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Quotable Corner
"Non-discipleship costs abiding peace, a life penetrated throughout by love, faith that sees every thing in the light of God's overriding governance for good, hopefulness that stands firm in the most discouraging of circumstances, power to do what is right and withstand the forces of evil. In short, it costs exactly that abundance of life Jesus said he came to bring (John 10:10). The cross-shaped yoke of Christ is, after all, an instrument of liberation and power to those who live in it with him and learn the meekness and lowliness of heart that brings rest to the soul." Dallas Willard, The Spirit of the Disciplines, p. 263
"After a man is saved, God will continue His training efforts. 'Putting on Christ' and Christ 'being formed in us' and having 'the mind of Christ' certainly do not mean simply reading what Christ said and attempting to put it into practice. Rather they mean that a real Person, not something remote and abstruse, comes to you day after day and 'interfering with you very self' shapes you into a being with a life similar to God's own. The command to the Christian to be perfect is no hyperbole but precisely what Christ meant. He begins on earth a process that will be consummated in heaven, but it is a process and will not allow you successfully to play the hypocrite with your naked self. God will not allow you to take the attitude, 'I never expected to be a saint, I only wanted to be a decent ordinary Chap.' His plan is indeed to make you into a heavenly being. This may account for the rough time Christians go through, for He is turning every one of his children into 'a little Christ.' He is not like a trainer who teaches a horse to jump better; He is in the business of turning horses into winged creatures." Clyde Kilby, The Christian Word of C. S. Lewis, pp. 181-182.
"Wounded healers must forsake the prideful tendency to be defined only in terms of strengths and wholeness. They must will authenticity, especially where they're still weak and tempted. That liberates the witness of God's incredible sufficiency and makes real that sufficiency through others who mediate Christ's grace and truth." Andrew Comiskey, Pursuing Sexual Wholeness, p, 191
"The historical roots of the theory of evolution are quite complex. But apart from a newly awakened fascination with the "laws of history" (Herder, Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche) there was, no doubt, another ingredient: the Industrial Revolution with its concept of advance by improved workability. The idea that in the vast factory of nature things which do not work well are discarded for things which work better arises out of the mood of the nineteenth century. The entire universe was made to fit the drab climate of Manchester. While the pic of Genesis, with its powerful poetic form, was rejected as "anthropomorphic," an evolutionist concept of how things came about is tinged with the ephemeral of the laboratory and the market place." Karl Stern, The Flight from Woman. p. 291
"When people are so self-convinced that the world needs their accomplishments more than their sanctity and prayer-depth, they never do face squarely the overwhelming figure of Christ and his message in life and word." Thomas Dubay, S. M., The Evidential Power of Beauty, p. 301
"Ministries which attack only the surface of sin and fail to ground spiritual growth in the believer's union with Christ produce either self-righteousness or despair, and both of these conditions are inimical to spiritual life." Richard F. Lovelace in "Dynamics of Spiritual Life: An Evangelical Theology of Renewal"
"Every Christian experience is an experience of faith; that is, it is an experience of what we have not...We are not saved by the love we exercise, but by the love we trust." P. T. Forsyth in "Christian Perfection"
"The heart has reasons which reason knows nothing of." Blaise Pascal
"To believe in [Jesus Christ] and not to believe in what He believed, not to love what He loved and not to desire what He desired, is not to believe in Him." Alexander Schmemann in "Of Water & the Spirit"
"Because victory is his, therefore it is ours. If only we will not try to gain the victory but simply to maintain it, then we shall see the enemy utterly routed. We must not ask the Lord to enable US to overcome the enemy, nor even look to HIM to overcome, but praise him because he has already done so; he IS victor. It is all a matter of faith in him. If we believe the Lord, we shall not pray so much but rather we shall praise him more. The simpler and clearer our faith in him, the less we shall pray in such situations and the more we shall praise." Watchman Nee in "Sit, Walk, Stand."
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Recent Posts
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Monthly Archives: November 2010
Scripture (tenth in a series)
The stories, images and words of Scripture should become our first and foremost frame of reference, so that our purpose and direction in life, our worth, and our allegiance are all defined by God’s word to us and not any other word. Yet, this won’t happen unless we turn to Scripture daily, several times a day, because God’s reality will become increasingly obscure to us, since its so unlike our own, and his unique and truthful voice will be drowned out by the messages and images with which we are constantly barraged. Those messages and images are the default lens through which we view life and unless we work consistently to change that, they will remain so. Continue reading
Scripture (ninth in a series)
Last week I wrote a first installment about the discipline of contemplating Scripture. This week, to give you an idea of how the Holy Spirit can use contemplation to search our heart and mind and re-direct us, I offer an example from my own experience: Last fall I was contemplating the passage in Luke’s gospel where Jesus gets in Simon Peter’s boat and instructs him to “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch” (5:4). The phrase that held my attention was “put out into the deep.” I prayed about this, asking the Holy Spirit to speak to me through these words and reveal to me whatever he wanted me to discover. Continue reading
Scripture (eighth in a series)
When we contemplate Scripture we give the Holy Spirit an opportunity to search our heart and mind in order to guide us more fully into God’s will for our lives. Areas of doubt or resistance to God – about which we may not be fully conscious – can also be revealed to us when contemplating Scripture. I used the following paraphrase of Hebrews 4:12 in my second post in this series on Scripture https://carefulfornothing.com/2010/10/05/scripture-second-in-a-series/ and it sums up how contemplating Scripture can be beneficial for our spiritual and emotional well-being: The word of God…is sharper than a scalpel and pierces through our defenses down to our soul and spirit, joints and marrow – and not only is it able to discern what’s really going on with our heart and mind, it is able to regenerate them. Discernment about “what is really going on with our heart and mind” can take place when we contemplate Scripture. Continue reading
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