Melanie

“We are not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be. —C. S. Lewis It”
― Donna VanLiere, The Christmas Shoes

“Pastor Jon was silent for a couple of minutes. Then he stood and walked closer to The Last Supper. He pointed to Jesus. " Think about what happened after this moment. "
What do you mean?
Well, Jesus is God, right? He knew before he ever created the earth that the plan would be for him to go to the cross not long after this scene, the Last Supper in the upper room, right?
I nodded. Yes, but I still---
Okay he knew what the plan was, what God's decision was, but did he go straight from the supper to the cross?
I thought through the story, No, he went to the garden to pray.
And what did he pray?
That's when he said, Let this cup pass from me and Thy will be done.
Exactly, Jesus who is God and who already knew the plan, still prayed that it could be different. He still asked God to change it, to spare him, even though he knew the answer before he said the prayer.
The reason Jesus stopped in the garden to pray, to ask for a different outcome, even though he knew the answer already, was because the purpose of prayer isn't to bend God's will to ours. The purpose of prayer is to bend us to God's will.”
― W. Lee Warren, Called Out: A Brain Surgeon Goes to War

“It should not be assumed that the Quran is the Islamic analogue of the Bible. It isn’t. For Muslims, the Quran is the closest thing to an incarnation of Allah, and it is the very proof they provide to demonstrate the truth of Islam. The best parallel in Christianity is Jesus himself, the Word made flesh, and his resurrection. That is how central the Quran is to Islamic theology.94”
― Nabeel Qureshi, Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus: A Devout Muslim Encounters Christianity

“Desires for things God has forbidden are a reflection of how sin has distorted me, not how God has made me.”
― Sam Allberry