“The most stubborn habits which resist change with the greatest tenacity are those which worked well for a space of time and led to the practitioner being rewarded for those behaviors. If you suddenly tell such persons that their recipe for success is no longer viable, their personal experience belies your diagnosis. The road to convincing them is hard. It is the stuff of classic tragedy.” Charles Hampden-Turner and Linda Arc
Is the Bible a Start or an End?
October 19, 2019 by
I read this quote somewhere, but I can’t find the link. However, it’s so good that I wanted to share it with you.
The Bible in Jesus world was a scroll that you saw someone reading in the center of the room, in the midst of community.
And then you all discussed it. You surrounded the words…you encircled them literally, physically…and then you engaged with them. Together.
It was a communal experience.
Picture all that energy swirling around the room, picture all those opinions, picture really wise people saying interesting and profound things, picture that crazy uncle rambling on and on and making no sense.
And then you’d come back next week and do it all over again.
The Torah started the discussion.
For many in our world, the Bible ends the discussion.
Three Kings Quote
October 14, 2019 by
The following is a quote from the Gene Edwards book, “A Tale of Three Kings” Enjoy.
This particular kingdom is different from all others. This kingdom is composed of God’s people. It is a spiritual kingdom. I tell you emphatically, no rebellion in the kingdom of God is proper, nor can it ever be fully blessed.”
“Why do you say this, Sage?”
“For many reasons. One is obvious. In the spiritual realm, those who lead rebellions have already proven, no matter how grandiose their words or angelic their ways, that they have a critical nature, an unprincipled character, and hidden motives in their hearts. Frankly, they are thieves. They create dissatisfaction and tension within the realm and then either seize power or siphon off followers. They use their followers to found their own dominions. Such a sorry beginning, built on the foundation of insurrection. . . . No, God never honors division in his realm.
“I find it curious that those who feel qualified to split God’s kingdom do not feel capable of going somewhere else—to another land—to raise up a completely new kingdom. No, they must steal from another leader. I have never seen the exception. They seem always to need at least a few prepackaged followers.
“Beginning empty-handed and alone frightens the best of men. It also speaks volumes of just how sure they are that God is with them. Their every word, if truly understood, tells of their insecurity.
“There are many lands unspoiled and unpossessed. There are many people in other places waiting to follow a true king, a true man of God. Why don’t ‘would-be kings and prophets’ simply walk quietly away, alone, then find another people in another place, and there raise up the kingdom they envision?
“Those who lead rebellions in the spiritual world are unworthy. There are no exceptions. And now I must go. I must join the passing parade.”
“Tell me, Sage, what is your name?”
“My name? I am History.”
Somebody or Nobody?
September 12, 2019 by
Moses spent forty years thinking he was somebody; forty years learning he was nobody; and forty years discovering what God can do with a nobody.
Benjamin Franklin’s Epitaph
September 8, 2012 by
Here’s a great quote regarding the epitaph of Benjamin Franklin:
The body of Benjamin Franklin, printer (like the cover of an old book, its contents worn out, and stript of its lettering and gilding) lies here, food for worms. Yet the work itself shall not lost, for it will, as he believed, appear once more In a new and more beautiful edition, corrected and amended by its Author
