Ann Spangler > Quotes

“...pray for the grace to realize that no matter where you are, you are in the presence of the Lord.”
― Ann Spangler, Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus: How the Jewishness of Jesus Can Transform Your Faith

“But it is heartening to realize that God accomplishes his purposes despite our frailties, our little faith, our entrenched self-reliance.”
― Ann Spangler, Women of the Bible: A One-year Devotional Study of Women in Scripture

“None of us is so mature that we cannot be influenced. The question is: Who or what do we want to shape our lives?”
― Ann Spangler, Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus: How the Jewishness of Jesus Can Transform Your Faith

“While we need to look deeply into the Scriptures Jesus knew, we needn’t look beyond them for things that aren’t there.”
― Ann Spangler, Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus: How the Jewishness of Jesus Can Transform Your Faith

“Whether you are living in a wilderness of poverty or loneliness or sorrow, God's promises, love, and protection are just as available to you now as they were to Hagar.”
― Ann Spangler, Women of the Bible: A One-year Devotional Study of Women in Scripture

“Even though many of us are working very hard at it, we rarely, if ever, experience the joy and peace that are promised in the Bible. So what’s the problem? Perhaps we are still holding the reins of our lives too tightly, afraid to surrender ourselves to God’s Spirit.”
― Ann Spangler, The One Year Devotions for Women: Becoming a Woman at Peace

“Discontment is an insidious thing, trapping us into thinking that which is enough is longer enough, and that which is satisfying is no longer satisfying.”
― Ann Spangler, Women of the Bible: A One-Year Devotional Study of Women in Scripture

“Praise God for his eternal vitality. Spend a few moments reflecting on the name El Olam, the Everlasting God, as you read Isaiah 40:28–29. 28 Don’t you know? Haven’t you heard? El Olam, Yahweh, the Creator of the ends of the earth,”
― Ann Spangler, Praying the Names of God for 52 Weeks, Expanded Edition: A Year-Long Bible Study

“FOR MYSELF”
― Ann Spangler, Praying the Names of God for 52 Weeks, Expanded Edition: A Year-Long Bible Study

“The Bible is so much more than a dry compilation of genealogies, prophecies, and laws. It is the story of the most important relationship in the world, the one between God and his people. The setting of this story moves quickly from Paradise to a fallen world and then culminates, after much foolishness and suffering, in heaven itself. It reveals what was, what is, and what will be. As the story unfolds, it exposes the nature of our deepest problems and the roots of our worst sufferings. Through its various characters, we recognize the tug-of-war that takes place in our own souls as we struggle to respond to God.”
― Ann Spangler, Women of the Bible: A One-Year Devotional Study

“So often we miss life’s beauty because we are preoccupied by its flaws.”
― Ann Spangler, Praying the Names of God: A Six-Month Devotional Journey into God's Love and Power

“Lord, sometimes I feel abandoned, as though no one understands or cares about me. Please show me that you really are near and that you see and hear everything that happens. Refresh me with your presence even when I am walking through a desert experience. And help me, in turn, to comfort others when they feel hopeless and alone. In Jesus' name. Amen.”
― Ann Spangler, Women of the Bible: A One-year Devotional Study of Women in Scripture

“Yo sé bien que el rey de Egipto no va a dejarlos”
― Ann Spangler, Los nombres de Dios: 52 estudios bíblicos personales o para grupos

“I believe that Jesus wants our spiritual vision to be so clear that we can become spiritual contrarians: people who continue to believe when life is at its worst, people who keep faith though everyone around us loses faith, people who continue to obey no matter how high the cost.”
― Ann Spangler, Praying the Names of Jesus

“O God, our salvation and our help. Blessed are you, O LORD, your name is good, and to you it is right to give thanks.”
― Ann Spangler, Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus: How the Jewishness of Jesus Can Transform Your Faith

“When we are at our weakest, God is at his best, ready to step in and say to us as he said to Hagar, “Do not be afraid” (Genesis 21:17).”
― Ann Spangler, Women of the Bible: A One-year Devotional Study of Women in Scripture

“How can Jesus both bring God’s reign to earth and yet speak of it as coming in the future? Listen to how Charles Colson explains it: Probably the most significant event in Europe during World War II was D-Day, June 6, 1944, when the Allied armies stormed the beaches of Normandy. That attack guaranteed the eventual destruction of the Axis powers in Europe. Though the war continued with seeming uncertainties along the way, the outcome was in fact determined. But it wasn’t until May 8, 1945—VE Day—that the results of the forces set in motion eleven months earlier were realized. Colson goes on to write: Christ’s death and resurrection—the D-Day of human history—assure His ultimate victory. But we are still on the beaches. The enemy has not yet been vanquished, and the fighting is still ugly. Christ’s invasion has assured the ultimate outcome, however—victory for God and His people at some future date. The second stage, which will take place when Christ returns, will complete God’s rule over all the universe; His Kingdom will be visible without imperfection.”
― Ann Spangler, Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus: How the Jewishness of Jesus Can Transform Your Faith

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because servants do not know their master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. JOHN 15:9–16”
― Ann Spangler, Praying the Names of Jesus

“Torah study was a remarkable feature in Jewish life at the time of the Second Temple and during the period following it. It was not restricted to the formal setting of schools and synagogue, nor to sages only, but became an integral part of ordinary Jewish life. The Torah was studied at all possible times, even if only a little at a time . . . The sound of Torah learning issuing from houses at night was a common phenomenon. When people assembled for a joyous occasion such as a circumcision or a wedding, a group might withdraw to engage in study of the Law. 3”
― Ann Spangler, Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus: How the Jewishness of Jesus Can Transform Your Faith

“God’s purpose for my life resided not so much in what I did as in how I did it. It didn’t matter whether God gave me a large role or a tiny one; I could still have impact if I could learn to do one thing—to love people in whatever circumstance I found myself. Why? Because love lasts. Because love never fails. Because love does not envy, and it never boasts. It is neither proud nor rude. Love is not easily angered, and it keeps no record of wrongs. Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes. Love never gives up. God is love. Love, in fact, is the hardest, most powerful thing in the world. Whether driving a child to school, leading a church, cleaning a bathroom, heading up a multinational corporation, or washing feet, love is the secret to making a lasting impact.”
― Ann Spangler, Praying the Names of Jesus

“faithful”
― Ann Spangler, Praying the Names of God for 52 Weeks, Expanded Edition: A Year-Long Bible Study

“Many, if not most, of the Scripture passages cited for the Hebrew titles, are found in the Old Testament, which was written in Hebrew. The Scripture passages that are cited to help readers understand and pray with New Testament titles, originally written in Greek, come from both the Old and New Testaments. It seemed confusing to put the Greek title in headers that often contain passages originally written in Hebrew rather than Greek.”
― Ann Spangler, Praying the Names of God for 52 Weeks, Expanded Edition: A Year-Long Bible Study

“Once you catch Jesus’s reference, you understand the contrast he is making. He is saying that his followers should be as eager to forgive as Lamech was to take vengeance. Just as Lamech was vowing a punishment that far exceeded the crime, we should let our forgiveness far exceed the wrong done to us. We should be Lamech’s polar opposite, making it our goal to forgive as extravagantly and completely as possible. Amazing”
― Ann Spangler, Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus: How the Jewishness of Jesus Can Transform Your Faith

“PRAYING THE NAME YAHWEH YIREH FOR MYSELF Look up and read: Genesis 22:9–12”
― Ann Spangler, Praying the Names of God for 52 Weeks, Expanded Edition: A Year-Long Bible Study

“I can no more understand Jesus apart from his Jewishness than I can understand Gandhi apart from his Indianness. I need to go way back, and picture Jesus as a first-century Jew with a phylactery on his wrist and Palestinian dust on his sandals.”
― Ann Spangler, Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus: How the Jewishness of Jesus Can Transform Your Faith

“PRAYING THE NAME YAHWEH FOR MYSELF”
― Ann Spangler, Praying the Names of God for 52 Weeks, Expanded Edition: A Year-Long Bible Study

“Though all these are important, this way of defining discipleship showed that I, like many Westerners, approached the gospel primarily as information.” Unfortunately, such an approach tends to produce efforts at evangelism that are thinly disguised power grabs. We try hard to foist our belief system onto others, debating with people until they declare our way the best.”
― Ann Spangler, Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus: How the Jewishness of Jesus Can Transform Your Faith

“The good news for single people and for couples is that Jesus is the One who ultimately fulfills our need for intimacy. He is the One who draws us out of our isolation and loneliness by uniting us to himself and to those who belong to him. We bear fruit to the degree that we are united to him.”
― Ann Spangler, Praying the Names of Jesus

“Jesus, in the story of creation, already planning the new creation; Jesus supreme above the ruins of the fall; Jesus in the ark, the rainbow and the dove; Jesus in the sacrifice on Mount Moriah, the ladder of Jacob, and the story of Joseph; Jesus in the Paschal lamb, the desert manna…. The face of Jesus can be traced like water lines in fine paper back of every page, for He is the Alpha and the Omega: the first and the last of this Holy Book.”
― Ann Spangler, Praying the Names of Jesus

“Would it surprise you to learn that the rabbis thought that study, and not prayer, was the highest form of worship? They pointed out that when we pray, we speak to God, but that when we study the Scriptures, God speaks to us.”
― Ann Spangler, Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus: How the Jewishness of Jesus Can Transform Your Faith