Fine Linen
Dear friends: I am a new kid on the block. There are many wonderful quotes by various writers who stir something within me. Some are believers in the Glorious revelation of our Father’s great plan of Reconciliation of the whole. Many either lean in that direction, or towards that which is beyond the norm. God bless each and every one of you in His exceedingly abundant dimension of His love, grace & glory in Christ Jesus!
Thank you so much for your contributions to this forum. I really appreciate what you bring to my attention.
Just wondering: why “Fine Linen”? Dives, the rich Pharisee in Luke 16, wore it but I can’t figure out the connection. You may have been asked, and answered, this question in previous posts, if so, please forgive me for asking again.
I should put daily quotes, into this thread! And encourage others to contribute!
“I am thankful for laughter, except when milk comes out of my nose.”-- Woody Allen
That is kind of good. I’ve been there.
My friend: I do appreciate your kind expression. I find great satisfaction simply testifying of our great God & His mighty purpose in the Son of His love.
The name is difficult to live up to and extends from the Old Covenant of priests ministering to our God, and those clothed in fine linen in the Revelation.
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“The true way to be humble is not to stoop till you are smaller than yourself, but to stand at your real height against some higher nature that shall show you what the real smallness of your greatest greatness is.” -Phillips Brooks-
“Reason teaches us that Good having a divine principle, ought to be stronger than evil, which is essentially nothing but disorder and depravation; that evil putting man into a state of violence, that state cannot continue for ever; that this state of violence supposes its contrary in man, struggling against it…that God being the God of Order, and the undoubted Sovereign of the Universe, can never consent that disorder and confusion should prevail there for ever.”-Marie Huber-
"How could the Bible possibly speak of the perfect victory of God our Creator who loves righteousness and cannot bear evil, if that victory really means that He cannot bring His own creatures at last to hate evil as He hates it, but must confirm multitudes, indeed the majority of them, in their choice of evil for ever and ever?.. What sort of victory is it to be able only to subdue evil and prevent it harming any but those who choose it, and to be unable to bring human souls to abominate it and desire to forsake it, so that the evil itself ceases to exist?.. – Hannah Hurnard-
No more let sin and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as the curse is found.
“Work hard. Don’t quit. Be appreciative, be thankful, be grateful, be respectful. Also, never whine, never complain. And always, for crying out loud, keep a sense of humor.”-- Michael Keaton
That is a good quote. Every parent should have that on the refrigerator!
Going to put that in my ‘quote file’
“It is love alone in the holy Deity that will allow no peace to the wicked, nor ever cease its judgments till every sinner is forced to confess that it is good for him that he has been in trouble, and thankfully own that not the wrath but the love of God has plucked out that right eye, cut off that right band, which he ought to have done but would not do for himself and his own salvation.” – William Law
"It is claimed that it takes the iron out of Christianity because it removes the threat. No longer can the sinner be dangled over the pit of hell. No longer can what Burn’s called the “hangmen’s whip” of the fear of Hell be threateningly cracked over the sinner. But the kind of universalism in which I believe has not simply obliterated hell and said that everything will be all right for everyone; it has stated grimly that, if you will have it so, you can go to Heaven via Hell. – William Barclay-
“Ships don’t sink because of the water around them; ships sink because of the water that gets in them. Don’t let what’s happening around you get inside you and weigh you down.”-- Author Unknown
Originally Posted by pcamps 
'You can no more reject the love of God than you can reject the sun shining on your back, the sun shines on the righteous and the unrighteous, the so called unrighteous are not rejecting the sun anymore than they are rejecting the love of God, it is impossible to do so once you are aware of it."
“There is no such thing as separation, it just appears real to you because you make it alive to yourself by believing it.”.
“A belief in God’s universal love to all his creatures, and that he will finally restore all those of them that are miserable to happiness, is a polar truth. It leads to truths upon all subjects, more especially upon the subject of government. It establishes the equality of mankind – it abolishes the punishment of death for any crime – and converts jails into houses of repentance and reformation”– Benjamin Rush
"It were better to have no opinion of God at all than such an opinion as is unworthy of him; for the one is unbelief, the other is contumely; and certainly superstition is the reproach of the Deity. Plutarch saith well to that purpose, Surely, saith he, I had rather a great deal men should say there was no such man at all as Plutarch, than that they should say that there was one Plutarch that would eat his children as soon as they were born; as the poets speak of Saturn. And as the contumely is greater towards God, so the danger is greater towards men. – Sir Francis Bacon, (1561-1626)
“Parables are told only because they are true, not because the actions of the characters in them can be recommended for imitation. Good Samaritans are regularly sued. Fathers who give parties for wayward sons are rightly rebuked, Employers who pay equal wages for unequal work have labor-relations problems. And any Shepherd who makes a practice of leaving ninety-nine sheep to chase after a lost one quickly goes out of the sheep-ranching business.
The parables are true only because they are like what God is like, not because they are models for us to copy. It is simply a fact that the one thing we dare not under any circumstances imitate is the only thing that can save us. The parables are, one and all, about the foolishness by which Grace raises the dead. They apply to no sensible process at all - only to the divine insanity that brings everything out of nothing.” - Robert F. Capon-
“Invent your world. Surround yourself with people, color, sounds, and work that nourish you.”-- Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy
“In the secret of God’s tabernacle no enemy can find us, and no troubles can reach us. The pride of man and the strife of tongues find no entrance into the pavilion of God. The secret of his presence is a more secure refuge than a thousand Gibraltars. I do not mean that no trials come. They may come in abundance, but they cannot penetrate into the sanctuary of the soul, and we may dwell in perfect peace even in the midst of life fiercest storms.”-[Hannah Whitall Smith-
To believe that anyone goes into the Lake of Fire to bear that punishment again for sin is actually to diminish the work of Calvary and to detract from the perfect atonement of the cross, making it without effect and altogether unnecessary. Hence, we must view the Lake of Fire as being something other than retributive; and our only alternative is that the Lake of Fire is remedial. – *Charles P. Schmitt, -The Unending Triumph of Jesus Christ-
In the New Testament Greek we really find the depth of meaning for this word, reconcile, which is to change thoroughly . There can be no true unification without first a thorough change. Thus, we are not seeking for just a present-time harmony, covering over the past and hoping for the best in the future, but we desire that the Spirit of God, working within, shall bring a thorough change in us, and then we shall be united with our Lord…There must be a change before unification, ‘for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness" and what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?’" – Ray Prinzing
“In the New Testament Greek we really find the depth of meaning for this word, reconcile, which is to change thoroughly . There can be no true unification without first a thorough change. Thus, we are not seeking for just a present-time harmony, covering over the past and hoping for the best in the future, but we desire that the Spirit of God, working within, shall bring a thorough change in us, and then we shall be united with our Lord…There must be a change before unification, ‘for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness” and what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?’ – Ray Prinzing
“Some of us think holding on makes us strong, but sometimes it is letting go.”-- Hermann Hesse
Although John Wesley is not on record as a universalist, he was greatly influenced by the Moravians, many of whom were universalists.
He quoted from Sixteen Discourses (Moravian Literature), the following statement,
“By his (Christ’s) name, all can and shall obtain life and salvation.”
One of Wesley’s intimate friends, Peter Bohler wrote:
“All the damned souls shall yet be brought up out of hell.”
(Bohler was made the Bishop of American Moravians, next in rank to Zinzendorf).
The Reformer Martin Luther had hope for all.
In his letter to Hanseu Von Rechenberg in 1522, Luther wrote:
“God forbid that I should limit the time of acquiring faith to the present life. In the depth of the Divine mercy there may be opportunity to win it in the future.”
Bengel’s book, Gnomon, quotes Luther’s exposition of Hosea as accepting the idea that Christ appeared to souls of some who in the time of Noah had been unbelieving, that they might recognize that their sins were forgiven through His sacrifice.
The risen Christ preaches to the dead.
“Christ also has once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: by which also he went and preached to the spirits in prison; which once were disobedient, when once the long suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was in preparation, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water… for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.”
“We all must die and are like water spilled on the ground that cannot be gathered up again, but the Lord does not take away life, instead He devises ways for the banished to be restored.”
“Simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest treasures. Simple in actions and thoughts, you return to the source of being. Patient with both friends and enemies, you accord with the way things are. Compassionate toward yourself, you reconcile all beings in the world.”-- Lao Tzu