“St. Paul identifies Christ as the “Wisdom of God,” and the “Power of God” (1 Cor. 1:24). And in doing so, specifically links this with “Christ Crucified.” The crucifixion of Christ for Paul is more than an event that accomplishes salvation – it is an event that reveals Him in His fullness. The Christ of the Cross is the humble and self-emptying Christ (Phil. 2:5-11). He is the God whose “strength is made perfect in weakness.” And it is this very image that St. Paul points to as the character of his own imitation of Christ.” (Father Stephen Freeman)
“A Christian having the responsibility of power must always remember Christ’s words about power and His showing His glory on the cross. The power a leader wields is not sacred, but the leader can make the office holy by following Christ. If we think power is sacred, we will use, abuse and sacrifice people. When we remember Christ came to save sinners, not proclaim an ideology, we look upon people as sacred and realize power is a servant.” (Fr. Ted Bobosh)
“Pain is never okay. However, the message of the cross is that pain can be transformative. Through the crosses of our life, the Lord shows us that He can work something beautiful out of our pain and brokenness…Through the crosses of our lives, the Lord teaches us that our value is not based on how productive we are, how popular we are, how pretty or handsome we are, or how useful we are to others. Rather, each one of us has value based on who we are as a unique creation of God.” (Robin Phillips)
“St. Paul recognizes something that we who live in a society of religious toleration and indifference might forget. He puts it bluntly in 1 Corinthians: “The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18). By this, we must understand that the absolute difference between the wisdom of the world and the wisdom of God. If we try to accommodate the wisdom of the Gospel of salvation to the wisdom of this world, they will see it as folly. And ultimately, we will feel disgraced by it as if one must be a fool to believe it. But if we hear and believe the Gospel on its spiritual terms, it will be for us the power of God to save us.” (Fr. Basil)
“It is easy to recognize this as the way in which God deals with His creation, but it is yet something else to recognize that this is so because it is who God is. We are told that God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. We do well to understand, however, that this is so because God Himself is humble. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls (Mat 11:29). We are invited not only to be meek and lowly, but to learn such meekness from the heart of God. For many, such meekness in Christ is treated as something of a disguise, or a temporary work for the purpose of salvation. They all too quickly turn away from this understanding to assert that “He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead!” But there is nothing to indicate that the definition of glory is somehow being altered for the sake of the Second Coming. As for the imagery of the Revelation of St. John, it should be read through the Cross rather than used as a corrective for the Cross.” (Father Stephen Freeman)
“Paul calls the Gospel, “the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes (1 Thessalonians 1:16). So, when Paul says the Gospel “came in power,” he is saying that as the Word of God it was mighty in performing its mission. It was successful in producing its effects. It created the conviction of faith that results in the salvation of its hearers. But why would the Gospel, or any Word spoken by God, have this effect? Surely, the power is not in the words themselves. The Gospel was “not in words only” as if Paul was a magician with a magical formula. No, the third point is that the Gospel was proclaimed “in the Holy Spirit” (vs. 5). That is, the Holy Spirit inspired it. The words themselves can and do change with the speaker and the circumstances. But the Holy Spirit speaks within the words just as a flutist uses the flute as an instrument to sound her intended melody.” (Fr. Basil)
“Whether a person is saved or lost, the Gospel continues to have its own power. The light, even when it blinds someone, is still light. Honey, though it is bitter to those who are sick, is still sweet. So also the gospel has a sweet savor to all, even if those who do not believe it are lost.” (St. John Chrysostom)
“He [Christ] comes as Savior to heal mankind’s deepest wounds – to reveal that God’s kingdom is one of mercy and restoration above all else. He brushes aside political power and social reform in favor of restoring our trust in God for mercy and life…We can go all the way back to Jesus, who came into the world to lead us toward an understanding that true power comes from kenosis, from pouring out love into the world, rather than hoarding it or provoking violence.” (Dynamis 7/27/2020, Dr. Mary Hess)
“Every Christian community/parish has the potential to grow into this love that is ultimately the one true witness to the world of the transformative power of the Gospel…The Christian community, as the fellowship of those who suffer when one member suffers and rejoice together when one member is honored (1 Cor. 12:26), can be a witness to the transforming power of the Gospel, the reaffirmation that God’s love will triumph over “all sickness, sorrow, and sighing.” (Fr. Steven Kostoff, Fr. John Shimchick)
“For love is not an option that we simply have and can disregard. It is an opportunity that comes to us and determines who we are and what contributions we make to God’s world.” In my own life, I have come to know the beauty and the power of the Gospel. The Gospel is first, a personal story before it is a construction of ideas. In other words, every person God made and particularly every person God has significantly used in the story of salvation is precious to Him and to us.” (Bishop Anthony, Fr. George Shalhoub)
“There is nothing wrong with seeking power to correct the wrongs of the world or intending to use one’s power to help others, but there is everything wrong with using one’s power to shape the world according to one’s own vision of how things ought to be.” (Amy Amendt-Raduege)
“Modernity is steeped in the concept of our own freedom and the imagined power of our choices. We are said to be creating and shaping our own reality – even our own being.” (Father Stephen Freeman)
“We can go all the way back to Jesus, who came into the world to lead us toward an understanding that true power comes from kenosis, from pouring out love into the world, rather than hoarding it or provoking violence.” (Dr. Mary Hess)
“We see in the Gospel a clear understanding of power. The Gospel says many times that power went out from Jesus. Every time it did, it did so to restore and to heal. When He Himself gave power to the twelve Disciples, it was also to restore and to heal. He did the same thing when He expanded and gave power to the seventy. When they returned in joy over their power over evil He quickly told them not to rejoice in this, but to rejoice that their names were written in heaven. In other words, don’t rejoice in power itself, even the power to do good; rejoice that this power helped them help others and in doing so brought them into greater union with God. This is why power is so dangerous, especially in the hands of “good people.” It starts off good and is well intended but rarely ends up that way as memory fades to where this power comes from and becomes imagined as one’s own. And unlike power wielded by evil people, which is easy to see and therefore resist if we choose; we don’t see the misuse of this power until it is too late and often after we have been unwittingly complicit. This is how we slowly destroy ourselves and our communities. This is so why humility, repentance, and daily dedication to our relationship with God is so important. If not continuously anchored in Him, who is “gentle and lowly of heart” we our left with the terrifying and subtle reality of being a power unto ourselves.” (Sacramental Living Ministries)
“Let me seek the power of God throughout my daily routine, in communion with Him.” (Sr. Dr. Vassa Larin)
“Jesus didn’t cling to any of what was by nature and identity rightfully His. In doing so, He had to trust fully in the Father for His life and very being. He can truly identify with our temptations. His experience wasn’t just like ours are. No one ever gave up more power. No one of greater stature has ever been in such an insecure position. He can be there for us because He has been there before us.” (Foundation Study Bible, Luke 4:1-13)
“Although God has unlimited power, He chooses to work through frail humans who begin as helpless babies. Don’t minimize what God can do through those who are faithful to Him…When we trust our own efforts instead of Christ’s power, we, too, are in danger of turning back [from faith]. Our own efforts are never adequate; only Christ can see us through…To those who don’t believe in God, life on earth is all there is, and so it is natural for them to strive for this world’s values: money, popularity, power, pleasure, and prestige.” (Life Application Study Bible, Romans 14:1-23, Hebrews 4:1-3, Philippians 1:20-21)
“Our instinct is that we “go up” to meet God. The Tradition clearly indicates that this instinct has value. But like all human instincts, it has its dark side as well. Our culture’s notion of the “pinnacle of success” is a prime example of this darkness. By its very name, this peak experience is held out as a desirable goal. But we have the strange reality that those at the top are rarely personalities that we would want to nurture in our children. There is nothing that the pinnacle offers other than money and power, neither of which is beneficial to the soul.” (Father Stephen Freeman)
“There is a tendency to believe that every increase in power means “an increase of ‘progress’ itself,” an advance in “security, usefulness, welfare and vigour;… an assimilation of new values into the stream of culture, as if reality, goodness and truth automatically flow from technological and economic power as such.” (Romano Guardini)
“What will a man give in exchange for his soul? This question [asked by Christ] emphasizes the utter foolishness of accumulating worldly wealth or power, for none of this can redeem man's fallen soul, nor benefit a person in the life to come.” (Orthodox Study Bible, Matthew 16:26)
“We do well to remember that God reverses the power structures of this world. He casts His lot with those who in their weaknesses admit that they need Him…The signs of being blessed aren’t power or material wealth. The sign of being blessed is receiving the benefits of God’s grace.” (Marlena Graves, Foundation Study Bible, Matthew 5:3-12)
“As Paul put it, God’s power “is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9).” (Ron Rhodes)
“We simply can’t trust God’s power fully until we experience it in the midst of our crisis.” (David Wilkerson)
“When the help of man proves useless, often God dramatically provides strength and power so that our boast is solely in Him.” (Foundation Study Bible, Psalms 60:12)
“The greatness of a man’s power is the measure of his surrender.” (William Booth)
“Science tells us that a nuclear reaction changes latent energy into manifest power, either in the form of an explosion or the generation of electricity. Every impersonal view of creation assumes that power comes from fate or from impersonal forces. This assumption is shared by secularism, magic, and pantheistic paganism. However, God is not a force, but a Person. He gives us personal power, He changes hearts, He works miracles. When we detach God from so-called real life and divorce Him from creation, we disregard Him who brings everything into existence from non-existence and continuously sustains it.” (Dynamis 4/29/2015)
"...creation is based on an economy of giving oneself away. Its emblem is the open, outstretched arms of Christ crucified. Even for God, self giving, self limitation, and pain seem to be necessary. For, if God is to create creatures with free will, He must limit His own power in allowing them to exercise theirs and necessarily incur the risk of evil that comes along with power-sharing - with giving creatures an actual choice. True creation comes through love - the God of the cross is not a god of domination." (Craig Bernthal)
“...the power that brought the universe into being and that keeps it operating is the very power that cleanses our sins…The power we receive in union with Christ is sufficient to do His will and to face the challenges that arise from our commitment to doing it...As we contend for the faith, we will face troubles, pressures, and trials. As they come, ask Christ to strengthen you.” (Life Application Study Bible, Hebrews 1:3, Philippians 4:13)
“The gift of new life requires the reception and cooperation of the believer through faith and obedience to God. We are His children He leads us by the power of the Spirit. In this new life, the body becomes the follower, not the leader. In choosing the way of the Holy Spirit, we put to death sinful passions expressed through our thoughts, words, and deeds.” (Orthodox Study Bible, Romans 2:13)
“The love that caused Christ to die is the same love that sends the Holy Spirit to live in us and guide us every day. The power that raised Christ from the dead is the same power that saved you and is available to you in your daily life. Be assured that, having begun a life with Christ, you have a reserve of power and love to call on each day for help to meet every challenge or trial.” (Life Application Study Bible, Romans 5:9,10)
#AmyAmendtRaduege #FatherStephenFreeman #DrMaryHess #SacramentalLivingMinistries #SrDrVassaLarin #MarlenaGraves #FoundationStudyBible #RonRhodes #DavidWilkerson #WilliamBooth #Dynamis #CraigBernthal #LifeApplicationStudyBible #OrthodoxStudyBible #FatherStephenFreeman #RomanoGuardini #FrBasil #StJohnChrysostom #Dynamis #DrMaryHess #FrStevenKostoff #FrJohnShimchick #BishopAnthony #FrGeorgeShalhoub #FrTedBobosh #RobinPhillips #FrBasil
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