Quote“We cannot take the approach that we just need to teach people the classic spiritual disciplines, assuming that a person already has a developed center. We must use spiritual disciplines to help people form the center.” - Reggie McNeal in The Present Future (Jossey-Bass, 2003)
food for thought
There was a moment in my day when I felt homeless. I couldn’t go home, because I knew that would be too tempting. I couldn’t be with my friends because that would be too tempting. I had just eaten, so I couldn’t just sit in a restaurant all day. I was walking down the street literally with nowhere to go, and I just didn’t know what I was going to do.” —a student taking part in a 24-hour media fast for the “Understanding Mass Media” class at American University, in which participants were not allowed to watch television, listen to the radio or use their cell phones [washingtonpost.com, 8/5/07]
Man on a missionJesus Christ was a man on a mission, and his purpose was never in question. He did not, however, misuse the notion that God was working his purpose out through his life by adopting a passive attitude toward his work for God. He did not halfheartedly live, but actively obeyed every command of the Father to the point that the life which he calls every Christian to imitate is a life of action fueled by the knowledge that their ultimate purpose is and remains the glory of God. … Jesus never structured the purposes of God around themes of self-importance or self-esteem. Rather, he spoke of taking up a cross, laying one’s life down for others, and following in the footsteps of one described as a man of sorrows acquainted with grief.” - Douglas Baker in Baptist Press 1/27/06
Show, don’t tell me, who God is. . .People aren’t looking for information about God. They want to experience God, himself. Information leaves them bored, uninterested. Experience, especially the ultimate experience any human being can ever have, leaves them breathless. And that’s exactly what we have to offer. - Mark Tabb, Mission to Oz
Great book for those who feel along in their marriage
Quote from Susie Larson’s book, Alone In Marriage.
How often when wounded by someone else’s sin, do we sin by our response to them?
. . . the Christian life is like a winding country road with deep ditches on each side. One side represents outright rebellion, the other our response to someone else ’s rebellion. The Devil could care less which ditch he gets us into, he just wants us off the road.
Alone in Marriage: Encouragement for the Times When it’s all up to You
by Susie Larson
Publisher: Moody Publishers
Release date: July 2007
ISBN:0802452787
Thinking the weight is too great? Almost every marriage goes through a time when one spouse has to carry more…emotionally, spiritually, financially, and even physically. Susie Larson walks through that time with you, showing you which weights need to be thrown out, which ones are refining you, and which ones are strengthening you.
To find out more about Susie Larson and her ministry.
Love this. . .“When we seek out that which is lost, we are loving our neighbor as we love ourselves and valuing people as God values them. If we as the Church keep this as our core focus and mission, we will never become an empty building or mere tourist attraction. We will be so occupied and fulfilled with doing what the Church was placed on this earth to do – taking what is inside the Church out into a broken world – that our doors will never close. The lost will be drawn to us because of our open arms and our loving, safe environment. - Christina Caine, Stop Acting Like a Christian, Just Be One (Regal, 2007)
T. Suzanne Eller
Believing that God redeems our life stories, Suzanne teaches you how to give every chapter of your life to a relevant and life-changing Savior.
