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Scriptures
Exodus 12.1-13
Mark 14.12-26
Mark 6.39-41
Mark 8.6
1 Corinthians 11.27-29
Quotes
The consumption of the animal is an indispensable element of the ritual. By means of this sacrificial meal, kinship ties are strengthened, and family and neighborly solidarity is promoted, while communion with God is established.
Nahum Sarna, JPS Torah Commentary: Exodus, p 55
… here’s what really ticks Jesus off about communion: he can’t stand people who hop up in the communion line every Sunday, receive his grace and then forget about the needy. And he doesn’t want people to unite their “remembrance of him” with acts of selfish indulgence.
Hugh Halter, Sacrilege, p 164
In the Christian scriptures, the term the body of Christ is used to refer equally to three things: the historical body of Jesus, the body of believers and the Eucharist.
Ronald Rolheiser, Our One Great Act of Fidelity, p 17
Images
Scriptures
Mark 13:21-37
Revelation 7:16-17
Revelation 7:16-17
Quotes
To know God falsely is to write and paint and sculpt and cook and dance Him falsely. Perhaps it’s not poor artistic skill that yields bad Christian art, in other words, but poor Christianity.
Tony Woodleif, “Bad Christian Art” Image Journal, May, 2011
1) Historical
2) Spiritual
3) Progressive
4) Futurist
Revelation 7:16-17
The Now, but Not Yet…
In this understanding, it is not a matter of “balancing” the other-worldly against the this-worldly, or the this-worldly against the other-worldly. Each world penetrates the other. The present is, so to speak, pregnant with the future to which the future gives birth.
Richard John Neuhaus, Living Between the Now and the Not-Yet. First Things, August, 2008
Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat down on them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb at the center before the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
Revelation 7:16-17
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Scriptures
Mark 13.1-13
Isaiah 65.17-25
Romans 8.18-21
2 Peter 3.6-14
Quotes
In this context historic events are seen as the immediate prelude to the intervention of God.
William Lane, The Gospel of Mark, p 455
Jesus was asked for ‘the sign’ that heralds the end. He began by speaking of signs that signaled the ‘end is not yet.’
John Painter, Mark’s Gospel, p 174
… suddenly I woke up, the circle of light disappeared and I felt myself crushed under an enormous weight. It was not the thought of death, or fear; it was nameless. My cheeks burned and my head ached.
Jean-Paul Sartre, The Wall
To live strongly and creatively in the kingdom of the heavens, we need to have firmly fixed in our minds what our future is to be like. We want to live fully in the Kingdom now, and for that purpose our future must make sense to us.
Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, p 376
Here is a rule for figuring out what will and will not make it through to our next life: Whatever properly belongs to creation will be restored, while whatever is a product of the fall will be removed.
Michael E. Wittmer, Heaven is a Place on Earth, p 202
Images
Scriptures
Genesis 1.1
Exodus 25.8
1 Kings 5.3-5
John 2.19-20
John 20.1-10
Revelation 21.1-4, 22-24
Quotes
Judaism sees only one world, which is material and spiritual at the same time.
Lawrence Kushner, God Was in This Place And I, I Did Not Know, p 28
Somehow, in a way most modern people find extraordinary to the point of being almost unbelievable, the temple was not only the center of the world. It was the place where heaven and earth met.
N.T. Wright, Simply Jesus, p 132
In the details of the innermost chamber of the wilderness tabernacle, we read, “The cherubim shall have their wings spread out above, shielding the cover with their wings. They shall confront each other …” They gaze at one another, but, even more important, they gaze through the emptiness between them … Here we are at the very center, the holy of holies. And, as any one who has ever visited an ancient Near Eastern temple knows, that is the residence of the deity. But for the Jews there is nothing.
Lawrence Kushner, God Was In This Place, and I, I Did Not Know, p 97
We are surrounded by Nothing. Everywhere we go, we have no idea what we're not seeing. We don't know what gravitational fields look like, what dark matter looks like, what quantum foam looks like, what de Kooning's drawing looked like, but what the scientists and the artists are telling us, in their very different ways, is that if we lean in, and pay very close attention, sometimes what looks like Nothing is the best place to find the most interesting ... somethings.
Robert Krulwich, “Two Ways to Think About Nothing”
The Bible uses heaven to mean, God’s space which intersects at the moment in various strange ways with our space.
N.T. Wright, 100 Huntley Street Interview, 12.08.08
Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” … I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it.
Revelation 21.1-4, 22-24
Images
Scriptures
Exodus 34.10-14
Deuteronomy 16.21,22
Judges 3.7
1 Kings 14.14-16
Isaiah 1.29-31
Isaiah 57.5
Isaiah 61.1-4
Quotes
A distinguished tree, especially one of great antiquity, might be looked upon as the “tree of life” or as being “cosmic” it’s stump symbolizing the “navel of the earth” and its top representing heaven. In this sense, it is a bridge between the human and the divine spheres, and it becomes an arena of divine-human encounter, and ideal medium of oracles and revelation. Fertility cults flourished in connection with such trees, and this form of paganism proved attractive to many Israelites.
Nahum Sarna, JPS Torah Commentar:, Genesis, p 91
In the community of monks to which St. Benedict was abbot he added to the three standard evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience a fourth: he added the vow of stability.
Eugene Peterson, Under the Unpredictable Plant, p 18
In the place of your worst failures, your biggest mistakes, your greatest shame, your dirtiest secret, your failing strength, your deepest wound, your messiest sin and devastating brokenness I will plant my seeds of love, grace, compassion, hope, mercy, wholeness, healing… and in that place something new will grow that will put my splendor on display in you and through you so that the whole world will see and know that it doesn’t have to end with ashes and mourning and despair, for I am the God who brings beauty and joy and praise, the One who rebuilds and renews and restores the very places that have only born memories of grief and sorrow.
Images
Scriptures
Ephesians 2:1-10
Quotes
Dead in a Ungracious World
Ephesians 2:1-3
God’s one-of-a-kind job description is that God actually uses our problems to lead us to the full solution. God is the perfect Recycler, and in the economy of grace, nothing is wasted, not even our worst sins and our most stupid mistakes…
Richard Rohr, lecture
The Lovesick Father
Ephesians 2:4-5
Personal and Traumatic
Ephesians 2:6-7
Jean Valjean, my brother: You belong no longer to evil, but to good. It is your soul that I am buying for you. I withdraw it from dark thoughts and from the spirit of perdition and I give it to God!
Bishop Myriel to Jean Valjean, Les Miserables
A New Identity
Ephesians 2:8-10
There is nothing we can do to make God love us any more… There is nothing we can do to make God love us any less…
Philip Yancey, What’s So Amazing About Grace
Scriptures
Matthew 18.21-35
Romans 6.5-7
Colossians 3.12-14
Matthew 18.21-35
Quotes
Forgiveness is constant from God’s side, which should be a calm, joyous certainty from our side.
Richard Rohr, Wondrous Encounters, p 30
Inscribed on the very heart of God’s grace is the rule that we can be its recipients only if we do not resist being made into its agents; what happens to us must be done by us.
Miroslav Volf, Exclusion and Embrace, p 129
I think forgiveness is a great idea until you have someone to forgive.
Ed Dobson, “Ask Forgiveness”
Forgiveness is the Christlike suffering which it is the Christian's duty to bear.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, p 90
Images
Scriptures
Proverbs 28.13
1 John 1.9
James 5.16
Proverbs 28.13
Quotes
To say what is true about you.
Liberation through confession might be among the most painful of all liberations.
Miroslav Volf, Exclusion and Embrace, p 120
A person who admits his guilt and complicity renders himself defenseless, assailable, and vulnerable. He stands there, muddied and weighed down. Everyone can point at him and despise him. But he becomes free… he comes to himself, and steps into the light of a truth which makes him free.
Jürgen Moltmann, The Forgiveness and Politics Study Project, p 43
Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy.
Proverbs 28.13, ©NIV
Scriptures
Genesis 2.25
Genesis 3.8-10
Hebrews 2.10-11
Hebrews 12.1-3
Romans 5.5
Quotes
So long as the harmony with God remained undisturbed, the pristine innocence and dignity of sexuality was not spoiled.
Nahum Sarna, JPS Torah Commentary: Genesis, p 23
The disparity between our ideal self and our real self; the grim specter of past infidelities; the awareness that I am not living what I believe, that I am not all I ought to be, that I am not measuring up to other’s expectations regarding demeanor and lifestyle; the relentless pressure of conformity; the midlife oppression of what I had hoped to become versus what I have actually become; the obsession with personal dishonesty and self-centeredness combine to transform an expectant pilgrim people into a dispirited traveling troupe … brooding, frightened, and wiped-out.
Brennan Manning, A Glimpse of Jesus, p 85-86
Only a sinner, saved by grace!
James M. Gray, Daniel B. Towner, Only A Sinner
If Jesus sat at your dining room table tonight with full knowledge of everything you are and are not; if he laid out your whole life-story, with hidden agenda and the dark desires unknown even to yourself, it would still be impossible to be saddened in his presence.
Edward Schillebeeckx, Jesus, p 205
Hope does not put to shame.
Romans 5.5 ©NIV
Images
Scriptures
Leviticus 5.5
Luke 11.37-40
Genesis 2.7, 15
Genesis 3.4-5, 7-24
Genesis 4.1-12
Psalm 32.1-7
Quotes
These developments suggest that social relationships, or the relative lack there of, constitute a major risk factor for health – rivaling the effects of well established health risk factors such as cigarette smoking, blood pressure, blood lipids, obesity, and physical activity.
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/241/4865/540.full.pdf
The living God does not have to take any steps to actively increase the emotional stress and fear of those who refuse to obey Him. They do it to themselves.
SkipMoen
Whenever men and women are out of alignment with God, the world has its way with them. And in this world, fear hold all those captive…
SkipMoen
