God the Son does not act as an agent of change upon God the Father. God the Son is the perfect revelation of who God the Father is and has always been.
– Brian Zahnd
Author: Joseph Ginder (Page 7 of 24)
I saw a comment by Brian Zahnd the other day on Jesus’ disciples in the Gospel of Luke that bears repeating. So I’m repeating it!
The “Sons of Thunder” wanted to call fire down from heaven on a Samaritan village who refused to welcome Jesus. In their petition they were able to cite Scripture because Elijah had done this. But Jesus rebuked them, saying, “You do not know what manner of spirit you are of.”
The question isn’t can we find it in the Bible, but can we find it in Jesus. If we weaponize the Bible to hurt other people, we do not have the Spirit of the Lord.
Christianity is intended to be a faith that is generous in a world that promotes scarcity, kind in a world that is harsh, generative where there is decay, healing where there is hurt, reconciling where there is division, and merciful and loving where there is hate.
-Raymond Chang
“A man who lies to himself, and believes his own lies becomes unable to recognize truth, either in himself or in anyone else, and he ends up losing respect for himself and for others. When he has no respect for anyone, he can no longer love, and in order to divert himself, having no love in him, he yields to his impulses, indulges in the lowest forms of pleasure, and behaves in the end like an animal. And it all comes from lying—lying to others and to yourself.”
Elder Zosima, in The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky, Book II, Chapter 2
When it comes to hearing God, the Bible is the language of his heart. Nothing he says in any other way in any other context will ever override, undermine or contradict what he has said in the Scriptures. That’s why Jesus doesn’t just show up on the road to Emmaus and say, ‘Hi, it’s me!’ Instead, he takes considerable time to deliver a lengthy biblical exposition in which he reinterprets God’s Word radically, in the light of his own life, death and resurrection.
Pete Greig
How To Hear God (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2022), p. 36.
(I heard it on Lectio 365 for April 27)
‘It is Christ himself, not the Bible, who is the true word of God. The Bible, read in the right spirit and with the guidance of good teachers, will bring us to him’
C.S. Lewis
The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Vol. 3: Narnia, Cambridge & Joy, 1950-1963, edited by Walter Hooper (San Francisco: HarperOne, 2007), p. 246.
“Loving, forgiving, and doing good to our adversaries is our duty. Yet we must do this without giving up and without being cowardly. We shall resist whenever our adversaries demand of us obedience contrary to the orders of the Gospel. We shall do so without fear, but also without pride and without hate.”
-from a sermon preached by André Trocmé the sunday after France fell to the German attack in World War II
Back in 2020, I made a series of lectio divina readings for Palm Sunday through Good Friday. The title pages have 2020 dates; but there is nothing dated about the readings – except they are keyed to the scriptures that take us through that week leading up to Jesus’ resurrection. In the hope that they may be of use to you in worshipping through the week, I decided to make a convenient menu of links which you can use to refer to them.
The links above are to Youtube videos that I made on my phone back in 2020 for the LBFC Devotions channel. (I intend to edit them into a podcast series also; but that’s not ready yet.)
“To Know God means to look like Him and to live in a way that reflects his character.”
Rikk Watts
In the recorded message this week, I mentioned the free newsletter Seeing Color. This note is to make the link to it available. If you subscribe, it will come in email each month.
I also mentioned the Journal of John Woolman. The text is freely downloadable or can be read online. Some may find the older style of his writing difficult. There is also a free audiobook version available on Librivox. You can read from a browser or get the Librivox app for your phone. There are updated and edited versions for sale in all the usual places.