DONE FOR US

THE BIBLE IS NOT...

 

 Rich Mullins

NOT FOR

 PIOUS CHURCH MICE

“The Bible is not a book for the faint of heart --
 it is a book full of all the greed and glory and violence
 and tenderness and sex and betrayal that benefits mankind.
 It is not the collection of pretty little anecdotes 
mouthed by pious little church mice -- 
it does not so much nibble at our shoe leather
 as it cuts to the heart and splits the marrow from the bone.
 It does not give us answers fitted to our small-minded questions,
 but truth that goes beyond what we even know to ask.”

Rich Mullins

PROFOUNDLY SIMPLE

 THEOLOGY FOR DUMMIES

During his lecture tour of the United States in the 60s,
 Karl Barth was asked for what he considered was the most
 profound theological idea he had ever come across.
Barth said,
 "Jesus loves me,
 this I know,
 for the Bible told me so."

SPURGEON'S THEOLOGY

As succinct and powerful a

 theological summary 

as you could hope for !

HEART OF THE GOSPEL

TURN...

FEARING GOD

NO CAUSE TO TREMBLE

'TWAS THE DAY AFTER CHRISTMAS...

AFTER CHRISTMAS

 "When the song of the angels is stilled.
 When the star in the sky is gone. 
When the kings and princes are home, 
when the shepherds are back with their flocks,
 the work of Christmas begins:
 To find the lost,
 to heal the broken,
 to feed the hungry,
 to release the prisoner,
 to rebuild the nations,
 to bring peace to others,
 to make music in the heart."

 Howard Thurman

MAKING THE ORDINARY HOLY

 

 HOLY INCENSE OF BREATH

“To a man who lives unto God nothing is secular, everything is sacred.

He puts on his workday garment and it is a vestment to him.

He sits down to his meal and it is a sacrament.

He goes forth to his labor, and therein exercises the office of the priesthood. His breath is incense and his life a sacrifice.

He sleeps on the bosom of God, and lives and moves in the divine presence.

To draw a hard and fast line and say, “This is sacred and this is secular,” is, to my mind, diametrically opposed to the teaching of Christ and the spirit of the gospel…

Peter saw a sheet let down from heaven in which were all manner of beasts and four-footed creatures, which he was bidden to kill and eat, and when he refused because they were unclean, he was rebuked by a voice from heaven, saying, “What God hath cleansed that call not thou common” [Acts 10:15; 11:9].

The Lord hath cleansed your houses, he has cleansed your bed chambers, your tables…  He has made the common pots and pans of your kitchens to be as the bowls before the altar –

if you know what you are and live according to your high calling.

You housemaids, you cooks, you nurses, you ploughmen, you housewives, you traders, you sailors, your labor is holy if you serve the Lord Christ in it, by living unto Him as you ought to live.

The sacred has absorbed the secular.”

C. H. Spurgeon

LEWIS WALKS HOME

C S Lewis at Magdalen College

 

A RELUCTANT CONVERT

" You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England. 
I did not then see what is now the most shining and obvious thing; the Divine humility which will accept a convert even on such terms. The Prodigal Son at least walked home on his own feet. But who can duly adore that Love which will open the high gates to a prodigal who is brought in kicking, struggling, resentful, and darting his eyes in every direction for a chance of escape? "

C S Lewis

HANDLING THE TRUTH

DEALING WITH PAIN

RIGHT TO LIVE

ONENESS

 JOY OF LOVE

 Wherever God is, his peace draws near. His presence brings freedom from inner restlessness, dividedness, and hostile impulses; it brings harmony of heart, mind, and soul. But he is a living God, and therefore he is action just as much as he is peace. And on the foundation of the harmony he bestows, he brings into being a broader unity. This unity is the joy of love; it is oneness of purpose and action, community, brotherhood, and justice for all.

Eberhard Arnold

(from www.plough.com) 

THOMAS WATSON

CRISP BACON

Fame

 is like a river,

that beareth up

 things light and swollen,

and drowns

 things weighty and solid.

Francis Bacon

CHRISTMAS RUSH

"For many of us, sadly, the spirit of Christmas is "hurry". And yet, eventually, the hour comes when the rushing ends and the race against the calendar mercifully comes to a close.

 It is only now perhaps that we truly recognize the spirit of Christmas. It is not a matter of days or weeks, but of centuries - nearly twenty of them now since that holy night in Bethlehem.

 Regarded in this manner, the pre-Christmas rush may do us greater service than we realize. With all its temporal confusion, it may just help us to see that by contrast, Christmas itself is eternal."

 Burton Hills

(Thanks to Ruth Morrow for finding this piece)

TELL TALE SIGN

"Every poet and musician, but for Grace,

 is drawn away from love of the thing he tells,

 to love of the telling till, down in Deep Hell,

 they cannot be interested in God at all

but only in what they say about Him." 

C S Lewis

TOO BUSY

"We are often so caught up in our activities

that we tend to worship our work,

work at our play,

and play at our worship."

Gordon Dahl

PASCAL'S GOD

THE GOD OF COMFORT

The God of Christians is not a God who is simply the author of mathematical truths, or of the order of the elements; that is the view of heathens and Epicureans.
He is not merely a God who exercises His providence over the life and fortunes of men, to bestow on those who worship Him a long and happy life. That was the portion of the Jews.
But the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of Christians, is a God of love and of comfort, a God who fills the soul and heart of those whom He possesses, a God who makes them conscious of their inward wretchedness, and His infinite mercy, who unites Himself to their inmost soul, who fills it with humility and joy, with confidence and love, who renders them incapable of any other end than Himself.

Blaise Pascal

Pascal was a child prodigy, educated by his father. He was a mathematician of distinction, writing the Essai pour les coniques at age 16 and inventing a calculating machine 2 years later to assist his father who was a Royal Tax Commissioner. Pascal did work on Torricelli’s experiments with Barometers and the theory of air pressure and subsequently gave one of the clearest statements of the scientific method in the 17 th Century. Later in his career he devoted himself to philosophical and religious questions producing a large volume of written works addressing these subjects. Pascal had a faith crises from 1652 to 1654 turning away from his religious interests and pursuing a life of wanton self indulgence. However, on the night of November 23rd 1654 Pascal had a conversion experience, experiencing an ecstatic vision that lasted for 2 hours. It is said he kept an account of that vision in the lining of his coat right up to his death on August 17th 1662