Uniqueness of Christianity

Christianity with its doctrines of humility, of forgiveness, of love, is incompatible with the State, with its haughtiness, its violence, its punishment, its wars.-Leo Tolstoy 

Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I myself have founded empires, but upon what do these creations of our genius depend?  Upon force.  Jesus alone founded his empire upon love, and to this very day millions would die for him.-Napoleon Bonaparte 

The cross of Christ is the still-point in a turning world.  Everything before leads up to it, everything that follows flows from it.  It is the climax of the story the center-piece of the whole drama-T.S. Elliot 

The essential fact of Christianity is that God thought all men worth the sacrifice of his son.-William Barclay

January 16, 2008January 16, 2008 by ryanmthurman Categories: Art Photography, Christianity, devotion, Jesus, love, Photography, Quotations Leave a comment

Let All Things Their Creator Bless

Praise the Lord, all you nations!
Extol him, all you peoples!
For great is his steadfast love toward us,
and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.
Praise the Lord!—Psalm 117

Let all things their creator bless,
and worship him in humbleness,
O praise him, Alleluia!
Praise God the Father, praise the Son,
and praise the Spirit, Three in One:
O praise him, O praise him,
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!
-from All Creatures of Our God and King-words written by Francis of Assisi (1182-1226)

January 11, 2008January 11, 2008 by ryanmthurman Categories: Art Photography, Christianity, Life, Photography, Psalms, Quotations, Scritpure, songs, spiritual Leave a comment

Jesus Spent Much Time Healing The Sick

He heals the brokenhearted
and binds up their wounds.
He determines the number of the stars
and calls them each by name.
Great is our Lord and mighty in power;
His understanding has no limit.
The Lord sustains the humble
but casts the wicked to the ground.–Psalms 147: 3-6 

Our Lord Jesus spent much time in healing sick people, and in the natural course of events it happened that the last thing He did with His kind hands was to heal a bad cut.  (I wonder how they could have the heart to bind His hands after that.)  In this, as in everything, He left us an example that we should follow in His steps. -Amy Carmichael

January 10, 2008January 10, 2008 by ryanmthurman Categories: Christianity, Encouragement, Healing, Inspiration, Life, love, Missions, People, Photography, Quotations, Scritpure, suffering Leave a comment

By His Wounds We Are Healed

But He was pierced for our transgressions.He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishmentthat brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed.—Isaiah 53:5  

What Thou, my Lord, hast suffered
Was all for sinners’ gain;
Mine, mine was the transgression,
But Yours the deadly pain.
Lo, here I fall, my Savior,
It is I who deserve Your place;
Look on me with Your favor,
Promise to me Your grace.
-from O Sacred Head, Now Wounded, written by Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1153)

January 9, 2008October 13, 2008 by ryanmthurman Categories: Art Photography, Canaan in the Desert, Christianity, Church, Encouragement, Healing, Jesus, Life, love, Photography, Religion, Scritpure, songs, spiritual, suffering, Thoughts Leave a comment

What To Fill Your Minds With

Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.—Philippians 4:8-9

Love is born of an earnest consideration of the object loved—Thomas Aquinas

January 8, 2008January 8, 2008 by ryanmthurman Categories: Christianity, Church, Encouragement, Life, Photography, Quotations, Religion, Scritpure, spiritual, Thoughts, Uncategorized Leave a comment

Write Me Into Your Story

 

Jesus,
They say You walked upon the water once
When you lived as all men do
Please teach me how to walk the way You did
Because I want to walk with You

Jesus,
They say you taught a lame man how to dance
When he had never stood without a crutch
Well, here am I Lord, holding out my withered hands
And I’m just waiting to be touched

Jesus,
Write me into Your story
Whisper it to me
And let me know I’m Yours

Jesus,
They say You spoke and calmed an angry wave
That was tossed across a stormy sea
Please teach me how to listen, how to obey
‘Cause there’s a storm inside of me

 

Jesus,
Write me into Your story
Whisper it to me
And let me know I’m Yours

Jesus,
They drove the cold nails through Your tired hands
And rolled a stone to seal Your grave
Feels like the devil’s rolled a stone onto my heart
Can You roll that stone away?
-(song lyrics from Rich Mullins’ Jesus)

January 7, 2008October 13, 2008 by ryanmthurman Categories: Christianity, Inspiration, Jesus, Photography, Religion, songs, spiritual 3 Comments

Hearing God

Teach me to do your will, for you are my God.
Let your good spirit lead me on a level path—Psalm 143:10 

As Christians we stand in a millennia-long tradition of humans who have been addressed by God.  The ancient Israelites heard the voice of their God speaking to them out of the midst of fire.  A regular place of communion and conversational interchange between the high priest and God was established in the mercy seat over the ark of God.           

The individual with faith among the Israelites also cried out expectantly to be taught by God.  Isaiah, who had first hand experience of conversing with God, described it this way:  “then you shall call, and the Lord will answer you; you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am…The Lord will guide you continually”—Dallas Willard

January 3, 2008 by ryanmthurman Categories: Christianity, Encouragement, Life, People, Photography, prayer, Quotations, spiritual, Thoughts Leave a comment

God Becomes Human Out of Love For Humanity

“God overrules every reproach of untruth, doubt, and uncertainty raised against God’s love by entering as a human being into human life, by taking on and bearing bodily the nature, essence, guilt, and suffering of human beings.  God becomes human out of love for humanity.”  –Dietrich Bonhoeffer 

 

God’s care for humanity was so great that he sent his unique Son among us, so that those who count on him might not lead a futile and failing existence, but have the undying life of God Himself. –John 3:16

January 2, 2008October 13, 2008 by ryanmthurman Categories: Art Photography, Christianity, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Encouragement, Inspiration, John 3:16, Life, love, People, Photography, Quotations Leave a comment

Like A Tree

Blessed is the man
       who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
       or stand in the way of sinners
       or sit in the seat of mockers.  

But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
       and on his law he meditates day and night.  

He is like a tree planted by streams of water,
       which yields its fruit in season
       and whose leaf does not wither.
       Whatever he does prospers. –Psalm 1:1-3      
      

They will be called oaks of righteousness,
       a planting of the LORD
       for the display of his splendor.      

They will rebuild the ancient ruins
       and restore the places long devastated;
       they will renew the ruined cities
       that have been devastated for generations. –Isaiah 61: 3,4

December 31, 2007December 31, 2007 by ryanmthurman Categories: Christianity, God's Beauty, Inspiration, Life, Photography 2 Comments

Christ Holds It All Together

 We look at Jesus and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at Jesus and see God’s original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment. And when it comes to the church, he organizes and holds it together, like a head does a body.  

He was supreme in the beginning and—leading the resurrection parade—he is supreme in the end.  Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the cross. –Colossians 1:18-20 The MSG

Not only do we not know God save through Jesus Christ, but we do not know ourselves save through Jesus Christ.  Apart from Jesus Christ we know not what our life is, nor our death, nor God, nor ourselves. –Blaise Pascal

December 28, 2007December 28, 2007 by ryanmthurman Categories: Art Photography, Christianity, Church, Encouragement, Jesus, Life, Photography, Quotations, spiritual 1 Comment