Thursday, January 29, 2009

Quotes that are relevant to me right now

Here are some quotes from an old journal I found, some have sources others have been lost to time.

"We subscribe to false gospels that are troubling our souls. Because we live in a constant sales environment where we are told a certain car will make us sexy or a certain dish-washing detergent will be a miracle for our dishes, we assume the gospel of Jesus works the same way, that is, if we invest something, we get something more back. But this is not the case. To understand what the Bible explains Jesus' gospel to be, we must look to each other, to the way a father interacts with a child, a bride to a bridegroom, a doctor to a patient. When we let go of the idea of Jesus as a product and embrace Him as a being, our path to spiritual maturity begins."

"Having met the enemy, I discovered the enemy wasn’t who I thought they were. They were flawed, even as we were flawed, but they were no less patriotic, and no less good. And what’s more, they weren’t out to get us like my conservative friends had told me. I began to see, honestly, the far conservative right, the radical right (not the balanced, objective right) as being paranoid. The advertisements on conservative radio talk shows were about guns and alarm systems."

-Donald Miller

"We should not be arrogant victims who seek vengeance, but wounded healers willing and ready to forgive."

-Unknown

"All scripture is equally inspired but not equally important...All scripture is not equally aplicable for every stage of life"

"Our church is not sacred, our mission is."

"Are we the church of the loving father (in reference to the parable of the prodigal son from Luke 16) or the older brother...How would the story have been different if it had been the older brother waiting at the doorstep?"

-Reggie Joiner

"Leadership is a stewardship, it is temporary and I am accountable."
-Andy Standley

"The story already has a star and it is not you or I... We have a supporting role in the greatest story ever told"

-Brian McLaren

"Notice how many places in the accounts of Jesus’ life he gets frustrated with his disciples. Because they are incapable? No, because of how capable they are. He sees what they could be and could do, and when they fall short it provokes him to no end. It isn’t their failure that’s the problem, it’s their greatness. They don’t realize what they are capable of....God has an amazingly high view of people. God believes that people are capable of amazing things. I’ve been told I need to believe in Jesus. Which is a good thing. But what I’m learning is that Jesus believes in me....God has faith in me."

-Rob Bell

"Born again is an overused term that really means we should rethink our position, start over and be fully dependant on God as if we were born again as infants"