... where quotes hang out after appearing on the top page.
Day in and day out we are confronted by pictures whose subject matter and content are only masks which hide and obscure actual content. As a result we gradually lose confidence in the connection between image/content and reality. At our best we cautiously analyze every image; at our worst we either blindly believe all or cynically reject every visual image.
The substance of things hoped for, IAM NYC, Joel C. Sheesley, 1999.
[the vacuum] is renouncing the desire of immortality, the desire of being like God. But with human nature it is impossible to renounce this desire. [it is] the work of grace. . . Death when accepted opens to us the doors of grace.
Antoni Comín i Oliveres getting some help from philosopher-mystic Simone Weil's Gravity & Grace on the possibility of true justice.
Let us imagine thousands of communities whose members in an intentional, disciplined fashion do the following six things:
- Pray together
- Share their joys and struggles
- Study the context in which they find themselves
- Listen for God's voice speaking through Scripture
- Seek to discern the obedience to which they are being called
- Engage in common ministry
From E. Dixon Junkin's Church Between Gospel and Culture, quoted in Church Next: quantum changes in Christian ministry.
Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me.
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.From "Patrick's Breastplate", St. Patrick, 433 AD.
The language of facilitation is cool and low risk. The language of priesthood and prophecy and the pursuit of holiness is impassioned and perilous.
From Richard John Neuhaus's Freedom for Ministry, quoted in Church Next: quantum changes in Christian ministry.
Christ Jesus .. was made unto us wisdom from
God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. (I Cor. 1:30)
The common conception of sanctification is that every item of the life should be
holy; but that is not holiness, it is the fruit of holiness. Holiness is
Christ.
From "The Normal Christian Life", Watchman Nee.
I’m part of the fellowship of the unashamed. I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I won’t look back, let up, slow down, back away, or be still. My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, my future is secure.
I’m finished and done with low living, sight walking, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tamed visions, mundane talking, cheap living, and dwarfed goals. I no longer need pre-eminence, prosperity, position, promotions, plaudits, or popularity. I don’t have to be right, first, tops, recognized, praised, regarded or rewarded. I now live by faith, lean on His presence, walk by patience, lift by prayer and labor by power.
My face is set, my gait is fast, my goal is heaven, my road is narrow, my way rough, my companions few, my Guide reliable, my mission clear. I cannot be bought, deluded or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of the adversary, negotiate at the table of the enemy or meander in the maze of mediocrity. I won’t give up, shut up, let up, until I have stayed up, stored up, prayed up, paid up, preached up for the cause of Christ.
I am a disciple of Jesus. I must go till He comes, give till I drop, preach till all know, and work till He stops me. And when He comes for His own, he will have no problem recognizing me – my colors will be clear!
Dr. Bob Moorehead, from his book Words Aptly Spoken.
Quoted by Bibi at a potluck service.
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off your bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
Mark Twain, quoted in Insight@NavPress (Jan 2004).
Deny yourself for a period the food you love most, or some luxury in clothing, and think of those who eat unbearable food and are in rags. Interrupt your sleep for prayer on behalf of those interrogated during the night. Give up some item of cosmetics for those who cannot even wash. Renounce an hour of TV for those who for years have been in solitary confinement in underground cells and see nothing. Try to be silent for a day in order to empathize with the solitary, who cannot speak to anyone for years. Sacrifice your complaining and grumbling for one day. Take time from other preoccupations to pray for the persecuted.
Richard Wurmbrand, The Overcomers, quoted on Thunderstruck.org.
Now whosoever supposes that he can know truth while he is still living iniquitously, is in error.
St. Augustine, De Agone Christiano
quoted in Habits of the Mind, James Sire, IVP.
The church's ministry these days is not to try to get people nailed down again. I think that the goal of the church is to turn the meandering nomad into a pilgrim. Pilgrims are people who travel with purpose.
(Craig Barnes, author of Searching for Home: Spirituality for Restless Souls, from an interview with Christianity Today)
... the right amount of salt allows the other flavors of the dish to taste the way they are supposed to taste with full and distinct vividness and clarity.
(John E. Hare, Yale Center for Faith & Culture, speaking of how to be the salt of the earth.)
...if church is the home that we're looking for we're in bigger trouble than we know. Church is not home. Church is the place where the longing for home is rightly directed.(Craig Barnes, author of Searching for Home: Spirituality for Restless Souls, from an interview with Christianity Today)