I use the application “stickies” on my Mac to make notes to myself and to collect random thoughts, quotes, or pithy sayings to contemplate or study. Following are some random thoughts from the last few weeks. Sorry I didn’t always record the source…
*God’s perfection doesn’t merely reject or punish evil: it overwhelms it with good.
*Grace – God’s love for tomorrow coming into our life today
*Love – Shared hope (Kim McManus)
*There is a difference between obligation obedience and covenantal obedience
*Shalom results from living in the tension of…
- Contentment (Phil 4:6-7)
- Justice – making things right (Lk 18:7b-18a) “Shalom-makers”
- Righteousness – right relationship, navigate the relationship (Rom 8:31-39)
- Loyalty
- Community (Col 3:12-17)
- Wholeness
- Integrity
- Salvation
*Paradigm shift — Gap between stimulus and response (Covey)
*Rules keep us immature
*Virtue comes as a result of moral effort – It’s like learning a new language, it becomes second nature
*We don’t need to learn our love language as much as we need to learn the language of love
*Learn to think Christianly
*The nature of virtue ethics
*The Spirit works to re-humanize us
*Love is not our duty, it is our destiny
*Take a nurturing response toward your emtional self, listen to the emotional self in the presence of God (Ps 139:1-3), draw your emotional self toward God, stay and wait/receive in God’s presence (Ps 46:10; Lk 10:42) — It is scary to be deeply revealing in God’ presence.
*Soul ache
*God comes to you disguised as your life. –Paula D’Arcy
*Every person we meet is Jesus in a distressing disguise. –Mother Theresa
*Worship is the primary means to transformation
*Gideon and God test one another. God is available for interaction. Invitation to be bold (vs foolish). We are free to be bold.
*God “tests” us to reveal our hearts to ourselves (he already knows).
*OT is brutal and filled with war. The NT concept is that our battle is NOT against flesh and blood (Eph 6).
*Glory of God is among the poor. –Joel Green
*Take calcium to sleep better
*Spiritual Formation – Intentionally partnering with the work of the Holy Spirit to help people learn to love the Lord their God with all of their heart, mind, soul, and strength.
*Joy does not mean the absence of sorrow, but the capacity to rejoice in the midst of it. –Gordon Fee
*Bidden or not bidden, God is present. Erasmus/Jung
*God is the goal of God – John Piper
The embrace of faith, like any embrace, is visible. –Scot McKnight, Dancing Grace (Chap 13)
*Marriage is a duel to the death which no man of honour should decline.
I refuse to die while I am still alive.
–GK Chesterton – Man Alive
Gregg Caruso 