BJ Elkins

“Jesus was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled at Lazarus’s death. He even wept (vv. 33–35). It is not the weeping people but the tomb that evoked these intense emotions of aversion and sorrow.6 He was staring death in the face. Calvin comments, “Christ does not come to the sepulcher as an idle spectator, but like a wrestler preparing for the contest. Therefore no wonder that he groans again, for the violent tyranny of death that He had to overcome stands before His eyes.”
― Richard P. Belcher Jr., Prophet, Priest, and King: The Roles of Christ in the Bible and Our Roles Today

“To participate in mission is quite impossible unless one also wages war against every form of opposition to God’s intentions wherever it be found, whether in churches, the world of the nations, or one’s own life.”
― Ralph D. Winter, Perspectives on the World Christian Movement (Fourth Edition):: Combined Ebook

“We advocate neither the arrogance which imposes our culture on others, nor the syncretism which mixes the gospel with cultural elements incompatible with it, but rather a humble sharing of the good news—made possible by the mutual respect of a genuine friendship.”
― Ralph D. Winter, Perspectives on the World Christian Movement (Fourth Edition):: Combined Ebook

“For, indeed, this is the great horror, solitude, when the soul can no longer bathe in the ever-changing mind, laugh as its sunlit ripples lap its skin, but, shut up in the castle of a few thoughts, paces its narrow prison, wearing down the stone of time, feeding on its own excrement. There is no star in the blackness of that night, no foam upon the stagnant and putrid sea. Even the glittering health that the desert brings to the body, is like a spear in the soul's throat. The passionate ache to act, to think: this eats into the soul like a cancer. It is the scorpion striking itself in its agony, save that no poison can add to the tortue of the circling fire; no superflux of anguish relieve it by annihilation. But against these paroxisms is an eightfold sedative. The ravings of madness are lost in soundless space; the struggles of the drowning man are not heeded by the sea.”
― Aleister Crowley, The Soul of the Desert