Life by the Slice

Meaningful Quote #5

Alright, last quote from Perspectives on the World Christian Movement (I just finished it and submitted my book review for ordination, so I'm onto another book)

This is Ajith Fernando...

"Most people would like to save themselves...The message of the cross cuts at the hear of human pride, which is the essence of sin.  Adam and Eve's sin was that they wanted to save themselves, independent of God.  They did not want to be dependent on a Supreme God for salvation or for anything else.  People like to think that they are saving themselves.  It makes them feel good and helps to temporarily still the voice of insecurity and emptiness that is theirs because they are separated from their maker." (p. 175 of Perspectives on the World Christian Movement)

Are you trying to save yourself? Trying to earn your salvation by being the best, by trying to earn acclaim from those around you?  I struggle with this everyday, but Fernando is right, its about pride and its about not trusting that who I am is totally ok with God and truly loved just as I am by Him. 

Meaningful Quotes #4

Here's an interesting thought where our motivation for missions comes from.  This is Tim Dearborn writing about our role in missions and fulfilling the Great Commission.

"Lack of interest in mission is not fundamentally caused by an absence of compassion or commitment, nor by lack of information or exhortation.  And lack of interest in mission is not remedied by more shocking statistics, more gruesome stories or more emotionally manipulative commands to obedience.  It is best remedied by intensifying peoples' passion for Christ, so that the passions of his heart become passions that propel our heart."

 (p. 90, Perspectives on the World Christian Movement)

Meaningful Quotes #3

Here's another quote I just read today...it is on knowing and following God's will/way for our lives and was written by Henry Blackaby and Avery Willis.

"Our ways seem good to us.  We may succeed in moderate accomplishments.  When we try to do the work of God in our own ways, however, we will never see the mighty power of God in what we do, and the world will not see God revealing Himself to them.  It is only by God's power that people come to know and worship God.  When God accomplishes His purposes in His ways through us, people will come to know God."

(p. 57 Perspectives on the Worldwide Christian Movement)

Meaningful Quotes #2

I am continuing my posts of some quotes that I read recently...

This is Stanley A Ellison on Satan's work in the world...

"His goal in life is to counterfeit the works of God.  This has been his prized ambition ever since he went into business for himself.  His first recorded intention ended with the words, "I will be like the Most High" (Isa. 14:14).  This counterfeiting effort is his most effective ploy, for the more closely he can imitate God's work, the less likely will we be inclined to seek God or pursue His will."

(p. 18 Perspectives on the World Christian Movement)

This is an interesting statement when you think about how much other religions and thoughts borrow principles from faith in God.  In college I took a world religions course and I was struck by how similar other religions are to Christianity.  That's Satan's ploy, to make all religions look the same, because if all ways lead to God, then people get confused and in the end the do not find the way to God...which is Jesus! 

Meaningful Quotes #1

I've been doing a bunch of reading lately for my ordination requirements and come across some statements that have impacted me.  I'd thought I'd share them...

The first is from John R. Stott...

"To sum up, when God spoke to us in Scripture He used human language, and when he spoke to us in Christ he assumed human flesh.  In order to reveal himself, he both emptied and humbled himself.  That is the model of evangelism which the Bible supplies.  There is a self-emptying and self-humbling in all authentic evangelism; without it we contradict the Gospel and misrepresent the Christ we proclaim."

(p. 24 of Perspectives on the World Christian Movement)

Sharing your faith starts first with being humble, realizing who we are and what God did for us; from this action comes the action of sharing this Good News with those around. 

Something to watch on the web

We (RockPointe) launched a new website this week, rockpointe.tv.  The site contains all of our weekend teaching series for the last 3 years, interviews of people in RockPointe and some other videos worth watching.  It's basically YouTube for RockPointe.

What struck me as we put the site together was that we have had a lot of good teaching series the focus on great topics.  Everything on the site is tagged and searchable, so its easy to find something on what you want to learn about or the book of the Bible you are interested in.

In the first 5 days we had over 300 people visit, pretty cool.  Why not head over and check it out.