Book List [what I've been reading lately]

You are what your MIND eats...

The Lordship of Christ Over All Things ... Left Behind

"Our problem is that we see the gospel as an exit strategy, not a reclamation project."

-Ken Myers

"...through Christ God will reconcile all things to Himself, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross."
- Col 1.20

Dangerous Creatures and Grasping

"I am more and more convinced that man is a dangerous creature; and that power, whether vested in many or a few, is ever grasping, and, like the grave, cries, “Give, give!” The great fish swallow up the small; and he who is most strenuous for the rights of the people, when vested with power, is as eager after the prerogatives of government. You tell me of degrees of perfection to which human nature is capable of arriving, and I believe it, but at the same time lament that our admiration should arise from the scarcity of the instances."

- Abigail Adams [by the way, that 'give, give' quote is from Prov 30]

Rip It Out!

There is a scene in the film Dead Poets Society in which Robin Williams, playing a New England Prep School English teacher, begins a class by asking a young student to read the introduction to a text on English poetry. The student begins, but after a few lines, Robin Williams interrupts him and tells him that what he has read is all wrong. Rip out that page, he tells the student. The student smiles. Of course the teacher is joking. No. Rip it out! Rip that page out of the book. Well, one doesn't have to tell a class of adolescent boys more than twice to rip pages out of their textbooks. He rips the page out of the book and his fellow students do the same.

Now, I have told that story to my own congregation and then gone on to tell them that there is a page in their Bibles that is all wrong as well and ought to be ripped out. I haven't ripped that page out of my own Bible because I have written too many notes on it. But it does not belong in the Bible. In fact, it is the only page in the Bible that the Holy Spirit did not put there. It is the page that separates Malachi from Matthew, the page that suggests so powerfully, however subtly, that when one moves from Malachi to Matthew, from the Old Testament to the New Testament, one is crossing a great divide,

Important Art

"The average dairy farmer gets up at dawn because he has to go to work in the cow yard. I get up at dawn, too. But it is because I want to find some leaf, hung with dew; or a spider web which the dew has made into the most delicate ropes of pearls…I take may camera with me, get down on my knees in the wet grass, and photograph these exquisite bits of nature. Because I do this I can show these lovely things to people who never would have seen them without my help. They will get their daily quart of milk, all right. Other farmers will attend to that. But I think I am giving them something which is just as imporant."

–W.A. "Snowflake" Bentley

 

Book List [what I've been reading lately] ...

You are what your mind eats ...

Thine is the Kingdom Prayer

I will extol You, my God, O King; and I will bless Your name for ever and ever.
Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable.
One generation shall praise Your works to another, and shall declare Your mighty acts.
And men shall speak of the might of Your terrible acts: and I will declare Your greatness.
All Your works shall praise You, O LORD; and Your saints shall bless You.
They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom, and talk of Your power;
To make known to the sons of men His mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of His kingdom.
Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and Your dominion endures throughout all generations.
~ Psalm 145 [excerpts]

Almighty God and Sovereign of all the earth,

The kingdom is Yours, and not ours.  For this we thank You, knowing that by Your might it cannot fail.  We praise you and rejoice to see it like leaven working through this world.  Despite our countless failures, You are faithful throughout every generation. 

We confess ourselves to be but unprofitable servants in Your house among Your people.  Deliver us from the proud pursuit of our own petty kingdom agendas, self interests, and the enticements of this world.  Make us to be men who really do seek Your kingdom and Your righteousness.  Make us into the poor in spirit and even - by the strength of your Spirit - the persecuted righteous, knowing that Your kingdom is given them.

Rest and establish our hearts in this: that the Kingdom belongs to Our Father in Heaven and to His Son our Lord Jesus Christ through Whom we also have been given the victory and in Whose name we pray,

Amen.