Brian McLaren from "A New Kind of Christian"
"Instead of approaching it with out modern assumptions and expectations and our aggressive analysis, maybe we need to read it less like scholars and more like humble seekers trying to learn whatever we can from it, in the context of out sincere desire to live for God and do what he wants."
"What if instead of reading the Bible you let the Bible read you?"
"We need to flirt with it, romance it - or maybe let its message romance us."
"A good hearted person might respond, 'I love my neighbor, and if you're offering me something that my neighbors can't have, then I don't want it.' However, if it were put in the service context, so that we are chosen by God not for privilege but for service, the reverse would be true: 'I love my neighbors and if receiving God's salvation will help them, then I want it' "
"The church exists, he said, to be a catalyst of the kingdom. In other words, it doesn't just exist for its own aggradizement. It exists for the benefit of the kingdom of God, something bigger than itself."
"God's kingdom is a reality that both inhabits history and transceds it. The kingdom he said, is where the historical and the eternal come together."
"So getting paid to love God can make it hard to love God."
"Instead of telling people to go do something at home, we do them a favor by helping them do it now."
"But Jesus didn't get crucified for being exclusive; he was hated and crucified for the reverse - for opening the windows of grace and the doors of heaven to the tax collectors and prostitutes, the half-breeds and ultimately even the Gentiles."
"Let's say that the essence of out identity as people of God isn't that we're an elite, saved for privilege, but ordinary people saved for service, for responsibility."
"Salvation is what we experience and spread in the process of joining God in his grand mission of course this is not a works/earning/self-justification thing - it's all about God's grace from start to finish. But the focus moves from me to God, from my plan for myself to God's plan for the whole world (not just 'wonderful plan for my life').
"What if instead of reading the Bible you let the Bible read you?"
"We need to flirt with it, romance it - or maybe let its message romance us."
"A good hearted person might respond, 'I love my neighbor, and if you're offering me something that my neighbors can't have, then I don't want it.' However, if it were put in the service context, so that we are chosen by God not for privilege but for service, the reverse would be true: 'I love my neighbors and if receiving God's salvation will help them, then I want it' "
"The church exists, he said, to be a catalyst of the kingdom. In other words, it doesn't just exist for its own aggradizement. It exists for the benefit of the kingdom of God, something bigger than itself."
"God's kingdom is a reality that both inhabits history and transceds it. The kingdom he said, is where the historical and the eternal come together."
"So getting paid to love God can make it hard to love God."
"Instead of telling people to go do something at home, we do them a favor by helping them do it now."
"But Jesus didn't get crucified for being exclusive; he was hated and crucified for the reverse - for opening the windows of grace and the doors of heaven to the tax collectors and prostitutes, the half-breeds and ultimately even the Gentiles."
"Let's say that the essence of out identity as people of God isn't that we're an elite, saved for privilege, but ordinary people saved for service, for responsibility."
"Salvation is what we experience and spread in the process of joining God in his grand mission of course this is not a works/earning/self-justification thing - it's all about God's grace from start to finish. But the focus moves from me to God, from my plan for myself to God's plan for the whole world (not just 'wonderful plan for my life').
posted by Karen at 8:55 PM
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