Wait a minute, he looks kinda like a baby

Were earth a thousand times as fair
Beset with gold and jewels rare
She yet were far too poor to be
A narrow cradle,
Lord, for Thee.
--Martin Luther

Mrs. Caldwell

I am not alone at all, I thought.  I was never alone at all.  And that, of course, is the message of Christmas.  We are never alone.  Not when the night is darkest, the wind coldest, the world seemingly most indifferent.  For this is still the time God chooses.
--Taylor Caldwell

Not bad for a dummy

There are two ways to live your life.
One is as though nothing is a miracle.
The other is as though everything is a miracle.
--Albert Einstein

Graham cracker

The very purpose of Christ's coming into the world was that He might offer up His life as a sacrifice for the sins of men.  He came to die.  This is the heart of Christmas.
-- Billy Graham

Stranger danger

Born in a stable,
Cradled in a manger,
In the world His hands have made,
Born a stranger.
--Christine Georgina Rossetti

I'm just Wilda bout Harry

God grant you the light in Christmas, which is faith;
the warmth of Christmas, which is love;
the radiance of Christmas, which is purity;
the righteousness of Christmas, which is justice;
the belief in Christmas, which is truth;
the all of Christmas, which is Christ.
--Wilda English

Christ-mas

“Want to keep Christ in Christmas? Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, forgive the guilty, welcome the unwanted, care for the ill, love your enemies, and do unto others as you would have done unto you.” 
― Steve Maraboli

Remember

“And when we give each other Christmas gifts in His name, let us remember that He has given us the sun and the moon and the stars, and the earth with its forests and mountains and oceans--and all that lives and move upon them. He has given us all green things and everything that blossoms and bears fruit and all that we quarrel about and all that we have misused--and to save us from our foolishness, from all our sins, He came down to earth and gave us Himself.” 
― Sigrid Undset

A perfect marriage

“Oh look, yet another Christmas TV special! How touching to have the meaning of Christmas brought to us by cola, fast food, and beer.... Who'd have ever guessed that product consumption, popular entertainment, and spirituality would mix so harmoniously? ” 
― Bill Watterson, The Essential Calvin and Hobbes

Whose birthday?

“Christmas can be celebrated in the school room with pine trees, tinsel and reindeers, but there must be no mention of the man whose birthday is being celebrated. One wonders how a teacher would answer if a student asked why it was called Christmas.” 
― Ronald Reagan

Secrecy and mystery

“CALVIN:
This whole Santa Claus thing just doesn't make sense. Why all the secrecy? Why all the mystery?
If the guy exists why doesn't he ever show himself and prove it?
And if he doesn't exist what's the meaning of all this?
HOBBES:
I dunno. Isn't this a religious holiday? 
CALVIN:
Yeah, but actually, I've got the same questions about God.” 
― Bill Watterson

It's all about the Benjamin

“How many observe Christ's birthday! How few, His precepts!” 
― Benjamin Franklin

O little town

"Something of eternal significance transpired there. Not only was the calendar of the world changed,
but heaven itself and eternity were affected."
[J. Vernon McGee - on Bethlehem]

Once upon a time

Once upon a time, there was a little boy.  When asked what his goal in life was, he said "to be like Christ."  Then the little boy grew and grew.  As he got older, he began to see how little his life conformed to Christ's.  He thought that if he tried harder he could do it.  The boy grew into a man.  He saw that he was nothing like Christ.  He had tried and failed enough times to know that he would never be able to achieve his goal.  He said "God, I am unable to live a life that is pleasing to you.  I am trusting in the perfect life that your son, Jesus Christ, lived; and in the death that he died to save a sinner like me.  As he was raised, I hope to be raised, too."

The end

You cad!

"If we would destroy the Christian religion, we must first of all destroy man's belief in the Bible." -Voltaire

Respec'

Man can't do without God.
Just like you're thirsty, you have to drink water.
You just can't go without God.
-  Bob Marley 

Find your Center

The music that really turns me on is either running toward God
or away from God. Both recognize the pivot, that God is at the center of the jaunt.
-  Bono 

Master of puppets

If we have been pleased with life, 
we should not be displeased with death, 
since it comes from the hand of the same master.
--Michelangelo

Many believe

Many believe - and I believe - 

that I have been designated for this work by God. 

In spite of my old age, I do not want to give it up; 

I work out of love for God and I put all my hope in Him.

--Michelangelo

So happy together

Jesus was God and man in one person, that God and man might be happy together again. 

--George Whitefield 

Really real

How do I know that the resurrection and the whole Gospel is real? I know not only because of an acquaintance with the primary sources from the first century A.D., or even because of the words of the Bible. I know primarily, and I affirm this truth to you, on the basis of what I have witnessed in my own life... Jesus Christ provides a basis for hope and for the most profound personal satisfaction. --Glenn C. Louis, Economist and Civil Rights Activist (Boston University)

It wasn't the morality

It wasn't the morality of the Sermon on the Mount which enabled Christianity to conquer Roman paganism, but the belief that Jesus had been raised from the dead. In an age when Roman senators vied to see who could get the most blood of a steer on their togas - thinking that would prevent death - Christianity was in competition for eternal life, not morality. --Ernst Bloch, German Marxist philosopher

Andre the normal sized

There is more light in Christ's words than in any other human words. This is not enough, it seems, to be a Christian: in addition, one must believe. --Andre Gide, French novelist

He's got the whole world

Had the doctrines of Jesus been preached always as pure as they came from his lips, the whole civilized world would now have been Christian.  --Thomas Jefferson, June 26, 1822

Bill Clinton

"People feel judged and condemned. Jesus didn't make them feel that way. He made them feel loved and valued. If the religious right really acted like Jesus did, then Bill Clinton would feel our love". --Rep. Tom Coburn

Hello Muddah

Christ, who being rich became poor and emptied Himself to work out our redemption, calls us: to share in His poverty so that we might become rich through His poverty; to bear witness to the true face of Jesus - poor; humble, and friend of sinners, the weak and the despised. --Mother Theresa

Only faith

The gospel demands not works to make us holy and to redeem us. Indeed, it condemns such works, and demands only faith in Christ, because He has overcome sin, death and hell for us. --Martin Luther

Me too

"I'll just say, 'For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him, should not perish, but have everlasting life.' I am trusting Christ's death for me to take me to heaven." --Mickey Mantle, Aug. 1995

Matchless artist

It is a very good thing that you read the Bible... The Bible is Christ, for the Old Testament leads up to this culminating point... Christ alone... has affirmed as a principal certainty, eternal life, the infinity of time, the nothingness of death, the necessity and the raison d'être of serenity and devotion. He lived serenely, as a greater artist than all other artists, despising marble and clay as well as color, working in living flesh. That is to say, this matchless artist... made neither statues nor pictures nor books; he loudly proclaimed that he made... living men, immortals.  --Vincent van Gogh

It's a beautiful day for a neighbor

I can't imagine more surprising places for God to appear than a manger or a cross. Yet all through his life and resurrection, Jesus demonstrates the power of showing and sharing God's love. Every time I write a script or a song or walk into the studio, I pray 'Let some word that is heard be Thine.' That's really all that matters.  --Fred Rogers

We believe in nothing, Lebowski!

"For thirty five years of my life I was, in the proper acceptation of the word, nihilist, a man who believed in nothing.

Five years ago my faith came to me. I believed in the doctrine of Jesus Christ and my whole life underwent a sudden transformation. Life and death ceased to be evil. Instead of despair, I tasted joy and happiness that death could not take away."

-- Lev Tolstoy

Great Scott

"As the centuries pass, the evidence is accumulating that, measured by His effect on history, Jesus is the most influential life ever lived on this planet."

-- Kenneth Scott Latourette, American academic historian and historiographer, 1884 - 1968

The undersea world

"Jewish authors would never have invented either that style nor that morality; and the Gospel has marks of truth so great, so striking, so utterly inimitable, that the invention of it would be more astonishing than the hero...

Shall we suppose that the evangelical history is a mere fiction? Indeed it bears no marks of fiction; on the contrary, the history of Socrates, which no one presumes to doubt, is not so well attested to as that of Jesus Christ."

-- Jean Jacques Rousseau, one of the greatest intellects of France and skeptic of Christianity, 1712 - 1778

Call me Al

"And so the word had breath, and wrought with human hands the creed of creeds in loveliness of perfect deeds, more strong than all poetic thought."

-- Alfred Tennyson, British poet, 1809-1892

"We'll kill the firstborn male in every household." "Too Jewish."

"Jesus Christ is to me the outstanding personality of all time, all history, both as Son of God and as Son of Man. Everything he ever said or did has value for us today and that is something you can say of no other man, dead or alive. There is no easy middle ground to stroll upon. You either accept Jesus or reject him."

--Sholem Asch, Polish-born American Yiddish writer

Gandhi II

"A man who was completely innocent, offered himself as a sacrifice for the good of others, including his enemies, and became the ransom of the world. It was a perfect act."

-- Mahatma Gandhi

The language of love

"Jesus is God spelling Himself out in language that men can understand."

--S.D. Gordon

But Whil-burrr!

"It was this same Jesus, the Christ who, among many other remarkable things, said and repeated something which, proceeding from any other being would have condemned him at once as either a bloated egotist or a dangerously unbalanced person...

when He said He himself would rise again from the dead, the third day after He was crucified, He said something that only a fool would dare say, if he expected longer the devotion of any disciples -- unless He was sure He was going to rise.

No founder of any world religion known to men ever dared say a thing like that!"

--Wilbur Smith

One of these things is not like the others

"Buddha never claimed to be God.

Moses never claimed to be Jehovah.

Mohammed never claimed to be Allah.

Yet Jesus Christ claimed to be the true and living God.

Buddha simply said, 'I am a teacher in search of the truth.'

Jesus said, 'I am the Truth.'

Confucius said, 'I never claimed to be holy.'

Jesus said, 'Who convicts me of sin?'

Mohammed said, 'Unless God throws his cloak of mercy over me, I have no hope.'

Jesus said, 'Unless you believe in me, you will die in your sins.'"

-- Unknown

The War of the Worldviews

"I am an historian, I am not a believer, but I must confess as a historian that this penniless preacher from Nazareth is irrevocably the very center of history.

Jesus Christ is easily the most dominant figure in all history."

-- H.G. Wells

My favorite hobbit

Even those who have renounced Christianity and attack it, in their inmost being still follow the Christian ideal, for hitherto neither their subtlety nor the ardour of their hearts has been able to create a higher ideal of man and of virtue than the ideal given by Christ of old. --Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Yancey-pants

“Yet as I read the birth stories about Jesus I cannot help but conclude that though the world may be tilted toward the rich and powerful, God is tilted toward the underdog.” 
― Philip Yancey

An old tree

"So far I have felt the normal feelings of a man of my age--like an old tree that it losing all its leaves one by one: this feels like an axe-blow near the roots." ~J.R.R Tolkien on the death of C.S. Lewis

An observation

"From my point of view I would ban religion completely, even though there are some wonderful things about it. I love the idea of the teachings of Jesus Christ and the beautiful stories about it, which I loved in Sunday school and I collected all the little stickers and put them in my book. But the reality is that organised religion doesn't seem to work. It turns people into hateful lemmings and it's not really compassionate." 
- Elton John, The Observer, November 12, 2006 

We're not worthy!

Drinking beer is easy. Trashing your hotel room is easy. But being a Christian, that's a tough call. That's rebellion. 
--Alice Cooper 

Majority rule

Error does not become truth because it is widely accepted;
Truth does not become error, even when it stands alone!  --unattributed

Don't worry, be happy

Pray, and let God worry.  -- Martin Luther

Choose your enemies wisely

If a man can do without God, it is certain that God can do without him, and the day 
will come when God will do without him, according to his word, “I will ease me of 
mine adversaries.” -- Chuck "Master C" Spurgeon

The creation

Men fail to see the miracle which God is working in every living thing. --Charles "Chuck E. Cheese" Spurgeon

Imaginary goodness

Our imaginary goodness is more hard to conquer than our actual sin. Man can sooner 
be cured of his sicknesses than be made to forego his boasts of health. Human 
weakness is a small obstacle to salvation compared with human strength; there lies 
the work and the difficulty. Hence it is a sign of grace to know one’s need of grace. -- Charles Spurgeon

Shelf reliance

Rely on self! Let night rely on her darkness to find a light; let emptiness rely on its 
inefficiency to find its fullness; let death rely on the worms to give it immortality; let 
hell rely upon its fire to make it into heaven—such trusts as these would be equally 
strong with those of the sinner who relies upon himself for salvation. --Charles Spurgeon

A logical fallacy

The fact that Christ died for the ungodly renders self-righteousness a folly. --Charles Spurgeon

Pride and ignorance

Self-righteousness arises partly from pride, but mainly from ignorance of God’s law. -- Charles Spurgeon

natural vs spiritual

Great truths that are stumbling blocks to the natural man are nevertheless the very foundations upon which the confidence of the spiritual man is built. --Harry Ironside

broken

God is looking for broken men who have judged themselves in the light of the cross of Christ. When He wants anything done, He takes up men who have come to the end of themselves, whose confidence is not in themselves, but in God. --Harry Ironside

I give myself very good advice

The Gospel is not good advice to be obeyed, it is good news to be believed. --Harry Ironside

A smart boy

I wish you could have met me when I graduated from seminary. I was a smart boy then and I even had the answer to election and free will. But I have a little more sense than I had then, and I realize that we simply do not understand it.

-- Vernon McGee in Thru the Bible Commentary, Volumes 1-5: Genesis through Revelation (Thru the Bible 5 Volume Set)

The gloves come off

"You just can't take the law bare knuckle and keep it." --Dr. J.V.McGee

Judge Dread

Hebrews 10:28-31 (NIV)
Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.  How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?  For we know him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge his people.”  It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Wisdom

Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you;
    love her, and she will watch over you.
⁷ The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom.
    Though it cost all you have, get understanding.
--Proverbs 4:6-7

Meaningless

The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem:

 “Meaningless! Meaningless!”
    says the Teacher.
“Utterly meaningless!
    Everything is meaningless.”

 What do people gain from all their labors
    at which they toil under the sun?
Generations come and generations go,
    but the earth remains forever.
 The sun rises and the sun sets,
    and hurries back to where it rises.
 The wind blows to the south
    and turns to the north;
round and round it goes,
    ever returning on its course.
 All streams flow into the sea,
    yet the sea is never full.
To the place the streams come from,
    there they return again.
 All things are wearisome,
    more than one can say.
The eye never has enough of seeing,
    nor the ear its fill of hearing.
 What has been will be again,
    what has been done will be done again;
    there is nothing new under the sun.
 Is there anything of which one can say,
    “Look! This is something new”?
It was here already, long ago;
    it was here before our time.
 No one remembers the former generations,
    and even those yet to come
will not be remembered
    by those who follow them.

Grandpa

 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also." --John 14:1-4

Rage against the machine

Atheists express their rage against God although in their view He does not exist. --C.S. Lewis

Faif

Hebrews 11:1

NIV
Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.

KJV
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

CJB
Trusting is being confident of what we hope for, convinced about things we do not see.

No one can boast

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:8-10)

Alien

The LORD will rise up as he did at Mount Perazim, he will rouse himself as in the Valley of Gibeon--to do his work, his strange work, and perform his task, his alien task. --Isaiah 28:21

Take heed

Acts 13:38-41 "Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through Him forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you,  and through Him everyone who believes is freed from all things, from which you could not be freed through the Law of Moses.  "Therefore take heed, so that the thing spoken of in the Prophets may not come upon you:  `BEHOLD, YOU SCOFFERS, AND MARVEL, AND PERISH; FOR I AM ACCOMPLISHING A WORK IN YOUR DAYS, A WORK WHICH YOU WILL NEVER BELIEVE, THOUGH SOMEONE SHOULD DESCRIBE IT TO YOU.' "

The Way

John 14:5-7 (NIV)
Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”  Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.  If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus

O soul, are you weary and troubled? 
No light in the darkness you see? 
There's a light for a look at the Savior, 
And life more abundant and free! 
Through death into life everlasting 
He passed, and we follow Him there; 
Over us sin no more hath dominion – 
For more than conquerors we are!
His word shall not fail you – He promised; 
Believe Him and all will be well: 
Then go to a world that is dying, 
His perfect salvation to tell!
Turn your eyes upon Jesus, 
Look full in His wonderful face, 
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, 
In the light of His glory and grace.
–Helen Lemmel

Frenemy

"Friends, if you came in here today unsaved and you walk out of here unsaved, I am the worst enemy that you have ever had, because you have heard the gospel and you can never go into the presence of God and tell Him you have never heard the gospel. You have heard it, and it will be worse for you when God pronounces judgment than for any heathen in the darkest part of earth today."–Attributed to Dr. A. C. Gaebelein

My Friend

My friend, I stand in judgment now
And feel that you are to blame somehow.
On earth I walked with you by day
And never did you point the way.
You knew the Lord in truth and glory
But never did you tell the story.
My knowledge then was very dim,
You could have led me safe to Him.
Though we lived together here on earth,
You never told me of the second birth.
And now I stand this day condemned
Because you failed to mention Him.
You taught me many things, that’s true,
I called you friend and trusted you.
But I learned now that it’s too late,
And you could have kept me from this fate.
We walked by day and talked by night
And yet you showed me not the light.
You let me live and love and die,
You knew I'd never live on high.
Yes, I called you friend in life
And trusted you through joy and strife.
And yet on coming to this dreadful end,
I cannot now call you my friend.

–Author unknown

Mortal instruments

“It is not thy hold on Christ that saves thee; it is Christ. It is not thy joy in Christ that saves thee; it is Christ. It is not even thy faith in Christ that saves thee, though that be the instrument. It is Christ’s blood and merit.”–Charles Haddon Spurgeon

"'Ditto', you provincial putz?"

Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in thee;
Let the water and the blood,
From Thy wounded side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure,
Cleanse me from its guilt and power.
Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to Thy cross I cling;
Naked, come to Thee for dress,
Helpless, look to Thee for grace;
Foul, I to the fountain fly;
Wash me, Saviour, or I die.
While I draw this fleeting breath,
When my eyelids close in death,
When I soar to worlds unknown,
See Thee on Thy judgment throne,
Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee.
   –Augustus M. Toplady

I know I've posted this one before, but it has one of the best lines in any song ever written: 
"Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to Thy cross I cling;
Naked, come to Thee for dress,
Helpless, look to Thee for grace;
Foul, I to the fountain fly;
Wash me, Saviour, or I die."

Ditto.

That's me in the corner

“When I was converted, I lost my religion.” –Dr. W.I. Carroll

Count de Money

"I do not know what the heart of a villain is—I only know the heart of a righteous man, and it’s frightful.”
–Count Joseph de Maistre

A sane estimation

“I see no sin committed but what I too might have committed.” 
–Johann von Goethe

The Conquerers

The Conquerers 
Jesus and Alexander died at thirty-three.
One lived and died for self; one died for you and me;
The Greek died on a throne; the Jew died on a cross;
One's life a triumph seemed; the other but a loss.
One led vast armies forth; the other walked alone.
One shed a whole world's blood; the other gave His own.
One won the world in life and lost it all in death;
The other lost His life to win the whole world's faith. 

Jesus and Alexander died at thirty-three.
One died in Babylon, and one on Calvary.
One gained all for himself; and one Himself He gave,
One conquered every throne; the other every grave.
The one made himself God, the God made Himself less,
The one lived but to blast, the other but to bless.
When died the Greek, forever fell his throne of swords;
But Jesus died to live forever Lord of lords. 

Jesus and Alexander died at thirty-three.
The Greek made all men slaves; the Jew made all men free.
One built a throne on blood; the other built on love.
The one was born of earth; the other from above.
One won all this earth, to lose all earth and heaven.
The other gave up all, that all to Him be given.
The Greek forever died; the Jew forever lives.
He loses all who gets, and wins all things who gives. 
–Charles Ross Weede