Chapter 9
Standouts
"Most of us, whether we are aware of it or not, do things with an eye to the approval of some audience or other. The questions is not whether we have an audience but which audience we have."
"A life lived listening to the decisive call of God is a life lived before one audience that trumps all others - the Audience of One."
"To follow the call of God is therefore to live before the heart of God. It is to live life coram deo (before the heart of God) and thus to shift our awareness of audiences to the point where only the last and highest - God - counts."
"I wonder how far Moses would have gone if he had taken a poll in Egypt." -Harry Truman
"General Charles Gordon, peerless military strategist, legendary commander, and mostly all-conquering victor, lived so closely before the Audience of One that when his time came, he had only a short step home. Like all for whom God's call is decisive, it could be said of him, 'I live before the Audience of One. Before others I have nothing to prove, nothing to gain, nothing to lose.'"
Matthew 6:1-4 was the scripture focus with the question, "Why does Jesus require that our good deeds be done in secret?"
Most of the time I can do the good deed in secret. But what I'd really like is for the reward/blessing to be the marching band, the round of applause, the confetti. And what if God's blessing in secret is stuff like patience, kindness, mercy and grace - stuff I will live out and give out. Thinking that way really reveals that I have not lived before the heart of God. But as Jesus refocuses me to remember who it was that gave me reason and purpose for living, I live and serve, love and give before the Audience of One, the Eye in the Sky. The driving motivation of my life will be to honor the Caller.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Terrible Sweetness of Jesus
Chapter 8
Standouts
"God's primary call, his address to us, always has two dimensions: summons and invitation, law and grace, demand and offer. Unquestionably the former comes first, yet that side is missing among many followers of Christ today. The result is a casualness in faith and a slackness in behavior that show no sign of having listened to any call from either Sinai or Galilee, let alone Calvary."
"All too often our familiarity with the Gospels breeds inattention. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer insisted, 'The response of the disciples is an act of obedience, not a confessions of faith in Jesus.' They did not consider his claims, make up their minds, and then decide whether to follow - they simply heard and obeyed."
"The only way to follow is to leave everything and follow him."
"Disciples are not so much those who follow as those who must follow."
The scripture focus of this chapter is Matthew 4:18-22 (the calling of Peter & Andrew and James & John). When I was about 4 or 5-years-old, I was with my mom in Woolworth in downtown Honolulu (about 1955). It was crowded. We were together and then we weren't. I was lost. I've never felt so desperate, so alone. I looked around and I couldn't see her. Then, I heard a voice calling my name. I didn't see her, but I knew it was my mom - instantly. No mulling over if it was her voice or not. I knew it was her. Every child knows mom's voice, their mom. I ran to her. I wasn't lost anymore.
Standouts
"God's primary call, his address to us, always has two dimensions: summons and invitation, law and grace, demand and offer. Unquestionably the former comes first, yet that side is missing among many followers of Christ today. The result is a casualness in faith and a slackness in behavior that show no sign of having listened to any call from either Sinai or Galilee, let alone Calvary."
"All too often our familiarity with the Gospels breeds inattention. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer insisted, 'The response of the disciples is an act of obedience, not a confessions of faith in Jesus.' They did not consider his claims, make up their minds, and then decide whether to follow - they simply heard and obeyed."
"The only way to follow is to leave everything and follow him."
"Disciples are not so much those who follow as those who must follow."
The scripture focus of this chapter is Matthew 4:18-22 (the calling of Peter & Andrew and James & John). When I was about 4 or 5-years-old, I was with my mom in Woolworth in downtown Honolulu (about 1955). It was crowded. We were together and then we weren't. I was lost. I've never felt so desperate, so alone. I looked around and I couldn't see her. Then, I heard a voice calling my name. I didn't see her, but I knew it was my mom - instantly. No mulling over if it was her voice or not. I knew it was her. Every child knows mom's voice, their mom. I ran to her. I wasn't lost anymore.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Hot Gates
Chapter 7
Standouts
"... one of the most courageous stands in human history: Thermopylae."
"But at their core were three hundred Spartans, trained to stand or die. ("Come back with your shield or on it," a Spartan mother told her son.) They were led by a fifty-five-year-old Spartan prince, Leonidas. And they took their stand in a narrow pass, twenty yards wide, bounded by the sea on one side and the five thousand-foot cliffs of Mt. Kallidromos on the other. Hot sulfurous springs, which the Greeks called Thermopylae, or Hot Gates, bubbled out of these cliffs at the narrowest place."
"But before they died, they sent home the stirring message that has become their epitaph: 'Stranger, tell the Spartans that we behaved as they would wish us to, and are buried here.'"
"As the French philosopher Montaigne said of Thermopylae two thousand years later, 'there are triumphant defeats that rival victories.'"
"Will it be said of followers of Jesus Christ across the world, 'Passerby, tell our Lord that we have behaved as he would wish us to behave, and are buried here'?"
"'A time to stand' is a time to behave as our Lord would wish us to behave. A time to behave is a time to believe as he has taught us to believe. A time to believe is a time to move from small, cozy formulations of faith to knowing what it is to be called by him as the deepest most stirring, and most consuming passion of our lives."
The scripture focus for this chapter was 2 Timothy 4:1-8. As I read it, with ch. 7 in mind, I remembered those who were the "older people" when I first started in ministry. In the last few years several of them have "finished the race" and they are missed. One of the questions asked in this section was, "Why did Paul have confidence that he was finishing well?"
One reason I think Paul had that confidence was Timothy. Someone to hand it to, to take over, someone who would stand.
Several days ago, as I was going up the stairs to my office with my eleven-year-old nephew, he said to me, "I'm going to replace you." I think he meant he wanted my office space (just kidding - because we both laughed). But, in the deepest part of me, I hope that happens. I hope someone who grew up here takes over my office.
Standouts
"... one of the most courageous stands in human history: Thermopylae."
"But at their core were three hundred Spartans, trained to stand or die. ("Come back with your shield or on it," a Spartan mother told her son.) They were led by a fifty-five-year-old Spartan prince, Leonidas. And they took their stand in a narrow pass, twenty yards wide, bounded by the sea on one side and the five thousand-foot cliffs of Mt. Kallidromos on the other. Hot sulfurous springs, which the Greeks called Thermopylae, or Hot Gates, bubbled out of these cliffs at the narrowest place."
"But before they died, they sent home the stirring message that has become their epitaph: 'Stranger, tell the Spartans that we behaved as they would wish us to, and are buried here.'"
"As the French philosopher Montaigne said of Thermopylae two thousand years later, 'there are triumphant defeats that rival victories.'"
"Will it be said of followers of Jesus Christ across the world, 'Passerby, tell our Lord that we have behaved as he would wish us to behave, and are buried here'?"
"'A time to stand' is a time to behave as our Lord would wish us to behave. A time to behave is a time to believe as he has taught us to believe. A time to believe is a time to move from small, cozy formulations of faith to knowing what it is to be called by him as the deepest most stirring, and most consuming passion of our lives."
The scripture focus for this chapter was 2 Timothy 4:1-8. As I read it, with ch. 7 in mind, I remembered those who were the "older people" when I first started in ministry. In the last few years several of them have "finished the race" and they are missed. One of the questions asked in this section was, "Why did Paul have confidence that he was finishing well?"
One reason I think Paul had that confidence was Timothy. Someone to hand it to, to take over, someone who would stand.
Several days ago, as I was going up the stairs to my office with my eleven-year-old nephew, he said to me, "I'm going to replace you." I think he meant he wanted my office space (just kidding - because we both laughed). But, in the deepest part of me, I hope that happens. I hope someone who grew up here takes over my office.
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