Perspective & Practice

“It does not mean that we are to leave the present world as it is. If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at Heaven and you will get earth ‘thrown in’: aim at earth and you will get neither. It seems a strange rule, but something like it can be seen at work in other matters.”

C.S. Lewis

“Spiritual disciplines are the main way we offer ourselves to God as a living sacrifice. We are doing what we can do with our bodies, our minds, our hearts. God then takes the simple offering of ourselves and does with it what we cannot do, producing within us deeply ingrained habits of peace, love and joy in the Holy Spirit.”

Richard Foster

“Don’t you see, in Heaven everybody loses their independence. Everybody is joyfully serving and saying ‘Thank You!’ and getting happier and happier and happier. And in hell everybody says, ‘I don’t ask for anything, don’t ask anything of me.’ It’s the loneliest part of the universe.”

Timothy Keller

“Three bricklayers are asked: ‘What are you doing?’
The first says, ‘I am laying bricks.’
The second says, ‘I am building a church.’
And the third says, ‘I am building the house of God.’
The first bricklayer has a job. The second has a career. The third has a calling.”

Angela Duckworth