15 key Bible chapter

15 key Bible chapters
http://home.snu.edu/~hculbert/keychap.htm

These are not necessarily the "15 Best Loved" chapters of the Bible. They may not even be the "15 Most Well Known" chapters. One hesitates to even call them the "15 Most Significant" chapters.
These are 15 chapters with key scriptural events and themes. At Southern Nazarene University, we think a beginning student of the Bible should be familiar with them.
Old Testament chapters
Genesis 1-3: Creation, Fall, first promise of a Redeemer
"In the beginning"
Genesis 12: Abraham's call, a giant step toward fulfilling the promise
"Through you all peoples will be blessed" [ Was having Abraham move to the Promised Land a "strategic move" by God? ]
Exodus 20: Giving of the Ten Commandments
"I am the Lord your God"
Joshua 24: The "line in the sand"
"Choose you this day"
Isaiah 53: The "suffering servant" passage that looks to the coming Messiah
"The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all"
Psalm 23: The Shepherd's Psalm
"The Lord is my shepherd" [ Devotional thoughts on Psalm 23 ]
Psalm 51: David's prayer for forgiveness and cleansing
"Create in me a clean heart, O God"
Proverbs 31: Ode to a virtuous, godly woman
"Far more precious than jewels"
New Testament chapters
Matthew 5-7: Sermon on the Mount [ Devotional thoughts ]
"Blessed are you . . ."
John 17: Jesus' High Priestly Prayer
"Sanctify them" [ more info ]
Acts 2: Holy Spirit's coming on Day of Pentecost
"All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit"
Acts 15: Jerusalem Council: Must one become a Jew to be a Christian?
"He has made no distinction between them and us"
1 Corinthians 13: Love chapter
"The greatest of these is love"
Hebrews 11: Hall of fame: heroes of the faith
"By faith . . ."
Revelation 7: The Grand Finale
"A great multitude that no man could count"

Traveling Team Quotes - 100 World Christian Quotes

"Must you go to China? How much nicer it would be to stay here and serve the Lord at home!" She made it plain at last that she would not go to China." - J. Hudson Taylor's new ex-girlfriend "You can do something other than working with God in His purpose, but it will always be something lesser, and you couldn't come up with something better." - Steve Hawthorne "I have seen, at different times, the smoke of a thousand villages - villages whose people are without Christ, without God, and without hope in the world." - Robert Moffat "The command has been to "go," but we have stayed - in body, gifts, prayer and influence. He has asked us to be witnesses unto the uttermost parts of the earth... but 99% of Christians have kept puttering around in the homeland." - Robert Savage "While vast continents are shrouded in darkness... the burden of proof lies upon you to show that the circumstances in which God has placed you were meant by God to keep you out of the foreign mission field." - Ion Keith-Falconer "I wasn't God's first choice for what I've done for China... I don't know who it was... It must have been a man... a well-educated man. I don't know what happened. Perhapshe died. Perhaps he wasn't willing... and God looked down... and saw Gladys Aylward... And God said - "Well, she's willing." - Gladys Aylward "Brother, if you would enter that Province, you must go forward on your knees." - J. Hudson Taylor "The man... looking at him with a smile that only half concealed his contempt, inquired, "Now Mr. Morrison do you really expect that you will make an impression on the idolatry of the Chinese Empire?" "No sir," said Morrison, "but I expect that God will." - Robert Morrison "Here am I. Send me." - Isaiah "And people who do not know the Lord ask why in the world we waste our lives as missionaries. They forget that they too are expending their lives... and when the bubble has burst they will have nothing of eternal significance to show for the years they have wasted." - Nate Saint "Jehovah Witnesses don't believe in hell and neither do most Christians" - Leonard Ravenhill "Had I cared for the comments of people, I should never have been a missionary." - C.T. Studd "Young man, sit down: when God pleases to convert the heathen, He will do it without your aid or mine." - said to a young William Carey "Oh, that I had a thousand lives, and a thousand bodies! All of them should be devoted to no other employment but to preach Christ to these degraded, despised, yet beloved mortals." - Robert Moffat "We must be global Christians with a global vision because our God is a global God." - John Stott "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." - Jim Elliot "A tiny group of believers who have the gospel keep mumbling it over and over to themselves. Meanwhile, millions who have never heard it once fall into the flames of eternal hell without ever hearing the salvation story." - K.P. Yohannan "I have but one passion - it is He, it is He alone. The world is the field and the field is the world; and henceforth that country shall be my home where I can be most used in winning souls for Christ." - Count Zinzindorf "God's work done in God's way will never lack God's supplies." - J. Hudson Taylor "He must increase, but I must decrease." - John the Baptist "If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him." - C.T. Studd "The greatest missionary is the Bible in the mother tongue. It needs no furlough and is never considered a foreigner." - William Cameron Townsend "Prepare for the worst, expect the best, and take what comes." - Robert E. Speer "The saddest thing one meets is a nominal Christian. I had not seen it in Japan where missions is younger. The church here is a "field full of wheat and tares." - Amy Carmichael "I used to think that prayer should have the first place and teaching the second. I now feel it would be truer to give prayer the first, second and third places and teaching the fourth." - James O. Fraser "It is just as proper, maybe even more so, to say Christ's global cause has a Church as to say Christ's Church has a global cause." - David Bryant "If you are sick, fast and pray; if the language is hard to learn, fast and pray; if the people will not hear you, fast and pray, if you have nothing to eat, fast and pray." - Frederick Franson "What are we here for, to have a good time with Christians or to save sinners?" - Malla Moe "I tell you, brethren, if mercies and if judgments do not convert you, God has no other arrows in His quiver." - Robert Murray Mc'Cheyne "It's amazing what can be accomplished if you don't worry about who gets the credit." - Clarence W. Jones "Two distinguishing marks of the early church were: 1) Poverty 2) Power." - T.J. Bach "Do not think me mad. It is not to make money that I believe a Christian should live. The noblest thing a man can do is, just humbly to receive, and then go amongst others and give." - David Livingstone "From my many years' experience I can unhesitatingly say that the cross bears those who bear the cross." - Sadhu Sundar Singh "I pray that no missionary will ever be as lonely as I have been." - Lottie Moon "All my friends are but one, but He is all sufficient." - William Carey "How little chance the Holy Ghost has nowadays. The churches and missionary societies have so bound him in red tape that they practically ask Him to sit in a corner while they do the work themselves." - C.T. Studd "I have always believed that the Good Samaritan went across the road to the wounded man just because he wanted to." - Wilfred Thomason Grenfell "The more obstacles you have, the more opportunities there are for God to do something." - Clarence W. Jones "Expect great things from God. Attempt great things for God." - William Carey "God's part is to put forth power; our part is to put forth faith." - Andrew A. Bonar "All the resources of the Godhead are at our disposal!" - Jonathan Goforth "I feel now, that Arabia could easily be evangelized within the next thirty years if it were not for the wicked selfishness of Christians." -Samuel Zwemer "The Indian is making an amazing discovery, namely that Christianity and Jesus are not the same - that they may have Jesus without the system that has been built up around Him in the West." - E. Stanley Jones "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come." - Jesus "All roads lead to the judgment seat of Christ." - Keith Green "Obedience to the call of Christ nearly always costs everything to two people- the one who is called, and the one who loves that one." - Oswald Chambers "Christians don't tell lies they just go to church and sing them" - A.W. Tozer "I have said that there is nothing in the world or the Church, except it's disobedience, to render the evangelization of the world in this generation an impossibility." - Robert Speer "I will lay my bones by the Ganges that India might know there is one who cares." - Alexander Duff "Today Christians spend more money on dog food then missions" - Leonard Ravenhill "It will not do to say that you have no special call togo to China. With these facts before you and with the command of the Lord Jesus to go and preach the gospel to every creature, you need rather to ascertain whether you have a special call to stay at home." - J. Hudson Taylor "We talk of the second coming, half the world has never heard of the first." - Oswald J. Smith "God cannot lead you on the basis of facts that you do not know." - David Bryant "And thus I aspire to preach the gospel, not where Christ was already named so that I would not build on another man's foundation." - Paul "Why do we insist on building the largest and most impressive structures in our city when people on the other side of town are hungry, jobless and worshipping in storefronts?" - K.P. Yohannan "If every Christian is already considered a missionary, then all can stay put where they are, and nobody needs to get up and go anywhere to preach the gospel. But if our only concern is to witness where we are, how will people in unevangelized areas ever hear the gospel? The present uneven distribution of Christians and opportunities to hear the gospel of Christ will continue on unchanged." - C. Gordon Olson "I spent twenty years of my life trying to recruit people out of local churches and into missions structures so that they could be involved in fulfilling God's global mission. Now I have another idea. Let's take God's global mission and put it right in the middle of the local church!" - George Miley "God provides the men and women needed for each generation." -Mildred Cable "Oh dear, I couldn't say that my church is alive and I wouldn't want to call it dead. I guess it's just walking in its sleep!" - Church member "When he landed in 1848 there were no Christians here; when he left in 1872 there were no heathen." - said of John Geddie "I am ready to burn out for God. I am ready to endure any hardship, if by any means I might save some. The longing of my heart is to make known my glorious Redeemer to those who have never heard." -William Burns "At the moment I put the bread and wine into those dark hands, once stained with the blood of cannibalism, now stretched out to receive and partake theemblems and seals of the Redeemer's love, I had a foretaste of the joy of glory that well nigh broke my heart to pieces. I shall never taste a deeper bliss, till I gaze on the glorified face of Jesus himself." - John G. Paton "Save others, snatching them out of the fire." - Jude "The evangelization of the world in this generation." - Student Volunteer Movement Motto "Other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring." - Jesus "Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn't." - John Piper "His authority on earth allows us to dare to go to all the nations. His authority in heaven gives us our only hope of success. And His presence with us leaves us no other choice." - John Stott "Today five out of six non-Christians in our world have no hope unless missionaries come to them and plant the church among them." - David Bryant "Tell the students to give up their small ambitions and come eastward to preach the gospel of Christ." - Francis Xavier "Christ for the students of the world, and the students of the world for Christ." - Luther Wishard "We who have Christ's eternal life need to throw away our own lives." - George Verwer "Some wish to live within the sound of a chapel bell, I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of Hell." - C.T. Studd "When I get to China, I will have no claim on any one for anything. My claim will be alone in God and I must learn before I leave England to move men through God by prayer alone." - J. Hudson Taylor "God has huge plans for the world today! He is not content to merely establish a handful of struggling churches among each tongue, tribe and nation. Even now He is preparing and empowering His Church to carry the seeds of revival to the uttermost ends of the earth." - David Smithers "The mark of a great church is not its seating capacity, but its sending capacity." - Mike Stachura "Answering a student's question, 'Will the heathen who have not heard the Gospel be saved?' thus, 'It is more a question with me whether we, who have the Gospel and fail to give it to those who have not, can be saved.'" - C.H. Spurgeon. Twenty year-old John R. Mott walked in late to the meeting at Cornell while J.K. Studd was quoting, "Young man, are you seeking great things for yourself? Seek them not! Seek first the Kingdom of God!" He couldn't sleep all night. He finally got up and had the courage to meet with Studd. He later said that the meeting with Studd was the "decisive hour of his life". He went on to become the greatest missions mobilizer in world history.       "There is something wonderfully misleading, full of hallucination and delusion in this business of missionary calls. With many of us it is not a missionary call at all that we are looking for; it is a shove. There are a great many of us who would never hear a call if it came." - Robert Speer "I have found that there are three stages in every great work of God; first, it is impossible, then it is difficult, then it is done." - J. Hudson Taylor "I love to live on the brink of eternity." - David Brainerd "The greatest tragedy to befall a person is to have sight but lack vision." - Helen Keller "'Not called!' did you say? 'Not heard the call,' I think you should say. Put your ear down to the Bible, and hearhim bid you go and pull sinners out of the fire of sin. Put your ear down to the burdened, agonized heart of humanity, and listen to its pitiful wail for help. Go stand by the gates of hell, and hear the damned entreat you to go to their father's house and bid their brothers and sisters, and servants and masters not to come there. And then look Christ in the face, whose mercy you have professed to obey, and tell him whether you will join heart and soul and body and circumstances in the march to publish his mercy to the world." - William Booth "Here is a test to find whether your mission on earth is finished: If you are alive, it isn't." - Richard Bach "If God has fit you to be a missionary, I would not have you shrivel down to be a king." - Charles H. Spurgeon "The world is my parish." - John Wesley "Why doesn't your God speak my language?" - Guatemalan Indian to Cam Townsend, founder Wycliffe Bible Translators "I am willing to go anywhere, at anytime, to do anything for Jesus." - Luther Wishard "The 3.5 billion unreached people on earth would form a single file line that would stretch around the equator 25 times! Can you picture 25 lines of Christless people, trampling endlessly toward hell? Let that vision stay with you day and night." - Larry Stockstill "God does not have to come and tell me what I must do for Him, He brings me into a relationship with Himself where I hear His call and understand what He wants me to do, and I do it out of sheer love to Him... When people say they have had a call to foreign service, or to any particular sphere of work, they mean that their relationship to God has enabled them to realize what they can do for God." - Oswald Chambers "A little prayer, little power; no prayer, no power." - A Chinese Christian motto "When God's finger points, God's hand will open the door." -Clarence Jones "I will open Africa to the gospel or die trying." - Rowland Bingham "None but women can reach Muslim Women... So we have a solemn duty in this matter that we cannot shift. The blood of souls is on our skirts, and God will demand them at our hands." - Missionary wife from the Middle East "The church that does not evangelize will fossilize." -Oswald J. Smith "As long as there are millions destitute of the word of God and the knowledge of Jesus Christ, it will be impossible for me to devote my time and energy to those who have both." - J.L. Ewen "If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stay. If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned and unprayed for." - Charles Spurgeon "We have a God who delights in impossibilities." - Andrew Murray "Why do you need a voice when you have a verse." -Jim Elliot "The history of missions is the history of answered prayer. From Pentecost to the Haystack meeting in New England and from the days when Robert Morrison landed in China to the martyrdom of John and Betty Stam, prayer has been the source of power and the secret of spiritual triumph." -Samuel Zwemer

The nations be glad! : the supremacy of God in missions / John Piper.

11- Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn't. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man. When this age is over, and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more. It is a temporary necessity. But worship abides forever. 111- 112 An aging Christian once objected to John G. Paton's plan to go as a missionary to the South Sea Islands with the words, "You'll be eaten by Cannibals!" Paton responded: Mr. Dickson, you are advanced in years now, and your own prospect is soon to be laid in the grave, there to be eaten by worms; I confess to you, that if I can but live and die serving and honoring the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me whether I am eaten by Cannibals or worms; and in the Great Day my resurrection lady will arise as fair as yours in the likeness of our risen Redeemer.21 James Paton, ed., John G. Paton: Missionary to the New Hebrides, An Autobiography (London: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1965, originally 1891), p. 56. the world sees millions of "retired" Christians pouring out the last drops of their lives with joy for the sake of the unreached peoples and with a view toward heaven, then the Spacy of God frill shine. He does not shine as brightly in the posh, leisure-soaked luxury condos on the outer rings of our cities. Let There Be No Talk of Ultimate Self-Denial Christ is calling his church to biblical, wartime engagement in world missions. He is making it plain that it will not happen without pain. But let there be no Christian self-pity, no talk of ultimate self-denial. It is simply 5ing how consistent are the testimonies of missionaries who have suffered for the gospel. Virtually all of them bear witness of abundant joy and overriding compensations. Those who have suffered most speak in the most lavish terms of the supreme blessing joy of giving their lives away for others. Lottie Moon said, "Surely there is no greater joy than saving souls." Sherwood Eddy said of Amy Carmichael, "Her life was the most fragrant, the most joyfully sacrificial, that I ever know." Samuel Zwemer, after fifty years of labor (including the loss of young children], said, "The sheer joy of it all comes back. Gladly would I do it all over again." And both Hudson Taylor and David Livingston, after lives of extraordinary hardship and loss ;aid, ~'I never made a sacrifice." From this discovery I have learned that the way of love is both the way of self-denial and the way of ultimate joy. We deny ourselves the fleeting pleasures of sin and luxury and self absorption order to seek the kingdom above all things. In doing so we bring the greatest good to others, we magnify the worth of Christ as a treasure chest of joy, and we find our greatest satisfaction. God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him. God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him. And the supremacy of that glory shines most brightly when the Satisfaction that we have in him endures in spite of suffering and pain in the mission of love. ISBN 0-8010-7124-0 1993 by John Piper Published by Baker Books

Rethinking the church : a challenge to creative redesign in an age transition / James Emery White.

Rethinking the church : a challenge to creative redesign in an age transition / James Emery White. white, James Emery, 1961- 0-8010-9039-3 (pbk.) Rethinking Structure 93 To make matters worse, a church's structure is often wedded to some of the most deeply rooted customs within the life of a church . 94 As a result, a churches structure can either serve the church it to a standstill. It can energize a community of faith lead it toward ever deepening levels of discouragement. It can enable men and women to use their gifts and abilities for the kingdom of God or tie the hands and frustrate the most ted efforts of God's people. Why? Because the structure of any organization directly affects morale, effectiveness and unity.

Mountain rain / Eileen Crossrnan.

35 I am feeling more and more that it is, after all, just prayers of God's people that call down blessing upon the work, whether they are directly engaged in it or not. Paul may plant and Apollos water, but it is God whogives the increase; and this increase can be brought down from heaven by believing prayer, whether offered in China or in England. We are, as it were, God's agents - used by Him to do His work, ours. We do our part, and then can only look to Him. with orders, Eor His blessing. If this is so, then Christians at home can do as much for foreign missions as those actually on the field. I believe it Will only be known on the last Day how much has been accomplished in missionary work by the prayers earnest believers at home. And athis, surely, is the heart of the problem. Such work does not consist in curio exhibitions, showing slides, interesting reports and so on. Good as they may be. these are only the fringe. not root of the matter. Solid, lasting missionary work is done on our knees. What I covet more than anything else is Earnest believing prayer, and I write to ask you to Continue to put up much prayer for me and the work here in Tengyueh. I should like you continually to pray, not only for the salvation of outsiders but for blessing on those who have

what life is all about

I work hard and party hard; Thats what life is all about RIGHT???

Rethinking the church : a challenge to creative redesign in an age transition / James Emery White.

white, James Emery, 1961- Rethinking the church : a challenge to creative redesign in an age transition / James Emery White. 0-8010-9039-3 (pbk.) Rethinking Structure 93 To make matters worse, a church's structure is often wedded to some of the most deeply rooted customs within the life of a church . 94 As a result, a churches structure can either serve the church it to a standstill. It can energize a community of faith lead it toward ever deepening levels of discouragement. It can enable men and women to use their gifts and abilities for the kingdom of God or tie the hands and frustrate the most ted efforts of God's people. Why? Because the structure of any organization directly affects morale, effectiveness and unity.

Mountain rain / Eileen Crossrnan.

35 I am feeling more and more that it is, after all, just prayers of God's people that call down blessing upon the work, whether they are directly engaged in it or not. Paul may plant and Apollos water, but it is God who gives the increase; and this increase can be brought down from heaven by believing prayer, whether offered in China or in England. We are, as it were, God's agents - used by Him to do His work, ours. We do our part, and then can only look to Him. with orders, Eor His blessing. If this is so, then Christians at home can do as much for foreign missions as those actually on the field. I believe it Will only be known on the last Day how much has been accomplished in missionary work by the prayers earnest believers at home. And athis, surely, is the heart of the problem. Such work does not consist in curio exhibitions, showing slides, interesting reports and so on. Good as they may be. these are only the fringe. not root of the matter. Solid, lasting missionary work is done on our knees. What I covet more than anything else is Earnest believing prayer, and I write to ask you to Continue to put up much prayer for me and the work here in Tengyueh. I should like you continually to pray, not only for the salvation of outsiders but for blessing on those who have definitely accepted Christ . . . I vwnt to be downright in earnest myself, and to be filled with the Spirit.

Misc

• Many folks want to serve God, but only as advisers
• When you get to your wit's end, you'll find God lives there.
• God Himself does not propose to judge a man until he is dead. So why should you?
• God doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the called.
• God promises a safe landing, not a calm passage.
• If God is your Co-pilot - swap seats!
• Prayer: Don't give God instructions -- just report for duty!
• The task ahead of us is never as great as the Power behind us.
• The Will of God will never take you to where the Grace of God will not protect you.
• We don't change the message, the message changes us.

Gay bishop 'not an abomination'

I want to bring out a few points before you get into this article and the issue. The ultimate question is really, is homosexuality approved of in the Bible, no, in the Old Testament (Hebrew) and New Testament. God is the same and does not change. Homosexuals can be believers and even cared for and loved by the church as any other person, but that does not mean we should in any fashion sanction there actions; so once the church identifies there sin they are bound to call them on there sin, as an adulterer would have to be reproved. Having that clear lets look at some of the quotes

"I am not an abomination before God - please, I beg you, let's say our prayers and stand up for right Gene Robinson Bishop of New Hampshire

He is not an abomination, this is true, but his lifestyle and what he teaches by his actions and words are.

Gene Robinson said the Episcopal Church should "stand up for right", adding that Anglicans should not be swayed by fear of deepening rifts over the issue.

Isn't it evident that all the parties are standing up for what they believe is right? But evidently some have different views of that "right".

Tom Wright, the Bishop of Durham in the UK, warned that a moratorium was needed on creating any bishops living with a same-sex partner until there was consensus in the church.

NT Wright is a well respected author and church man and obviously he is here trying to bring reconciliation, and on first glance it might appear that is what he is saying, but on second and ever after one has to bring to light the truth. He is saying the same as the Archbishop of Canterbury indicated a while back, when everyone comes around to the correct way of thinking than we will be able to accept homosexuals, until than maybe we should just work at picking apart the opposition. The Homosexual action groups in large part are willing to play a battle of attrition waiting to wear down there opponents knowing that they will eventually win as society caves into a small vocal minority. But it also recognises that gay people are "by baptism... full members of the Church" and apologises to them for years of rejection and maltreatment by the Church. Enough Said!!!! In conclusion nothing new, but I think I will again re-evaluate NT Wright even more. In the past I thought he was just wrong about his views on modernism and post modernism, now I must suspect that his theology is completely askew.

Gay bishop 'not an abomination'

The gay US bishop at the centre of controversy over his consecration has told a convention of US Anglicans he is "not an abomination". Gene Robinson said the Episcopal Church should "stand up for right", adding that Anglicans should not be swayed by fear of deepening rifts over the issue. The Ohio convention is to vote on how far to go in seeking to prevent the ordination of more openly gay bishops. A senior conservative said it would be impossible to prevent a split. "We've reached a moment where it is very difficult, indeed I think we've reached an impossible moment, in holding it together," Bishop Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh said, quoted by the Associated Press. 'Faithfully true' The Episcopal General Convention is the first since Bishop Robinson's consecration in 2003. I am not an abomination before God - please, I beg you, let's say our prayers and stand up for right Gene Robinson Bishop of New Hampshire Tom Wright, the Bishop of Durham in the UK, warned that a moratorium was needed on creating any bishops living with a same-sex partner until there was consensus in the church. But in an impassioned speech, Bishop Robinson argued that the question was whether the church recognised the life of Christ in its gay and lesbian members. It was not primarily about the future of the worldwide Anglican communion, he said. "I am not an abomination before God," he said. "Please, I beg you, let's say our prayers and stand up for right." He told the BBC that resolutions proposed by the convention were part of a conversation - one that he would not shy away from. "I won't walk away. I will stay here and I will talk with anyone who is willing to talk. I will be as faithfully true as I can be with people who can be equally as faithful," he said. 'Express regret' The main motion being discussed by the Episcopal Church suggests exercising "great caution" before ordaining another gay bishop, but falls short of the moratorium on ordination being suggested by Anglican leaders. The motion also calls on dioceses to defer same-sex ceremonies until the Anglican communion achieves consensus on the issue. And it says that the Episcopal Church should apologise "for having breached the bonds of affection in the Anglican communion by any failure to consult adequately with our Anglican partners". It urges those who took part in Bishop Robinson's election to "express regret" for the pain they have caused. But it also recognises that gay people are "by baptism... full members of the Church" and apologises to them for years of rejection and maltreatment by the Church. The motion is mostly based on the recommendations of the Windsor Report, resulting from an inquiry into the row in 2004. Story from BBC NEWS: Published: 2006/06/15 09:49:36 GMT © BBC MMVI

Robert Heinlein on Religion

Stranger in a Strange Land A devout agnostic, Jubal rated all religions, from the animism of Kalahari Bushmen to the most intellectualized faith, as equal. But emotionally he disliked some more than others and the Church of the New Revelation set his teeth on edge. The Fosterites’ flat-footed claim to gnosis through a direct line to Heaven, their arrogant intolerance, their football-rally and sales-convention services – these depressed him. If people must go to church, why the devil couldn’t they be dignified, like Catholics, Christian Scientists, or Quakers? If God existed (concerning which Jubal maintained neutrality) and if He wanted to be worshipped (a proposition which Jubal found improbable but nevertheless possible in the light of his own ignorance), then it seemed wildly unlikely that a God potent to shape galaxies would be swayed by the whoop-te-do nonsense the Fosterites offered as “worship.” But with bleak honesty Jubal admitted that the Fosterites might own the Truth, the exact Truth, nothing but the Truth. The Universe was a silly place at best… but the least likely explanation for it was the no-explanation of random chance, the conceit that abstract somethings “just happened” to be atoms that “just happened” to get together in ways which “just happened” to look like consistent laws and some configurations “just happened” to possess self-awareness and that two “just happened” to bet he Man form Mars and a bald-headed old coot with Jubal inside. No, he could not swallow the “just-happened” theory, popular as it was with men who called themselves scientists. Random chance was not a sufficient explanation of the Universe – random chance was not sufficient to explain random chance; the pot could not hold itself. Jubal shook his head. “I’ll give an exact definition. ‘Love’ is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.” The only religious opinion I feel sure of is this: self-awareness is not just a bunch of amino acids bumping together. (regarding religion/God)

Quote - Jonathan Go Forth on his points of focus

1) Seek to give much, expect nothing. 2) Put the very best construction on the actions of others. 3) Never let a day pass without at least a quarter of an hour spent in the study of the Bible. 4) Never omit daily morning and evening private prayer and devotion. 5) In all things seek to know Gods Will and when known obey at any cost. 6) Seek to cultivate a quiet prayerful spirit. 7) Seek each day to do or say something to further Christianity among the heathen

Quote: Scientific Theory

it matter not how beautiful and popular an idea is: if it does not agree with experiment or observation, it is useless and should be abandoned. Quoted in Crisis Magazine June 2006 pg6