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more sunday quotes

...regarding the opposition the gospel faces, and having the willingness to accept the conflict that comes with following Christ...

“Totalitarian, authoritative states are not far from us. They breathe down our necks at every turn—not only communist countries, but also modern elites in the West. In each case, an authoritative society offers itself as the integration point. The Christian must always say, “I want the state and society to have its proper place. But if it tries to come into the center of my life, I am against it because Jesus only is there.” (Francis Schaeffer, No Little People, 1974)

“Jesus promised his disciples three things: that they would be entirely fearless, absurdly happy, and that they would get into trouble.” (W. Russell Maltby)

"The saddest symptom about many so-called Christians is the utter absence of anything like conflict and fight against spiritual apathy in their Christianity. They eat, they drink, they dress, they work, they amuse themselves, they get money, they spend money, they go through a brief round of formal religious services once or twice every week. But of the great spiritual warfare – its watchings and strugglings, its agonies and anxieties, its battles and contests – of all things they appear to know nothing at all. Let us take care that this case is not our own." (J.C. Ryle)

Edit: here's a bit more of the Schaeffer quote and a fuller citation:

"Having stressed that Jesus must be in the center of our lives, I want to mention ... other things that we must be careful not to put there. The first is any totalitarian state or totalitarian church. If I have the perspective the disciples were told to have on the Mount of Transfiguration — “this is my beloved Son ... hear ye him” — there is no place for a totalitarian anything! Neither a church which puts itself between the individual and God, nor a state which demands primary allegiance has such a right. There is a legitimate place for both the state and church, but not at the center. The center must be a Person [Jesus].
Totalitarian, authoritative states are not far from us. They breathe down our necks at every turn — not only communist countries, but also modern elites in the West. In each case, an authoritative society offers itself as the integration point. The Christian must always say, “I want the state and society to have its proper place. But if it tries to come into the center of my life, I am against it because Jesus only is there.” 

-- Francis Schaeffer, "Jesus Only" in No Little People. In The Complete Works of Francis A. Schaeffer: A Christian Worldview, Volume Three, Book One, Chapter 12, p. 145. Crossway Books 2nd edition (1982).
 
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