I perhaps have quite low regard for many institutions of religion. However, I do have faith. Whilst I do not believe in ramming your religion down other people's throats I do feel that if you look and listen hard enough in every day life you see God in the thoughts, words and deeds of others in everyday life. Here are a few examples I have gathered over the years that may be of interest regardless of your belief.
WWJD?
Craze for car bumper stickers in USA meaning, “What would Jesus do?”
“Giving to charity is nice, a sort of thank you to God.”
Michael Winner commenting on what a multi-million lottery winner should do with their windfall.
“I don’t understand these atheists. They are pagans that do not worship God but are happy to worship the things he has made. What about their dreams? What happens to their dreams if God does not know them?”
Old lady on TV 25.8.05
“ I Pray as often as I can. Sometimes with others, but usually alone. It is more rewarding to pray with others. In return for my faith in him God gives me inner peace and love”
A truism from a Moslem sea captain.
When I first met Christians I wondered what they were on as they were always smiling and happy. I asked what they were on. They were on the Holy Spirit and I thought it was like, “Here’s a fiver give me some.”
Christian youth worker
I went to the pumpkin parade with my family. I suppose it is a pagan festival. There amongst the parade was a young woman carrying a pumpkin. Instaead of a ghoulish face in it was carved the word, “Jesus”. I’m sure her pumpkin shone brighter than all the rest.
Anon
“The church works because the congregation make a commitment to each other and together make a commitment to the church”
Comment on a successful South London Church
“A cheque book is a theological document - it shows who, and what you worship.
Billy Graham
There’s only one gospel - the one that calls men and women to justice.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Hollywood is a natural centre for producing biblical motion pictures. The reason is the name “Hollywood” may be biblical, as it has been seen as a corruption of the term “Holy Wood” or the wood of Christ’s cross.
Anon
Monday 9/1/06
Today I went into WHSmith in Peterborough and found Bibles filed under the heading, “Diet, Health and Fitness.” Perhaps the “diet” part is apt: “man cannot live on bread alone but lives by every word that God utters (Deut8.4) AE
Sobering Up
Do I pray today? Since getting sober, yes. In the past I only prayed to ask for something……a new job, a book deal, to win the National Lottery.
Now I thank God every morning that I haven’t got a hangover. I pray for the courage not to drink every day and to do the right thing, although I’m sometimes clueless about what that entails. If things get really tricky, I resort to the Serenity prayer. And I thank God at night for another days repreive from drinking.
Alice King
Mark Lamar: Will you tell me how you produce your records?
James Brown: No
Mark Lamar: Just tell me how you are positioned in the studio.
James Brown: No. I’ll tell you something good. Go to church!
“But John your audience are Christians they will not appreciate you performing to robbers and murderers inside Folsom prison.”
Johnny Cash retorted, “Then they ain’t no Christians.”
Johnny Cash to his record company persuading them to record him performing in Folsom Prison.
Abraham’s Children.
“In the Torah women are called , ‘akeret ha-bayit’, the foundation of the home. That doesn’t mean washing dishes. It’s educating our children in everything we think about life. That’s the nature of what a mother is.
Chaya Sasonkin.
“Let something be given for everything taken;
Let something be loosened for everything stuck.”
Poet on Radio 4
ON GOD AND STAR TREK
Instead of asking, “What would Jesus do?” the heathen will say, “What would Captain Jean Luc Picard of the starship Enterprise do?”
The Holy spirit is the universal translator.
We can all say, “Make it so” in Jesus’s name.
AE
“Smile at other people’s children. They are emissaries from heaven.”
Advice to holidaymakers visiting Italy.
WARNING!
In Germany the Nazis first came for the Communists and I did not speak up because I was not a Communist. Then they came for the Jews and I did not speak up because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the Trade Unionists and I did not speak up because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Catholics and I did not speak up because I was not a Catholic. Then they came for me……..and by that time there was no one to speak up for anyone.
Pastor Martin Niemoeller
Sir,
After the Israelites had safely crossed the Red Sea, Miriam, Aaron’s sister, picked up her tambourine and started to sing praise of what the Lord had done.
What’s the betting some old fogey at the back muttered: “Of course its not real music.”
Malcolm Dunbar, Letter to the Times
The Russian teachers of prayer tell us to “draw down our minds into our hearts.”
Geoffrey Rowell, Bishop of Gibralter in Europe
“If you bring forth what is within you, what you have will save you. What you do not have will kill you.”
Gospel of Thomas c. 110 A.D.
“True and ultimate service to God is with joy and with happiness.”
Asher Federman.
“Men and women give of their best not for some grand idea, some “-ism” but out of love, loyalty and comradeship.”
Bishop of London Dr. John Chartres at a Westminster Abbey service to mark 150 years of the Victoria Cross
One night after a concert I walked through the streets of the town, and I came upon a little church. The service was over, but the testimonials had just begun. People caught up in the spirit of the night just didn’t want to leave. So I stepped inside the door and sat down by a little old lady in the back.
A man stood up and said, “I just want all of you to know I’m going straight to heaven as fast as I can go, like an arrow from a bow.” And he sat down. Another man stood up and said, “I’m sailin’ right into heaven like a giant clipper ship. Sailin’ on a sea of blue, and nothing’s gonna deter me, or keep me from that safe harbour.” He sat down and another man stood up and said, “ I’m flyin’ into the portals of heaven on silverwings! Sailin’ over all the troubles and trials down below. Straight on in.” And he sat down.
The little lady beside me made it to her feet slowly and all got quiet as she raised her face, not to the preacher or the congregation, but toward heaven and prayfully said, “I’m comin’ Lord/For my heavenly reward/I’m on my way to you/ Can you see me comin’ through/ Through clouds of persecution/And stumbling’ on the way/But I expect, I’m makin’ bout half a mile a day.
Johnny Cash - Personal File Columbia 20 - relates a tale of humility vs. religious self-righteousness.