“This is not the place to go into detail about the ‘call to ministry’. Suffice to say that the preacher should have two calls–the one internal and the other external. . . . The external call is the church’s confirmation of the internal call and involves the church’s examination of the preacher’s motives, gifts, character and Christian experience” (David Murray, How Sermons Work, 12).

“The Civil War arrived with Sherman at last ready to ply his trade effectively as a key member of a national reconstruction project. Secession took Sherman by surprise, and he reacted as if the South were trying to make off with the family room. Even more than Lincoln and Grant, Sherman waged war with a ferocity aimed at driving the Confederate states back into the larger Union structure, getting the house divided back together. This accomplished, Sherman devoted much of his remaining career to further shoring up the framework, masterminding the construction of the transcontinental railroad and literally binding East and West together with bands of steel” (Robert L. O’Connell, Fierce Patriot: The Tangled Lives of William Tecumseh Sherman, xix).

“Beneath those four individuals without whom America would be a very different place–Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and FDR–resides a second tier of epic overachievers with substantial roles in furthering the national extravaganza. Sherman’s place here is secure, his significance in transcontinental consolidation being no small matter. America was built just once, so his achievements in this regard are almost guaranteed to remain unique. As long as we live here, Sherman will be remembered” (Robert L. O’Connell, Fierce Patriot: The Tangled Lives of William Tecumseh Sherman, xviii).

“Prayer was so essential to Edwards’s Christianity that the idea of a Christian who did not pray was preposterous. . . . It seemed contrary to Edwards’s understanding of Scripture that anyone could be indwelled by the Spirit who causes God’s children to “cry out, ‘Abba! Father!'” (Rom. 8:15; cf. Gal. 4:6) and yet not cry out to the Father in regular prayer” (Donald S. Whitney, “Pursuing A Passion for God Through Spiritual Disciplines: Learning from Jonathan Edwards,” in A God Entranced Vision of All Things: The Legacy of Jonathan Edwards, eds. John Piper and Justin Taylor, 115).

“Reading is exposure to Scripture–and that’s the starting place–but meditation is the absorption of Scripture” (Donald S. Whitney, “Pursuing A Passion for God Through Spiritual Disciplines: Learning from Jonathan Edwards,” in A God Entranced Vision of All Things: The Legacy of Jonathan Edwards, eds. John Piper and Justin Taylor, 114).

“While there is no one ideal method of meditating on the Bible, essentially it involves thinking in a prolonged and focused way about something found in the text while hearing, reading, studying, and memorizing it” (Donald S. Whitney, “Pursuing A Passion for God Through Spiritual Disciplines: Learning from Jonathan Edwards,” in A God Entranced Vision of All Things: The Legacy of Jonathan Edwards, eds. John Piper and Justin Taylor, 113).

“A speech does not have to be simplistic to be well unified. Simple, dialectical, and problem-solving logic can serve as helpful approaches depending on the situation” (Quentin Schultze, An Essential Guide to Public Speaking, 62).

“The images of snow in summer and rain in harvest [in Proverbs 26:1-3] illustrate that honoring a fool occurs in a world out of joint and that to do so is catastrophic. As snow in harvest destroys crops and brings death, an individual or society that honors a fool destroys a life or a culture full of promise” (Bruce Waltke, “Old Testament Interpretation Issues for Big Idea Preaching: Problematic Sources, Poetics, and Preaching the Old Testament – An Exposition of Proverbs 26:1-12,” in The Big Idea of Biblical Preaching, eds. Keith Willhite and Scott M. Gibson, 45).

“Perhaps the most important single characteristic of the annual calendar presupposed by the ecumenical lectionary is its Christological center. The annual sequence of seasons is actually a pairing of two Christ-celebrations: (1) Christmas and (2) Easter, (1) Incarnation and (2) Redemption. The Christmas celebration is prepared for in Advent and reflected in Epiphany. The Easter celebration is prepared for in Lent and reflected in the fifty days following, which climax in Pentecost. In this sense the Christian Year may be described as the annual rehearsal of the history of our salvation accomplished in the birth, death, resurrection, and return of Jesus Christ” (Horace T. Allen Jr., A Handbook for the Lectionary, 25).