Trying patiently to go at His pace....

Good words from Piper...just what I needed today:

"Impatience is a form of unbelief.  It's what we begin to feel when we start to doubt the wisdom of God's timing or the goodness of God's guidance.  It springs up in our hearts when our plan is interrupted or shattered.  It may be prompted by a long wait in a checkout line or a sudden blow that knocks out half our dreams.  The opposite of impatience is not a glib denial of loss.  It's a deepening, ripening, peaceful willingness to wait for God in the unplanned place of obedience--to wait in his place, and go at his pace."

Future Grace, 171.

C.S. Lewis on “What Are We to Make of Jesus Christ?”

"There is no half-way house, and there is no parallel in other religions. If you had gone to Buddha and asked him, ‘are you the son of Brahmah?’ he would have said. ‘my son you are still in the vale of illusion.’ If you had done to Socrates and asked, ‘are you Zeus?’ he would have laughed at you. If you had gone to Muhammad and asked ‘are you Allah?’ he would first have first rent his clothes and then cut your head off. If you had asked Confucius, ‘are you heaven?’ I think he would have probably replied, ‘Remarks which are not in accordance with nature are in bad taste.’ The idea of a great moral teacher saying what Christ said is out of the question. In my opinion, the only person who can say that sort of thing is either God or a complete lunatic suffering from that form of delusion which undermines the whole of man… He was never regarded as a mere moral teacher. He did not produce that effect on any of the people who actually met Him. He produced mainly three effects – Hatred – Terror – Adoration. There was no trace of people expressing mild approval."

— C.S. Lewis, “What Are We to Make of Jesus Christ?”

Pondering these quotes....

"The Church exists by mission as fire exists by burning."
- Emil Brunner

"There is no participation in Christ without participation in His mission to the world. That by which the Church receives its existence [i.e., the life of Christ] is that by which it is also given its world mission."

~ qtd. in God's Missionary People, ch. 1

"In choosing a people, God intended to reach out to the whole world.... 'In choosing Israel as segment of all humanity, God never took his eye off the other nations; Israel was the pars pro toto, a minority called to serve the majority. God's election of Abraham and Israel concerns the whole world."

"The Church is not an exclusive club of privilege, neither is it a place to rest from our labors. We have been brought in so that we may gather others into this Kingdom of grace."

~ qtd. in God's Missionary People, ch. 3

God as He is revealed in Jesus of Nazareth

"The purpose of Deuteronomy is not to posit the singularity of deity, but to define the character of deity. God is God as revealed in Yahweh....

"In the dialogue between Christians and those of other faiths, there is a temptation to regard Jesus as simply the founder of Christianity in a way that cuts him loose from his deep roots in the Hebrew scriptures. Both in his own understanding of his mission, and in the interpretation of his identity and significance by his immediate followers in the NT church, Jesus shared in the uniqueness of Israel and in the uniqueness of Yahweh, the God of Israel. The historical particularity and redemptive character of OT monotheism coincide in the person of Jesus. It is not enough to acclaim merely the unique power of Jesus' life, or insights, or teaching, or example. The NT witness is that in Jesus the mission of Israel was accomplished (as the gospel went to the nations in fulfillment of the promise to Abraham) and that in Jesus Yahweh himself has been encountered in human life.

"God is God as revealed in Jesus of Nazareth."

~Christopher Wright, Deuteronomy, 10-11

"Genuine Incarnation Living" means what?

"I would argue that in today's society, any attempt to model your life on the life of Christ must include a genuine attempt to hang out regularly in third places. Genuine incarnational living demands it. Missional proximity can best be developed in bars, pubs, gyms, grocery stores, beauty parlors, community groups, and coffee shops."

- Exiles: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture, p. 59.

Signs of the Kingdom without the Message of the Kingdom?

Zach Nielsen @ Take Your Vitamin Z finds a great quote:

There is a tendency in some quarters today to promote a kind of evangelism without proclamation. Acts of service are done or people are invited to experience Christian worship. But without words of explanation these are like signposts pointing nowhere or, worse still, signposts pointing to our good works. The gospel is good news - a message to be proclaimed, a truth to be taught, a word to be spoken, and a story to be told.

- Tim Chester and Steve Timmis, Total Church, p. 54

Where do we set our eyes?

George Mueller, 1805-1898, once said,

"No my eye is not on the density of the fog, but on the Living God who controls every circumstance of my life."

Mueller had an amazing story as he trusted God to provide for him and for the orphanages that he started and maintained.

[Thanks Heather!]

At the Cross, Jesus met me at my very worst....

"With, and because of, Jesus the Redeemer I am both fully known and completely safe. At the cross, Jesus met me at my very worst. For at that mysterious moment all my toxic envy, all my deceit, all my secret sins, all my ingratitude, all my self-centered neglect and cruelty--everything that is corrupt and twisted about my attitudes and behavior--was exposed to the full heat of God's justice, attached to Jesus, and punished....By fully identifying with all our sin and then being punished for it, Jesus satisfied God's justice."

Charles Drew, A Journey Worth Taking, p. 154