Quotes about Sacrifice

Humility leads to perfect death. Humility means the giving up of self and the taking of the place of perfect nothingness before.

Jesus understood the great significance of images. He intentionally selected an image that would brilliantly convey himself and his message: the cross. The cross represents the lostness of man, as well as the sacrifice of God and the abandonment to God that brings redemption.

Love is something that has three essential characteristics: 1.) Love arises in people whose lives are already marked by certain qualities of the whole self, chief of which are faith in our all-sufficient God and joyful embracing of death to self. 2.) Love involves an orientation of the whole self toward what is good and right. 3.) Love has amazing, supernatural power for good as it indwells the individual.

From Jesus' perspective, there is no greater calling than to be a servant.

We must put all our desires on the cross.

Crucifixion is an interesting thing. It is hard to do by yourself. In fact, it is impossible.

This is the essence of the death-to-self life: that we should no longer live for ourselves, but for him who died for us and rose again.

The cross means the acceptance of limitation on desire. Without establishing this for yourself, there can only be frustration and worse, for you simply cannot satisfy desire.

The other idea is, "I love you, and I will serve you by doing what is good for you, whether you want it or not.

Do you think the businessman who found the pearl was sweating over its cost? An obviously ridiculous question! What about the one who found the treasure in the field—perhaps crude oil or gold? No. Of course not. The only thing these people were sweating about was whether they would "get the deal." Now that is the soul of the disciple.

When we give up the smaller, everyday things we are training for times when greater sacrifice is required.

We can practice this through spiritual disciplines such as fasting, which can help us stay sweet and strong when we do not get what we want. If we can cheerily give up Twinkies, and peanuts, and steak, and things of that sort for a while, this will bring us to the place where we can say, "Lord, you're quite sufficient for me. If you want to take it away forever, that would be fine.