Quotable: Brian Harris, The Big Picture – Take 2
Last week we looked at a few of the statements made in the opening chapters of my 2015 book, The Big Picture: Building Blocks of a Christian World View which people sometimes cite back at me. Here are a few more insights from the book which I hope you will enjoy pondering… Election is not about privilege but responsibility. We are blessed to bless. It is a biblical truth with challenging implications, but if we are to build a Christian world view we must repeatedly affirm that every God-given blessing is for the greater good of all. Brian Harris (p35) Moral instructions in the Bible...
Read MoreQuotable: Eugene Peterson and Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places – Take 2
Last week we looked at a few key quotes from Eugene Peterson’s influential book on spiritual theology Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places. Here is a second look… Human beings are not gods; the moment we forget this, we violate the boundaries of our humanity and something is violated in reality itself. The universe suffers damage. Eugene Peterson (p42) But the fundamental inadequacy of codes of conduct for giving direction to the spiritual life is that they put us in charge (or, which is just as bad, put someone else in charge of us); God is moved off the field of action to the judge’s...
Read MoreQuotable: Eugene Peterson and Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places
I have always appreciated the work of Eugene Peterson, and was recently re-reading Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places, first published in 2005 and in my opinion, one of his finest works. Here are some insights from the book… Endings take precedence over beginnings. We begin a journey by first deciding on a destination. Eugene Peterson, p1 Story is the most natural way of enlarging and deepening our sense of reality, and then enlisting us as participants in it. Stories open doors to areas or aspects of life we didn’t know were there, or had quit noticing out of over-familiarity, or...
Read MoreQuotable: Simon Carey Holt and Heaven All Around us – Take 2
I posted on Simon Carey Holt’s wonderful book Heaven All Around Us a few weeks ago. Here is a second look at some striking quotes from the book. …for neighbor-love to have credibility, it has to be practiced where we are. Simon Carey Holt (p86) Walking is an act of awareness, a way of seeing, noticing, and being present to where we live… When I drive through my neighbourhood, my destination is elsewhere. I am focussed on the most efficient way in or out. I don’t see it. When I walk my neighbourhood I am aware of it. I notice the individual homes, the front doors and...
Read MoreQuotable: Simon Carey Holt and Heaven All Around Us
I posted on Simon Carey Holt’s wonderful book Heaven All Around Us a few weeks ago. Here are some striking quotes from the book. A good spiritual practice names the presence of God already with us. In whatever form a spiritual discipline takes, it proceeds on the assumption that the possibility of God is as real where we are as anywhere. Simon Carey Holt (p39) To contemplate is to look deeply into something in order to discern its truth. That something is life itself, its objects, contexts, routines, and encounters. The true contemplative is not a person of a particular personality but one...
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