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He shatters Written on October 23, 2009, by admin.

“Images I suppose have their use or they would not have been so popular. to me however, the danger is more obvious. images of the Holy easily become holy images – sacrosanct. my idea of god is not a divine idea. it has to be shattered time after time. He shatters it himself.

He is the great iconoclast. Could we not almost say that this shattering is one of the marks of His presence? The Incarnation is the supreme examples, it leaves all previous ideas of the Messiah in ruins.” CS Lewis

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the eternal appetite of infancy Written on October 23, 2009, by admin.

“Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, ‘Do it again’; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, ‘do it again’ to the sun; and every evening, ‘Do it again’ to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.” - G.K. Chesterton

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the vertically-impaired Written on October 22, 2009, by admin.

“At the same time, the word of the Cross is called folly because it assumes that the vertically-impaired, the horizontally-addicted, the very people whose habits deny the presence and power of grace—especially those who are made aware of and thus grieve their idolatry—are given the grace that makes all things new. Grace makes the horizontal possible in a whole new way.” - Mark Galli

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masochistic cross Written on October 19, 2009, by admin.

The way of the cross is often misunderstood as masochistic, especially in an age so desperately in search of pleasure. But the suffering of which Jesus spoke is not the suffering that unwell people create for themselves. Instead, it is the suffering already present in the world, which we can either identify with or ignore. If pain were not real, if it were not the lot of so many, the way of the cross would be pathological. But in our world — with its millions of hungry, homeless, and hopeless people — it pathological to live as if pain did not exist. The way of the cross means allowing that pain to carve one’s life into a channel through which the healing stream of the spirit can flow to a world in need.

— Parker J. Palmer, The Promise of Paradox

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MLK Written on October 9, 2009, by admin.

“The contemporary church is often a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. It is so often the arch supporter of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church’s silent and often vocal sanction of things as they are. But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If the church of today does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authentic ring, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century.” Martin Luther King Jr., 1963

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Judging Others Written on September 18, 2009, by admin.

Reprint: This is some awesome stuff!!! John H Armstrong Judging Others September 17, 2009 at 6:00 am There are some obvious tensions between teaching that we encounter in the Scriptures. One such tension that often causes problems between Christians is the teaching of the Bible about judging others. The Scriptures do teach us to avoid judgmental attitudes toward others, especially in dealing with Christians. At the same time we are clearly encouraged to developing a discerning attitude that can evaluate people and ministries carefully; e.g, 1 Cor. 5:12-13; 1 Cor. 5:1-5; 6:1-6; Matthew 7:15-20; 2 Cor. 11:10-15. This is the tension I refer to here. How can we follow both of these standards? No matter how you apply these texts you will soon have to admit that judging and discerning sometimes do get very close to one another. The temptation to pass judgment upon the life or testimony of other individuals is clearly warned against in the New Testament. If you have lived in a Christian context where the truth of your church or mission is extremely important than the tendency will always be to err on the side of passing judgment wrongly or unfairly. I have seen more of this misuse of Scripture than I care to think about. I have also done more than my share of judging others critically and unfairly. I recently dipped into a great resource on my shelves titled: The Quotable Oswald Chambers (Grand Rapids: RBC Ministries, 2008). Chambers had a lot of great thoughts about this subject. I find him extremely wise. Here are a few of his comments on judging others. We say that a man is not right with God unless he acts on the line of the precedent we have established. We must drop our measuring-rods for God and for our fellow men. All we can know about God is that His character is what Jesus Christ has manifested; and all we know about our fellow men presents an enigma which precludes the possibility of the final judgment being with us. What a marvelous reminder of our human weakness and limitations. The "enigma" precludes the possibility of final judgment residing with us. Chambers is again insightful when he says: We pronounce judgments, not by our character or our goodness, but by the intolerant ban of finality in our views, which awakens resentment and has none of the Spirit of Jesus in it. Jesus never judged like that. It was His presence, His inherent holiness that judged. Whenever we see Him we are judged instantly. We have to practice the presence of Jesus and work on the basis of his disposition. When we have experienced the unfathomable forgiveness of God for all our wrong, we must exhibit that same forgiveness to others. I wish I had a dollar for all the times that I allowed my views to lead me to embrace "an intolerant ban of finality in [my] views." Chambers’ ideas here are quite powerful. He says the "presence" of Jesus was judgment in itself. If my life was holy, in the best and fullest sense, then my words would not be needed to judge most situations. My life would raise all the right questions if I lived as I should. I think the most common form of judging that I have experienced, and this is why I write about this so often in these blogs, is the judgment Christians feel they must exercise toward fellow Christians because they do not believe the "gospel" in just the way we do. Catholics do it when they say Christ is found only in the Catholic Church and its sacraments. Protestants do it when they insist that Rome teaches a false gospel and thus Catholics are all condemned by Galatians 1 for preaching a "false gospel." This very fruitless exercise harms the work of Christ profoundly and grieves the Holy Spirit. Oswald Chambers is helpful when he concludes: Beware of mistaking suspicion for discernment; it is the biggest misunderstanding that ever twisted Christian humility into Pharisaism. In Oswald Chambers’ study of the Sermon on the Mount he wrote: The average Christian is the most penetratingly critical individual; there is nothing of the likeness of Jesus Christ about him. A critical temper is a contradiction to all our Lord’s teaching. Jesus says of criticism, "Apply it to yourself, never to anyone else." "Why do you judge your brother? . . . for we shall all stand before the judgement seat of Christ." And he says in Notes on Isaiah: The danger is lest we make the little bit of truth we do know a pinnacle on which we set ourselves to judge everyone else. It is perilously easy to make our conception of God like molten lead and pour it into our specially designed mould and then when it is cold and hard, fling it at the heads of the religious people who don’t agree with us. This is precisely how I treated Catholics for many years. I read a great deal of polemical argumentation about what was wrong with Catholic teaching and Catholic teachers. I stereotypically used the bits and pieces I collected to pour this into my designed mould. Then when these views hardened I had something to fling against other Christians. The problem here is really rather uncomplicated. First, I used teaching that I did not agree with out of misunderstanding and fear. Second, I then mixed this into a mold that made me feel like I was in the right and they were in the wrong. Then it is only a baby step to judging wrongly. The number one mistake I encounter among evangelicals who judge Catholics to be non-Christians is in how they take a piece of theological debate, or of historical conflict, and then use it as the "right understanding" of the Catholic position. The most egregious example of this is quite common. Catholics teach that we are saved by our human works so they preach a false gospel. This statement is patently false but most who use it never bother to find out why. It is just much easier to hold on to our specially designed mould and keep throwing things around the room.

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“This man receiveth sinners.” Written on September 14, 2009, by admin.

Observe the condescension of this fact. This Man, who towers above all other men, holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners-this Man receiveth sinners. This Man, who is no other than the eternal God, before whom angels veil their faces-this Man receiveth sinners. It needs an angel’s tongue to describe such a mighty stoop of love. That any of us should be willing to seek after the lost is nothing wonderful- they are of our own race; but that he, the offended God, against whom the transgression has been committed, should take upon himself the form of a servant, and bear the sin of many, and should then be willing to receive the vilest of the vile, this is marvellous.

"This Man receiveth sinners"; not, however, that they may remain sinners, but he receives them that he may pardon their sins, justify their persons, cleanse their hearts by his purifying word, preserve their souls by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, and enable them to serve him, to show forth his praise, and to have communion with him. Into his heart’s love he receives sinners, takes them from the dunghill, and wears them as jewels in his crown; plucks them as brands from the burning, and preserves them as costly monuments of his mercy. None are so precious in Jesus’ sight as the sinners for whom he died. When Jesus receives sinners, he has not some out-of-doors reception place, no casual ward where he charitably entertains them as men do passing beggars, but he opens the golden gates of his royal heart, and receives the sinner right into himself-yea, he admits the humble penitent into personal union and makes him a member of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. There was never such a reception as this! This fact is still most sure this evening, he is still receiving sinners: would to God sinners would receive him.

-Charles Spurgeon

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Will we trade our Christianity for Jesus’? Written on August 28, 2009, by admin.

This is AMAZING! ..an excerpt from Ted Haggard

When Martin Luther lamented at the end of his life that he might not be justified, he must have seen something dark in himself in relation to the Scriptures, something that we in the modern church might be overlooking.

The Scriptures say that we are to be known as followers of Christ by the evidence of our love for one another, but we’re not (see John 13:35).

The Scriptures say that we are not to boast about what we have or what we have done, but we do (see Jer. 9:23-24).

The Scriptures say that in the last days people will be lovers of themselves and lovers of money, and we are (see 2 Tim. 3:5, NKJV).

Very often we charismatics rejoice in the power of God, and rightly so. But we subject ourselves to ridicule when we boast that we are not among those “having a form of godliness but denying its power” (2 Timothy 3:5).

We claim that we have spiritual power and others don’t because of our openness to accept and operate in the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

But our words fall short when our marriages don’t work, our children are wild and disobedient, and we refine the art of giving and receiving money to the point that we could qualify as the experts in greed that Peter warns about in his second letter (see 2 Pet. 2:14).

We have a credibility problem. We have some wonderful churches, but increasingly, people do not seek to be connected . . .

. . . Maybe we’re not Christians. Maybe we’re just the most popular religion of the day, using the power of persuasion, the force of our numbers, and the strength of our money to advance our ideology.

Maybe we just believe whatever makes sense to us by default, and we don’t truly—as individuals and as communities of Christians—seek to be genuine disciples and to do God’s work of caring for the fatherless and the widow of our day.

Could we be Pharisees? Our own books, television programs and prophecies should make us wonder.

I believe that we all know and love the Word, but we live in earthly vessels with a fallen nature. We feel and see the hopes of the Spirit within, but we also end up doing the very things we do not want to do.

When we preach, write, lobby, raise money, build, broadcast, threaten, sue and spin, we present conflicting images that don’t stand up very well against the tests of time and scrutiny. We are confusing the world, other Christians, and our families.

This isn’t something that can be changed with a list of practical exercises. This is something that has to be dealt with deep within us by exposing ourselves to the wisdom of the Scriptures, to one another, and to God.

< The writer of the above article excerpt is Ted Haggard. Three years after its publication, he would resign from the pastorate of his Colorado megachurch because he was cheating on his wife with a man. This is how he concludes his article: >

We have to get this right. Even though the global church is stronger than we’ve ever been, we in the American church are showing early signs of impotence. We are in a global theatre now, which means that our words, actions, investments and thoughts have greater impact. Thus, we have the opportunity to do unprecedented good, but also the dangerous ability to do unparalleled damage.

Let’s make the right choice. If you are like me, you are conflicted. I don’t like this column. Granted, there is a part of me that does. But most of me likes the comforts of the church I serve, the way I travel, the way I’m treated by both the public and the body of Christ. I enjoy the political platform we Christians are given.

But at the same time, there is a dark cloud in the back of my mind woondering if God isn’t stirring another Martin Luther to nail his theses to our church doors.

I would rather have us return to our foundations of integrity by the prompting of the Holy Spirit and the illumination of the Scriptures, rather than have us defending our lifestyles, edifices and power to future generations as they read history books recounting our demise because of our own hypocrisy.

We need to ensure that we are not the whitewashed tombs and snakes of our day (see Matt. 23:27, 33). We need to be sure.

<> I found this @ http://gospeldrivenchurch.blogspot.com/2009/08/integrity-maybe-were-not-christians.html

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A Wall or a Window? Written on August 24, 2009, by admin.

A Wall or a Window? "To give people answers to questions they have not yet struggled with or suffered for makes those very answers more a wall than a window. The answers are not deeply understood or subtly felt, and they tend to be used to block further experience; or worse, to find real inner experience of God unnecessary. All you need to do is follow outer authorities or texts, and obey laws. This creates the passive, aggressive, and largely un-transformative religion that we have today. The Gospel offers us so much more." Richard Rohr, Adapted from The Authority of Those Who Have Suffered

FROM : http://miketodd.typepad.com/waving_or_drowning/2009/08/a-wall-or-a-window.html

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Vos-ism Written on August 11, 2009, by admin.

Geerhardus Vos:

“What the Lord expects from us at such seasons is not to abandon ourselves to unreasoning sorrow, but trustingly to look sorrow in the face, to scan its features, to search for the help and hope, which, as surely as God is our Father, must be there. In such trials there can be no comfort for us so long as we stand outside weeping.

If only we will take the courage to fix our gaze deliberately upon the stern countenance of grief, and enter unafraid into the darkest recesses of our trouble, we shall find the terror gone, because the Lord has been there before us, and, coming out again, has left the place transfigured, making of it by the grace of his resurrection a house of life, the very gate of heaven.”

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