I blogged thistopic last spring but it is very pertitent here as well. The weather has such a bearing on my state of mind. When I drive to work and the sun is out, my psychie is great. But the opposite is true as well. Winter is coming, can I move to CA?

I ran into these quotes (some rather lengthy) in my study last night:

"True Christians are people that acknowledge and live under the word of God."

That is an intriguing quote, yet one I have to disagree with. While acknowledging and living under the word of God is vital and Christian living and definitely a fruit of our salvation, that does not dictate Christianity. I would say true Christians are those who have accepted the death of Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins, while those who do the above would definitely lead a very healthy Christian life.

I liked this one:

"Justification is a truly dramatic transition from the status of a condemned criminal awaiting a terrible sentence to that of an heir awaiting a fabulous inheritance."

On the idea of grace, the author writes the following:

"But many church people are not like this. They may pay lip service to the idea of grace, but there they stop. Their conception of grace is not so much debased as nonexistent. The thought means nothing to them; it does not touch their experience at all. Talk to them about the church's heating, or last year's accounts, and they are with you at once. But speak to them about the realities to which the word grace points, and their attitude is one of deferential blankness. They do not accuse you of talking nonsense; they do not doubt that your words have meaning; but they feel that, whatever it is that you are talking about, it is beyond them, and the longer they have lived without it the surer they are that at their stage of life they do not really need it."