His grace creations!

Offering Directions for the Journey

A quotation about life may be more than thoughts of yesterday saved for posterity.  They may be valuable tools for the way we live today.  We’re going to examine some famous quotations (plus a few not so famous), evaluate their message, and see if we can label them ’Contenders or Pretenders.’

Hang on, the two posted already are not your typical ‘bumper snickers.’

 

Capitalism without bankruptcy is like Christianity without hell [Unknown]

If Christians want us to believe in a Redeemer, let them act redeemed [Voltaire]

Index of Quotes

As soon as I saw that statement, I knew it needed to be challenged. The fact that it was on my boss’s desk made no difference to me (unless knee-shaking fear qualifies as a difference). The first order of business was to discover what he thought it meant.

Deposited comfortably in front of him, with the quote in clear view, my investigation began something like this. Pointing to the phrase I asked, "Would you please tell me the meaning of this?"

A confident, friendly voice responded, "A capitalist needs the fear of failure – bankruptcy in our culture – to motivate them toward success in their chosen business venture. A Christian won’t have the dedication to live the type of life style their faith calls for without believing in an equally severe downside to failure. For them, it’s hell."

"That is a great analogy," I remember saying, and then added, "if it’s true that Christians can go to hell." With that comment, we were off and running.

"Christians can go to hell," he said. "Can’t they?" My answer really got the fur flying. Here’s the shortened version of what I told him: "No!"

What do you suppose he began thinking when he heard that response? Better yet, what are you thinking?

Let’s say we had that conversation. What would your response be? Why don’t you click on one of the characters above and, as if you were sitting across from me at a desk, let me know what you would have said?

Capitalism without Bankruptcy

is like

Christianity without Hell

“Hi Folks, Blasto Bob here with a message for those who just tuned in to Contenders or Pretenders. The Spiritual Challenge has been proud to present this real ‘in your face’ talk about spiritual issues and they have two other ‘hot’ topics they wanted me to tell you about - a survey about where people think they’ll end up (or down) when the ticker takes its last tock and a suggested list of some Christian books to confront your world vision.

But hey, nobody’s forcing you to stay with the SC if that’s not your style,  You could get on over to the Home page and look for another area of this site that interests you more.  Ol’ Blasto’s not going to lose any sleep over it and you can take that to the bank.