that is never seen by others is not a genuine holiness. A holiness that is only tacked up like a false front is not a genuine holiness, either.

A holy life is not a life empty of sin, but a life full of God's presence.

All Christians are in ministry. Sometimes, they're in church work.

All believers have been called into only one fellowship, which is that of Jesus Christ. Believers may mistakenly consider the group they associate with is one fellowship, and every other group has its own separate fellowship. The truth is, all believers belong to only one fellowship...Since all believers are in the one body of Christ, there should be no divisions in Christ.

All churches are an echo of this—the Cathedral of Nature.

All of Christ’s philosophical ideas can be compressed into one simple phrase – Love thy neighbor.

All sorts of darkness and evil are now hiding themselves under the umbrella of religion, Christianity, church etc.

Almost All Christians want to taste the fruits of revival but only a few will do what's necessary to achieve it.

A ministry gives us the opportunity to establish roots

A man cannot really be called (sexually) confident if he has never bought his woman a vibrator.

America and Western Europe are on a moneymaking, pleasure-mad spree unparalleled in the history of the world. God is generally ignored or ridiculed. Church members in many cases are only halfhearted Christians. Judgment is coming.

A missionary church cannot rely on the professional ministry for the primary work of mission. The role of the laity is critical because it is the lay members of the church who have the greatest contact with those who are outside of the normal structures of church life. In such a situation the task of clergy is not so much to engage in mission themselves, as to support the laity in their mission.

An agnostic is a creature that is religiously skeptical whenever it is told that God exists … or that He doesn’t.

Americans tend to use "nation" as a synonym for "country." But political scientists and historians, as well as many Europeans, tend to use the term for a much more specific phenomenon: a group of people who feel they belong together, whether they have a country of their own or not.

An altar is like an airport where spirits take off and land

And in the Incarnation the whole human race recovers the dignity of the image of God. Henceforth, any attack even on the least of men is an attack on Christ, who took the form of man, and in his own Person restored the image of God in all that bears a human form. Through fellowship and communion with the incarnate Lord, we recover our true humanity, and at the same time we are delivered from that individualism which is the consequence of sin, and retrieve our solidarity with the whole human race. By being partakers of Christ incarnate, we are partakers in the whole humanity which he bore. We now know that we have been taken up and borne in the humanity of Jesus, and therefore that new nature we now enjoy means that we too must bear the sins and sorrows of others. The incarnate Lord makes his followers the brothers of all mankind.

An entire nation shook under the power of one man’s [MLK’s] dream! Now if one dream can do that for our nation, imagine what a dream can do for the Church.

And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.

An expensive car is material in nature, but driving it does not necessarily make us materialist, just as sitting in a church does not make us spiritual.

An idle mind was a recipe for disaster. Bathsheba wasn’t just teetering on the edge; I knew she was going to be diving right into a pool of tragedy.

An historic institution, which never went right, is really quite much of a miracle as an institution that cannot go wrong.

An institution theoretically devoted to providing comfort to those in need (the church) is in trouble because it has embraced the same pressure cooker we find everywhere else.

Any church that is overly emphasizing the role of miracles is encouraging his members to be indolent.

Another purpose for speaking in tongues is the edification of the church.

Anybody body can be a Church goer, but there is a difference of "GOD" being in them then they being in the WORLD.

Any church that emphasizes on miracles is simply telling His members that they don’t need to qualify but depend on the supernatural power.

Any church that over emphasises miracles is encouraging laziness.

Any church that operates in prayerless and powerless Christianity spend their days and years conducting dust to dust rites in the burial grounds.

A pastor without anointing is just a religious professor

As a leader it is your job to protect the missional integrity of the Jesus gathering to which you have been called. It is your responsibility to see to it that the church under your care continues as a gathering of people in process; a place where the curious,the unconvinced, the sceptical, the used-to-believe and the broken, as well as the committed, informed and sold-out come together around Peter's declaration that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.

A person's faith goes at its own pace. The trouble with church is the service. A service is conducted for a mass audience. Just when I start to like the hymn, everyone plops down to pray. Just when I start to hear the prayer, everyone pops up to sing. And what does the stupid sermon have to do with God? Who knows what God thinks of current events? Who cares?

A powerful church is capable of transforming our world to God’s kingdom standard

As Christians we are called to make disciples of all the nations, meeting them where they are and serving them in ways that are relevant and meaningful. That is the challenge: as the church, to remain relevant and meaningful, in efforts to reach all people where they are in a way they need.

A piece of paper doesn't make you a pastor any more than making predictions makes you a prophet.

A preacher shouldn't preach just to make you feel good. Then it's about the money not about the teach. He should preach the truth because the truth shall set you free.

Are we letting the world influence the church more than the church is affecting those in the world?

As enjoyable as it could be to spend a couple of hours on Sunday morning with people who were at their best, it was also possible to see the strain in some of the smiles, the effort it took to present the most positive, most faithful version of the self.

As far as not seeing your fruit is concerned, you know many people have this idea that things need to happen when you think they should and if they don't you get this idea that God isn't in it. The fruit you've seen isn't bad fruit. It's just green. It's not ready. I've heard you humans complain time and time again about God telling you to do something and then the frustration begins to set in. You are so busy checking your fruit every two days that you don't realize it's just not ripe yet.

As the shape of Christianity changes and our churches adapt to a new world, we have a choice: we can drive our hearses around bemoaning every augur of death, or we can trust that the same God who raised Jesus from the dead is busy making something new. As long as Christians are breaking the bread, and pouring the wine, as long as we are healing the sick and baptizing sinners, as long as we are preaching the Word and paying attention, the church lives, and Jesus said even the gates of hell cannot prevail against it. We might as well trust him, since he knows a thing or two about the way out of the grave.

As religious leaders, we are called to be true "people of dialogue," to cooperate in building peace not as intermediaries but as authentic mediators. Intermediaries seek to give everyone a discount ultimately in order to gain something for themselves. However, the mediator is one who retains nothing for himself but rather spends himself generously until he is consumed, knowing that the only gain is peace. Each one of us is called to be an artisan of peace, by uniting and not dividing, by extinguishing hatred and not holding on to it, by opening paths to dialogue and not by constructing new walls! Let us dialogue and meet one another in order to establish a culture of dialogue in the world, a culture of encounter.

As long as the focus is on God the style of the music is irrelevant.

As we open up our church meetings to God's power, they will not always follow a predetermined schedule or order. Who can outline what God might have in mind?

A sunset is God's way of saying He loves you. A good grade on a test is God's way of saying He loves you. Throughout any given day, God makes it so that you are comforted, secure and loved.

As you are now, so I once was As I am now, so will you be

A true dreamer is one who knows how to navigate in the dark”.

At its root, the logic is that of the Grand Inquisitor, who bitterly assailed Christ for offering people freedom and thus condemning them to misery. The Church must correct the evil work of Christ by offering the miserable mass of humanity the gift they most desire and need: absolute submission. It must “vanquish freedom” so as “to make men happy” and provide the total “community of worship” that they avidly seek. In the modern secular age, this means worship of the state religion, which in the Western democracies incorporates the doctrine of submission to the masters of the system of public subsidy, private profit, called free enterprise. The people must be kept in ignorance, reduced to jingoist incantations, for their own good. And like the Grand Inquisitor, who employs the forces of miracle, mystery, and authority “to conquer and hold captive for ever the conscience of these impotent rebels for their happiness” and to deny them the freedom of choice they so fear and despise, so the “cool observers” must create the “necessary illusions” and “emotionally potent oversimplifications” that keep the ignorant and stupid masses disciplined and content.