Paul Lawrence

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"We rightly see that public ministry from the pulpit is crucial, but we often fail to see that interpersonal ministry in conversations is equally so. In fact, the quality of conversations in the church is proof of whether public ministry is succeeding or failing to achieve Christ’s goals."

from "Speaking Truth in Love: Counsel in Community" by David Powlison

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"It were an easy thing to be a Christian, if religion stood only in a few outward works and duties, But to take the soul to task, and to deal roundly with our own hearts, and to let conscience have its full work, and to bring the soul into spiritual subjection unto God, This is not so easy a matter, because the soul out of self-love is loath to enter into itself, lest it should have other thoughts of itself than it would have. Richard Sibbes."

"Speaking Truth in Love: Counsel in Community" by David Powlison

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I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study paintings, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry and porcelain.

John Adams An interesting look at what a parent or even present generation must be willing to sacrifice or prepare for in order that future generations. Dedication, training and an examination of what needs to be learned in this current time so as to best help those who follow.

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Some people must have time to look around them, before, behind, on the right hand, and on the left, and then to think, and after all this to resolve. Others see at one intuitive glance into the past and the future, and judge with precision at once. But remember you can't make thirteen clocks strike precisely alike at the same second.

John Adams *An interesting way of looking at how people arrive at conclusions differently.*

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"There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty."

John Adams

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The first work of slavery is to mar and deface those characteristics of its victims which distinguish *men* from *things* and *person* from *property*. Its first aim is to destroy all sense of high moral and religious responsibility. It reduces man to a mere machine. It cuts him off from his Maker, it hides him from the laws of God, and leaves him to grope  his way from time to eternity in the dark, and under the arbitrary and despotic control of a frail, depraved and sinful fellow man. As the serpent charmer in India is compelled to extract the deadly teeth of his venomous prey before he is able to handle him with impunity, so the slaveholder must strike down the conscience of the slave before he can obtain the entire mastery over his victim. It is, then, the first business of the enslaver of men to blunt, deaden, and destroy the central principle of human responsibility. Conscience is, to the individual soul, and to society, what the law of gravitation is to the universe. It holds society together; it is the basis of all trust and confidence; it is the pillar of all moral rectitude. Without it, suspicion would take the place of trust, vice would be more than a match for virtue; men would prey upon each other, like the wild beasts of the desert; and earth would become a *hell*.

Frederick Douglass - The Nature of Slavery, Extract from a lecture on Slavery, at Rochester, December 1, 1850.

Douglass is speaking on the chattel slavery found in the South at that time, but this may be the most accurate depiction of sin and it's grip on the human race that I have ever read, short of how sin is described in the Bible.

Christian, this is what you are rescued from. To see so explicit of a presentation of sin and it's affects can we so easily stand by and not want to come to the aid of those still caught in it's iron grip?

I think not, if we truly take the moment to reflect on what we were rescued from and how many are still in bondage.

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What I have said respecting and against religion, I mean to strictly apply to the *slaveholding religion* of this land, and with no possible reference to Christianity proper; for, between the Christianity of this land and the Christianity of Christ, I recognize the widest possible difference - so wide, that to receive the one as good, pure and holy is to reject the other as bad, corrupt and wicked. To be a friend of the one is of necessity to be the enemy of the other. I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ: I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land. Indeed, I can see no reason, but the most deceitful one, for calling the religion of this land Christianity. I look upon it as the climax of all misnomers, the boldest of all frauds, and the grossest of all libels.

Frederick Douglass - Appendix to his Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.

in speaking about religion and the difference between the practiced religion of the country and what true Christianity is.

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Convictional leaders propel action precisely because they are driven by deep convictions, and their passion for these convictions is transferred to followers who join in concerted action to do what they know to be right. And they know what is right because they know what is true.

Mohler, Albert (2012-10-26). The Conviction to Lead: 25 Principles for Leadership That Matters (Kindle Locations 295-297). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

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A timely reminder of from a past prophetic moment in the history of the United States of America by that former slave, Frederick Douglas.

Some highlights below, but take 20 minutes and read the entirety of this oratory.

"To side with the right, against the wrong, with the weak against the strong, and with the oppressed against the oppressor! here lies the merit, and the one which, of all others, seems unfashionable in our day. The cause of liberty may be stabbed by the men who glory in the deeds of your fathers"

"They loved their country better than their own private interests; and, though this is not the highest form of human excellence, all will concede that it is a rare virtue, and that when it is exhibited, it ought to command respect. He who will, intelligently, lay down his life for his country, is a man whom it is not in human nature to despise. Your fathers staked their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor, on the cause of their country. In their admiration of liberty, they lost sight of all other interests."

"They were peace men; but they preferred revolution to peaceful submission to bondage. They were quiet men; but they did not shrink from agitating against oppression. They showed forbearance; but that they knew its limits. They believed in order; but not in the order of tyranny. With them, nothing was “settled” that was not right."

"It was fashionable, hundreds of years ago, for the children of Jacob to boast, we have “Abraham to our father,” when they had long lost Abraham’s faith and spirit. That people contented themselves under the shadow of Abraham’s great name, while they repudiated the deeds which made his name great. Need I remind you that a similar thing is being done all over this country to-day? Need I tell you that the Jews are not the only people who built the tombs of the prophets, and garnished the sepulchres of the righteous? Washington could not die till he had broken the chains of his slaves. Yet his monument is built up by the price of human blood, and the traders in the bodies and souls of men shout — “We have Washington to our father.”"

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Source - http://twitter.com/Calvinn_Hobbes/status/615581421713780737

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Without convictions you might be able to manage, but you cannot really lead

Albert Mohler - Conviction to Lead

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all the things that God would have us do are hard for us to do—remember that— and hence, he oftener commands us than endeavors to persuade. And if we obey God, we must disobey ourselves; and it is in this disobeying ourselves, wherein the hardness of obeying God consists.

Herman Melville - Moby Dick

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22 For though your people Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. **Destruction is decreed, overflowing with righteousness.** 23 For the Lord GOD of hosts will make a full end, as decreed, in the midst of all the earth. -

Isaiah 10:22-23

Destruction is terrible but never so terrible as when it is righteously deserved.

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Christian literature, to be accepted and approved by the evangelical leaders of our times, must follow very closely the same train of thought, a kind of “party line” from which it is scarcely safe to depart. A half-century of this in America has made us smug and content. We imitate each other with slavish devotion and our most strenuous efforts are put forth to try to say the same thing that everyone around us is saying—and yet to find an excuse for saying it, some little safe variation on the approved theme or, if no more, at least a new illustration.

The Pursuit of God - A.W. Tozer

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I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world; but still I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God I am what I am

John Newton

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When men commit sin they are the devil's servants; when they plead for it they are the devil's attorneys, and he will give them a fee

The Doctrine of Repentance - Thomas Watson

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1 Corinthians 13 - From a 19th Century Scottish Bible

A chapter I do not remind myself enough of. Had seen this text posted as a picture somewhere in the last year and had copied down the text.

A beautiful and poetic rendering of 1 Corinthians 13, especially if you imagine a good Scottish brogue reading it.

1. Though perfect eloquence adorn’d my sweet persuading tongue, Though I could speak in higher strains ever angel sung; 2. Though prophecy my soul inspir’d, and made all myst’ries plain: Yet, were I void of Christian love, these gifts were all in vain.

3. Nay, though my faith with boundless pow’r ev’n mountains could remove, I still am nothing, if I’m void of charity and love. 4. Although with lib'ral hand I gave my goods the poor to feed, Nay, gave my body to the flames, still fruitless were the deed.

5. Love suffers long; love envies not; but love is ever kind; She never boasteth of herself, nor proudly lifts the mind. 6. Love harbors no suspicious thought, is patient to the bad; Griev’d when she hears of sins and crimes and in the truth is glad.

7. Love no unseemly carriage shows, nor selfishly confin’d; She glows with social tenderness, and feels for all mankind. 8. Love beareth much, much she believes and still she hopes the best; Love meekly suffers many a wrong, though sore with hardship press’d.

9. Love still shall hold an endless reign in earth and heav’n above, When tongues shall cease, and prophets fail, and ev’ry gift but love. 10. Here all our gifts imperfect are; but better days draw nigh, When perfect light shall pour its rays and all those shadows fly.

11. Like children here we speak and think, amus’d with childish toys; But when our pow’rs their manhood reach, we’ll scorn our present joys. 12. Now dark and dim, as through a glass, are God and truth beheld; Then shall we see as face to face, and God shall be unveil’d.

13. Faith, Hope, and Love, now dwell on earth, and earth by them is blest; But Faith and Hope must yield to Love, of all the graces best. 14. Hope shall to full fruition rise, and Faith be sight above: These are the means, but this end; the saints for ever love.