christian-fiction

You don__ change the world by telling it what to do, sitting at home, and telling it what you believe. You believe by throwing yourself into it. Making a leap, getting involved, then waiting, taking some one person__ place for a while, one suffering person at a time.

And keep them thinking in terms of 'being good' as this is not an end so much as a means to something else __appiness, respect, self-esteem, etc_ And whatever their true end is, take it away, and so goes their goodness.

Indeed, if their wristbands asked them the question: __hat-Would-Jesus-Buy___ell now, that could very well revolutionize the Christian church in America.

It was like magic, but so much of magic is about misdirection, whereas so much of redemption is straightforward and ordinary, piercing true and lit with surprise.

You know, sometimes love can be staring you right in the face, and you can be too blind to see it.

Press them continually with memory and dream and have them waste their Present there.

It was William who would climb out of his carriage unafraid and help a farmer drive a herd of cattle or sheep across a road when necessary.

And once their imaginations are liberated, they begin glimpse the grand interconnectedness of all things. Eternity begins to peek out from behind the everyday things and they see the trappings of any earthly moment as the stage and props for Heaven to reveal itself. There is now nothing ordinary. Everything is being used and spun out for His vast scheme and in His eternal economy, nothing is wasted. Suddenly, all the myriad moments and minutiae of a lifetime show their orchestration __here was nothing that did not lead to this! They look over all their time to find that His redemption has always been rushing, swooping, swerving through their experience, racing to and fro to intervene and infuse Grace.

When their minds mingle with His magnanimity, something of eternity rubs off on their imaginations.

I don__ want God's forgiveness. And He__ not getting mine.~Harry Silver

If we choose to hold onto the past and cling to hurt, anger, or whatever, He can't set us free of it. He won't take those things by force.

You must also forgive yourself. You must forgive yourself for any past mistakes and failures that you cannot forget.

The Adversary, of course, simply wants them to lay down their sins, guilt and all, and follow Him. But this type holds on to their sinfulness and their guilt for it, because otherwise, they__ have no relationship with Him at all. And, of course, no relationship can be based on guilt and survive.

Trust is crazy. You are a risky, risky, God. I didn__ sign up to be Amazing Trust Boy, and I did not sign up for Danger God. You__e flatly not safe_

There is a mathematics to all his relationships, underlying each and every one. He wants it to all add up in his head and he wants to do the adding. And should someone step outside his ciphers, the circle his mind has drawn, his trust evaporates.

Trust becomes the only road home, back to love.

They prefer a God of an altogether softer flavor. Nothing too extreme. Complaisance, not magnanimity. They do not think upon the __od of God, Light of Light, very God of very God._ They prefer to think in terms of __od liking them._ That__ the God they__e conjured for themselves.

The eye is to light as the soul is to God.