| A couple things: Emotional Pain: Immaturity asks God to take the pain away. Maturity asks for the discipline to learn through and from the pain. Obstacles = Magnifiers. They can either make a good thing better or a bad thing worse. They can either amplify your view of God's greatness or make you focus on your flaws. Conditional: Don't be conditional. No matter what happens, God is always faithful, whether you pass or fail, God is always faithful. Don't think the more you pray, the more likely you are to get something because even if you don't get it, God is still faithful. It's only going to get better: There's no catch-22 with God. As we get older and remain faithful, we learn more about God and only great things are to come. Racing: Psalm 119.131 I open my mouth and pant,
longing for your commands. Life is a marathon, we all get thirsty at some point, but be smart with what you drink. Jesus is trying to give us water while the world is trying to give us a Coke after running the race. Water is what our bodies need and while coke may quench the thirst, caffeiene is a diuretic, meaning it makes you pee more. What a perfect analogy, Jesus tries to replenish us while the world tricks us into thinking we're being replenished, but we're actually being depleted of the thing we need most. Simplicity: The Culturally Savvy Christian by Dick StaubAn excerpt: "Cultural renewal requires personal renewal, and personal renewal will require the rediscovery of the essence of our faith, which leads me to the ivory-billed woodpecker and the dodo bird. The sad saga of the dodo bird begins in 1598 with Portuguese sailors, who discovered the dodo when they landed on the island of Mauritius. They named the bird dodo, which means "simpleton" in Portuguese, because, having been isolated from humans and having faced no predators, the flightless birds seemed stupid, displaying a childlike innocence when greeting the invaders. The sailors killed most of the birds, and the rest were wiped out after the introduction of predatory dogs and pigs. Within twenty years, the dodo was extinct. Not long ago, the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) aired a happier story, reportinng on possible evidence for the existence, in Arkansas, of an ivory-billed woodpecker long thought to be extinct. Among the world's largest woodpeckers, the ivory-billed woodpecker is one of six North American birds species suspected or known to have gone extinct since 1880. Ornithologists were stunned at it's rediscovery, comparing it to finding the long-extinct dodo. Frank Gill of the National Audubon Society in the United States exclaimed, 'This is huge, just huge. It is kind of like finding Elvis.' 'Just to think this bird made it into the 21st century gives me chills,' said Tim Gallagher, editor of Living Bird magazine, adding 'It's like a funeral shroud has been pulled back, giving us a glimpse of a living bird, rising Lazarus-like from the grave.' John Fitzpatrick of Cornell University headed the search party and explained the significance of the finding. 'Amazingly, America may have another chance to protect the future of this spectacular bird and the awesome forests in which it lives,' Fitzpatrick said. 'It is the most beautiful bird we could imagine rediscovering. It is a magical bird. For those of us who tenaciously cling to the idea that man can live alongside fellow species, this is the most incredible ray of hope.' What do the dodo and the ivory-billed woodpecker have to do with culturally savvy Christians? Absolutely everything. First, Christians who enter culture naively risk perishing like the dodo bird, consumed by predators. Second, a remnant of culturally savvy Christian survives, but they have already faced harsh conditions and are nearly extinct, like the ivory-billed woodpecker. Third, unlike the ivory-billed woodpecker whose disappearance is sad but not fatal for the environment, with the disappearance of individuals aglow with God's presence, we are witnessing a rapid deterioration of our spiritual, intellectual, and aesthetic cultural environment. Fourth, as a result, like spiritual environmentalists, we need to find culturally savvy Christians, nuture them back to health, help them to multiply, and carefully reintroduce them into society. ...To return to the ornithologst's quotes and the woodpecker metaphor, finding this culturally savvy Christian, who was previously thought to be extinct, is huge, just huge. It's kind of like finding Elvis. Just to think that these Christians made it into the twenty-first century should give us the chills. The reemergence of this new kind of Christian should be as if a funeral shroud has been pulled back, giving us a glimpse of a living person, the most beautiful person we could imagine rediscovering, a magical person rising Lazarus-like from the grave. And for those who tenaciously cling to the idea that culturally savvy Christians can survive alongside their fellow humans, the reemergence of culturally savvy Christians will be the most incredible ray of hope." "Jesus did not come to make us Christian; Jesus came to make us fully human." -Hans Rookmaaker. Simplicity = stupidity = death. Thank you so much for praying. |
