Luther on faith

Faith is a living, daring confidence in God’s grace, so sure and certain that the believer would stake his life on it a thousand times. This knowledge of and confidence in God’s grace makes men glad and bold and happy in dealing with God and with all creatures. And this is the work which the Holy Spirit performs in faith.
Preface to Commentary on Romans, Martin Luther

Proverb

The death of an old person is like the loss of a library.

African proverb

a Kempis 7

He who estimantes all things according to their true value, and not according to their name or reputation, is indeed a wise man, and taught of God rather than man.

Book 2, Chapter1

Prayer failure

"For many years I was bothered by the thought that I was a failure at prayer. Then one day I realized I would always be a failure at prayer; and I've gotten along much better ever since."

Brother Lawrence

Apostasy of hurry

For most of us, the great danger is not that we will renounce our faith. It is that we will become so distracted and rushed and preoccupied that we will settle for a mediocre version of it. We will just skim our lives instead of actually living them.

John Ortberg

Ministers & Angells

(Lord’s day). Up, and leaving my brother John to go somewhere else, I to church, and heard Mr Mills (who is lately returned out of the country, and it seems was fetched in by many of the parishioners, with great state,) preach upon the authority of the ministers, upon these words, “We are therefore embassadors of Christ.” Wherein, among other high expressions, he said, that such a learned man used to say, that if a minister of the word and an angell should meet him together, he would salute the minister first; which methought was a little too high.

from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, 9th August 1663

a Kempis 6

There is more toil in resisting our vices and passions than in hard manual labour. The man who does not avoid small defects, will by little and little fall into greater. You will always be glad in the evening, if you have spent the day profitably.

Chapter 25

Lewis on wrinkles

Why shouldn't we have wrinkles? Honorable insignia of long service to this warfare.

from Letters to an American Lady

Lewis on cat conscience

We were talking about cats and dogs the other day and decided that both have consciences but the dog, being an honest, humble person, always has a bad one, but the cat is a Pharisee and always has a good one. When he sits and stares you out of countenance, he is thanking God that he is not as these dogs, or these humans, or even as these other cats!"

from Letters to an American Lady

Hillary's seance

Over the next six months Houston and Bateson often visited Hillary Clinton in Washington, urging her to talk to the spirits of historical figures who would understand her travails and thus help her 'achieve self-healing'. Sitting with her two psychic counsellors at a circular table in the White House solarium, she held conversations with Eleanor Roosevelt (her 'spiritual archetype') and Mahatma Ghandi ('a powerful symbol of self-denial'). It was only when Houston proposed speaking to Jesus Christ - 'the epitome of the wounded, betrayed and isolated' - that Hillary called a halt. "That", she explained, "would be too personal." The reticence seems rather puzzling: don't millions of Christians speak to Jesus, both publicly and privately, through their prayers?

Francis Wheen "How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World" , 55

a Kempis 5

When someone in suspense - who had often wavered between fear and hope - on a certain occasion, being oppressed with grief, had prostrated himself in prayer before an altar, he said within himself - "O that I could know that I should perservere to the end!" and immediately he heard a voice reply: "And if you knew it what would you do? Do now what you would do then, and you shall be quite secure"

Chapter 25

Trinity and individualism

Tim Chester's comments on how we balance the one and the many, how we maintain both individualism and community without losing either, are very helpful. Everything relates to the Trinity:

If a society organises itself around individual consumer rights alone or diminishes mutual obligations then it impoverishes its members.

This individualism has its seeds in Augustine’s focus on the human mind as that which best reflects the image of God within us. A century after Augustine, the Christian philosopher, Boethius, formed what proved to be an influential definition of a person as “an individual substance of rational nature”. This comes to fruition in René Descartes’ declaration that “I think, therefore I am.” A person is a solitary, rational individual. But if what makes me human is my rationality or my rights or any other supposedly universal characteristic of humanity then it is difficult to say what makes me unique. “If you are real and important.., as the bearer of some general characteristics, what makes you distinctively you becomes irrelevant.”(Colin Gunton) I am lost in the mass of humanity.

But if relationships define my humanity, then it is a different story. The matrix of relationships of which I am part are unique to me. The role I play within them defines my distinctiveness. "Everything ... is what it uniquely is by virtue of its relation to everything else." But, because I am defined by relationships, this uniqueness does not lead to a solitary, fragmented existence. We find ourselves by being related to others, not by distancing ourselves from them. We find ourselves in giving and receiving. We are neither wholly the active subject of individualism nor the passive object of collectivism. "The heart of human being and action is a relationality whose dynamic is that of gift and reception."(Gunton)

'When marriages and parenthood are deficient in love and its generous self-expression and self-giving, and when our old, sick, handicapped poor or disadvantaged are ignored and unhelped, then the life of the triune God is not reflected in our humanity as it should be; then personhood itself is wounded and reduced. Where recognition of others, where kindness, gratitude and care are lacking, the person who has left these behind, however successful in other respects, has shrunk not grown in terms of their true person-hood. They are diminished, not greatened, in their self-sufficiency.' (Peter Lewis)

Tim Chester "Delighting in the Trinity", 166,167

Quote of the week so far....

"Never underestimate a butterfly."

Matthew Oakes (National trust, on the return of the Adonis Blue butterfly)

For how long should I pray?

For as long as your appetite for God is deep.

Pick the right songs

Imagine that someone visits your church every Sunday morning for a month and only listens to the songs you sing. They don’t hear any preaching, liturgy, or prayers – just the songs. What would the songs say about your church’s theology and beliefs? How would they reflect the God you worship? It’s quite a scary thought.

Tim Hughes

A comfortable situation

Real communication happens when people feel safe.

Ken Blanchard, The Heart of a Leader

In post-Christian society where religion is suspected and ministers mocked, I think we have to spend longer creating a context in which we can be heard. I don't think this is the same as 'earning the right to be heard'. When it is the gospel we are dealing with, which is the Sovereign God's proclamation to His world, I'm not sure we have to earn the right as such; it's God's world and he can say whatever he likes through whomever he likes to whoever he likes whenever he likes.

But the fact is most people think Christians are wierd, and we need to work hard at creating contexts in which they find we're no more wierd than anyone else (well, you know what i mean). When they feel comfortable, real communication may follow. We can more comfortably speak; and they are more likely to truly hear.