Month: October 2014
Matt Sigler ~ Reclaiming a Vision of the Communion of Saints in Worship
October 30, 2014
“From very early on Christians buried their dead near their places of worship. Where others placed their dead outside of cities and avoided such sites, Christians often celebrated the anniversaries of the death of their martyrs with the Lord’s Supper. Oftentimes this celebration was held at the place where the martyr was buried. Soon, many churches included the bones of the martyrs within the church building. Since death was not the final word about our bodily existence, it didn’t need to be something fearful. Christians understood that to be absent from the body was to be present with the Lord and there was no place where the Lord was more present than in the community gathered for worship. The understanding was that in Christ all are one.”
Tammie Grimm ~ Divergent: Discerning Dystopia
October 29, 2014
“Dystopian young adult fiction is not my preferred genre for leisure reading. For one thing, a novel set in a stark world in which humanity is regularly repressed and coerced is a sure prescription for disturbed sleep! However, having recently committed to helping a middle-schooler with a literature project, I’ve fallen headlong into Victoria Roth’s “Divergent” trilogy. I’ve grown a little more understanding of why this genre has captivated the imaginations of today’s young adults. Rather than diagnose the sociological factors contributing to the proliferation of this genre, I offer these observations from the perspective of one whose reading includes the writings of John Wesley…”
Elizabeth Glass Turner ~ By the Light of Christ and the Saints
October 27, 2014
“Jesus Christ wants you to glow – not just to see his light, not just to talk about the light of God, not just to reflect his light, but to be transformed into light.”
Maxie Dunnam ~ Recovering Our First Language
October 22, 2014
“We have a whole new technological vocabulary. In this kind of technological world, and a world lost in moral and ethical relativism, language may be more important than ever. As Christians, and especially as those whose primary vocation is to communicate the Gospel, we need to pay attention to our ‘first language.’”
Talbot Davis ~ Lost Religion
October 18, 2014
“When God feels distant and you’re losing your religion, something else is going on. He’s like the sun. When it gets dark, that’s because the earth turns, not because anything happened with the sun, and it’s the same with God. We lose our religion when we turn, not when he does, and when we turn, our hands get busy making our own gods. The same gods who invariably, inevitably disappoint…”
Elizabeth Glass Turner ~ Aging & Keeping Covenant
October 16, 2014
“Sometimes we do not prepare ourselves for aging; we are uncomfortable, perhaps, thinking about the unknown, or fearing it. We fear a picture of aging that we paint for ourselves in which we look unrecognizable in the mirror, face an obsolete existence and are marginalized from the “real action” of living. But that great inspirer of John Wesley, Bishop Jeremy Taylor, counsels us: “let us prepare our minds against changes, always expecting them, that we be not surprised when they come.” Curiously, this excellent advice comes in the middle of his discussion on contentedness. “
Harley Scalf ~ Grace and an Empty Pop Bottle
October 15, 2014
“The grace of redemption can come upon us all at once like a crashing wave. It can reveal itself over a season of life similar to how the autumn leaves move from green to vivid orange, red, and yellow. It can even be relentless in how it floods our souls over and over again.”
Jerry Walls ~ God’s Love and Predestination
October 13, 2014
“Now some Calvinists clearly understand the logic of their position, and do not shrink from this implication. Classic Calvinist theologian Arthur W. Pink wrote: ‘when we say God is sovereign in the exercise of His love, we mean that He loves whom He chooses. God does not love everybody.’”
Carolyn Moore ~ Too Light a Thing
October 11, 2014
“What to do, then, when there is nothing to be done? I stood there, helpless in the face of such poverty, and wondered: as a follower of Jesus, what is my responsibility to this woman who seems to have been forgotten by the world? Do I demand justice? Throw her over my shoulder and haul her out of there? Or helplessly move on?”
Michael Smith ~ The Fairest of the Seasons
October 9, 2014
Each season has its ebb and flow, its ups and downs. Why is it, then, that we are still wrapping our minds around change management and leading change within local congregations? Think of change like you think of the seasons.