“The root of virtue is a mind free from the three poisons of aversion, attachment, and ignorance. The root of merit is the practice of the six perfections (in Sanskrit they are known as the paramitas). They constitute engaged bodhichitta. The first five—generosity, discipline, patience, diligence, and meditation—are the source of merit. When they are embraced by the sixth—transcendent wisdom (prajnaparamita)—they become true paramitas, or perfections. A virtuous mind that practices the paramitas is suffused with supreme joy; and this is the mind of a bodhisattva.”
Source: In the Footsteps of Bodhisattvas: Buddhist Teachings on the Essence of Meditation
“You think everyone you like is special, she said. I'm just a normal person. When you get to like someone, you make them feel like they're different from everyone else. You're doing it with Nick, you did it with me once.”
Source: Conversations with Friends
“If we who self-designate ourselves with terms like "Catholic," "Orthodox," "Protestant," "Evangelical," "Charismatic," "Pentecostal" and others would fully surrender ourselves to The Holy Spirit, we could stop focusing on the secondary words we use to describe the primary experience of The Holy Spirit.”
Source: Beyond Beliefs
“You are not rejecting a person if you reject his words. You get to receive the person with kindness and compassion and treat him as a human being. If someone gets offended and feels rejected just because you rejected his words, then stay away from him, because he has unhealthy heart boundaries that cause him to use prophecy to control or manipulate the people around him.”
Source: Translating God: Hearing God's Voice For Yourself And The World Around You
“Some people are only “believers” because they want God to give them things; a thrill, money, spiritual gifts etc. but they never think twice about what THEY can give to God. They are Christian parasites, always wanting more, rather than Christian servants, who are always willing to give.”
Source: On the Charismatic Movement
“If you won’t allow someone to evaluate what you are saying or give you feedback when you prophesy to him, then you are essentially saying you are more important and have more authority, wisdom, and connection to what you are prophesying about than he does. That is the exact opposite goal of prophecy. Prophecy is supposed to connect people to the world around them and the God who loves them, not place you in the center of the equation.”
Source: Translating God: Hearing God's Voice For Yourself And The World Around You
“Pentecostals also used sarcasm to gouge their enemies. [Charles] Parham led the way, challenging a local Baptist antagonist who routinely tagged his name with Ph.D., D.D., and LL.D. to come by and spend a week at Parham's school. When God was finished with him, Parham promised, he would want to add 'A.S.S.' to the list.”
Source: Heaven Below: Early Pentecostals and American Culture
“While we were finishing our coffee, one of these men stood up and called out the name of a song. Everyone joined in, loud, lusty and wonderful, as I'd heard it before among Pentecostals. By the middle of the second song a woman at the next table was weeping. There was nothing especially emotional about the song itself; it was one of the standard old Gospel hymns, "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross." But crying seems to be as infectious as laughter. Soon some of the men on the platform were unabashedly bringing out their handkerchiefs. What was it that swept a room this way? I felt it too; so did Tib sitting next to me. Both of us were studiously avoiding looking the other one in the eye.
As the music continued, several people at the tables began to sing "in the Spirit." Soon the whole room was singing a complicated harmony-without-score, created spontaneously. It was eerie but extraordinarily beautiful. The song leader was no longer trying to direct the music but let the melodies create themselves: Without prompting, one quarter of the room would suddenly start to sing very loudly while other subsided. Harmonies and counter-harmonies wove in and out of each other.”
Source: They Speak with Other Tongues: A Skeptic Investigates This Life-Changing Gift
“PTL was more Pentecostal than fundamentalist. Pentecostals have a better sense of how a culture feels than how a society works.”
Source: PTL: The Rise and Fall of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker's Evangelical Empire
“Revivals end, but the anointing remains with those who seek and receive it.”
Source: True Stories of the Miracles of Azusa Street and Beyond: Re-live One of The Greastest Outpourings in History that is Breaking Loose Once Again