Somewhere in Martyrs Mirror, an Anabaptist prisoner anticipating his execution (probably by fire) writes that, while his spirit yearns for the day when he will receive his new body, his current body is naturally attached to itself and prejudiced against being burned to ashes. Continue reading “The flesh shrinks back”
Little and unknown
“Keep us little and unknown, prized and loved by God alone.”
Don’t buck the religious system
“It is a costly and a suffering thing to come up against the religious system that has ‘ settled down’ here. It is far more costly than coming up against the naked world itself. The religious system can be more ruthless and cruel and bitter; it can be actuated by all those mean things, contemptible things, prejudices and suspicions things that you will not even find in decent people in the world. It is costly to go on to the heavenlies, it is painful; but it is the way of the pioneer, and it has to be settled that that is how it is.”
Pioneering is a costly thing
“The whole history of the Church is one long story of this tendency to settle down on this earth and to become conformed to this world, to find acceptance and popularity here and to eliminate the element of conflict and of pilgrimage. That is the trend and the tendency of everything. Therefore outwardly, as well as inwardly, pioneering is a costly thing.”
More expensive than marble
My wife loves me so much, sometimes she scares me. The other night she kept looking at my hand, wondering if she could find an art student who could make a life-size marble sculpture of me. I protested that I don’t know anybody besides her who would want a marble sculpture of me, and that it would probably be incredibly expensive – thousands of dollars.
But there’s somebody who has already spent much more than thousands of dollars for me, and for you. He’s given his life, and spent my entire life, to make something beautiful of me, because he finds me that valuable.
God needs to respect our decorum
“With some men it would seem, if they could control God’s operations and manipulate His actions they might tolerate a revival; but to allow God a free hand, fills them with righteous indignation and horror. If only God would consent to become an ‘ecclesiastic’ and respect their dignity and decorum and beautiful order of service and ways of running the Church, they might condescend to have a revival.”
Eating the menu
I’ve never read Rudolph Otto‘s 1917 book “The Idea of the Holy,” but it sounds like Western Christians have something to learn from him. Otto might say that much conventional orthodoxy and theology is like going to a restaurant and eating the menu. Otto pointed out that Christians tend to “flatten out” their faith, to make it more tame and manageable. Sounds to me like a religious shampoo/conditioner. Instead, Otto sought a mystical excitement in religious experience that was missing from 20th century Protestantism. It seems to be largely missing from 21st century Christianity as well. Would you like cardboard with that, sir?
Wedding News
I have mentioned that I am married now. Details of my wedding are available online for your viewing.
Holy ignorance of our shining
Oh, for closest communion with God, till soul and body, head, face, and heart shine with Divine brilliancy! But oh! for a holy ignorance of our shining!
The scariest worship service ever
For me, the scariest worship service is one where the congregation waits on God alone to speak and act. The minutes pass, and you can’t fill in your uneasiness by reading the bulletin, because there isn’t one. You can’t wait for the next part of the program to begin, because there is no program. Nothing at all happens unless God speaks, and you can’t break the tension by sharing your own pious or clever thoughts. It won’t work, because the leaders are mature enough to tell if it was God who spoke through you, or man.