Monday, February 10, 2020

Our Work is a Body of Art


The church is not the sum of the people who call themselves Christian. The church is the sum of people who do these things:

Find in the world Christ and to join God there, pointing God out, revealing and living the narrative where God is the primary character. Perform acts of service; intervene in the world.

Music from https://filmmusic.io
"Slow Burn" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)


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Thursday, January 30, 2020

"Follow" is More of a Command


God as christ Jesus literally enters the world and commands the fishermen to follow.

When churches become escapes and spiritual temples separated from the world, buffered from the goings on outside their doors, they are all too easily silenced by the principalities and powers of the world.

But Jesus will not let us go.

Matthew 4:12-23

Music from https://filmmusic.io
"Slow Burn" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)


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Monday, January 27, 2020

God Intervenes in a Retreating World


It's a radical notion in a world of unreality, with all manner of worldly opportunities to withdraw from each other:

We are not spiritual beings having a human experience - no, we are humans made of spirit and flesh, and we are meant for one another.

Music from https://filmmusic.io
"Slow Burn" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)


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Tuesday, January 21, 2020

Listen to Hannah's Song


There can be no socio-religious indifference, no Christian solitary life, in a community that sings Hannah’s song.

Preached at Virginia Theological Seminary.

Music from https://filmmusic.io
"Slow Burn" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)


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Monday, January 13, 2020

God Chooses - Just Like That


The Holy Spirit comes down then, on everybody. Peter’s friends are so astonished - what does all this mean? They come to understand. God’s Spirit falls upon whoever God’s Spirit wishes to fall upon. God loves even “these” people. Even “these” people. Just like that.

You and I don’t get to decide who God loves. God decides - just like that.

Acts 10

Music from https://filmmusic.io
"Slow Burn" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)


Check out this episode!

Quotes

  • "Christianity is not a theory or speculation, but a life; not a philosophy of life, but a life and a living process." Samuel Taylor Coleridge
  • "Most people are willing to take the Sermon on the Mount as a flag to sail under, but few will use it as a rudder by which to steer." Oliver Wendell Holmes
  • "Perfection, in a Christian sense, means becoming mature enough to give ourselves to others." Kathleen Norris
  • "Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can." John Wesley
  • "The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried." G. K. Chesterton
  • "One of our great allies at present is the Church itself. Do not misunderstand me. I do not mean the Church as we see her spread out through all time and space and rooted in eternity, terrible as an army with banners. That, I confess, is a spectacle which makes our boldest tempters uneasy. But fortunately it is quite invisible to these humans." C. S. Lewis
  • "When we say, 'I love Jesus, but I hate the Church,' we end up losing not only the Church but Jesus too. The challenge is to forgive the Church. This challenge is especially great because the church seldom asks us for forgiveness." Henri Nouwen, Bread for the Journey
  • "Christians are hard to tolerate; I don't know how Jesus does it." Bono
  • "It's too easy to get caught in our little church subcultures, and the result is that the only younger people we might know are Christians who are already inside the church." Dan Kimball