For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.
I pray that your love will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding. For I want you to understand what really matters, so that you may live pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ’s return. May you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation—the righteous character produced in your life by Jesus Christ—for this will bring much glory and praise to God.
There has been a long tradition which sees the mission of the Church primarily as obedience to a command. It has been customary to speak of ‘the missionary mandate.’ This way of putting the matter is certainly not without justification, and yet it seems to me that it misses the point. It tends to make mission a burden rather than a joy, to make it part of the law rather than part of the gospel. If one looks at the New Testament evidence, one gets another impression. Mission begins with a kind of explosion of joy. The news that the rejected and crucified Jesus is alive is something that cannot possibly be suppressed. It must be told. Who could be silent about such a fact? The mission of the Church in the pages of the New Testament is more like the fallout from a vast explosion, a radioactive fallout which is not lethal but life-giving.
— Is It Time to Quit ‘Quiet Time’? | ChristianityToday.comMaybe we should follow the example set by the early church that Justin Martyr described, reading the Bible at length together and discussing the difficult questions it raises, rather than passively listening or uncritically relying on theological commentary. We can welcome loving, humble disagreement for the sake of mutual improved understanding. We should train ourselves to let our discomforts and confusions about this ancient text bubble to the surface so we can push past the quick and easy answers that often sweep our biggest questions under the rug.
If today’s common rituals of Bible engagement are not working, then we must disrupt them in favor of deep learning practices. These new habits could consist of communal listening, deep diving, repeated reading of whole books of the Bible, or some other strategy. But the assumption that daily devotions alone will yield scriptural literacy and fluency no longer appears tenable, because it never was.
The goal is not to ditch quiet time. We have been given easy access to the whole of God’s instruction, and times of solitary prayer and reflection are part of a well-rounded Christian life. But we may need to shift the devotional center of gravity away from solitary practices and toward communal ones.
We hope to see Christian families and churches recreate a culture of vigorous communal Scripture engagement that would cause quiet times to overflow into the practices that produce just and peaceful communities.
—Scruffy hospitality means you’re not waiting for everything in your house to be in order before you host and serve friends in your home. Scruffy hospitality means you hunger more for good conversation and serving a simple meal of what you have, not what you don’t have. Scruffy hospitality means you’re more interested in quality conversation than the impression your home or lawn makes. If we only share meals with friends when we’re excellent, we aren’t truly sharing life together.
Don’t allow a to-do list disqualify you from an evening with people you’re called to love in friendship. Scheduling is hard enough in our world. If it’s eating with kind, welcoming people in a less than perfect house versus eating alone, what do you think someone would choose? We tell our guests ‘come as you are,’ perhaps we should tell ourselves ‘host as you are.’
Jack King | Why Scruffy Hospitality Creates Space for Friendship
(HT)
Preaching is proclamation that exults in the exposing of God’s glory.— Jared C. Wilson | What Is Preaching, Anyway?
My heart for very joy doth leap,— Martin Luther | A Morning and Evening Prayerbook
My lips no more their silence keep;
I too must sing with joyful tongue
That sweetest ancient cradle-song.
Glory to God in highest heaven,
Who unto man His Son hath given;
While angels sing with pious mirth,
A glad New Year to all the earth.
Amen.
Ye cannot take Christ, as a Redeemer, if ye take him not in all his offices. He offers himself to sinners no other way. And what God has joined together let no man put asunder. Many pretend to take Christ as a Saviour to save them from hell and wrath, who do not hearken to him as a Prophet to teach them the saving knowledge of God, nor submit to his laws and commandments. How many call Christ their Lord, and yet do not the things that he saith?— Thomas Boston | The Offices of Christ (via The Bard Owl)
—Give us discernment
in the face of troubling news reports.
Give us discernment
to know when to pray,
when to speak out,
when to act,
and when to simply
shut off our screens
and our devices,
and to sit quietly
in your presence,casting the burdens of this world
upon the strong shoulders
of the one who
alone
is able to bear them up.
from A Liturgy For Those Flooded By Too Much Information | Douglas McKelvey
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