Casey Taylor

“America had, I believe, a divine founding. Call it American exceptionalism if you like. But that makes America all the more vulnerable to God's judgment if we become accustomed to glamorizing war, excusing lies, and parading our might and dominance.”
― Fleming Rutledge, And God Spoke to Abraham: Preaching from the Old Testament

“Don't try to win over the haters; you are not a jackass whisperer.”
― Scott Stratten, UnMarketing: Stop Marketing. Start Engaging.

“From this time forth I make you hear new things, hidden things which you have not known. They are created now... Before today you have never heard of them." (48:6-7)
Notice the most radical announcement here. "Before today you have never heard of the things that God will do. They are not accessible to human imagination. "They are created now." They are "hidden things which you have not known." This feature of Second Isaiah is what has led interpreters to call this prophet the first apocalyptic theologian - meaning, the first to show in an unmistakable way that God will interrupt the normal progression of things by arriving in - indeed, invading - the midst of human events from a sphere of power capable of calling into existence the things that do not exist (as Paul says in Romans 4:17).”
― Fleming Rutledge, And God Spoke to Abraham: Preaching from the Old Testament

“Paul the apostle, dictating his fierce message to the Galatians, writes, "Formerly, when you did not know God, you were in bondage to beings
that by nature are no gods; but now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and beggarly elemental spirits, whose slaves you want to be once more?" (4:8-9). Notice how he quite deliberately changes the sentence so that God is not the object, but the subject. Wouldn't that make a tremendous difference if preachers everywhere did that?”
― Fleming Rutledge, And God Spoke to Abraham: Preaching from the Old Testament