Constraining Jesus Quotes

You can never betray the people who are dead, so you go on being a public Jew; the dead can't answer slurs, but I'm here. I would love to think that Jesus wants me for a sunbeam, but he doesn't. ~ Anita Brookner

The only freedom that man ever has is when he becomes a slave to Jesus Christ. ~ R.C. Sproul

May God bless and guide us on path of light in Jesus Name. ~ Lailah Gifty Akita

Jesus comes from Nazareth, a town from which folks said nothing good could come. He knew suffering from the moment he entered the world as a baby refugee born in the middle of a genocide. Jesus knew poverty and pain until he was tortured and executed on a Roman cross. This is the Jesus we are called to follow. With his coming we learn that the most dangerous place for Christians to be is in comfort and safety, detached from the suffering of others. Places that are physically safe can be spiritually deadly. ~ Shane Claiborne

And if we ask how are we to know where our hearts are, the answer is just as simple - everything which hinders us from loving God above all things and acts as a barrier between ourselves and our obedience to Jesus is our treasure, and the place where our heart is. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Prayer is the connection that opens the door for all of God's blessings to be manifested in our lives. It is the process of granting permission for Heaven to show up with the finished works of Jesus. ~ Paul Silway

...It Isn't actually much of an encouragement to me to read the stories about Jesus. I might as well take encouragement from watching a great athlete run a four-minute mile. Sure, it's a fine sight, but at my age and with my weight I would be lucky to do a mile in 10 minutes, let alone four. I can watch a ballet dancer on stage with great delight, not because I can copy him, but precisely because I know I can't. ~ N. T. Wright

The idea that the Man Christ Jesus has absolute and final authority over the whole church and over all of its members in every detail of their lives is simply not now accepted as true by the rank and file of evangelical Christians ~ Aiden Wilson Tozer

But lost in that sea of (valid) criticism is the perhaps subtler critique that in an age of consumerism, economic imperialism and what Martin Luther King Jr. called "jumboism," the sacrificial way of Jesus may be calling us to forsake the supersized life. ~ C. Christopher Smith

The water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life." John 4:14 The picture our Lord described here is not that of a simple stream of water, but an overflowing fountain. Continue to "be filled" (Ephesians 5:18) and the sweetness of your vital relationship to Jesus will flow as generously out of you as it has been given to you. If you find that His life is not springing up as it should, you are to blame - something is obstructing the flow. Was Jesus saying to stay focused on the Source so that you may be blessed personally? No, you are to focus on the Source so that out of you "will flow rivers of living water" - irrepressible life (John 7:38). ~ Oswald Chambers

An intimate encounter with Jesus is the most transforming experience of human existence. To know him as he is, is to come home. To have his life, joy, love, and presence cannot be compared. A true knowledge of Jesus is our greatest need and our greatest happiness. ~ John Eldredge

If JESUS cannot control you, HE cannot save you. And if HE cannot control ALL of you HE cannot control any of you. ~ A.W. Tozer

To every soul that knows how to pray, to every soul that by faith comes to Jesus, the true mercy seat, divine sovereignty wears no dark and terrible aspect but is full of love. ~ Charles Spurgeon

Our countenance, expressions, and communication style should be filled with Jesus. When people hear us, they should hear Jesus. ~ Mark T. Barclay

Tragically misinformed, some Christian believers at first looked upon hippies as promising prospects through whom the Church could present the claims of Jesus Christ. Clergymen mistakenly proclaimed that hippies were searching for truth and meaning and needed only to be guided. Wasn't their talk about love? Weren't they seeking an opportunity to share the love of God with others?

On the contrary, the hippies claimed to have found meaning for existence through conscious expanding drugs. And although they sang of love in chants and groans, they knew nothing of love's commitment and concern and duty towards one's neighbor. They ignored the responsibility of love and dwelt upon their quest for uninhibited physical gratification. ~ Bob Larson

I'm absolutely obsessed with The Jesus And Mary Chain and Patti Smith, but I'm a massive pop fan. I love pop culture, It's a total reflection of the zeitgeist. ~ Siobhan Fahey

God is not looking for people who act like Christians. He wants us to be Christians! The word Christian means "anointed or Christlike one." Jesus did not go around "being good"; he went around "doing good" and releasing all who were oppressed. What has he anointed you to do? ~ Lisa Bevere

The first Christians were eucharistic by nature: they gathered for "the breaking of the bread and the prayers." They were formed by the Word of God, the "apostles' teaching." When they met as a Church, their worship culminated in "fellowship" - the Greek word is koinonia, communion. The Mass was the center of life for the disciples of Jesus, and so it has ever been. Even today, the Mass is where we experience the apostolic teaching and communion, the breaking of the bread and the prayers. ~ Scott Hahn

Now is the time to stand fast in our faith and on our principles. . . . Now is the time to show our appreciation for the atoning sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. . . .

"Now is the time to warn our neighbors by sharing the gospel message with them. Now is the time to provide the world with an example of decency and modesty, an example of virtue and cleanliness. . . .

"Now is indeed the time to show we are on the Lord's side. ~ Robert C. Oaks

But the holiness of Jesus was more than simply the absence of actual sin. It was also a perfect conformity to the will of His Father. ~ Jerry Bridges

God allows our circumstances to change, so we can learn to love Him in all situations. Our love for God is based on an unchanging Jesus. ~ Alisa Hope Wagner

The disciples, under the influence of a natural, religious concept, asked Him, "Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he should be born blind?" (v. 2). Listen to the Lord's answer. "Neither has this man sinned nor his parents, but that the works of God might be manifested in him" (John 9:3). Here is the significance of the Lord's reply: people always appraise situations according to yes or no, right or wrong, which are the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, but the Lord Jesus always brings people back to the tree of life, which is God Himself. ~ Witness Lee

The most important things that any member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ever does in this world are: 1. To marry the right person, in the right place, by the right authority; and 2. To keep the covenant made in connection with the holy and perfect order of matrimony-thus assuring the obedient persons of an inheritance of exaltation in the celestial kingdom. ~ Bruce R. McConkie

I think the most challenging thing for me in my life and in the Bible is that we worship Jesus as the Prince of Peace. ~ Jimmy Carter

What has been presented as Christianity during these nineteen centuries is only a beginning, full of mistakes, not full blown Christianity springing from the spirit of Jesus. ~ Albert Schweitzer

Though our emotions are real and powerful, they don't have the final say on our lives. Trust your emotions, but don't put your trust in your emotions. Put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. ~ Samuel Kee

The gospel announces that God doesn't relate to us based on our feats for Jesus, but Jesus' feats for us. ~ Tullian Tchividjian

...the incarnation is the complete refutation of every human system and institution that claims to control, possess, and distribute God. Whatever any church or religious leader may claim in regard to their particular access to God or control over your experience of God, the incarnation is the last word: God loves the world. God came into the world in the form of the people he created, the human race (including you and me), who bear his image. God's creation of humanity in his image gives hints of who he is, since we all are marked by his fingerprints.

But as flawed humans, we give only a vague hint of God. Our broken reflection of God's image is easily drowned out by our broken humanity. then, two thousand years ago, God came in his fullness. He came to all of us in Jesus. The incarnation is not owned, trademarked, or controlled by any church. It belongs to every human being. The incarnation is not something that requires a distributor or middleman. It is a gracious gift to every person everywhere, religious or not. God gave himself to us in Jesus. ~ Michael Spencer

May Jesus always be the filter through which we interpret the Bible. May we never fear wrestling with its meaning. ~ Suzanne DeWitt Hall

We met the next day for coffee and when I asked her what was up she said, "I think I'm having a crisis of faith." To which I thought, what the hell does that look like for a Unitarian? "Yeah," she continued, "I-I think I believe in Jesus." Oh. That's what it looks like. ~ Nadia Bolz-Weber

No man can use his Bible with power unless he has the character of Jesus in his heart. ~ Alan Redpath

19 Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, 20 By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; ~ Barbour Publishing Inc.