Welcome to The Week In Words, where we share quotes from the last week’s reading. If something you read this past week inspired you, caused you to laugh, cry, think, dream, or just resonated with you in some way, please share it with us, attributing it to its source, which can be a book, newspaper, blog, Facebook — anything that you read. More information is here.
I have just a couple this week:
I am only about 24 pages into Women’s Ministry in the Local Church by J. Ligon Duncan and Susan Hunt, but this quote stood out to me:
If we lack interest in the church we lack what for Jesus was a consuming passion. Jesus loved the church and gave himself for it (Eph. 5:25). ~ Dr. Edmund Clowney
There seems to be a disregard or even a disdain for church these days, and this is a needed reminder of just how important it is in God’s eyes.
Then in Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross: Experiencing the Passion and Power of Easter, compiled by Nancy Guthrie, J. Ligon Duncan III shares in the chapter “Betrayed, Denied, Deserted.” speaking of the moment when Judas betrays Jesus with a kiss:
We cannot help but admire the dignity of the Lord Jesus Christ as he goes through this indignity. He does it with magnanimity and with the sense that he is nor forsaken. He is not out of control. God’s providence is ruling over all. So the character and the calmness of Jesus remind us and provide an example for us in the midst of our own trials (p. 38-39).
And later in the same chapter:
In this statement, Jesus is stressing that is not not going to the cross because God lacks the power to stop it. Nor does Jesus lack the ability to ask of God to spare him. Instead, Jesus is going to the cross because he has chosen to go to the cross. He is not a passive victim. He is the prime actor. (p. 40).
This is so important to remember, especially as people’s thoughts turn toward the cross this season and they perhaps watch films dealing with the death of Christ. There are little clues throughout the gospels that Jesus was not a “passive victim,” but was very much in control of what happened when, and he went through it all willingly.
If you’ve read anything that particularly spoke to you that you’d like to share, please either list it in the comments below or write a post on your blog and then put the link to that post (not your general blog link) in Mr. Linky below. I do ask that only family-friendly quotes be included. I hope you’ll visit some of the other participants as well and glean some great thoughts to ponder.
And please do comment even if you don’t have quotes to share!
Stray Thoughts 
“Consuming passion” that’s a new description (to me) of Jesus’s interest in church. An eye-opener, thanks for quoting that. I agree with Jesus as the prime actor of our salvation. Some lyrics that have not been in my mind for years just came back – “He was nailed to the cross, oh how much He was willing to bear. With what anguish and loss Jesus went to the cross, but He carried my sins with Him there.”
I can’t wait to see what you’ve got for us as we progress even closer to Easter…These are great!! Thanks again for hosting this!!
Jesus is not a passive victim. I love that thought. I don’t know that it’s one I really understood until I reached adulthood. He consciously and intentionally made the decision to go to and stay on the cross. Only God incarnate would do that for me!
Thanks, Barbara. I’m always encouraged by your quotes and the books you’re reading.
Elyse Fitzpatrick shared this quote on Facebook. Takes my breath away:
His love admits no parallel; for why,
At one great draught of love he drank hell dry.
The sword of awful justice pierc’d his side,
That mercy thence might gush upon the bride.~Ralph Erskine, “Gospel Sonnets”
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The quote about Dr. Clowney is so true. Unfortunately, today some want to separate Jesus from the church and from God so they can make Jesus into someone He’s not.
I love that first quote. Reminds me of something DeYoung and Kluck said in their book Why we Love the Church. To loosely paraphrase, they said that saying you love Jesus but hate the church is like saying you love your friend but hate his wife. (No doubt your friend wouldn’t be your friend for long if you went around bashing his wife to everyone you met.)
Thanks again for The Week in Words–I enjoy it so much every week!
I keep telling myself I will join you on this from my book blog, but every time I read a good quote I am too undisciplined and lazy to get up and write it down!