Has
it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are
automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to
each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So
one hundred worshippers meeting together, each one looking away to Christ, are
in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be were they to become
"unity" conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer
fellowship. Social religion is perfected when private religion is purified. -
A.W. Tozer
Tolerance
is, no doubt, a virtue without which none of us can live; but we must,
nevertheless, at least understand that it is, strictly speaking, destructive of
fellowship, for it is a gesture by which the divine disturbance is rejected. The
ONE in whom we are veritably united is Himself the great intolerance. He willeth
to rule, to be victorious, to be - everything. He it is who disturbs every
family gathering, every scheme for the reunion of Christendom, every human
cooperation. And He disturbs, because He is the Peace that is above every
estrangement and cleavage and faction. - Karl Barth
The
poor Church of Christ , the sober, sound religious Part, are like Christ that
was crucified between two Malefactors; the profane and formal Persecutors on one
hand, and the Fanatic dividing Sectary on the other hand, have in all Ages been
grinding the spiritual Seed, as the Corn is ground between the Millstones: And
though their sins have ruined themselves and us, and silenced so many hundred
Ministers, and scattered the Flocks and made us the Hatred and the Scorn of the
ungodly World, and a by Word and Desolation in the Earth; yet there are few of
them that lament their Sin , but Justify themselves and their Misdoings, and the
penitent Malefactor is yet unknown to us. - Richard Baxter
Every
human wish dream that is injected into the Christian community is a hindrance to
genuine community and must be banished if genuine community is to survive. He
who loves his dream of community more than the Christian community itself
becomes a destroyer of the latter, even though his personal intentions may be
ever so honest and earnest and sacrificial. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Though
the human body have many members, and though it be composed of a great variety
of parts, yet it is but one entire system; every part and member being necessary
to the integrity or completeness of the whole. Adam Clarke
To
speak plainly, among all the churches in the world which are free from idolatry
and persecution, it is not different opinions, nor a difference in judgment
about revealed truths, nor a different practice in sacred administrations, but
pride, self-interest, love of honour, reputation, and dominion, with the
influence of civil or political intrigues and considerations, that are the true
cause of that defect of evangelical unity that is at this day amongst them. -
John Owen
It
is common to hear churchmen speak as though they did not really regard Christian
unity as a serious question this side of the End. This is a disastrous illusion.
Christians cannot behave as though time were unreal. God gives us time, but not
an infinite amount of time. It is His purpose that the Gospel should be preached
to all nations, and that all men should be brought into one family in Jesus
Christ. His purpose looks to a real End, and therefore requires of us real
decisions. If we misconstrue His patience, and think that there is an infinity
of time for debate while we perpetuate before the world the scandal of our
dismemberment of the Body of Christ, we deceive ourselves. In an issue regarding
the doing of the will of God there is no final neutrality. - Lesslie Newbigin
The
first thing I ask is that people should not make use of my name, and should not
call themselves Lutherans but Christians. What is Luther? The teaching is not
mine. - Martin Luther
Has
it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are
automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to
each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So
one hundred worshippers meeting together, each one looking away to Christ, are
in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be were they to become
"unity" conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer
fellowship. Social religion is perfected when private religion is purified. -
A.W. Tozer
Tolerance
is, no doubt, a virtue without which none of us can live; but we must,
nevertheless, at least understand that it is, strictly speaking, destructive of
fellowship, for it is a gesture by which the divine disturbance is rejected. The
ONE in whom we are veritably united is Himself the great intolerance. He willeth
to rule, to be victorious, to be - everything. He it is who disturbs every
family gathering, every scheme for the reunion of Christendom, every human
cooperation. And He disturbs, because He is the Peace that is above every
estrangement and cleavage and faction. - Karl Barth
The
poor Church of Christ , the sober, sound religious Part, are like Christ that
was crucified between two Malefactors; the profane and formal Persecutors on one
hand, and the Fanatic dividing Sectary on the other hand, have in all Ages been
grinding the spiritual Seed, as the Corn is ground between the Millstones: And
though their sins have ruined themselves and us, and silenced so many hundred
Ministers, and scattered the Flocks and made us the Hatred and the Scorn of the
ungodly World, and a by Word and Desolation in the Earth; yet there are few of
them that lament their Sin , but Justify themselves and their Misdoings, and the
penitent Malefactor is yet unknown to us. - Richard Baxter
Every
human wish dream that is injected into the Christian community is a hindrance to
genuine community and must be banished if genuine community is to survive. He
who loves his dream of community more than the Christian community itself
becomes a destroyer of the latter, even though his personal intentions may be
ever so honest and earnest and sacrificial. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Though
the human body have many members, and though it be composed of a great variety
of parts, yet it is but one entire system; every part and member being necessary
to the integrity or completeness of the whole. Adam Clarke
To
speak plainly, among all the churches in the world which are free from idolatry
and persecution, it is not different opinions, nor a difference in judgment
about revealed truths, nor a different practice in sacred administrations, but
pride, self-interest, love of honour, reputation, and dominion, with the
influence of civil or political intrigues and considerations, that are the true
cause of that defect of evangelical unity that is at this day amongst them. -
John Owen
It
is common to hear churchmen speak as though they did not really regard Christian
unity as a serious question this side of the End. This is a disastrous illusion.
Christians cannot behave as though time were unreal. God gives us time, but not
an infinite amount of time. It is His purpose that the Gospel should be preached
to all nations, and that all men should be brought into one family in Jesus
Christ. His purpose looks to a real End, and therefore requires of us real
decisions. If we misconstrue His patience, and think that there is an infinity
of time for debate while we perpetuate before the world the scandal of our
dismemberment of the Body of Christ, we deceive ourselves. In an issue regarding
the doing of the will of God there is no final neutrality. - Lesslie Newbigin
The
first thing I ask is that people should not make use of my name, and should not
call themselves Lutherans but Christians. What is Luther? The teaching is not
mine. - Martin Luther