“Maybe you're about to reveal your evil scheme and bend me to your will. Just so you know, I don't think it will be very hard to bend me to your will.”
Source: The Cruel Prince
“Don't pressure the bent tree down otherwise it will break, if a tree from it's base wasn't bend, it will be sraight slowly slowly, and a tree which was originally bend will never be straight.”
“Paul was focusing on what was happening in him, not to him. Likewise, we can be sure that when something is happening to us, God is doing something in us--something that will shape us for eternity.”
Source: Fresh Air: Trading Stale Spiritual Obligation for a Life-Altering, Energizing, Experience-It-Everyday Relationship with God
“But by the grace of God I am what I am."
~1 Corinthians 15:10
"Paul was alluding here to his honest response to those who were constantly criticizing, slandering, and defaming him and his character. This was the 'thorn' in his side!!!”
Source: The Journey Is the Destination: A Book of Quotes With Commentaries
“I can do ALL THINGS through Christ who empowers, enriches, equips, enlightens, energizes, recreates, revives, promotes, strengthens, purifies, sponsors, and prepares me! Yes, I can... ALL THINGS, I can!”
“True apostles do not speak to flatter people. True apostles are not self seeking. True apostles do not seek praise from mere men.”
“The topic was eloquence, something Christians had been conflicted about since the first-century church when Paul wrote that in bringing the gospel, he did not come with “eloquence.” A few centuries later, Saint Augustine wrestled with the value of eloquence, associating it with his pagan background and training in Greek rhetoric while simultaneously employing it winsomely in his Christian writings. Such suspicion of beauty and form, whether in art, literature, speech, or human flesh, has shadowed Christian thought throughout the history of the church; sadly so, considering God is the author of all beauty.”
Source: Fierce Convictions: The Extraordinary Life of Hannah More—Poet, Reformer, Abolitionist
“Yet in Paul's letters we can hear something more than his own genius: an echo of female voices, of conversations over the years with the women of the Aegean cloth trade who were his close collaborators. During this long fellowship, the apostle has not only been talking to women: he has been listening.”
Source: Band of Angels: The Forgotten World of Early Christian Women
“Paul's aspiration was to know Jesus Christ in a way that was experiential.”
Source: ONE: Unfolding God's Eternal Purpose from House to House
“Every believer should be an apostle ('one sent forth') since each believer is sent by the Lord Jesus to go and bear fruit. As a sent one, not every believer can preach like Peter to thousands...as in the beginning of Acts. However, every believer can be an apostle in a house, and can teach and experience fellowship as Paul did at the end of Acts. This conclusion opens the door for every believer to continue the writing of the book of Acts of the Apostles by visiting homes and opening their own house to build the assembly. --from ONE: Unfolding God's Eternal Purpose From House To House”