"The average church has so established itself organizationally and financially that God is simply not necessary to it. So entrenched is its authority and so stable are the religious habits of its members that God could withdraw Himself completely from it and it could run on for years on its own momentum."
- A.W. Tozer
"The minister will not preach a perfectly flat and sedimentary sermon after climbing a snowy peak....Fresh air at least will get into everybody, and the cares of mere business will be quenched like the fires of a sinking ship."
~John Muir. Steep Trails
"The mountains are fountains not only of rivers and fertile soil, but of men. Therefore we are all, in some sense, mountaineers, and going to the mountains is going home."
~John Muir. Steep Trails
"Dwelling apart in the depths of the woods are the various kinds of mountaineers,—hunters, prospectors, and the like,—rare men, "queer characters," and well worth knowing."
~ John Muir. Steep Trails
"Yesterday I got a call from the outside world but I said no in Thunder.
I was a dog on a short chain and now there's no chain.
~ Jim Harrison
“There have been some who were so occupied with spreading Christianity that they never gave a thought to Christ.” ~ C.S. Lewis
"There is nothing that separates me more from poor people than the food they eat. How many nights have I gone hungry, miles out on some muddy trail, unable to do more than nibble at the food that has been placed before me by people who wish to honor me with the best they have."
(Moritz Thomsen. The Saddest Pleasure : A Journey On Two Rivers)
"Man's deepest passions are centered on land and the water that brings it to life. And what suffering won't a man endure to live in his own hut on his own land, proud and half-mad with the delusion that to some extent he is in control of his own destiny."
(Moritz Thomsen. The Saddest Pleasure : A Journey On Two Rivers)
"It is impossible to guess even vaguely at their ages the country has made them and learn something from their faces. Is it anticipation that they have lost? The expectation of something exciting ever happening?"
( Moritz Thomsen. The Saddest Pleasure : A Journey On Two Rivers)
"Some people are in the woods cause they can't fit in anywhere else. Some people just go to the woods for the sheer pleasure of being there.
I'm kinda somewhere in between there."
(Lewis. The last Alaskans)
"What if church planting was way easier than we ever imagined? It's not "magic". And, it's not a formula. It's simply joining with the One who said He would build His church and following His directions."
John White
"Do not always try to be consistent...... To be consistent is always to wear a tie that matches one's socks. It is to have the same opinions tomorrow as one has today."
(Paulo Coelho: Maktub)
"Don't tell me what you ate. Tell me who you ate with."
(Greek woman's advice to Anthony Bourdain while in Greece)
"One of the reasons that our Jesus message has lost its attractiveness in the market place and culture is because it has become reduced, cold, and creatively starved. We have become so scared of saying something incorrectly about God that we have limited our speech to only the most well-worn dialogues and tried metaphors. The message is boring because it has, quite frankly, all been said before, in just the same way, with exactly the same word pictures and transitions."
(Tony Kriz. Aloof)
"I learned that pretending can be comfortable, very comfortable. Everyone around me was perfectly unfazed with my pretending. I think they preferred it. I discovered that religion encourages pretending. I did not know that."
(Tony Kriz. Aloof)
"My driving desire was not to be the smartest Christian (at least not the most of the time), or the most holy Christian (a lost cause for sure), or even to have other people compliment my faith. At my deepest level, I wanted to believe that it worked, simply worked. I wanted to know that God was real and that I had not done something to irrevocably disqualify myself from the God-life."
(Tony Kriz. Aloof)
"Maybe someday I will sit down and try to figure out what the hell I'm doing in South America. But not now. It is still not 8 a.m. and I have already had a rough day."
( Moritz Thomsen. The Saddest Pleasure)
"I have not yet found a clue to death's alternative...."
(Moritz Thomsen. The Saddest Pleasure)
