Your Bones are the Same.

There was a king of Spain who was very proud of his ancestors, and who was known for his cruelty to the weak. One time, he was walking with his advisers across a field in Aragon, where - years before - he had lost his father during a battle, when he found a holy man searching a large pile of bones. - What are you doing there? - asked the king. - Honored greetings, Your Majesty - said the holy man. - When I heard that the king of Spain was coming this way, I resolved to recover the bones of your late father and present them to you. But however hard I search, I cannot find them: they are exactly the same as the bones of country folk, the poor, beggars and slaves."

(Paulo Coelho : Warrior Of The Light - Vol 1 )

You Followed A Calf.

"In issue nr. 106 of Jornalinho, (Portugal), I find a story which teaches us much about that which we choose without thinking: One day, a calf needed to cross a virgin forest in order to return to its pasture. Being an irrational animal, it forged out a tortuous path full of bends, up and down hills. The next day, a dog came by and used the same path to cross the forest. Next it was a sheep’s turn, the head of a flock which, upon finding the opening, led its companions through it. Later, men began using the path: they entered and left, turned to the right, to the left, bent down, deviating obstacles, complaining and cursing - and quite rightly so. But they did nothing to create a different alternative. After so much use, in the end, the path became a trail along which poor animals toiled under heavy loads, being forced to go three hours to cover a distance which would normally take thirty minutes, had no one chosen to follow the route opened up by the calf. Many years passed and the trail became the main road of a village, and later the main avenue of a town. Everyone complained about the traffic, because the route it took was the worst possible one. Meanwhile, the old and wise forest laughed, at seeing how men tend to blindly follow the way already open, without ever asking whether it really is the best choice."

Why So Much Work For Nothing?

"The feasts in Valência, Spain, have a curious ritual whose origins lie in the ancient community of carpenters

During the entire year, craftsmen and artists construct giant sculptures in wood. On the week of the feast, they take these sculptures to the main square. People pass, comment, marvel and are moved by such creativity. Then, on St. Joseph’s day all these works of art - except one - are burned on a giant bonfire, watched by thousands of onlookers.
- Why so much work for nothing?
- asked an Englishwoman beside me, as flames licked the sky. - You too will come to an end one day - replied a Spanish woman.
- Can you imagine if, at that moment, an angel asked God: “why so much work for nothing?”

(Paulo Coelho : Warrior Of The Light - Vol 1 )

God's Soul Delight

".... the soul of the righteous person is nothing but a paradise, in which, as God tells us, he takes his delight.....  I can find nothing with which to compare the great beauty of a soul and its great capacity." 
(Teresa of Avila; Interior Castle)

A Temple Set Apart

"Fling wide the portals of your heart;
Make it a temple, set apart
From earthly use for heaven's employ,
Adorned with prayer and love and joy."
George Weissel Hymn

Hike Your Own Hike.

When I set out to walk 300km i was introduced to the concept of "Hike your own hike." I think it applies to life also. This story captivated me.

About the rhythm and the Road -

"There was something missing in your lecture about the Road to Santiago - a pilgrim told me as soon as we left the House of Galicia in Madrid, where I had just attended conference. There was much missing, since my intention had merely been to share some of my experiences. Nevertheless, I invited her for a coffee, curious to learn what she considered an important omission. And Begoña - that was her name - told me: - I have noticed that the majority of pilgrims, whether on the Road to Santiago, or on the paths of life, always try to follow the rhythms of others. “At the beginning of my pilgrimage, I tried to stay with my group. It was tiring and demanded of my body more than I could give, I was always tense, and in the end had trouble with a tendon in my left foot. Unable to walk for two days, I understood that I would only reach Santiago if I obeyed my own personal rhythm. “I took longer than the others, and had to walk alone for long stretches, but it was only by respecting my own rhythm that I managed to complete the journey. Since then I have applied this to everything I must do in life: to respect my own tempo.”

( Paulo Coelho : Warrior Of The Light vol 1)

Questions That Grow

"A certain Rabbi was adored by the community; everyone was enchanted by what he said.

Except for Isaac, who never missed an opportunity to contradict the Rabbi’s interpretations and point out faults in his teachings. The others were annoyed by Isaac, but could do nothing about it.

One day, Isaac died. During the funeral, the community noticed that the Rabbi was deeply upset. - Why are you so sad? - someone commented.
- He was always criticizing everything you said!
- I am not upset for my friend who is now in heaven - replied the Rabbi - I am upset for my own self. While everyone revered me, he challenged me, and I was obliged to improve. Now he has gone, I am afraid I shall stop growing."

(Paulo Coelho : Warrior Of The Light vol 1)

Fighting For Lies

Looking back, most things were not worth it, but others really were.

"More than once, he wasted his time fighting for a lie."

(Paulo Coelho: Warrior Of The Light)

Enthusiastic Conquests

"Know that one must not renounce the enthusiasm of the conquests; they are part of life, ..."

( Paulo Coelho : Warrior Of The Light vol 1)

Charity Instead Of Love & Care?

We are all responsible

"A group of men came along the street; heavily armed soldiers leading a condemned man to the gallows. “That man is no good”, said a disciple to Nasrudin. “I once gave him a silver coin in order to help him start his life afresh, and he did nothing important.” “He may be no good, but perhaps he is now on his way to the gallows because of you,” argued the master. “Perhaps he used the alms in order to buy a dagger, which he then used in committing his crime - because instead of helping him with love and care, you chose to give him alms in order to release yourself from your obligation."

( Paulo Coelho : Warrior Of The Light vol 1)

Intelligent Fools

Mullah Nasrudin (the central figure in almost all tales of the Sufi tradition) had already become a sort of attraction at the main market in the town. Whenever he went there to beg, people would show him a large coin and a small one: Nasrudin always chose the small one.

A generous man who was tired of seeing everyone laugh at Nasrudin, explained to him:

“When people offer you two coins, choose the larger one. Then you will have more money, and people will not think you a fool.”

“You are surely right”, replied Nasrudin. “But if I always chose the larger coin, people would stop offering me money, in order to prove that I am a greater fool than they are. And then I would no longer receive enough for my food. There is nothing wrong with appearing to be a fool, if what you are doing is in fact intelligent.”

(Paulo Coelho : Warrior Of The Light)

Provoked For Free

"A young man went to an abbot from the Sceta monastery, wanting to follow a spiritual path.

- For one whole year, give a coin to anyone who provokes you. - said the abbot.

For twelve months the young man gave a coin away whenever someone provoked him. At the end of a year, he returned to the abbot, to find out his next task.

- Go into town and fetch me food. As soon as the young man left, the abbot disguised himself as a beggar and - taking a shortcut he knew - went to the gates of the town. When the young man approached, he began to insult him.

- How marvelous! - said the young man to the so-called beggar. - For a whole year I had to pay everyone who provoked me, and now I can be provoked for free, without having to spend a thing!

Upon hearing this, the abbot removed his disguise.

- Whoever is capable of not minding what others say, is a man on the path to wisdom. You no longer take insults seriously, therefore you are ready for the next step."

(Paulo Coelho: Warrior Of The Light)

Old Experiences.......

"Saint Antão was living in the desert, when a young man came to him: - Father, I sold all my belongings and gave to the poor. I kept only a few things in order to survive here. I want you to teach me the way to salvation. Saint Antão asked the young man to sell the few things he had kept and, with the money, to buy meat in town. He was to return with the meat tied to his body. The young man obeyed. On his way back, he was attacked by dogs and falcons, who wanted a piece of the meat. - I am back - said the young man, showing his scratched, bitten body, and his clothes in rags. Why did you tell me to do that? - To show that what you brought from your past, is of no use in your present. When you must choose a new path, do not bring old experiences with you. Those who strike out afresh, but who attempt to retain a little of the old life, end up torn apart by their own memories."

(Paulo Coelho: Warrior Of The Light)

So Complicated I Quit.

“Such are the lives of those who haven’t the courage to risk: solutions are generously provided by God, but people always seek complicated explanations, and end up doing nothing.”
( Paulo Coelho: Warrior Of The Light)

Pay up Quickly

"Paying for the same thing three times There is a legend in the region of Punjab, about a thief who broke into a farm and stole two hundred onions. But before he could make his escape, he was caught by the farmer and led before the judge.

The magistrate past sentence: the payment of ten gold pieces. But the man alleged that the fine was too high, so the judge offered him two alternatives: to be whipped twenty times, or eat the two hundred onions.

The thief chose to eat the two hundred onions. When he had eaten twenty-five, his eyes were already filled with tears, and his stomach was burning up like the fires of hell. Since there were still 175 to go, and he knew he would never bear this punishment, he begged to be thrashed twenty times.

The judge agreed. But when the whip tore into his back for the tenth time, he implored for the punishment to be stopped, for he could not stand the pain. His wish was granted, but the thief still had to pay the ten pieces of gold.

- If you had accepted the fine, you would have avoided eating the onions and wouldn’t have suffered with whip - said the judge. - But you preferred the more difficult path, not understanding that, when you have done wrong, it is better to pay up quickly and forget the matter."

(Paulo Coelho : Warrior Of The Light )

My Soul Healed As I Walked

"And the wounds go beyond the physical body; many wounds which had opened up on my soul were expelled by the pain I felt as I walked along the road to Kumano towards a temple whose name escapes me. Certain suffering can only be forgotten when we manage to float above our pain."
(Paulo Coelho: Warrior Of The Light)

The gift of The Unexpected

The gift of the unexpected.....

"... one can often ruin a good pilgrimage by reading all the leaflets, books, guidelines on the Internet, friends’ comments, and arrive at the place knowing everything one ought to be discovering for oneself, not allowing room for the most important element of any journey - the unexpected."

(Paulo Coelho: Warrior Of The Light)

A Pain Not Everyone Senses

".... she says a few words in Japanese, and when I look up, I see on her face the smile of a young woman who chose to be a guide on a road no one knows, who learned to dominate a pain which not everyone senses, and who understands that the path is taken by walking, and not by thinking about it."

(Paulo Coelho: Warrior of the Light)

Not Worth The Wait

"I think a lot of us, especially us older guys, realize that there’s not anything worth standing in line for, especially when we’re talking about a drink,”

Dave Mitton

God The Poor Man Of Prayer

"Well, every evening, when the darkness wraps itself around my prayer, he, God, is there, disguised as a poor man watching me."

(Rueben Job, & Norman Shawchuch. A Guide To Prayer)

Help Me See God By Your Love

"God may make himself known to you through the life of someone who, for you, is an ambassador for God, and whom you can see the beauty and truth and the love of God. It may be that there is someone who loves you so deeply that you dare to believe that you are worth loving and so you can believe that God's love for you could be possible after all."

( Rueben Job, & Norman Shawchuch. A Guide To Prayer)

Too Small For God?

"Nothing in your life is so insignificant, so small, that God cannot be found at its centre. We think of God in the dramatic things, the glorious sunsets, the majestic mountains, the tempestuous seas; but he is in the little things too, in the smile of a passerby or the gnarled hand of an old man, in a daisy, a tiny insect, falling leaves.
God is in the music, in laughter and in sorrow too. And the grey times, when monotony stretches out ahead, these can be the times of steady, solid growth into God."
( Rueben Job, & Norman Shawchuch. A Guide To Prayer)

Living In The Fire Of The Trinity

"To have found God, to have experienced him in the intimacy of our being, to have lived even for one hour in the fire of his Trinity and the bliss of his Unity clearly makes us say: "Now I understand. You alone are enough for me.""

(From the God who Comes by Carlo Carretto. Sited in Rueben Job, & Norman Shawchuch. A Guide To Prayer)

How He Comes Why He Comes

"And his coming and his presence are not only the result for our waiting or a prize for our efforts: they are his decision, based on his love freely poured out.
His coming is bound to his promise, not to our works or virtue. We have not earned the meeting with God because we have served in faithfully in our brethren, or because we have heaped up such a pile of virtue as to shine before heaven.

God is thrust forward by his love not attracted by your beauty. He comes even in moments when we have done everything wrong, when we have done nothing. When we have sinned."

(From the God who comes by Carlo.. as sited in Rueben Job, & Norman Shawchuch. A Guide To Prayer)

Forced To Starve

"And we pray for those who are hungry every day, for those who never know the privilege of a fast because they are forced to starve."

(Rueben Job, & Norman Shawchuch. A Guide To Prayer )

Listen To Stories

"As we listen to another person's story, we come to see more clearly the movement of God in our own lives. This has always been so. Whenever the Israelites became discouraged or frightened or forgetful, their leaders would get them together together to tell them 'the story' one more time.  They would always find God hidden in the story. And in finding God within another's experience they were able to interpret the movement of God within their own."

(Rueben Job, & Norman Shawchuch. A Guide To Prayer)

Preaching The Gospel Of Hell?

"THE QUESTION IS COMPELLING. “Do you know where you would end up if you died in a car accident tonight?” The evangelist has already painted the pictures. You could find yourself in an eternal garden of exquisite beauty laced together with winding paths of gold— or writhing in agony amid the leaping sulfuric flames of hell.

If there was ever a choice that defined “no-brainer,” this is it. Once you convince someone that hell and heaven exist, winning a convert is easy. After all, praying for forgiveness and “accepting Jesus” seem like a small price to pay for a get-out-of-hell-free card!

So effective is this appeal to people’s worst fears and insecurities that hell has become the most popular invitation into God’s kingdom. What we have not so critically examined is whether or not threatening people with hell engages them in the relationship God has always wanted with them.

We live in a day when millions of people have made a commitment to Christ and yet few lives are really transformed by his power. It has been said of this generation that our Christianity is a mile wide but only an inch deep. We see effects of it everywhere. People claim to know God but show no evidence of transformation in their daily lives. We challenge them as hypocrites and attempt to badger them into more-righteous lifestyles, but in the end most believers end up as much a part of the world’s ways as their nonbelieving neighbors.

While the threat of hell can stir instant commitments, it does not breed long-term disciples. If you are in this kingdom only because you fear the alternative, you’ve missed the greatest part of what it means to know God."

(He Loves Me. Wayne Jacobsen )

Cowering From The Nasty God

"We all know what it takes to get acquainted with new people, the awkward pauses and measured words as people get to know one another....

...but at some point they found themselves safe enough with him and one another to let down their guards. No longer measuring words or trying to impress one another, they slipped into the fruits of their burgeoning friendship— the freedom to be honest, to laugh, to ask the seemingly stupid question, and to relax in one another’s presence.

What must that have felt like to Jesus? Had this been what he had always wanted?

For the first time since that cruel day in Eden, God was sitting down with people he loved and they were not cowering in fear. For centuries men and women had stood at a great distance from God, shamed by their sin and intimidated by his holiness. With only a few notable exceptions, people wanted nothing to do with the immediacy of God’s presence. When Mount Sinai shook with thunder and earthquakes, the people begged Moses to go to God for them. God was a terrifying figure, and feeling safe with him was unthinkable. But God had never thought so."
(He Loves Me. Wayne Jacobsen)

Summary Sin

"...... an old outline I heard a pentecostal preacher give 30 years ago re the story of David and Bathsheba. 
Sin takes you farther than you want to go, costs you more  than you want to pay, keeps you longer than you want to stay."

( Alan Beck)

When Men Destroy In His Name.

"We must believe that God is very far from the war path and he does not like it when men destroy in his name."

(Jean Zerbo. Archbishop of Bamako, Christmas 2015)

Unity Is Better Than Proximity

"Unity is a better gift than proximity."
(Jeff Frazee)

Lots of people  sitting in the same pew, or born into a family they live around.
Observations.
Unity is more than proximity.
Unity can exist without proximity.
Proximity is not the same as unity.
Proximity is no assurance or guarantee there is unity.

Excluding

"Forgiveness flounders because I exclude the enemy from the community of humans and myself from the community of sinners."

~ Miroslav Volf

God's Windpipe

"God is not mute: the Word spoke, not out of a whirlwind, but out of the human larynx of a Palestinian Jew."

(Philip Yancey, THE JESUS I NEVER KNEW)

Organised Religion Lost me.

"I left the synagogue and went on with my life and I thought that maybe it would be a long time before I ever looked organized religion in the face again. I should have known that my faith was not strong enough to endure examination, that it was too primitive and not sophisticated enough, and I was sad and sorry that I had asked it to withstand what it wasn’t capable of."

What Would Cool Jesus Do?
BY TAFFY BRODESSER-AKNER

http://www.gq.com/story/inside-hillsong-church-of-justin-bieber-kevin-durant

Your Church Threats Are Not Needed.

"What the Father showed us in the gift of his Son is that he was unwilling to settle for the indentured servitude of fearful slaves. He preferred instead the intimate affection of sons and daughters. He knew love would take us deeper into his life than fearful obligation ever would. It would teach us more truth, free us from our selfishness and failures, and make us fruitful in the world." (He Loves Me. Wayne Jacobsen)

The Devils Religious Habit

"I believe that the greatest trick of the devil is not to get us into some sort of evil but rather have us wasting time. This is why the devil tries so hard to get Christians to be religious. If he can sink a man’s mind into habit, he will prevent his heart from engaging God."

(Donald Miller Blue like Jazz)

Walk To See

“When you walk, walk...."
“But doesn’t everyone do that?”
“No,” the master said.
“Many people when they walk are interested only in getting to the place where they are going. They are not really experiencing the walking."

(Leonard Sweet. The Well Played Life)

Hearing The Music Of Today.

"Being fully present in the now is perhaps the premier skill of the spiritual life. More often than not, I do not hear the music of what is happening now because my mind ricochets between the past and the future."

(Brennan Manning. Ruthless Trust )

Where Jesus Begins And Ends?

"The Third Age can be when Jesus becomes so close to us, and his life so enters our lives, that it becomes hard to tell where his life begins and our lives end."
(Leonard Sweet. The Well Played Life )

When The Spirit Ignites Whats There

"MANY, MANY YEARS AGO, a Colorado pioneer built a rock cabin. After the house was completed, he started a fire in the hearth. In a matter of seconds, the entire cabin became a burning holocaust. It seems the rocks were shale and were impregnated with oil. The oil had survived for centuries within the rock. But when the oil was touched by fire, it exploded instantly, releasing its untapped energy. This is what happened at Pentecost in the book of Acts and what happens whenever we keep Pentecost. When God fires up our lives, God’s Spirit fills us with the fiery power of heaven. The Holy Spirit does not give us anything special. The Spirit merely ignites dominant spiritual energies which have lain dormant all along."

( Leonard Sweet. The Well Played Life )

Scratch A Senior Find A Child - Age

"I used to be afraid of people who were aged. But in my relationships with seniors, and my own growing seniority, I find that if you scratch a senior even a little bit, you find somebody’s little girl or little boy. Inside every older person is a young person of a secret age—wondering what in the world happened. I tell my young seminary students to approach older parishioners with this in mind: Every one of them thinks they’re your age. In their minds, they’re exactly whatever age you are. I don’t care if they’re ninety years old; in their minds, they’re whatever age you are."
(Leonard Sweet. The Well Played Life )

Transformed By What I Didn't Say.

"Often we preachers are crestfallen when “our most ‘telling’ remarks fall flat,” as Simon Tugwell notes, “and our most unrehearsed and immature thoughts bear fruit. People’s lives are changed by casual sayings they misunderstand or mishear.”

(Brennan Manning. Ruthless Trust )

Jesus Only Wants The Pretty Me.....

"Sometimes we harbor an unexpressed suspicion that he cannot handle all that goes on in our minds and hearts. We doubt that he can accept our hateful thoughts, cruel fantasies, and bizarre dreams. We wonder how he would deal with our primitive urges, our inflated illusions, and our exotic mental castles. The deep resistance to making ourselves so vulnerable, so naked, so totally unprotected is our implicit way of saying, “Jesus, I trust you, but there are limits.”

By refusing to share our fantasies, worries, and joys, we limit God’s lordship over our life and make clear that there are parts of us that we do not wish to submit to a divine conversation.

It seems that the Master had something more in mind when he said, “Trust in me”(John 14:1b).
(Brennan Manning. Ruthless Trust)

Speak And They Kill You. SILENT and they still Kill You

"Tahar Djaout, one of the first Algerian intellectuals cut down by assassination in 1993, had expressed the reporter’s predicament perfectly :

“If you speak out, they will kill you. If you keep silent, they will kill you . So speak out, and die.”

And he did. The nineties violence made Algeria, according to a 2012 UN report, one of the five deadliest locations for reporters in the last twenty years.  A total of a hundred press workers, including sixty journalists, were killed by the fundamentalist armed groups between 1993 and 1997....

I am always slightly in awe of Algerian journalists— the risks they ran, the truths they tried to tell. They transmitted the news of assassinated women, 17 of popular protest against terrorism, 18 and of government malfeasance."

(Karima Bennoune. Your Fatwa Does Not Apply Here : Untold Stories From The Fight Against Muslim Fundamentalism)

Walk On Your Own Grass

“Not I, nor anyone else can travel that road for you.
You must travel it by yourself.
It is not far. It is within reach.
Perhaps you have been on it since you were born, and did not know.
Perhaps it is everywhere - on water and land.”

― Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass

How You Write A Nations Autobiography

"Great nations write their autobiographies in three manuscripts  —the book of their deeds, the book of their words, and the book of their art. Not one of these books can be understood unless we read the two others; but of the three, the only quite trustworthy one is the last."

(John Ruskin The Works of John Ruskin)

Growing Up

"The sadness of life is not of growing old, but of growing up."
~Leonard Sweet. The Well Played Life

Huge Church Blame Game...

Always looking To blame: 

Why are people.......
leaving,
coming,
going, 
staying,
doing,
not doing....

The most helpful comment in months is the following that I just read.

"Perhaps there is no "blame" at all. Might it be that the Body of Christ is emerging just as He has designed?"

My wife's wise insight, and single comment about the blame game?

"People aren't doing what we want, so there must be something wrong,"
(Lynn Rayner)

I'm sticking both to my wall.....