March 19, 2023 - Quote for the Day: “It doesn’t matter who you are or what you have done.  Your religious background and credentials, or lack thereof, are irrelevant.  It doesn’t matter if you have been a petty criminal, an atheist, a cult member, a mass murderer, or even a goody-two-shoes self-righteous-better-than-everybody-else-holy-Joe. It doesn’t matter if you have been baptized, or if you have been immersed rather than sprinkled.  If you have never had a drop of alcohol touch your lips, God still loves you, but he doesn’t love you because you have never imbibed. If you have started every day, for the last ...

March 16, 2023 - Quote for the Day: “Beginning in the second grade, I lived in constant apprehension and fear of an impending doomsday.  My family and I believed that “the end” could come at any time; we were convinced that we always lived in a window of a “few short years” from the events surrounding the second coming, I did not treasure the message of Revelation, I feared it.  The specific “end times” interpretation I was taught exercised enormous power over me and many others.  Decades later God’s grace completely changed my understanding of Revelation – from a book to be feared to a book to be treasured....

March 14, 2023 - Quote for the Day: “I believe that physical death is not the end of God’s pursuit of us, and I base that belief primarily on the full and complete (as I understand it) revelation of God within the pages of the Bible.”  Originally published in: Christianity Without the Religion magazine, February 2022 ------------------------------------- Help Us Help Others - Give Now

March 12, 2023 - Quote for the Day: “There’s an old story about a young man who asked his rich grandfather, ‘Grandpa, how did you get so rich?’  ‘Well,’ said Grandpa, ‘during the Great Depression my family had no money whatsoever.  I found two pennies in my old piggy bank, and I bought an apple with those two pennies.  I shined that apple up, took it out on the street where people were hungry, and sold it for five cents. ‘Then I took that nickel and bought two more apples for two cents each.  I shined them all up, took them back on the street, and sold them for five cents each. The grandfather paused, ...

March 9, 2023 - Quote for the Day: “On his cross, Jesus once and for all demonstrated that peace, love and grace are stronger than hatred, violence and anger – and on his cross he provided the absolute proof that the eternal reality that will win, in the end, is God’s love.”  Originally published in: Christianity Without the Religion magazine, June 2022 ------------------------------------- Help Us Help Others - Give Now

March 7, 2023 - Quote for the Day: “Salvation is unconditional, not based on any meritorious deeds that we perform to earn it. But unconditional salvation is not automatic.  Salvation is not conferred just because we are born, or because we have reached our 12th birthday, or whether we ask for it or not.  Salvation is unconditional, but it is not automatic or universal.  We are free to accept or reject God’s gracious offer of salvation. The Bible is clear about that choice.”  Originally published in: Between Religious Rocks and Life’s Hard Places ------------------------------------- Help Us Help Others - Give ...

March 5, 2023 - Quote for the Day: “At first the religious professionals discredited him because he was not a product of their educational systems, and then later they came to hate and despise him.  They called him a rabble rouser and a troublemaker.  They called him a bastard son of a young girl who became pregnant before marriage.”  Originally published in: Beautiful Sayings – Beatitudes of Grace ————————————- Help Us Help Others – Give Now

March 2, 2023 - Quote for the Day: “As parents and grandparents we smile at stories about children getting confused with God: During Jason’s bedtime prayer he said, ‘Lord, if you can’t make me a better boy, don’t worry about it.  I’m having a good time like I am.’ Sarah complained to God the he did not answer her prayer: ‘Thank you for the baby brother but what I asked for was a puppy. I never asked for anything else before.  You can look it up.’ Lisa pondered the nature of God when she prayed, ‘How do you know you are God?  Did someone tell you, or did you just decide that yourself?’ Bobby was ...

February 28, 2023 - Quote for the Day: “Did you ever stop to think about the times Jesus went to church? How did that work out for him?  Did he get involved in all of the committees and outreach groups?  Did people like him?  Of course Jesus never went to a church, but the Bible does tell us that he went to synagogue and temple. The Bible doesn’t tell us how consistently Jesus attended synagogue and temple, but it does tell us of rude receptions he received when he did frequent such gatherings.”   Originally published in: Spiritual Soup for the Hungry Soul, Volume 1 ------------------------------------- Help ...

February 26, 2023 - Quote for the Day: “The history of the Bible is a history of the self-imposed, willing humiliation that God has accepted as an inevitable consequence of his love for us.  The love he has for us means that he exposes himself to hurt, pain, disappointment and failure.  From the very beginning God made himself vulnerable, placing himself at risk… God decided to begin his human life on earth not as a mature adult like Adam, but as a helpless baby, choosing, from a human perspective, the weakness and vulnerability of infancy over the safety and security of adulthood."   Originally published in: Unplug...

February 23, 2023 - Quote for the Day: “Jesus is a master builder, not a cosmetician.  The new wine he gives means that the old containers have to go.  Everything that Jesus builds is new, not some partial remodel.  We’re talking about a religious tear down.  In order to build a new house the old one has to be demolished.  That’s exactly why Jesus said that the old covenant temple in Jerusalem had to go.  It had to be completely demolished because it had become a virtual icon, a physical symbol of religious stuff that was now obsolete.  The temple in Jerusalem had to go because of the new covenant given in and through the blood ...

February 21, 2023 - Quote for the Day: “Grace flows downward from divinity to humanity.  God’s grace descends from immortality to mortality, from perfection to imperfection.  God’s grace is somewhat like water that inevitably finds and is welcomed in low places.  Conversely, grace finds resistance in religious high places.”  Originally published in: Wonders of His Grace ------------------------------------- Help Us Help Others - Give Now

February 19, 2023 - Quote for the Day: “Jesus never yelled, forced, coerced or bullied people into changing their lives.  We search in vain for any example of intimidation or manipulation on the part of Jesus.  He didn’t quarrel or cry out; he released the oppressed and proclaimed liberty to those who were enslaved.  Jesus wooed people, he drew people and he won them by his gracious and compassionate nature.  This is authentic Christianity.”  Originally published in: Bad News Religion ------------------------------------- Help Us Help Others - Give Now

February 16, 2023 - Quote for the Day: “The Prosperity Gospel teaches that God’s will is for us to be healthy and wealthy.  It amounts to selling religious lottery tickets to the weak, sick and poverty-stricken, who are the ones most easily seduced by this teaching.  Health-and-wealth churches are extremely popular in inner city areas in the United States and in disadvantaged, economically challenged areas around the world.”  Originally published in: Between Religious Rocks and Life’s Hard Places ————————————- Help Us Help Others – Give Now

February 14, 2023 - Quote for the Day: “We are blessed to be able to extend mercy to others because God has first of all extended it to us, and in Christ, extends his mercy in and through us. 1 John 4:19 explains: We love because he first loved us.  That’s a Christ-centered principle – we extend and show mercy because he first extended and gave his mercy to us. An old story from the Wild West speaks of a rancher who had a huge ranch, often the target to thieves and rustlers who would steal the cattle.  One day the rancher’s hired hands caught a cattle  thief.  They caught the thief red-handed and took him to ...