no matter how many waverings you may have

“Trust him. And when you have done that, you are living the life of grace. No matter what happens to you in the course of that trusting - no matter how many waverings you may have, no matter how many suspicions that you have bought a poke with no pig in it, no matter how much heaviness and sadness your lapses, vices, indispositions, and bratty whining may cause you - you believe simply that Somebody Else, by his death and resurrection, has made it all right, and you just say thank you and shut up. The whole slop-closet full of mildewed performances (which is all you have to offer) is simply your death; it is Jesus who is your life. If he refused to condemn you because your works were rotten, he certainly isn't going to flunk you because your faith isn't so hot. You can fail utterly, therefore, and still live the life of grace. You can fold up spiritually, morally, or intellectually and still be safe. Because at the very worst, all you can be is dead - and for him who is the Resurrection and the Life, that just makes you his cup of tea.” 

[Robert Farrar Capon, Between Noon & Three: Romance, Law & the Outrage of Grace]

cast your deadly doing down

Weary, working, burdened one,
Wherefore toil you so?
Cease your doing; all was done
Long, long ago.
Till to Jesus’ work you cling
By a simple faith,
“Doing” is a deadly thing—
“Doing” ends in death.
Cast your deadly “doing” down—
Down at Jesus’ feet;
Stand in Him, in Him alone,
Gloriously complete. 

[James Proctor]

crucial eccentricity

"A crucial eccentricity of the Christian faith is the assertion that people are saved by grace. There's nothing you have to do.  There's nothing you have to do. There's nothing you have to do." 

[Frederick Buechner]

she must and shall go free

Mercy speaks by Jesus' blood
Hear and sing, ye sons of God
Justice satisfied indeed
Christ has full atonement made
Jesus' blood speaks loud and sweet
Here all deity can meet
And without a jarring voice
Welcome Zion to rejoice
All her debts were cast on me
And she must and shall go free
Peace of conscience, peace with God
We obtain through Jesus' blood
Jesus' blood speaks solid rest
We believe and we are blessed
All her debts were cast on me
And she must and shall go free
Should the law against her roar
Jesus' blood still speaks with power
All her debts were cast on me
And she must and shall go free
All her debts were cast on me
And she must and shall go free

[Derek Webb, "Mercy Speaks"]

no maverick molecule

"There is no maverick molecule meandering outside God's control anywhere in the universe..." 

[from Proof: Finding Freedom through the Intoxicating Joy of Irresistible Grace by Daniel Montgomery & Timothy Paul Jones]

unforgiving, unforgiven

"An unforgiving heart is an unforgiven heart." 

[Timothy Keller]

idolorum fabricam

"Hominis ingenium perpetuam, ut ita loquar, esse idolorum fabricam."

"Human nature is, so to speak, a workshop that's continually crafting idols."

[John Calvin, Institutio Christianae Religionis, 1:11:8)

do you think that i count the days?

"Do you think that I count the days? There is only one day left, always starting over: it is given to us at dawn and taken away from us at dusk." 

Jean-Paul Sartre

never finished

"A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say." 

[Italo Calvino]

comforting judgment

Q&A 52 from the Heidelberg Catechism

Q. How does Christ's return "to judge the living and the dead" comfort you?
A. In all distress and persecution, with uplifted head I confidently await the very judge who has already offered himself to the judgment of God in my place and removed the whole curse from me.

1 Luke 21:28; Rom. 8:22-25; Phil. 3:20-21; Titus 2:13-14