Touchpoints on The Gospel (Page 5)
Straighten Up!!!
“This isn’t a demon inside of her holding her down. This is a demon in the world, its systems, its cultures, that chooses to value people on something other than being children of God.”
The Refiner’s Fire
“Sometimes I wish Jesus would have just come to earth and said, “This is going to hurt me more than it’s going to hurt you.” I would have been good with that. But Jesus is not a Pollyanna. He’s a realist. He will undergo a death and resurrection. And so will we. There’s no way to do an end run around Good Friday to get to Easter. For him or us.”
In Christ All Things Hold Together
“They, with us, heard these words: “In Christ all things hold together.” I want to believe that. I “need” to believe that! And with God’s grace, if we can hold each other together, with patient expectation and prayer, we just might be able to join St. Paul as servants of this gospel.”
Freedom From, Freedom For
“Christian freedom doesn’t serve us; we serve Christian freedom. And it is a freedom that frees us from trying to save ourselves, and moves us into a freedom for others.”
Go Home!!
“So what do we do with a Jesus who doesn’t convert or condemn, but simply heals and sets free? What do we do with a Jesus who doesn’t seek a follower but a thankful heart? What do we do with a Jesus who isn’t interested in how big his church is… errr, I mean… his parade of followers is?”
God and the Wise Little Girl
“God is verb. God is movement, dance, flow. If God is love, love requires both a lov-er and a lov-ee. God contains both. And anything that lives in relationship with anything else, therefore, lives within God. God doesn’t just cause things to exist, God is present within the relationship of those things.”
The Ongoing Story
“And so, Pentecost is the story of a Christianity that doesn’t end with me and Jesus, and my worship of him, but a story that continues on in you and me. A story of us continuing on and doing the works of Jesus, and even greater things, as he has promised.”
Forgiveness Leads to Repentance
“But here’s the thing. We don’t need to run and hide like Adam and Eve. We don’t need to live in fear and dread. We know what kind of God we have. We know whether God, at God’s core, is forgiving or vengeful.”
No Distinction
“This is what seems to most irritate the other disciples about what Peter did. It wasn’t that he didn’t invite those others to join them and become a part of them. They and we would have been good with that.”
House Dweller
“Who are the green pastures of your life? Who are the still waters? Who has restored your soul? Who has led you in paths of goodness? Been with you in the shadows of life?”
Where God Spends Eternity
“The gospel isn’t asking us where we want to spend eternity, the gospel is telling us where God is spending eternity. And God is spending it with us. In life and death, in fear and doubt, in joy and sorrow. From cradle to the grave, and beyond. And so, if I spend all my time preparing for the heavenly after-life, and miss the heavenly this-life, the heavenly now-life, I’ve missed out on a lot.”
Wounded Touch
“You see, the problem may not be that people don’t want to belong to the church. The problem may just be that the church doesn’t want to belong to the Christ. Perhaps we’ve been so busy worshipping Jesus we’ve forgotten to follow him.”