From the outset, Standard Oil was permeated by an us-versus-them attitude that emanated from the top AT moments, Rockefeller made it sound as if he and his colleagues were a band of early Chrsitians, misundrestood by the pagans. In this moralistic frame of mind, he was bound to see his opponents as benighted, misguided people, 'governed by their narrow jealousies and unwarranted prejuidces' and unaware that the old gods were now obsolete. Rockefeller developed an inverted worldview, accusing his critics of exactly the same sins of which they accused him. Far from seeing himself as a rascal or bully, the Standard Oil chieftain prsented himself as a respectable gentleman who attempted in vain to reason with wicked independents. In his correspondence, Rocekfeller betrayed a characteristicc manner of referring to his rivals: they were selfish people forever stirring up trouble or creating annoyances, like so many mischievous children who needed a good stiff spanking from father. never conceding any legitimacy to dissent, Riocekfeller denigrated his critics as blackmailers, sharpsters and crooks. he was now dangerously impervious to criticism.

Titan, Ron Chenow - page 155

Strangely, God is closer to sinners than to saints. God in heaven holds each person by a string. When you sin, you cut the string. Then God ties it up again, making a knot-thereby bringing you a little closer to him. Again and again your sins cut the string-and with each further knot, God keeps drawing you closer and closer


- Yancey

That is why a cold, self-righteous prig who goes regularly to church may be far nearer to hell than a prostitute.

You must ask for God's help. Even when you have done so, it may seem to you for a long time that no help, or less help than you need, is being given. Never mind. After each failure, ask forgiveness, pick yourself up, and try again

Very often what God first helps us towards is not the virtue itself but just this power of always trying again. We learn, on the one hand, that we cannot trust ourselves even in our best moments, and, on the other, that we need not despair even in our worst, for our failures are forgiven. The only fatal thing is to sit down content with anything less than perfection

Mere Christianity - CS Lewis, pg 88

It is seldom that any of our bad habits or flaw disappear by a mere process of natural extinction. At least, it is very seldom that this is done through the instrumentality of reasoning .. .or by the force of mental determination. But what cannot be destroyed may be dispossessed - and one taste may be made to give way to another and to lose its power entirely as the reigning affection in the mind.

The only way to dispossess the heart of an old affection is by the expulsive power of a new one ... It is only .. when admitted into the number of God's children, through faith in Jesus Christ, that the spirit of adoption is poured out on us - it is then that the heart, brought under the mastery of one great and predominant affection, is delivered from the tyranny of its former desires and the only way that deliverance is possible

Thomas Chalmers - The Expulsive power of a new affection

Now, the gospel brings us a new freedom from lying. How? We don't overcome lying by simply saying to ourselves, "stop lying!" Rather, we ask, why do I lie? What leads me to do it? And the answer is always that something that we delight in (i.e. worship or rely on for our worth) more than God is threatened. And so we lie. But how do we change? We cannot "just say no". The most effective way of withdrawing the heart from one object is not by turning it away upon desolate and unpeopled vacancy, but by presenting to its regard another object more alluring still.

Thomas Calmers - Expulsive power of new affection

It is pride that made redemption needful; it is from our pride we need above everything to be redeemed. And our insight into the need of redemption will largely depend upon our knowledge of the terrible nature of the power that has entered our being. 


Andrew Murray, Humility