Another version of the “Prosperity Gospel” or “Name It and Claim It” teaching has to do with finding a verse in the Bible and then “claiming” that verse. Proponents of this thinking believe that God must fulfill his promise to us in whatever verse we are “claiming” because what God says in his Word, the Bible, is true, and we can trust it to be true. So someone might pray: God, your Word says in Isaiah that by your stripes we are healed and I know you are not a liar and that your Word is true and I claim that Scripture in Jesus’s name and therefore I will be healed of this stomachache! We need to have faith in what the Bible says, but we have to be careful that we aren’t trying to force God to do what we want. That is arrogance rather than humility.God loves us, but we cannot demand things of him as though our faith is in charge rather than God. If someone believes it is our faith that heals us and forgets that it is God who does it, we should ask that person how much faith Lazarus had. Remember, he was decomposing in a tomb when Jesus raised him from death. His faith obviously didn’t matter. It was all God. It is God and God’s grace that heals, not our prayers and not our “faith.” Though we are exhorted by God to pray to him, we cannot compel him to do what we wish.

~ Eric Metaxas

Eric Metaxas Bible Cross Faith God Healing Lazarus Miracles Prosperity Gospel Stripes

Many writers make the mistake of making their readers appear like Lazarus, without any iota of care, throwing down books to readers to crunch as if they are dogs.

~ Michael Bassey Johnson

Michael Bassey Johnson Attention Banal Boring Boring Book Carnal Cruel Cruelty Disease Dog Ego Egoism Egoist Egotist Epidemic Humilation Impolite Impoliteness Improper Insult Insults Lack Of Respect Lackadaisical Lazarus Madness Maltreatment Michael Bassey Johnson Mistake Popularity Pride Readers Rigid Shallow Stupidity Unfeeling Unpopularity Vanity Weird Writers Writing

For those he has ignored, he allows them this. He allows them God, their only ally. Places to worship, but no one to teach.

~ Greg Rucka

Greg Rucka Abandonment Arrogance Atheism Catholicism Church God Greg Rucka Lazarus Nun Places Of Worship Poison

Once upon a time there was a man with no heart. Drifting through black-and-white life, caring naught for those hurt, and never, ever allowing another near enough to hurt him. Until, on the least likely day, the most unlikely place, the man with no heart met the most surprising person. He was fearless. He was strength and power. He wore his heart boldly on his sleeve. The man with no heart began, shockingly, to feel a movement in his breast. A stretching, a slow, steady beat...

~ Shannon Noelle Long

Shannon Noelle Long Fairy Tales Jesus Hollywood Lazarus Letters In Flower Cards Man With No Heart Once Upon A Time Story

We have our mission and we are going to complete it. So grab your straws and suck it the fuck up.

~ Greg Rucka

Greg Rucka Casey Solomon Corporal Greg Rucka Lazarus Military Mission Straws Suck It Up War Wartime

Jesus Hollywood believed in a lot of things. He believed that stars were ghosts of family long since past and that he was more likely to die from an asteroid falling from the sky than another human being getting the better of him. He believed that children could see things when adults had already stopped believing.Jesus Hollywood believed that you wrote your own story. He believed that anything could happen if you really set your mind to it. He believed that, in the end, everything would be ok; if it wasn't ok, it wasn't the end.Jesus Hollywood believed that it wasn't really Jesus that raised Lazarus from the dead, but the other way around.And Jesus Hollywood sure as fuck believed in love.

~ Shannon Noelle Long

Shannon Noelle Long Beliefs Faith Jesus Hollywood Lazarus Love Spirituality