Quotations from Topical Teachings

Q01
Have you ever had a dream? Not some wild flight of fancy, some cloud-crowned castle in the air, but a dream. A soul possessing, life-directing dream of what you and that wee part of the world which is yours might be if given half a chance. I'm sure you have. As Jefferson once said:
"Everyone should have a dream, and every dream should have a purpose."

But must be the right kind of dream. Daydreams are dangerous--for they conspire to lull us into a narcotic state of self-satisfaction--and that's bad. But dreams are dynamic--for they inspire us to reach for lofty heights of real achievement--and that's good. To daydream is a curse. But to dream? That's a blessing!
From "A Young Man Dreams A Dream"
Dream, Vision,
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Q02
Someone has said the church is just one generation from extinction. Our generation! If this be true, it is because our God is too small. "We have served up half a Christ for tender minds"
and have refined our concept of God into a palatable capsule that shallow people can swallow with ease, until now in the hour of its greatest opportunity the church goes forth to war, a poor,
emaciated, misshapen thing.

Our God is too small. In fact, says C. S. Lewis, "Modern Christians believe in religion without God, Christianity without Christ, Heaven without Hell, a God of love but not of wrath, a church that can bless, but cannot curse." Apparently afraid of antagonizing a sleeping church, far too many of pulpits have meekly mumbles the incredible message: "You must repent--to some degree, and be converted--in a measure, or you'll be damned--to some extent."
From "A Young Man Dreams A Dream"
World Problems, Lost, God's Holiness, Repent, Conversion, Christianity, Churchianity, Confusion, Church,
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Q03
It might be well for us to recall the response of General Omar Bradley to the question: "What's wrong with our age?" Said he, "We have too many men of science and too few men of God. We have grasped the mystery of the atom, and rejected the sermon on the Mount. Man is stumbling blindly through spiritual darkness while toying precariously with the secret of life and death. The world has achieved brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical pygmies. We know more about war than we do about peace, more about hating that we do about loving."
From "A Young Man Dreams A Dream"
World Problems, Lost, Conscience, Christianity, Churchianity, Confusion,
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Q04
William Cary said, "Attempt great things for God and expect great things from God." But, as the Bible says, "Where there is no vision, the people perish"(Prov. 29:18). God is not in the business of doing great things through small people with crippled vision.
From "A Young Man Dreams A Dream"
Vision, Dream, Commitment,
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Q05
As the great Scotsman, Guthrie, put it, "We must be emptied of self before we can be filled with grace. We must be stripped of our rags before we can be clothed with righteousness. We must be wounded before we can be healed, killed before we can be made alive, buried in disgrace before we can be raised in glory. These words, 'sown in corruption that we may be raised in incorruption, born in dishonor that we may be raised in glory, born in weakness that we may be raised in power,' are as true of the soul as of the body. To borrow an illustration from the surgeon's art, a bone that is set wrong must be broken again, in order that it may be set right."
From "A Young Man Dreams A Dream"
Self, Brokenness, Glory, Consecration, Commitment, Obedience, Sacrifice
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Q-06
There is none like Him. Someone has said you can compare every great and good person who has ever lived with another person just as great and just as good until you mention the name of Jesus Christ. Then you discover there is no one in all of history to stand beside Him. No one so great. No one so good. He stands alone.

He is the Sovereign of the Universe.
It is He who made light to shine out of darkness.
It is He who blended time and eternity into one.
It is He who rolled the stars out into space and now holds the course of Heaven in His control.
It is He who is our timeless Lord and Sovereign Savior.
The one above all others, whose we are and whom we serve.

Charles Lamb has said that if all the illustrious men of all the ages were gathered together in one room and Shakespeare were to come into their midst, they would rise to do Him honor. But if Jesus Christ were to come into their august presence, they would all kneel in humble worship before the Son of God.
From "Christianity 3D Style"
Jesus, Deity
****
Q-07
First Mate Bob, host of the popular radio show THE HAVEN OF REST read the following on one of his broadcasts: "What is life? The scientist surrounded by his test tubes and chemical apparatus answers, 'This is life.'

"The artist, standing before his masterpiece, brushes and colors in hand explains, 'This is life.'

"The businessman, three telephones at his elbow, secretaries at his beck and call, intently engrossed with the law of supply and demand looks up from his papers and answers, 'This is life.'

"The athlete, flushed with the glow of victory, smiles for the clicking flashbulbs and pantingly exclaims, 'This is life.'

"The worldling, satiating his soul with the sensual pleasures of sin, chimes in, 'This is life.'

"Which of these is right? The truth of the matter is that none of them are. Life is not made for labor, but labor for life. Life is not made for science, but science for life. Life is not made for service, but service for life. Life is not made for sacrifice, but sacrifice for life."

All of these things, even the highest of them, are but means to one end which is life. And thus, when Paul says,
"For me to live is Christ" (Phil.1:21),
he is supremely right.

Jesus did not say he was a life, but the life. And if we would find the fulfillment of our first great inclination, we must turn to Him. We were made for Him and we cannot rest until we rest in Him.
Like mistletoe, which cannot root or grow except as it clings to a life outside itself, so too, we poor mortals cannot know the full surge about life throbbing in our souls unless we entwine our hearts around
the staff of life,
the tree of life,
the only true source of life, the Christ
who says,
"I am the life."

You see, Christianity is not a system of beliefs about Christ, Christianity is Christ. For Christ offers Himself and not only His teachings for our acceptance. As the Bible says,
"In Him is life, and the life was the light of men" (John 1:4).

Here is the reality for which our hearts are yearning. As someone has said:
"There is no other experience so pivotal, so basic as that experience of knowing Christ. That moment when we are born anew and life begins. Who among us can remember the hour of his entry into this world? Where is there one who can afterwards tell on earth the experiences of his death? But numberless millions of the most thoughtful, the most sober, and most practical of men and women can testify to that holy moment when Christ came into their hearts; they were born anew, and life began. No wonder, then that from the lips of that vast army of the redeemed there comes this swell of praise:
"Our Lord, our life,
our rest, our shield,
our rock, our food, our light.
Each thought of Thee doth
constant yield
unchanging, fresh delight."
From "Inclination of Mortality"
Life
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Q-08
A s my friend Dr. Clarence Cranford points out,
"Jesus is more than teacher. A teacher discusses truth. Jesus reveals it. A teacher presents truth. Jesus is truth. What Albert Einstein teaches about the nature of the Universe is true or false regardless of who teaches it. But you can never separate Jesus from what He taught.

"He did not just talk about life, He is life. He did not just talk about God, He is God. And likewise, He is the truth. Jesus was not only the greatest teacher who ever lived. He, Himself, was the greatest lesson He ever taught."

That is the real significance of the text we hear quoted so often
"You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32).
But that is not all of the quotation. It breaks the sentence right in the middle. What Jesus really said is this:
"If you continue in my word, then you are my disciples indeed (John 8:31); and you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free."
In other words, He was saying, You shall know Me, the truth, and I, the truth, will liberate you.
From "Inclination of Mortality"
Truth, Life
****
Q-08
Now this, of course, is a staggering claim. In one of His sermons Bishop Fulton J. Sheen declares,
"When Jesus said 'I Am The Truth', he was saying something absolutely new in history. For the first time, truth and personality were married. Up until then, and since, men have always said: 'Here is my doctrine. Here is my system. Follow these rules.' But ideals apart from the fabric of personality are mere abstractions. No one can fall in love with a theory. No One can be really moved by a proposition. Truth to be loved and obeyed must be personal and our Lord pointed to Himself as the Truth. Buddha, and all the others, gave systems apart from themselves. But in the person of Jesus Christ, truth and personality are one. There is no truth apart from Him. He is the truth. Therefore, those who say, 'The Golden Rule is the core of His teaching' completely miss the point. It was not what He said. It was not even what He did. For these are nothing apart from who He was and is."
From "Inclination of Mortality"
Truth
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Q-09
If there is room in your heart for doubt, then climb with me to the summit of the Hill of Calvary. Witness with me the only real battle that was ever fought. Fulton Sheen described it thusly:
"I say it was a battle, but it was more than that. It was a war. A war not waged with spitting steel, but with dripping blood. A war not fought with stones, as David warred with Goliath, but with scars. Five hideous wounds on hands and feet and side. A war in which the armor was not shining steel, but sacred flesh. Hanging as it were like a purple rag beneath the darkened sky. A war whose battle cry was not 'Crush and Kill', but 'Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.' A war that was not won by saving a life, but by giving it."

Is Christ the answer to our hunger for love? You tell me! Where else in all the earth is there a love like this?
From "Inclination of Mortality"
Love
****
As James Stewart points out in his book Faith To Proclaim,
"The Kingdom of God has broken through from the realm of the beyond into the realm of the here and now."

This does not mean we need not look for the coming again of our Redeemer and a final consummation.
Nor does it mean we can sit back idly and watch a gradual process take place in which the ethics of Christ finally permeate all nations of the Earth.
What it does mean, however, is that we have tasted
"The powers of the world to come",
as the writer of Hebrews puts it (Heb. 6:5). And thus we have the dynamic that compels us to go into all the world with the message that God is love and light and life.

"Thy Kingdom come" is no idle dream.
It is no romantic fascination with some "never-never land".
It is the deepest affirmation of our purpose of a church.
The point.
The reason.
The moving force behind all of our activity.

"We are not here to play, to dream, to drift.
We have work to do, and loads to lift."
From "A Creed For Our Church"
Kingdom of God, Service
****
"Thy will be done."

To one who is not a Christian, this may smack of blind resignation. The kind of indifference to the injustices of life which cause one to palm off every catastrophe and tragedy as being "God's will."

I say this with resolute firmness:
It is not God's will that we experience suffering and sorrow.
These things are part of life which we, as Christians, cannot avoid. But it is God's will that, when these hours of grief and tragedy come into our lives, we be willing to allow Him to use them for our betterment.

"Thy will be done" does not mean we will make no effort to
correct the social evils of our world.
"Thy will be done" does not mean we will sit idly by without
raising our hands to find an anecdote to humanity's suffering.
"Thy will be done" is not the cry of blind submission; rather,
it is the cry of supreme consecration.

It is the cry of one who believes with all her heart that God has a plan for her life and sees education,
marriage,
service,
and labor
as being part of God's blueprint for her.

It is the assertion of a man who knows he is here to do something and be somebody; that even though he may be obscure and insignificant, as people measure things, he is nonetheless important in the eyes of God.
From "A Creed For Our Church"
Will of God, God's Will, Obedience