Category Archives: Quotes

September 30, 2008 · 4:26 pm

Made Me Think

Reading Randall’s post and the words to the old hymn came to my mind;  My Hope is Built on Nothing Less by Edward Mote.  Here are the words thanks to Cyberhymnal.

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly trust in Jesus’ Name.

Refrain
On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

When darkness seems to hide His face,
I rest on His unchanging grace.
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.

Refrain

His oath, His covenant, His blood,
Support me in the whelming flood.
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my Hope and Stay.

Refrain

When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh may I then in Him be found.
Dressed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne.

Refrain

Even economic Tsunamis should not wash away really solid foundations.  Not to say that they won’t be shaken but the rock under us should be solid.  We must not let our affluence trick us into choosing to build our lives on wealth which can come and go seemingly overnight.

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Filed under Dealing with stuff, Poetry and Stuff, Quotes, Reflections

September 25, 2008 · 9:06 pm

The invisible ingredient

The Kingdom of Heaven is like the yeast a woman used in making bread. Even though she put only a little yeast in three measures of flour, it permeated every part of the dough.       Matt 13:33

So, as members of the Kingdom are we not then to infiltrate and permeate our country and culture like the yeast of the dough in the parable that Jesus told? It seems to me that this is likely the most effective form of spreading the way of the Kingdom.

People living out new ways of relating to co-workers. People wanting their clients to be treated with care and consideration. People acting as if they understand that the people around them are also loved by their Father and carry part of that divine spark that inhabits all of God’s creatures. People taking care of the world around them because God gave it to us to care for.

Maybe it really is the least, the most humble, the followers of Christ who quietly live like this that are the yeast – the invisible but potent ingredient that is essential to making a most excellent loaf of bread. And who can resist a slice of fresh warm bread?

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Filed under Devotional Reading, Quotes, Writings

September 9, 2008 · 12:31 am

I also like this

Via

Jordon

The answer proposed by Darrel L. Guder of Princeton Theological Seminary, among others, is that the Christian church in Canada should return to its roots and become a "missional "church. That is, the church should strike out in a different direction; it should reject the cultural forms that carry questionable assumptions about what the church is, what its public role should be and what its voice should sound like and become a "sent" community. The church should stop mimicking the surrounding culture and become an alternative community, with a different set of beliefs, values and behaviours. Ministers would no longer engage in marketing; churches would no longer place primary emphasis on programs to serve members. The traditional ways of evaluating "successful churches"—bigger buildings, more people, bigger budgets, larger ministerial staff, new and more programs to serve members—would be rejected.

This tugs at something in me.

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September 8, 2008 · 6:40 pm

I found this interesting

… seeing that we have a church in this size range.

Via Covenant Church News

Size of Churches: ‘Small Is the New Big’
IRVINE, CA – Following a year of planting churches in Bangkok, Thailand, NewSong Covenant Church pastor David Gibbons has changed his views of what constitutes the best size for a church.
“I visited other churches and discovered that the Evangelical Covenant denomination there (Thailand) had 4,000 people in roughly 400 churches,” Gibbons says in a lengthy interview with Leadership Journal. “It hit me. Back home, NewSong had about 4,000 people in four congregations. I saw four churches with 4,000 people versus 400 churches with the same number of people, and the question I felt God posing to me is, Who’s stronger?
Gibbons’ answer to that question has led his congregation to begin planting  what he calls organic-sized churches. “Not house churches, but mid-sized,” he says. Mid-sized congregations, which he calls “verges,” have attendance of 30-300.
Gibbons questions the mindset that bigger is better. “Small is the new big,” he adds. “Big isn’t bad, but it’s overrated.”

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September 8, 2008 · 3:22 pm

Forgiveness

“Great feuds often need very few words to resolve them. Disputes, even between nations, between peoples, can be set to rest with simple acts of contrition and corresponding forgiveness, can so often be shown to be based on nothing much other than pride and misunderstanding, and the forgetting of the humanity of the other – and land, of course.” P.127 The Good Husband of Zebra Drive by Alexander McCall Smith

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September 5, 2008 · 3:24 pm

From Henri Nouwen this morning

Choosing Words Wisely

Words are very important. When we say to someone: "You are an ugly, useless, despicable person," we might have ruined the possibility for a relationship with that person for life. Words can continue to do harm for many years.
It is so important to choose our words wisely. When we are boiling with anger and eager to throw bitter words at our opponents, it is better to remain silent. Words spoken in rage will make reconciliation very hard. Choosing life and not death, blessings and not curses often starts by choosing to remain silent or choosing carefully the words that open the way to healing.

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August 17, 2008 · 2:15 pm

Psalm 67

May God be merciful and bless us.
May his face smile with favor on us.

May your ways be known throughout the earth,
      your saving power among people everywhere.
May the nations praise you, O God.
      Yes, may all the nations praise you.
Let the whole world sing for joy,
      because you govern the nations with justice
      and guide the people of the whole world.

May the nations praise you, O God.
      Yes, may all the nations praise you.
Then the earth will yield its harvests,
      and God, our God, will richly bless us.
Yes, God will bless us,
      and people all over the world will fear him.

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Filed under Quotes, Reading, Worship events

June 26, 2008 · 5:21 am

Reflecting in this silent place

Reflecting on Teresa of Avila’s writings, The Interior Castle and a quote from someone given to me by one of the spiritual directors here,

“There are places in my heart that I have never been. Lord, sometimes I don’t know myself. I am blessed that you do.”

I get the feeling that there are whole rooms inside me that God wants to open and infuse with his presence. I don’t know what they are or how to go there – yet. I guess if God wants to go there then he knows the door to them. Someone said that these sorts of doors are tricky – they can only be opened from our side, which I think is true to an extent.  However, somehow we have to hear God knocking from the other side, I think, before we realize where the door is located.   Gradually as I open up those inner places to God I believe that I will understand a whole new level of freedom and be closer to really knowing who I am.

So, here in the silence I have been discovering stuff about me and God.  And it is good.

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June 25, 2008 · 12:34 am

An Interrupted Life

I was introduced to the life and writings of Etty Hillesum today.  She did not survive the Holocaust but she did learn to live her short life with God. 

On prayer she says, " Half an hour of meditation can set the tone for the whole day but its not so simple.  It has to be learnt." 

And, " Somewhere deep inside all of us carry a vast and fruitful loneliness wherever we go."

I think it is that loneliness that calls us to a relationship with God. 

It was a good day.  Ad now at the end of a rainy day the sun is out and I will walk a bit and enjoy the peacefulness of the grounds and the trees that always take me closer to God.

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June 12, 2008 · 9:02 pm

Our future

Via

Sojourners

Our faithfulness will depend on our willingness to go where there is brokenness, loneliness, and human need. If the church has a future it is a future with the poor in whatever form.

– Henri J.M. Nouwen
Sabbatical Journey

I think, if one is willing to look, brokenness, loneliness and human need are found everywhere.  Well hidden in our affluent culture, but there nonetheless.  And these are the places God wants to enter and make whole.  These are the places he wants us to work in.

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Filed under Dealing with stuff, Quotes