Years Worth of Quotes
Years Worth of Quotes
“It's not always easy to tell what's true. And sometimes it's even harder to believe in it. Even when it's right in front of you.” Space Pirate Captain Harlock
“We will never have freedom until we can face the truth. We can not continue to put faith in these illusions.” Logan – Space Pirate Captain Harlock
“I can't say there's no one who truly believes in the regime, but belief is mostly based on self-interest.” North Korean defector
From Ravi Zacharias at the Passion Conference 2016
Hymn writer Annie Johnston Flint - Blind, arthritic, incontinent, cancerous orphan.
He giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater,
He sendeth more strength when the labors increase,
To added affliction, He addeth His mercy,
To multiplied trials, His multiplied peace,
When we have exhausted our store of endurance, when our strength has failed and the day is half done, when we reach the end of our horded resources, our Father's full giving has only begun.
His love has no limit, His grace has no measure, His power has no boundaries known unto men.
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus, He giveth & giveth & giveth again.
You either have the pain of discipline or the pain of consequences.
What you win people with is what you win people to. Ravi Zacharias
Philip simply invited his friend Nathanael to “come and see” Jesus (John 1:45-46).
Have you come? Have you seen Him? If not, brace yourself. Because once you see Jesus – I mean see Him as He really is – you, your worldview, goals, affections, and everything will change. And because He never gives up on us, the changes won't stop. He's about growth not death, sanctification not stagnation. That's the key to a Christian life, and it's not boring but adventurous. Jesus, who spun the galaxies into being, paints the sunsets, and taught the humpback whales to migrate, can be comforting and rest giving, but He is never boring!
Sinners either make creativity about themselves or they turn creativity into a weapon to use against others. Creativity in our sin-stained hands always becomes self-serving. Images & Idols, Odd Thomas & J. Ryan Lister
...come, heed His call. Worship God with your creativity. … Create as only a Christian can create. Create because you are a Christian and, because you are a Christian, you can do no other. Images & Idols, Odd Thomas & J. Ryan Lister
Creativity actually needs direction, which means creativity needs a starting line. Like a traveler on her way, a point of origin helps determine our way. Without a beginning point for our creativity, we end up lost in a wilderness of our own design. We are susceptible to every mirage the culture offers us. Which means we are no longer on our way, or the way; it means we are following someone else's way. This haphazard itinerary often has the intersection of exhaustion and superficiality as its final destination. Images & Idols, Odd Thomas & J. Ryan Lister
[To be read in the style of Morphius explaining the Matrix to Mr. Anderson]
As (the great) John Calvin (once) recognized... “Man never achieves a clear knowledge of himself unless he has first looked upon God's face, and then descends from contemplating Him to scrutinize himself.” We cannot know ourselves, therefore, without knowing God.
God holds the key to your self-understanding because He created you in His own image. To know yourself then means we need to return to Genesis 1, the beginning of our understanding of both God and humanity. In the middle of the creation account, Genesis 1 … announces poetically, “So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” Images & Idols, Odd Thomas & J. Ryan Lister
As God makes each of us for Himself, He makes our creativity for the same reason. Your creativity, therefore, works only when it rests in God and you tether your purposes to His own. This is true freedom, and this is the truly creative life: using our God-given creativity to glorify Him and serve the world through beauty and imagination. Images & Idols, Odd Thomas & J. Ryan Lister
We were made to create, but our creation was always meant to be from the Lord, to the Lord, and through the Lord. Images & Idols, Odd Thomas & J. Ryan Lister
When we create in the image of our Creator, our creativity is no longer enslaved to our self-centeredness, dead-end objectives, or limited influence. Instead, it is free to be what God intended our creativity to be: God-centered, divinely directed, & eternally influential. Images & Idols, Odd Thomas & J. Ryan Lister
Our creativity is like a spark floating on the winter wind. On its own, it offers merely a flicker of light & heat, but its power lies in its promise of the fire that produced it. We want our creativity to reflect the wildfire of God's glory. Images & Idols, Odd Thomas & J. Ryan Lister
[Proper] creatives … create in order “to stimulate [the] imagination [in order] to show us that things have meaning.” Images & Idols, Odd Thomas & J. Ryan Lister
We will not only evidence God in our creativity, but we seek to spotlight it & give it center stage. Images & Idols, Odd Thomas & J. Ryan Lister
Self-determination is always the seedbed of idolatry. Images & Idols, Odd Thomas & J. Ryan Lister
“Art for Art's Sake” turned creativity into its own cult & the creative into the culture's high priest & demigod. In making new idols for the world, creatives have been made new idols by the world. Images & Idols, Odd Thomas & J. Ryan Lister
If sin is loving something more than God, then idolatry is what happens when we apply creativity to this twisted love. Idolatry is the prideful act of adding imagination to our rebellion in order to create something to take God's place in our lives. Idolatry is what happens when image bearers become image makers with creation's images.
Like selfish children who try to lock their parents in their bedroom on Christmas morning, sinners want the gifts without the Giver.
Creativity wasn't built for your kingdom, it was built for God's. When you unplug your creativity from God, it becomes powerless; and when you plug it into your own idolatry “outlet,” it will eventually blow the fuse.
If the works of your hands, the power of your imagination, and the output of your work ethic are just self-serving, then they will all serve to break you—in either this life or the next.
Creativity, like all of our idols, can become a treadmill on which, over time, we stumble and lose our footing and grounds for our hope.
In our idolatry, we've become like second-rate actors fighting to write our own second-rate plays, all while we try to forget that we're on the Master's stage in the middle of the opening-night performance.
The idol of creativity captures our attention with our own reflection and holds it there until all we can see is ourselves and our imaginative “genius.”
Creativity for creativity's sake will never fulfill you because creativity for God's sake and the sake of others is what you were made for.
Building redemption on communities of sinners united in their creativity is like building a bomb shelter out of activated bombs.
In His humanity, Christ overcame the human fight against the flesh, beauty, and pride, cutting a path through sin and temptation for His followers to follow Him.
To make the Father known and to help the world understand His love, Christ paints the world with powerful images and imaginative pictures. It's why salvation is about being “born again.” It's why He “ransoms” sinners through the cross. It's why Christ is our Good Shepherd, the way, the truth, the life, the Light of the World and on and on it goes. These pictures hang on the walls of our consciousness; they are indelible representations that show us what Christ has done and how we should feel about it. Christ talks in images to capture us and lead us out of the wilderness with Him.
By staring directly into the eyes of the bronze serpent, Israel was forced to look unflinchingly into the dark consequences of their rebellion in order to find their salvation.
God doesn't want your art. He wants you—all of you. And when He has all of you, He has your art—the motivation behind it and the purposes for it as well.
[Addressing unbelievers]
We get it. We've been there. We've felt what you likely feel. But we were behind enemy lines. Let us be honest with you: If you think Christianity and creativity are at odds, your problem isn't with Jesus; it's with what you think Christianity is. What if you've got it all wrong? What if your chains aren't Christianity but the popular chains of the world? What if you're actually enslaved to your creativity? And what if we told you that the thing you love about your creativity—that glimmer of transcendence that captivates you—is actually a distant reflection of the God of Scripture reflected in your image bearing? Why worship the result when you can have the cause? Why try to drink from a dry riverbed when God has shown you the river's wellspring? Why warm yourself with a spark when Christ offers you the fire?
Christ does not stand against your creativity, but He does stand over it. Your creativity was and will always be an instrument of worship. The gospel re-creates all of you so that every part of you, including your creativity, is from Christ, through Christ, and to Christ. The gospel re-tunes your creativity to sing His grace. It re-creates your creativity so that it can do what He made it to do—to bring God glory, forever.
[Regarding the example of the Japanese art of re-assembling broken pottery.]
… Put the golden and silver threads of God's providence on display. Show how God weaves your fractured life and art back together and holds it in place. When you do, the world will mostly see His glory, but you shouldn't mind. Your eyes will be captured by it, too.
… We have to remind them that—just like the kaleidoscope—the full spectrum of your creativity is seen only when it's held up to the Light.
Loving the world also means we let our creativity encourage obedience to Christ. “Creativity for obedience” sounds like a contradiction, but it's actually not. Obedience isn't the opposite of freedom. Captivity is. Obedience is a choice. Captivity isn't. The problem with submission is not the act itself but to whom you submit yourself. Does this one hold the keys to your prison or the keys to a kingdom? This is one of the greatest deceptions of our generation: that freedom is doing whatever you want whenever you want, and that it is free of discipline, obedience, and submission. Yet everything we cherish and build our hopes on demands these things. You don't find love in marriage without mutual submission to the other's good. You don't find joy in your creativity without being disciplined in your craft. You can't find wisdom in this world outside of obedience. Your life literally depends on it. That is why you stop at red lights.
Every time you run from obedience, you run back into captivity. The gospel, though, obliterates this. And if the gospel fills your creativity, then your creativity will assault this worldview, too. This is real freedom and the way your creativity serves the world at large. Your life and creative work become keys to the prison doors of the world's lies and idolatry.
So sing hymns. Speak propositions. Write stories. Sing the Psalms. Score new songs. Explore human complexities. But do so in a way that you cannot run fast enough to lay your art at the foot of God's throne.
We know creativity isn't just an act; it's an expression of the creative's heart.
The new creation shows us what our creativity can one day look like so we can pattern our life and work around this future vision here in our already-but-not-yet kingdom.
The key impetus of all creativity, especially in the New Jerusalem, is worship. We create to spur one another on in worship of the triune God who is no longer “out there” but “right here.”
God can use our creativity to prop this world's doors open to the next level.
This is what God's future promises can do for your creativity now and what your creativity can do for others:
1: It removes anxiety surrounding your creative work.
2: It allows you to exercise your creative gifts without pretense.
3: It keeps you from the tyranny of comparisons.
4: It puts the critic in perspective as well as your audience.
5: It removes your creativity from the center of your identity.
6: It resets your motives and gives you a barometer to keep them in check.
7: It induces worship and joy before, during, and after the creative process.
8: It ties your production to eternity rather than to just the present.
9: It gives you an honest and grace-filled perspective of your work and others.
10: It makes us both responsible and reliant on the Spirit at the same time.
The Lord uses our glorified creativity to help bring the heavens and the earth together.
Creativity helps loosen the grip of the rationalistic, anti-supernatural mentality that has us by the throats so that we can breathe in the air of heaven. Our imagination is a small trapdoor God built into our humanity that allows the future to sneak into the present. But remember, the world that is to come is the world you were made for to begin with. So feel free to tell others.
Your creativity is where the light of the better world breaks into the darkness of today. This is reclaimed creativity and it is why your creativity matters and how your creativity lasts. And lasts forever.
Highlighting God's creativity ultimately frees us to do what God made us to do, while His creativity shows us how to sing our theology.
For now, it is important to see not only that God is the artist who creates all things, but also that He uses the image of the Artist to unveil His character and work from the first creation to the new creation.
The modern church has, in many ways, underemphasized and hurt the creative side of the Christian. There is almost a “please leave your artistic bent at the door” sing in many churches' foyers. In large part, this is due to the didactic mode of the church predominant in the West, a mantra of “if you get their minds into heaven then you get all of them into heaven.” But as the culture shifts its center from the mind to the emotions, the church is missing its target audience and, in many ways, speaking a different language. Recognizing and appreciating (notice we are not saying idolizing) the creative worldview as one in the pews would help reach the world for God's glory and, not only that, deepen our concepts of theology proper and theological anthropology so that our pastoral care actually matters. It is able to speak both the language of the heart and the mind as these are not separated in God as they are oftentimes in the culture.
The gospel is about God's provision of eternal life, but it is also about His provision for your life right now. The gospel encompasses all of you—it transforms everything, including your creativity and the dreams you have for your creativity. It turns your creativity inside out. It breaks its idolatry and forces its outward glance.
End of Images and Idols – Creativity for the Christian Life by Thomas J. Terry & J. Ryan Lister.
Men live to have adventure to life, a battle to fight, & a beauty to rescue. John Eldridge
One in a thousand targets gets the right weapon at just the right time to make the killer into the killed, & that becomes the stuff of legend. Darrin Geisinger in Zero-G's Part 1 [application: when a demon gets cast out]
Great eagles fly alone; great lions hunt alone; great souls walk alone – alone with God. Such loneliness is hard to endure, and impossible to enjoy unless God accompanied. Prophets are lone men; they walk alone, pray alone and God makes them alone. Leonard Ravenhill
It's better to walk alone than to walk with a crowd that's going the wrong way.
Follow the Shepherd, not the flock.
A man's words are only as good as there conformity to Scripture.
Being rich gives you too much help in ignoring the truth, while being poor often leaves you little choice but to face it. Darrin Geisinger in Zero-G's Part 1.
Humility keeps the devil at bay. Joni Tada
Satan has a plan for your life. It is called the Mystery of Iniquity.
The word iniquity is—anomia. A = without, Nomia = Torah. Michael Rood, The Mystery of Iniquity
If we refuse to acknowledge the yeast infections that have begun to grow in the body of believers and each year burn the traditions that have stopped our ears to the Spirit of God, denominational inbreeding will have us living in the cesspool of the world system. Michael Rood, The Mystery of Iniquity
Too often comfort with the world system holds a higher priority than truth. Michael Rood, They Mystery of Iniquity
Learn to suffer if you want to win. 9x World Motocross Champion Antonio Cairoli
If you're not alive in Christ, you're dead. Kanye West
Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved. Martin Luther
We need to be fully awakened, before our society's ultra-thin veneer is pierced by those who thrive on iniquity and anarchy. Michael K. Lake, The Shinar Directive
The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war. General George S. Patton
Satan's supposed unstoppables meet God's redeemed untouchables. Michael K. Lake, The Shinar Directive [regarding end times]
God is calling every believer to unplug from the Illuminati's matrix of control so that He can judge it. Regardless of your eschatological position on the returning of Christ (pre-Tribulation, mid-Tribulation, or post-Tribulation), being completely disconnected from Babylon is the only way to be ready for His return/ Jesus is not coming back for a bride, wearing Babylonian garments, that is in service to Baal. He is coming back for a victorious bride that has overcome the influence and control of the Luciferian Elite and is wearing garments of true bibilcal holiness. May the process of waking up, cleaning up, and growing up begin this very hour! Michael K. Lake, The Shinar Directive
We can't expect the American People to jump from Capitalism to Communism, but we can assist their elected leaders in giving them small doses of Socialism, until they awaken one day to find that they have Communism. Nikita Khrushchev
The best way to take control over a people and control them utterly is to take a little of their freedom at a time, to erode rights by a thousand tiny and almost imperceptible reductions. In this way, the people will not see those rights and freedoms being removed until past the point at which these changes cannot be reversed. Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf
In the last days, we are facing an enemy the early Church never faced. The Watchers have been imprisoned since 3000 BC. As their release began around the turn of the twentieth century, socialism, communism, and liberalism weakened both Western society and the Church. Technologyhas redefined (or replaced) interpersonal relationships, and certain breakthroughs have created a false sense of humans wielding the power of the gods. The Watchers have joined ranks with the principalities, powers, rulers of darkness, spiritual wickedness, the demonic Nephilim spirits, and the Luciferian Elite. They are preparing for the greatest spiritual war of human history, while the Church at Large is mesmerized, is enthralled with entertainment, and has taken up permanent residence in spiritual preschool!
….. For the most part, the modern Church is wearing Babylonian garments and has forsaken the kingdom's robes of righteousness. We must awaken from spiritual slumber and change! Michael K. Lake, The Shinar Directive
Carefully crafted sound bites wrapped in the proper emotional garments have become the new doctrines of the carnally religious of today. Michael K. Lake, The Shinar Directive
God's law does several things: Reveals sin; Defines holiness and acts of righteousness; Serves as a pedagogy to lead its students to Messiah; Instructs the believer in the ways of righteousness, and how to function within God's kingdom; Separates Mystery Babylon from the kingdom of God. Michael K. Lake, The Shinar Directive
… the lesson from ancient Jewish wisdom here is that you can bond people and unify people with a sense of common spiritual purpose, but if you're going to eliminate the spiritual—if you're going to take God entirely out of the picture—then you can unify people through materialism. Michael K. Lake, The Shinar Directive [Christmas]
As a believer begins to observe the commandments the way Jesus did, the spiritual force of the kingdom that is released from his heart will begin driving back Babylon and establishing divine order and blessing. Michael K. Lake, The Shinar Directive
Our traditions have reduced the Old Testament to a group of children's stories of miracles that God no longer performs today. Then, we expect our children to believe in the story of Jesus presented in the New Testament. Michael K. Lake, The Shinar Directive
The veneer of civility within Western Culture has put us to sleep spirtually. We need to be fully awakened, before our society's ultra-thin veneer is pierced by those who thrive on iniquity and anarchy. Michael K. Lake, The Shinar Directive
Secular fundamentalism is the religion of the day. Michael K. Lake, The Shinar Directive
Life is pain … anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something. The Dread Pirate Roberts, The Princess Bride
I am a walking, talking, living, breathing hallelujah! From worship song: Living Proof – Live by David & Nicole Binion, & Steffany Gretzinger
In contrast to the neophyte who stumbles into the jaws of disaster and miraculously escapes, there is the man whose attention to detail and dogged preparation give him the ability to function properly at a moment's notice. Mike Lapinski in True Stories of Bear Attacks
The only way to honor Jesus' sacrifice is to invest our lives in finding just how deep the communion with our Heavenly Father can become! Michael Lake in The Sheeryith Imperitive
I will spend the rest of my life trying to express my love for God.
I've learned that the true test of a person's niceness is in the face of God's Judgments of sin and righteousness.
Grace and commandments are biblically two sides of the same coin. Michael Lake in The Sheeryith Imperitive
God's seeds can flow from the third heaven directly into the spirit of man. These spiritual seeds must then flow from the spirit into the soul of man as part of the maturation process. When the roots of God's seed are established in both the spirit and soul of man, then both can flow in harmony with the Kingdom of God. Michael Lake in The Sheeryith Imperitive
We need to understand that many of the concepts and practices of Western society are modern expressions of pagan myths and occult knowledge harbored by the Mystery Religions.
Like the Romans that Flynn referred to, we view (and participate in) many aspects, philosophies, and even public rituals within our societies and are clueless regarding their true purposes and meanings. It is the practice of the Mystery Religions to make alterations to the stories, symbolism, or names to allow the expressions of their beliefs to remain in plain view of the general public. Many times, we find ourselves clapping our hands and dancing to the drums of Mystery Babylon without ever taking the time to research the origins and true meanings of the cultural tunes (or traditions) that we have embraced. When dealing with the knowledge delivered by the nachash [fallen angels], Watchers, and their associates, we must look beyond the storefront realities that the Elite present to us and discover the origins of these symbols and practices. The spiritual power in any symbolism, practices, and philospoies are not in what they mean to those outside these occult societies, but the orignal meanings they seek to obscure from the profane (ie., the general public). I must confess that once you dig deeply enough to learn the true meaning of many of our practices within Western society (and even the church), it can become quite overwhelming. Michael Lake in The Sheeryith Imperitive
It gets worse. Another example is how the modernized gospel converys the message that the completed work on the Cross cleaned up sin and made it acceptable to God: Because of grace, we can now sin with a clear conscious. However, the writers of the New Testament were heralding the truth that Christ has freed us from the death grip of sin,l while maintaining the biblical message that those that continue to sin will find their place in the Lake of Fire. These examples are only the tip of a very large, theologically corrupt iceberg that is destroying the faith of millions. Michael Lake in The Sheeryith Imperitive
I cannot stress enough that it is essential, as we approach the unfolding of the book of Revelation, that we move beyond being a member of the clueless crowd that cannot comprehend the sociological, philosophical, and cultural influences of Mystery Babylon. Michael Lake in The Sheeryith Imperitive
Religion is postured for the falling away. G. Steven Simons
Life ain't been the same since death died. KB
“We can achieve the lowest depths of human depravity by just turning on the autopilot and doing what feels good at the moment.” Rev in the book by Mark Goodwin, Cabal Pt. 1
God's Kingdom is not moved by your opinion. Michael Lake
The only thing the government wasn't prepared for was candles & prayer. Regarding the Germans & the end of the Berlin Wall era.
One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. Martin Luther King
The future is not evenly distributed. Lost source