Horton Quote

"The Gospel changes lives precisely because it is not about us-even our changed lives-but about Christ.  The life of every Christian is filled with enough inconsistencies to disprove the Christian faith every day if it were based on our changed lives.  The history of the church is littered not only with heresies and schisms but with crusades, inquisitions, and the justification of atrocities in the name of Christ.  Yet in all of this we can point away from ourselves, individually and collectively, to "the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29).  In fact, it is only by repenting of our spiritual pride and casting ourselves anew on God's mercy in his Son that we can ever become servants rather than masters of our neighbors."
-"The Gospel Driven Life" Micheal Horton

An Interesting Quote about Worship

Sorry I'm having no original ideas of late.  So here's some interesting thoughts about worship from an excellent book:

"Is worship, then, essentially an experience or feeling?  Is it to be identified with a special sense of the presence of God, or with some kind of religious ecstasy or with expressions of deep humiliation before God?  Are there truly special moments in a Christian meeting when we are truly 'worshiping' God?  Are church services to be measured by the extent to which they enable the participants to enter into such experiences?  Such a subjective approach is often reflected in the comments people make about Christian gatherings, but it has little to do with biblical teaching on the matter.  Furthermore, it creates significant problems for relationships amongst Christians, since not all will share in the same experience and some will inevitably be made to feel that their worship is inferior.  Worship must involve certain identifiable attitudes, but something is seriously wrong when people equate spiritual self-gratification with worship!" (17 Emphasis Mine)

This is a great quote from an awesome book called "Engaging With God: a Biblical Theology of Worship."  In it author David Peterson looks at the topic of Worship from Genesis to Revelation helping us to see beyond style preferences to what the Bible actually says concerning the subject.