“Memory is power. The person who says that history is bunk, or that the past is gone and all that matters is today, just doesn’t know much about real life. In real life memory has tremendous power to inspire and guide.”
—John Piper, Pastor & Author
The Gift of Grace (Luke 1:26-45)
“Mary’s submission is a very lovely thing. ‘Whatever God says, I accept.’ Mary had learned to forget the world’s commonest prayer — ‘Your will be changed’ — and to pray the world’s greatest prayer — ‘Your will be done.’”
—William Barclay
The Collision of God’s Work with Our Understanding of This World (Luke 1:5-25)
“What we think about God will determine what we think about everything else. To speak of ‘God’ is to invoke the context for all understanding, that to which all life and thought are related: to the extent that we live and think at all, therefore, we do so in light of our understanding — whether explicit or implicit — of God. Theology, that is, is never merely ideation. It is always and inherently a total way of life.”
— Kavin Rowe, World Upside Down
Luke's Purpose (Luke 1:1-4)
“What I need first of all is not exhortation, but a gospel, not directions for saving myself but knowledge of how God has saved me. Have you any good news? That is the question that I ask of you. I know your exhortations will not help me. But if anything has been done to save me, will you not tell me the facts?”
—J. Gresham Machen