Come Out Of Hiding!

“The psalms are God’s invitation to us to come out of hiding.” 

 - Darrell Winger

You Are Welcome Here

Not being welcome is your greatest fear. It connects with your birth fear, your fear of not being welcome in this life, and your death fear, your fear of not being welcome in the life after this. It is the deep-seated fear that it would have been better if you had not lived. Here you are facing the core of the spiritual battle. Are you going to give in to the forces of darkness that say you are not welcome in this life, or can you trust the voice of the One who came not to condemn you but to set you free from fear? You have to choose life. At every moment you have to decide to trust the voice that says, “I love you. I knit you together in your mother’s womb” (Psalms 139:13). Everything Jesus is saying to you can be summarized in the words “Know that you are welcome.”

-Henri Nouwen 

Children Called To Do Brave Things

"I knew that unaccustomed things would be asked of us children from now on but felt proud of now being allowed to share the real troubles of the adults. I thought if I could do nothing against the Nazis myself I must at the very least co-operate with the grown-ups who could."

~ Marianne Leibholze. As a child (11 yrs old) remembers the day her Jewish family secretly fled to Switzerland before Natizi's closed border.

Children Called To Do Brave Things

"I knew that unaccustomed things would be asked of us children from now on but felt proud of now being allowed to share the real troubles of the adults. I thought if I could do nothing against the Nazis myself I must at the very least co-operate with the grown-ups who could."

~ Marianne Leibholze. As a child (11 yrs old) remembers the day her Jewish family secretly fled to Switzerland before Natizi's closed border.

Protection of Our Future?

"The future is by definition the unsayable and the uncontrollable, filled with paradoxes, mysteries, and confusions. It is an imperfect world at every level. Therefore the future is always, somehow, scary. We attempt to build for ourselves many protections against this imperfection....."

~ Richard Rohr. The Naked Now

Seeing With New Eyes

To begin to see with new eyes, we must observe—and usually be humiliated by—the habitual way we encounter each and every moment. It is humiliating because we will see that we are well-practiced in just a few predictable responses. Not many of our responses are original, fresh, or naturally respectful of what is right in front of us. The most common human responses to a new moment are mistrust, cynicism, fear, defensiveness, dismissal, and judgmentalism. These are the common ways the ego tries to be in control of the data instead of allowing the moment to get some control over us—and teach us something new!"

~ Richard Rohr

We Fear People Speaking Openly

"There us very little time and occasion for openness in most of our gatherings because we fear it. We think it may lead to confrontation, anger, and divisiveness. We are not open because we fear what others  will think of us and do to us."

(Dallas Willard. The Divine Conspiracy)

God is Leaping Toward You

"Catherine LaCugna ends her giant theological tome with this one simple sentence; it’s taken her two-and-a-half inches of book to get to this one line, and its simplicity might overwhelm you, but I can’t end in any better place than she does: The very nature of God, therefore, is to seek out the deepest possible communion and friendship with every last creature on this earth.

That’s the job description of God. That’s what it’s all about. And the only thing that can keep you out of this divine dance is fear and doubt, or any self-hatred.

What would happen in your life—right now—if you accepted what God has created and even allowed? Suddenly, this is a very safe universe. You have nothing to be afraid of. God is for you. God is leaping toward you! God is on your side, honestly more than you are on your own."

(Richard Rohr. The Divine Dance)

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)

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)

Serving The Big Something Awful?

"Reading and writing I enjoyed, but religion not so much. When I was a boy, God was a stained-glass ceiling, a deity way up and out there, remote, big, and harsh. There is a descriptive phrase I’ve used for my early view of God, taken from Flannery O’Connor’s “Turkey” story: God was the “Something Awful.”

( Brennan Manning. All Is Grace)

Affraid Of Suffering

“My heart is afraid that it will have to suffer,” the boy told the alchemist one night as they looked up at the moonless sky.
“Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself."
(The Alchemist. Paulo Coelho)

Who Is Writing Our Life?

“We are afraid of losing what we have, whether it’s our life or our possessions and property. But this fear evaporates when we understand that our life stories and the history of the world were written by the same hand.”   (The Alchemist. Paulo Coelho)

Your Christian Noose

" Religion has programmed you with fear.

Fear of God’s rejection and disapproval
Fear of God’s discipline and punishment
Fear of Hell Fear of forfeiting God’s blessing
Fear of what you feel inside
Fear of trusting your own inner guidance
Fear of thinking for yourself
Fear of being wrong
Fear of being rejected by others

This is what religion does to some people. Fear is a noose that binds until it strangles. Courage is a muscle that needs exercise to get strong."

(Jim Palmer. Notes From Over The Edge)