3 Nuggets

A couple of stunning quotes from Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Life Together:

"A life together under the Word will stay healthy only when it does not form itself into a movement, an order, a society, a collegium pietatis [association of piety], but instead understands itself as being part of the one, holy, universal, Christian church, sharing through its deeds and suffering in the hardships and struggles and promise of the whole church" (45).

"Nothing is easier than to stimulate the euphoria of community in a few days of life together [a retreat, a conference]; and nothing is more fatal to the healthy, sober, everyday life in community of Christians" (47).

I came across these over at Jesus Creed. Thanks, Scot.

While I'm borrowing quotes, here's another doozy. It's from Jack Miller's The Heart of a Servant Leader.

What you discover is that there is no permanent joy in Christ apart from a willingness to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him. That is, your life cannot have power in it or even salvation if you refuse to be like a grain of wheat that must fall to the ground in order to bring forth much fruit. God calls you to greatness, Catherine, but greatness means fruitfulness, and fruitfulness comes as we die to self and our fears and rise from the dead…Your life must have a death in it if it is to go anywhere. (p.230)

HT: Darryl Dash.

This is too good not to repeat,,,

"The world’s idea that everyone, from childhood up, should be able at all times to succeed in measurable ways, and that it is a great disgrace not to, hangs over the Christian community like a pall of acrid smoke.” J. I. Packer

[HT: Between Two Worlds]

"Pour it upon the ground."

Check this out. They are the words of 1th century Puritan preacher Thomas Goodwin:

If a man had killed your friend, or father, or mother, how would you hate him! You would not endure the sight of him, but follow the law upon him. Send out the avenger of blood with a hue and cry after thy sin; bring it afore God’s judgment seat, arraign it, accuse it, spit on it, condemn it and thyself for it, have it to the cross, nail it there, if it cry I thirst, give it vinegar, stretch the body of sins upon his cross, stretch every vein of it, make the heart strings crack; and then when it hangs there, triumph over the dying of it, show it no pity, laugh at its destruction, say, Thou hast been a bloody sin to me and my husband, hang there and rot. And when thou art tempted to it, and art very thirsty after the pleasure of it, say of that opportunity to enjoy it, It is the price of Christ’s blood, and pour it upon the ground.

[HT: Tony Reinke]

Feeling Quotatious

Self-glory is revealed to be an idol in our heart when the Lord presents us with an opportunity to glorify him by speaking the truth about our convictions or our sins, yet we are unwilling to do it for fear of what someone else will think of us.

Chew on this . . .

This is from ReJesus: A Wild Messiah for a Missional Church, by Alan Hirsch and Michael Frost:

"To be sure, we do not like gatherings (speaking of church services), of strangers who never meet or know each other outside of Sundays, who sit passively while virtual strangers preach and lead singing, who put up with second rate pseudo-community under the guise of connection with each other, who live different lives from Monday to Saturday than they do on Sunday, whose sole expression of worship is pop-style praise and worship, who rarely laugh together, fight injustice together, eat together, pray together, raise each others Children together, serve the poor together, or share Jesus with those who have not been set free." Pg. 172-173

Just thought I'd share it. Not saying it's a description of my church or anything like that, just something worth chewing on.

A Frightening Question

Ray Ortlund, quoting Howard Hendricks:

I live with the dread of tame, domesticated Christianity. I fear for my students that they will chase after what they want -- and therefore miss what God wants.

Ortlund proceeds to ask the operative question:

What scares you? Does getting what you want scare you? Or does missing what God wants scare you?

Actually, honestly answering that question scares me.

Piper on our God-centered God

John Piper spoke at the Evangelical Theological Society in Providence, Rhode Island, a couple of weeks back. Sam Storms has the text at his website, so by all means read the whole thing (it's brief), but I just want to snip this oh so Piper-esque gem:

. . . if we are God-centered simply because we consciously or unconsciously believe God is man-centered, then our God-centeredness is in reality man-centeredness. Teaching God's God-centeredness forces this issue of whether we treasure God because of his excellence or mainly because he endorses ours.

Reason

Blaise Pascal said:

Reason's last step is the recognition that there are an infinite number of things which are beyond it. It is merely feeble if it does not go as far as to realize that the heart has reasons of which reason knows nothing. Knowing God without knowing our own wretchedness makes for pride, knowing our own wretchedness without knowing God makes for despair. Knowing Jesus Christ strikes the balance because he shows us both God and our own wretchedness.

Just thought I'd let you know.

In this world of losers . . .

Michael Spencer shared this quote in a recent post at his new blog, Jesus Shaped Spirituality. I don't usually care to simply repeat what others have done, but this little nugget just fits right in here at In the Clearing. The words, by the way, are from Robert Capon:

Jesus came to save a lost and losing world by his own lostness and defeat; but in this wide world of losers, everyone except Jesus remains firmly, if hopelessly, committed to salvation by winning. It hardly matters to us that the victories we fake for ourselves are two-bit victories, or that the losses (and losers) we avoid like the plague are the only vessels in which saving grace comes; we will do anything rather than face either the bankruptcy of our wealth or the richness of our poverty.

On "Television Religion"

Found at Anecdotal Evidence, which bills itself as "a blog about the intersection of books and life," this quotation about "television religion" from novelist and essayist Marilyn Robinson:

I know I risk being unfair in characterizing television religion, because I have not paid much attention to it. But it seems to me more television than religion by a good margin. It is adept at exciting minor emotions and at stimulating viewer loyalty. It bears about the same relation to religion All My Children bears to King Lear.

A fellow named Augustine once said:

And from that City from which we have come on pilgrimage, letters have arrived for us: these are the Scriptures.

"Gaze no longer upon your empty bottle..."

John Newton said:

We need not dig in the earth nor climb in the skies nor cross the seas: our remedy is near (Rom. 10:6-8).... Come, gaze no longer upon your empty bottle but look to the fountain, the river, the ocean of all grace.... When Christ is out of sight we are deaf to all the calls, invitations and promises of the Scripture.

Quoted in Michael Horton's article, Grace, How Strange to Sound, in Modern Reformation.