Love, not anger, brought Jesus to the cross. Golgotha came as a result of God's great desire to forgive, not his reluctance. Jesus knew that by his vicarious suffering he could actually absorb all the evil of humanity and so heal it, forgive it, redeem it.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes that love is the driving force behind Jesus' sacrifice rather than anger or punishment.
Richard J. Foster reflects on the profound significance of love as the foundation for Jesus' crucifixion. He argues that the act of Jesus dying on the cross was motivated by God's desire to forgive humanity rather than by wrath or reluctance. Through Jesus' suffering, the possibility of redemption and healing from the world's evil is offered, illustrating the transformational power of love over anger.
In practice
This quote can be used to inspire discussions on the power of love in difficult situations.
Go another step. Try to live one entire day without words at all. Do it not as a law, but as an experiment. Note your feelings of helplessness and excessive dependence upon words to communicate. Try to find new ways to relate to tohers that are not dependent upon words. Enjoy, savor the day. Learn from it.
Jesus Christ and all the writers of the New Testament call us to break free of mammon lust and live in joyous trust...They point us toward a way of living in which everything we have we receive as a gift, and everything we have is cared for by God, and everything we have is available to others when it is right and good. This reality frames the heart of Christian simplicity. It is the means of liberation and power to do what is right and to overcome the forces of fear and avarice.
Humility, as we all know, is one of those virtues that is never gained by seeking it. The more we pursue it the more distant it becomes. To think we have it is sure evidence that we don't.
When we determine to dwell on the good and excellent things in life, we will be so full of those things that they will tend to swallow our problems.
The Spiritual Disciplines are things that we do. We must never lose sight of this fact. It is one thing to talk piously about 'the solitude of the heart,' but if that does not somehow work its way into our experience, then we have missed the point of the Disciplines. We are dealing with actions, not merely states of mind.
Each activity of daily life in which we stretch ourselves on behalf of others is a prayer in action.
Then all this became history. Your hand found mine. Life rushed to my fingers like a blood clot. Oh, my carpenter, the fingers are rebuilt. They dance with yours.
Where pride begins, love ceases.
Benvolio: What sadness lengthens Romeo's hours? Romeo: Not having that, which, having, makes them short.
Eros seizes and shakes my very soul like the wind on the mountain _x000D_ shaking ancient oaks.
If I stopped loving Him, I would cease to believe in His love. If I loved God, then I would believe in His love for me. It's not enough to need it. We have to love first, and I don't know how. But I need it, how I need it.
You always fed strays and bent down to talk to the dogs you met on the street, looking straight into their eyes as if they were old friends. (Maybe they are, you said. From another life.) You liked to go to the pound and look at them. You tried to send them messages of comfort. I couldn’t go because I started crying the one time I tried. All those eyes and the barks like sobs.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.