Benno Furman Quotes

The Bible was so revolutionary and against all that came before it. It was a force for siding with the oppressed and a rebellion against hierarchical, ancient societies. Now it's institutionalized and all the life has been sucked out of it. ~ Ezra Furman

The reality of forever reminds us to prioritize eternity in our hopes for our children. But before we extend an eternal perspective to others, we must be hoping in Christ. Too often, my hope is in my ever-changing circumstances. I say things like, "I really need the baby to take his nap this morning," which is a fine thing to say and a fine thing to look forward to. But if, come lunchtime, the nap hasn't happened, and I'm so emotionally wasted by it that it ruins my afternoon, then I've probably put more faith in that nap than in the never-changing circumstances of the gospel. ~ Gloria Furman

Every time I trust my instincts I land on my feet and every time I don't, I go, "Why didn't I trust my instinct?" ~ Brad Furman

When we acknowledge our inability to mother our children apart from the Lord's provision and strength, we honor God. Of course we are not able to do this work of raising children and training them in the instruction of the Lord. That's why we desperately need the Lord! ~ Gloria Furman

When I take hold of Jesus by faith as my only hope to please God, God declares that I am justified. Christ's righteousness becomes mine. That's grace. ~ Gloria Furman

I think I gravitate towards rock 'n' roll as a playground where I can say anything. ~ Ezra Furman

I believe locations should try to be and evoke the characters in a movie. ~ Brad Furman

Diaper that leaks onto the floorboard of my car while I'm stuck in ~ Gloria Furman

Yale is a crucible in American life for the accommodation of intellectual achievement, of wisdom, of refinement, with the democratic ideals of openness, of social justice and of equal opportunity. ~ Benno C. Schmidt, Jr.

God can use the ordinary moments in your life to glorify himself by conforming you into the image of his Son. That is precisely what he intends to do. ~ Gloria Furman

Blonde on Blonde by Bob Dylan I heard when I was 13. It was one of those things where it was like, "Hey, the world is much bigger than you imagined as a little kid." ~ Ezra Furman

All around the world, God is giving and sustaining life to the praise of his grace. His mercy is new every morning, and it's always morning somewhere. ~ Gloria Furman

What would our hospitality look like if we believed that Jesus's death on the cross was the measure of God's compassion for someone? ~ Gloria Furman

The gospel is the one great permanent circumstance in which I live and move; and every hardship in my life is allowed by God only because it serves His gospel purposes in me. ~ Gloria Furman

The false gospel of self-justification is a great enemy of the Christian faith because so many have been misled to believe that it is Christianity. ~ Gloria Furman

health risks of diets loaded with red meat, such as hamburger and steak, and processed meats, such as hot dogs, bacon, and cold cuts. They found that over a ten-year period, men who ate the equivalent of a quarter-pounder hamburger a day had a 22 percent higher risk of dying from cancer and a 27 percent higher risk of dying from heart disease than those men whose diet did not contain such red meat. With women, it was even more impressive. Women who ate large amounts of red meat had a 20 percent higher risk of dying from cancer and a 50 percent higher risk of dying from heart disease. ~ Richard Furman

God has called us to something vastly bigger than our happiness or that of our children. ~ Gloria Furman

We learned that the body of Christ grows by the Word of Christ, flexing its muscles to serve, stretching out its hands to heal, and dreaming up creative ways to bless one another using the gifts God has given. ~ Gloria Furman

Gifts are given by God and empowered by God to glorify God. ~ Gloria Furman

This is because the greatest problem a mother has is not a lack of creativity, accomplishment, or skill, but her inability to love God and others as Jesus loves her (John 13:34). ~ Gloria Furman

Privacy is absolutely essential to maintaining a free society. The idea that is at the foundation of the notion of privacy is that the citizen is not the tool or instrument of government - but the reverse ... If you have no privacy, it will tend to follow that you have no political freedom ... ~ Benno C. Schmidt, Jr.

Eve means "giver of life." I don't think this redemptive calling to be a life giver is only biological. The life of Christ in us enables women to be life givers, rather than life-takers, in every relationship, circumstance, and season of life. ~ Gloria Furman

So how do we know if we've assumed the gospel? Mack Stiles days so aptly that the way to know if we've assumed the gospel is this: you don't hear it anymore. Everyone talks to themselves. ~ Gloria Furman

At the end of every day - chaotic and mundane alike - motherhood is about the adoration and enjoyment of our great God. The ~ Gloria Furman

But seeking the temporary reward of the world's approval can distract us from seeking the eternal reward of the Lord's approval. ~ Gloria Furman

I'm certainly not interested in religion for religion's sake or for some kind of structure or stabilizing force. Religion is supposed to be for God's sake and God is an unpredictable, wild thing. ~ Ezra Furman

In 1991, Disney forced a group of New Zealand parents in a remote country town to remove their amateur renditions of Pluto and Donald Duck from a playground mural; and Barney has been breaking up children's birthday parties across the U.S., claiming that any parent caught dressed in a purple dinosaur suit is violating its trademark. The Lyons Group, which owns the Barney character, "has sent 1,000 letters to shop owners" renting or selling the offending costumes. "They can have a dinosaur costume. It's when it's a purple dinosaur that it's illegal, and it doesn't matter what shade of purple, either," says Susan Elsner Furman, Lyons' spokesperson. ~ Naomi Klein

The opportunity to shoot and get the depth out of the film - that I don't think you can get out of digital - is a huge deal for me. ~ Brad Furman

We need balanced programs, balanced priorities on the fiscal side ~ Jason Furman

We do not put away our idols so that God will then accept us, but we put away our idols because God has accepted us in Christ ~ Gloria Furman

It is quite easy to allow the gospel to become overshadowed by our own efforts to grow spiritually. Spiritual disciplines serve as gateways to cherishing the gospel, not as substitutes for the gospel. ~ Gloria Furman

God's irresistible grace binds our wandering hearts to himself and frees us to love him back and overflow in love to our neighbors. ~ Gloria Furman

If we aren't clear on what the Christian gospel is, then what is at stake is not merely a harmless misunderstanding but eternal life and death. ~ Gloria Furman

Puritan Thomas Watson said, "Until sin be bitter, Christ will not be sweet." I think Scottish minister Thomas Chalmers, who preached on "the expulsive power of a new affection," would have added: Until Christ be sweet, sin will not be bitter. ~ Gloria Furman

To take the measure of oneself by reference to one's colleagues leads to envy or complacency rather than constructive self-examination. ~ Benno C. Schmidt, Jr.

The greatest obstruction to our joy in God is not a lack of time. ~ Gloria Furman

I thought [ as a kid], "Maybe I don't want to start a punk band necessarily. I just want to learn to be a great songwriter," and got really into trying to figure out how that could be possible. ~ Ezra Furman

Because God is good, we have an infinite number of reasons to praise him in our homes. ~ Gloria Furman

For the true bookworm it is sometimes hard to distinguish between what one has experienced and what one has read. We know that this is odd and even a little demented. But there it is. We are uneasy in a void with no book. ~ Laura Furman

I'm an amateur at music and an amateur at most things. I like the idea of offering some music and some records and a website to people who feel perplexed. ~ Ezra Furman

I was like, "Who the hell is Bob Dylan?" I was going to learn one song to appease my mom and alphabetically the first song in the book was "Absolutely Sweet Marie." When I heard it, it was like "Oh, there is something going on here. It's not like my parents' boring music that I don't care about. This is totally electrifying." ~ Ezra Furman

We need to remember that God is no less good to us when we find ourselves in a battle of wills with a preschooler in the checkout line at the grocery store than he was as his Son dragged a cross up a hill that Friday two thousand years ago. ~ Gloria Furman