Grace & Peace PGH

"We have to see the tough challenges of 'self-denial' and 'carrying one's cross' not as goals in themselves but as means to the goal

"Christ is not valued at all unless He is valued above all."

"The ground of Jesus' surprising statement is not to be found in any subjective quality possessed by children but rather in their objective humbleness and in the startling character of the grace of God who wills to give the Kingdom to those who have no claim upon it..."

"The order of life for the disciples in their relationship to each other is to be the service of love. By transforming the question of greatness into the task orientation of service, Jesus established a new pattern for human relationships which leaves no occasion for strife or opposition toward one another... The disciples cannot order their relationships as they please but are to recognize in one another men under whom they place themselves as servants."

"...the father's famously paradoxical reply captures the tortured self-doubt of many sincere pray-ers. Belief and unbelief are mixed in most of us, and perhaps Mark would encourage us to notice that this common condition proved in the event to be no obstacle to his request being granted. At least he put his [unbelief] in the right perspective by not dwelling on it but asking Jesus to help with it. His belief, however uncertain, was all that was needed, and from this point he plays no further part in the narrative, so that all the attention falls where it should, on the power of Jesus."

"Even though it seems that death removes all memory of us when we leave this world, the fact remains that God always acknowledges us as his own... it is impossible for us not to live [eteranlly] if this is in his will."

"Moses had reflected the glory of God as the moon reflects the light of the sun. But Jesus produces the unsurpassable glory of God; it emanates from him. Jesus does not point to the glory of God as Elijah, Moses, and every other prophet has done; Jesus is the glory of God in human form."

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."