Honest Friends

“An acquaintance merely enjoys your company, a fair-weather companion flatters when all is well, a true friend has your best interests at heart and the pluck to tell you what you need to hear.”  ― E.A. Bucchianeri, Brushstrokes of a Gadfly

See Everything As I See It...or else

"It takes God a long time to get us to stop thinking that unless everyone sees things exactly as we do, they must be wrong. That is never God's view." (Oswald Chambers)

Strange Conversations----

“Sometimes it's better to be with the sheep, who don't say anything. And better still to be alone with one's books. They tell their incredible stories at the time when you want to hear them. But when you're talking to people, they say some things that are so strange that you don't know how to continue the conversation.” 
― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

Weeping Mothers

“It is Rachel of old,” said the elder, “weeping for her children, and will not be comforted because they are not. Such is the lot set on earth for you mothers. Be not comforted. Consolation is not what you need. Weep and be not consoled, but weep."

(Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The Brothers Karamazov)

Why I am an Atheist Who Believes in God

What I’m “looking for” in church is inner stillness and peace of the kind my friend Holly Meade lived out as she faced her death, not an adrenaline rush or entertainment, let alone spectacle. I do not need more entertainment! I live in a time and place where I’m bombarded by entertainment 24/7. Nor do I need more celebrity leaders or Bible teachers. I’m not looking for clever new words about so-called theological facts but for the experience of spirituality itself. The last thing I crave is to be exposed to the sort of grandstanding preachers that so many evangelical churches seem to breed with the ubiquity of maggots appearing in road kill. The last thing I want is a new and improved “worship experience.” The last thing I want is for the service to be socially and politically relevant ...Why I am an Atheist Who Believes in God: How to give love, create beauty and find peace

by Frank Schaeffer

It's Not About Revival Anymore.

"....... but they will not primarily be based on calling people back to what they have left, but instead be based on calling people into something they have never experienced." (Carey Nieuwhof)

Getting In Close With People....

Michael Frost once said:

It is not any longer possible that we sit in some command center telling other people how to go forth. I’m speaking in particular to those of you who are clergy. You cannot preach about, encourage or motivate or mobilize people into mission unless you model what missional proximity looks like. You cannot sit in some ivory tower spending days and days preparing sermons which are seeking to motivate people into mission unless you yourself are prepared to embrace that similar commitment to proximity. Do you follow what I’m saying? I’m not just talking about proximity like our building is on the street corner on the main street with a gigantic sign and everyone knows that we are there. I’m talking about personal, relational, and geographic proximity to people.

What Is Our Real Position In Church?

"Instead we get hung up with other questions of hierarchy, gifting, and finding our own little molehill on the mountain of the Lord. When this happens, the church becomes its own personal proving ground. It is in this dastardly place that we see the simplicity of life together replaced with the all-too familiar scenario of human striving, ambition, and organizational strategies. It’s here, when the Body of Christ becomes all about personal achievement, approval, and self-actualization, that so many lose heart. The good news is, when we finally learn that our place in the family of God is simply “in Christ,” we begin a new journey— one that makes the Lord Jesus central so we can look to him for leadership, guidance, comfort, and love."

( STEPHANIE BENNETT in the forward to Finding Church by Wayne Jacobsen)

Church is not Bricks And Boards.... But the Blood And Bonrs Of Peoplem

"The Church is not the bricks and boards of the building but the blood and bones of people in a growing relationship with each other with Jesus as the head."

(Nick Sembrano)

Take Yourself Seriously For Once

"He had a high opinion of his own insight a weakness excusable in him as he was fifty, an age at which a clever man of the world of established position can hardly help taking himself rather seriously."

(Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The Brothers Karamazov)

Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Big Grace Of God

"At the last Judgment Christ will say to us, “Come, you also! Come, drunkards! Come, weaklings! Come, children of shame!” And he will say to us: “Vile beings, you who are in the image of the beast and bear his mark, but come all the same, you as well.” And the wise and prudent will say, “Lord, why do you welcome them?” And he will say: “If I welcome them, you wise men, if I welcome them, you prudent men, it is because not one of them has ever been judged worthy.” And he will stretch out his arms, and we will fall at his feet, and we will cry out sobbing, and then we will understand all, we will understand the Gospel of grace! Lord, your Kingdom come!"

(Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Crime and Punishment)

Why Am I Afraid To Dance?

“Why am I afraid to dance, I who love music and rhythm and grace and song and laughter?
Why am I afraid to live, I who love life and the beauty of flesh and the living colors of the earth and sky and sea?
Why am I afraid to love, I who love love?”

(Eugene O’Neill’s play The Great God Brown)

I Can Do It Myself.....

Wow.......     ouch..... but thank you. ....  
"Though lip service is paid to the gospel of grace, many Christians live as if only personal discipline and self-denial will mold the perfect me. The emphasis is on what I do rather than on what God is doing. In this curious process God is a benign old spectator in the bleachers who cheers when I show up for morning quiet time....
Our eyes are not on God. At heart we are practicing Pelagians. We believe that we can pull ourselves up by our bootstraps—indeed, we can do it ourselves."

(Brennan Manning. Ragamuffin Gospel)

Bearable Suffering Eats Our Soul.

"Intense, unexpected suffering passes more quickly than suffering that is apparently bearable; the latter goes on for years and, without our noticing, eats away at our soul, until, one day, we are no longer able to free ourselves from the bitterness and it stays with us for the rest of our lives."
( Paulo Coelho.  The Alchemist)

Everything We Want To Do Is Impossible

"...we are told from childhood onward that everything we want to do is impossible. We grow up with this idea, and as the years accumulate, so too do the layers of prejudice, fear, and guilt. There comes a time when our personal calling is so deeply buried in our soul as to be invisible. But it’s still there."
(Paulo Coelho,  forward to, The Alchemist)

A Soul Cry?

“The worst type of crying wasn't the kind everyone could see--the wailing on street corners, the tearing at clothes. No, the worst kind happened when your soul wept and no matter what you did, there was no way to comfort it. ” 
― Katie McGarry, Pushing the Limits

Dance Like Nobody's Looking

“You've gotta dance like there's nobody watching,
Love like you'll never be hurt,
Sing like there's nobody listening,
And live like it's heaven on earth.” 
― William W. Purkey

Grown Up Christmas Wish List

"No more lives torn apart
That wars would never start
And time would heal all hearts

And everyone would have a friend And right would always win
And love would never end

This is my grown up Christmas list"
- David Foster

Discipleship Will Fix It

"I am not one who thinks that we ought to criticize the church very much. There is nothing wrong with the church that discipleship will not cure."- Dallas Willard

The Preferably Unheard

"There is really no such thing as the voiceless. There are only the deliberately silenced or the preferably unheard." - Arundhati Roy

How to Measure A Church3s Success Accurately

"Ultimately each church will be evaluated by only one thing, its disciples. Your church is only as good as its disciples. It does not matter how good your praise, preaching, programs or property are. If your disciples are passive, needy, consumerist, and not moving in the direction of radical obedience, your church is not good." Neil Cole?

We Have The Same Questions And Problems

"Culture makes people understand each other better. And if they understand each other better in their soul, it is easier to overcome the economic and political barriers. But first they have to understand that their neighbour is, in the end, just like them, with the same problems, the same questions."
(Paulo Coelho)

Drink From Every Cup????

"Never be ashamed,’ he said. ‘Accept what life offers you and try to drink from every cup. All wines should be tasted; some should only be sipped, but with others, drink the whole bottle.’
‘How will I know which is which?’
‘By the taste. You can only know a good wine if you have first tasted a bad one."

(Paulo Coelho, Brida)

Warriors Telling Stories Around The Fire.

"The most important thing in all human relationships is conversation, but people don’t talk anymore, they don’t sit down to talk and listen. They go to the theater, the cinema, watch television, listen to the radio, read books, but they almost never talk. If we want to change the world, we have to go back to a time when warriors would gather around a fire and tell stories."
(Paulo Coelho. the-zahir)

Courage To Say Yes To Life

"Everything tells me that I am about to make a wrong decision, but making mistakes is just part of life. What does the world want of me? Does it want me to take no risks, to go back to where I came from because I didn't have the courage to say "yes" to life?"
(Paulo Coelho, Eleven Minutes)

Somewhere On Earth There Is Someone Holy

Oh! he understood that for the humble soul of the Russian peasant, worn out by grief and toil, and still more by the everlasting injustice and everlasting sin, his own and the world’s, it was the greatest need and comfort to find someone or something holy to fall down before and worship.

“Among us there is sin, injustice, and temptation, but yet, somewhere on earth there is someone holy and exalted. He has the truth; he knows the truth; so it is not dead upon the earth; so it will come one day to us, too, ... "

(Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The Brothers Karamazov)

Are Those People Worthy?

"Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy." (Thomas Merton)

Buffoons Of Buffoons.

"His former acquaintances found him looking terribly aged, although he was by no means an old man. He behaved not exactly with more dignity but with more effrontery. The former buffoon showed an insolent propensity for making buffoons of others."
(Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The Brothers Karamazov)

A Righteous Gentile - Bonhoeffer

"Just hours before his execution in Flossenbürg concentration camp, the man directed his last words to this bishop. That Sunday he spoke them to a British officer, who was imprisoned with him, after he performed his last service and preached his last sermon. This officer was liberated and brought those last words and the news of the man’s death across Europe with him.

Across the English Channel, across France, and across Germany, in the Charlottenburg district of Berlin, in a three-story house at 43 Marienburgerallee, an elderly couple sat by their radio. In her time the wife had given birth to eight children, four boys and four girls. The second son had been killed in the First War, and for a whole year his young mother had been unable to function. Twenty-seven years later, a second war would take two more boys from her. The husband was the most prominent psychiatrist in Germany. They had both opposed Hitler from the beginning and were proud of their sons and sons-in-law who had been involved in the conspiracy against him. They all knew the dangers. But when the war at last ended, news of their two sons was slow to arrive in Berlin. A month earlier they had finally heard of the death of their third son, Klaus. But about their youngest son, Dietrich, they had heard nothing. Someone claimed to have seen him alive. Then a neighbor told them that the BBC would the next day broadcast a memorial service in London. It was for Dietrich.

At the appointed hour, the old couple turned on their radio. Soon enough the service was announced for their son. That was how they came to know of his death.

As the couple took in the hard news that the good man who was their son was now dead, so too, many English took in the hard news that the dead man who was a German was good. Thus did the world again begin to reconcile itself to itself. The man who died was engaged to be married. He was a pastor and a theologian. And he was executed for his role in the plot to assassinate Hitler. This is his story."
( Eric Metaxas.  Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet,  Spy. A Righteous Gentile Vs The Third Reich.)

Our Church Buildings Can Feed EVERY Hungry Person On Earth.

"The rational dissonance gets even more intense at this time of year as millions of people will gather in billions of dollars worth of religious buildings to celebrate the birth of a homeless man while mostly ignoring the homeless around them. ....

Forget the money spent on pet food that would feed the world’s hungry.

Forget the money spent on arms and war that would clothe, educate and feed every poor person on the planet ten times over.

Forget what the 1% do with their wealth.

The money spent on religious buildings by those who claim to follow Jesus would also feed, clothe and educate every child born into poverty.

This is not about a scarcity of resources.
This is about misallocation of abundant resources.
This is about actually following Jesus who said, “Whatever you do unto the least you have done unto me."

(Steven Hill)

Status Over Happiness In Old Canada

"You mean they convinced people serfdom was an okay thing?
Oh quite easily. The most menial and wretched toil was held to be highly honourable. It conveyed a magical thing called "status." People preferred it to happiness."
(Pierre Berton, The Smug Minority,  1967)

Degradung Jobs And Grinding Poverty.

"...where those people really like serfs?
They would have resisted the name; but in our terms they were... historical evidence makes it clear that the masses of the people who lived in Canada in the Sixties were chained to tedious and degrading jobs which they despised; that between one-fifth and one-third of them were prisoners of a poverty so grinding we can scarcely contemplate it; and that only the wealthy had the freedom to enjoy a proper education."

(Pierre Berton, The Smug Minority. 1967)

Im Not Doing Anything

"When people ask me what I am doing on my day off. I say, 'l'm not doing anything."

They then suggest doing something.

To which I reply 'You must have misunderstood me, when I say I'm not doing anything. It' means I have specifically put time aside to do nothing."

Usless Jobs

"In a mechanized society there are tens of thousands of such button pushers and machine watchers. When true automation comes they will not be needed, but unless we abandon the work ethic of another era, their lives may still be wasted because of blind insistence that everyone must have a "job" even if the job is useless."

(Pierre Berton, The Smug Minority. 1967, Page 60)

Ebola Can't Be Cured In MY Church!

Time Magazine: Amazing Ebola heros.....  must read.... 

However, this quote made me sad..... because people still think God has a special house, requires one for worship..... and we shan't contaminate the "sanctuary" by.....

We have resurrected temple theology, by creating a local church building theology....
Yep, and no matter what you say some still dont get it.... just like the article says.

"The Eternal Love Winning Africa (ELWA) hospital didn’t have an isolation ward, nor was there time or money enough to build one. No hospital in Liberia had one. Looking around the compound for a solution, Brown’s eye settled on the modest chapel, bare but for a few battered wooden pews and a lectern that served as a pulpit.

“Well, of course, turning the chapel into an Ebola unit was not welcomed by the staff of the institution. The bulk of them said, ‘Why should we turn the house of God into a place where we put people with such a deadly disease?’ And some said, ‘Where will you provide for us to worship in the morning?’” Brown recalls"

Foul Tyranny.......

"There be rulers who have ruled with a foul tyrannic sway, • But they soon
became as though they had never, never been:..."

(Lady Burton's Edition of Her Husband's Arabian Nights: Translated ..., Volume 1 edited by Lady Isabel Burton, Justin Huntly McCarthy)

Don't Piss On The Earth's Rug...

"We are all time-sharers on planet Earth.  We are not asked to leave it a better place.  We are asked not to break anything or stain the rug."
~ Robert Brault

The Happy Rain

"There are many things I do for amusement, but for happiness I like to gather up my memories and go for a walk in the rain." ~ Robert Brault

Never Wrong.... But

"At some point you must decide if you want to succeed or just be someone who was never to blame for anything going wrong."
~Robert Brault

Only Sad, Not Unhappy

"One thing I've gotten used to over the years is people thinking I'm unhappy when I'm just sad."
~Robert Brault

Costs Of Exploring A Mysterious Smile

"There is often little behind a mysterious smile, but there are only expensive ways to find out."
(Robert Brault )

Men Want "Life Woman"

"What a woman wants from a man is love.  What a man wants from a woman is life." ~Robert Brault

Babe-In-Arms

"Is it so much that love asks -- that one day you be somebody's strength, the next day their babe-in-arms?"
(Robert Brault)

One More Chance To Love

"Another day, another chance to cherish those who have cast their lot with yours."
~Robert Brault

Better Houses... Lesser Men

"While civilization has been improving our houses, it has not equally improved the men who are to inhabit them. It has created palaces, but it was not so easy to create noblemen and kings."

(Henry David Thoreau)

Alone In What Matters Most

"In what concerns you much do not think that you have companions —know that you are alone in the world." (Henry David Thoreau)

Ask To See God... No Servant

When you travel to the Celestial City, carry no letter of introduction. When you knock, ask to see God — none of the servants. ~Henry David Thoreau. Letter to Harrison Blake. March 27,  1848

You Blind Me From Seeing God.

"When you knock, ask to see God — none of the servants."
~Henry David Thoreau

Trust Is Average Of Lies?

"If there be no God, then what is truth but the average of all lies."
~Robert Brault

Travelling At The Speed Of Time

"No matter how you rush about, you will find at the end of the day that you traveled at the speed of time."
~Robert Brault