“When we think of the height of God's infinity we should not despair of His compassion reaching us from such a height; and when we recall the infinite depth of our fall through sin we should not refuse to believe that the virtue which has been killed in us will rise again. For God can accomplish both these things: He can come down and illumine our intellect with spiritual knowledge, and He can raise up the virtue within us and exalt it with Himself through works of righteousness.” ThinkingShouldBelieveHas BeensChristianSpiritualFallSinCompassionVirtueDespairInfiniteDown AndRaisesDepthRefuseAccomplishIntellectHeightReachingOrthodoxRighteousnessInfinityRecallsRaise UpSpiritual Knowledge Author:Maximus the Confessor
“The Psalms offer us a way of joining in a chorus of praise and prayer that has been going on for millennia and across all cultures. Not to try to inhabit them, while continuing to invent non-psalmic 'worship' based on our own feelings of the moment, risks being like a spoiled child who, taken to the summit of Table Mountain with the city and the ocean spread out before him, refuses to gaze at the view because he is playing with his Game Boy” WayTryingChildrenHas BeensMomentsFeelingsCultureGamesPrayerViewsCitiesBoysTakenRiskOffersMountainOceanWorshipPraiseTablesRefuseSpreadContinuingSummitJoiningSpoiledChorusPsalmsSpoiled ChildrenJoining In Author:N. T. Wright
“Many survivors refuse to talk about what they went through but I've never been ashamed to have been in one of those places. The shame is not mine; the church should be ashamed. They say now they're sorry - what they mean is, sorry they were found out.” ShouldMeanHas BeensFoundChurchMinesShameSorryRefuseAshamedSurvivor Author:Mary Norris
“If Willie Nelson had been Rosa Parks, there never would have been a civil rights movement in this country, because he refuses to leave the back of the bus.” IfsHas BeensCountryRightsMovementRefuseCivil RightsParksBusHippieCivil Rights MovementNelsonRosaCivil Right Movement Author:Kinky Friedman
“Settling for what is comfortable is one of the biggest enemies to our enlargement... In every season of life...we need to be committed to enlarging our personal capacity (even when it's not comfortable). We need to refuse to be satisfied with our latest accomplishments, as what we've accomplished is no longer our potential because it has been realized.” NeedsHas BeensEnemyComfortableCapacitySeasonsPersonal GrowthCommittedRefuseSatisfiedSettlingAccomplishmentAccomplishedPotentialSeasons Of LifeEnlargement Author:Christine Caine
“First, what does truth require? It requires us to face the facts as they are, not to involve ourselves in self-deception; to refuse to think merely in slogans. If we are to work for the future of the city, let us deal with the realities as they actually are, not as they might have been, and not as we wish they were.” IfsThinkingFirstsDoeHas BeensSelfFactsRealityMightTruthFacesDiesWishDealsCitiesRefuseDeceptionMight Have BeenSlogansSelf Deception Author:John F. Kennedy