Wise Words for Today

English: Jesus entering Jerusalem on a donkey (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We must start where Jesus started, with muddied, wretched-feeling people. Jesus didn’t start with the mud, but the hope of this “good news” about a God of grace who offers damaged people a relationship to become the people they were intended to be (we all need that). . . . . . . . . .Think about it: Jesus didn’t confront Zacchaeus about his thieving practices, he offered relationship, and that changed Zach! Jesus didn’t make sure the woman at the well understood that sex outside of marriage is wrong (though he taught that it was at other times), he offered her living water that made the muddy water distasteful. Jesus didn’t remind the woman caught in adultery that she broke the Ten Commandments – he didn’t have to – he set her free from condemnation so that she could “go and sin no more” (John 8:11 NLT). He offered a chance to live a new life! Relationship was Jesus’ solution to sin. Can we offer restorative relationship to very muddied people? That’s what it takes to be like Jesus. 

John Burke

(from Mud and the Masterpiece)

Wise Words for Today

Words Untold & Dreams Unlived (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Living wide awake is about realizing that the world needs you to live up to your potential. There are others whose lives and future depend on you stepping up and living big. The better world you keep waiting for needs you to accept your life’s calling and responsibility, and then to create it. The future needs you to dream God-sized dreams; these are the only kind God gets involved in. 

Erwin Raphael McManus

(from Wide Awake) 

Wise Words for Today

Chinese depiction of Jesus and the rich man (Mark 10) – 1879, Beijing, China (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Jesus asks Peter, “But what about you? Who do you say I am?”

This is a defining question posed to every generation and culture. Jesus was not just speaking to Peter. Each successive generation of Christians must give their own answer to Jesus’ frank inquiry. Who do we say Jesus is? Our answer cannot be drawn from what others are saying about Jesus or what our parents taught us about Him. We must stare Jesus in the face and offer our own response.

Jonathan Merritt

(from A Faith of Our Own)

Wise Words for Today

First page of the Gospel of Mark, by Sargis Pitsak, a Medieval Armenian scribe and miniaturist (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I don’t assume to have all the answers, and I don’t claim to understand everything that following Jesus entails. But in a day when the basics of becoming and being a Christian are so maligned by the culture and misunderstood in the church, I do know that there is more to Jesus than the routine religion we are tempted to settle for at every turn. And I am convinced that when we take a serious look at what Jesus really meant when he said, “Follow me,” we will discover that there is far more pleasure to be experienced in him, indescribably greater power to be realized with him, and a much higher purpose to be accomplished for him than anything this world has to offer. And the result, we will all – every single Christian – eagerly, willingly, and gladly lose our lives to know and proclaim Christ, for this is simply what it means to follow him. 

David Platt

(from Follow Me)

Wise Words for Today

The Holy Spirit as a dove on a stamp from Faroe Islands. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Practice God’s love. Nothing disperses the darkness, confusion, and the works of the enemy more effectively than walking in and practicing God’s love. God is love, and He is motivated by love. As we dare to love our children and family unconditionally, the darkness has to depart from them eventually. Parents, your display of love in action in everything you do will have a tremendous impact on your family life.

Iris Delgado

(The Holy Spirit put this quotation in my heart this morning and impressed upon me that some person or persons needed to see this message. In obedience, I posted this as Ms. Delgado’s words are indeed filled with wisdom. They are taken from her book Satan, You Can’t Have My Children).

Blessings,

Mick Turner

Wise Words for Today

Cover via Amazon

The practice of paying attention is as simple as looking twice at people and things you might just as easily ignore. To see takes time, like having a friend takes time. It is a simple as turning off the television to learn the song of a single bird. Why should anyone do such things? I cannot imagine – unless one is weary of crossing days off the calendar with no sense of what makes the last day different from the next. Unless one is weary of acting in what feels more like a television commercial than a life.
The practice of paying attention offers no quick fix for such weariness, with guaranteed results printed on the side. Instead, it is one way into a different way of life, full of treasure for those who are willing to pay attention to exactly where they are. 

Barbara Brown Taylor

(from An Altar in the World)

Wise Words for Today

Frank Damazio @ Tuesday’s 4:30pm Rally (Photo credit: James Kirsop)

God’s blessings for us are limited only by ourselves – not by His resources, power, or willingness to give. Refuse any obstacle, person, or opinion that restricts your expectations for our future. There are great, God-given opportunities before you, great open doors, and great rewards lying within your reach. Stretch. Expect. Believe. Persist. Possess. 

Frank Damazio

(from The Attitude of Faith)

Wise Words for Today

Picture of Jesus with American flag (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Almost unknowingly, we all have a tendency to redefine Christianity according to our own tastes, preferences, church traditions, and cultural norms. Slowly, subtly, we take the Jesus of the Bible and twist him into someone with whom we are a little more comfortable. We dilute what he says about the cost of following him, we disregard what he says about those who choose not to follow him, we practically ignore what he says about materialism, and we functionally miss what he says about mission. We pick and choose what we like and don’t like from Jesus’ teachings. In the end, we create a nice, non-offensive politically correct, middle-class American Jesus who looks just like us and thinks just like us.

But Jesus isn’t customizable. He has not left himself open to interpretation, adaptation, innovation, or alteration. He has spoken clearly through his Word, and we have no right to personalize him. Instead, he revolutionizes us. He transforms minds through his truth. As we follow Jesus, we believe Jesus, even when his Word confronts (and often contradicts) the deeply held assumptions, beliefs, and convictions of our lives, our families, our friends, our culture, and sometimes even our churches.

David Platt

(from Follow Me)

Wise Words for Today

Christ icon in Taizé (Photo credit: lgambett)

Set your eyes beyond the stratosphere and see a Christ who confounds the mind. This Christ is – present tense – the visible image of the invisible God. Jesus Christ displays God’s image visible in the invisible realm, where He is seated in heavenly places at the Father’s right hand. To look upon the carpenter of Nazareth is to discover God in totality. To know the Nazarene is to know the Almighty, the one true Creator – He who was, is, and is to come.

But that’s not all.

This Christ is the firstborn of the entire cosmos, the first person to appear in creation, and He is preeminent in all of it. All things visible and invisible were created by Him, through Him, to Him, and for Him. He is the Originator as well as the Goal – the Creator as well as the Consummator.

But that’s not all.

This Christ existed before time as the eternal Son. He is above time and outside of time. He is the beginning. In fact, He was before the beginning. He lives in a realm where there are no ticking watches and clocks. Space and time are his servants. He is unfettered by them.

This Christ is not only before all things, but the entire universe is held together in Him. He is the cohesive force, the glue and gravitational pull that holds all created elements together. He is creation’s great adhesive, the hinge upon which the whole cosmos turns. Remove Christ, and the entire universe disintegrates. It comes apart at the seams. Remove Him, and creations wheels come off.

But there’s still more.

This Christ is the very meaning of creation. Eliminate Him, and the universe has no purpose. Remove Him, and every living thing loses its meaning.

But more than all this, the One who created the universe watched it fall. He saw the cosmic revolt in heaven and the wreckage on earth. Under the caring eye of the Father, the Lord looked upon His own creation as it morphed into an enemy – His own enemy. And then he did the unthinkable. He penetrated a fallen world.

This Christ pierced the veil of space-time. He became incarnate and took on human flesh. As such, He was touched with the same temptations, the same infirmities, and the same weaknesses as all mortals, only He never yielded. Christ entered into His own creation to reconcile it back to Himself and to His Father. The Creator became the creature to make peace with an alienated creation.

Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola

Wise Words for Today

Image from the Book of Kells, a 1200 year old book. Category:Illuminated manuscript images (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I believe that we have reduced the gospel from a dynamic and beautiful symphony of God’s love for and in the world to a bare and strident monotone. We have taken this amazing good news from God, originally presented in high definition and Dolby stereo, and reduced it to a grainy, black-and-white, silent movie. In doing so, we have also stripped it of much of its power to change not only the human heart but the world. This is especially reflected in our limited view of evangelism. Jesus commanded His followers to take the good news of reconciliation and forgiveness to the ends of the earth. The dictate is the same today.

Christianity is a faith that was meant to spread – but not through coercion. God’s love was intended to be demonstrated, not dictated. Our job is not to manipulate or induce others to agree with us or to leave their religion and embrace Christianity. Our change is to both proclaim and embody the gospel so that others can see, hear, and feel God’s love in tangible ways. When we are living out our faith with integrity and compassion in the world, God can use us to give others a glimpse of His love and character. It is God – not us – who works in the hearts of men and women to forgive and redeem. Coercion is not necessary or even particularly helpful. God is responsible for the harvest – but we must plant, water, and cultivate the seeds.

Richard Stearns

(from The Hole in Our Gospel)