All Knowledge is a Particle

There is no true thinker who does not possess an awareness that his thought is a part of an endless context, that his ideas are not taken from the air.

The rich in spirit do not know how to be proud of what they grasp, for they sense that the things which they comprehend are outbursts of inconceivable significance, that there are no lonely ideas roaming about in a void, to be seized and appropriated.

The world's mystery is either chaos without value of any kind, or is replete with an infinite significance beyond the reach of finite minds; in other words, it is either absolutely meaningless or absolutely meaningful, either too inferior or too superior to be an object of human comprehension.

Man is Not Alone  pp. 31-32

Catching by Surprise

What is the kingdom of God? Jesus does not speak of a reorganization of society as a political possibility or of the doctrine of salvation as a doctrine.  He speaks of what it is like to find a diamond ring that you thought you'd lost forever.  He speaks of what it is like to win the Irish Sweepstakes.  He suggest rather than spells out. He evokes rather than explains. He catches by surprise. He doesn't let the homiletic seams show. He is sometimes cryptic, sometimes obscure, sometimes irreverent, always provocative.  He tells stories.  He speaks in parables, and though we have approached these parables reverentially all these many years and have heard them expounded as grave and reverent vehicles of holy truth, I suspect that many if not all of them were originally not grave at all but were antic, comic, often more than just a little shocking.
Listening to Your Life p. 107

The Resurrection of the Body

To sum up, what we are looking forward to is neither a resuscitation (in which we are raised but not changed) nor a survival (in which we are changed into a ghost but not raised bodily) but a resurrection (in which we are both raised and changed, transfigured and glorified simultaneously).
Through the Bible: Through the Year p. 284

Prayer in a Busy Life

We will not often be too busy to turn aside to God for an instant. In fact, we can present our souls to him a thousand times a day.  Sprinkle a seasoning of short prayers on your daily living.  If you see something beautiful, thank God for it.  If you are aware of someone's need, ask God to help.  Saint Francis looked at a stream of water and prayed, "God's grace flows just as gently and sweetly as this brook." You can toss up many such prayers all day long. They will help you in your meditation and in your secular employment as well. Make a habit of it.  -- Francis de Sales: The Devout Life

Near to the Hear of God

A Radical Event

We are always in danger of trivializing the gospel, of minimizing what God is able to do for us and in us.  We speak of becoming a Christian as if it were no more than turning over a new leaf and making a few superficial adjustments to an otherwise secular life. But no, becoming a Christian, according to the New Testament, is an event so radical that no language can do it justice except death and resurrection -- death to the old life of self-centeredness and resurrection to a new life of love. 

Through the Bible: Through the Year  P. 282

True Friendship

I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends.  John 15:15
 
"Friendships are easily dissolved when they are make-believe.  But genuine friendship is not affected by poverty, mistakes, or distortions. This friendship, if it has been shaped by the grace of God and is made whole in God, brings everything back to God. This is holy friendship.

There is no explanation for why a faithful friend is so hard to find today.  Everyone seems selfish. Few have a friend of whom it can be said, "That person is to me a part of myself." -- Richard Rolle: The Fire of Love

Near to the Heart of God: April 25

All Is Well

The proclamation of Easter Day is that all is well.  And as a Christian, I say this not with the easy optimism of one who has never known a time when all was not well but as one who has faced the Cross in all its obscenity as well as in all its glory, who has known one way or another what it is like to live separated from God.  In the end, his will, not ours, is done.  Love is the victor. Death is not the end. The end is life. His life and our lives through him, in him. Existence has greater depths of beauty, mystery, and benediction than the wildest visionary has ever dared to dream. Christ our Lord has risen.

Listening to Your Life * April 22  pp. 102-103

We find it in the pattern of the first Christian sermons every preached: "You killed him. God raised him. We are witnesses." It expresses the first and most basic significance of the resurrection, namely that by raising Jesus, God decisively reversed the verdict passed on him by human beings and validated him as truly the Son of God and Savior.

Through the Bible: Through the Year   p. 280

C.S. Lewis on "scary children's literature"

... those who say children must not be frightened may mean two things. they may mean (1) that they must not do anything.... to give the child phobias... Or they may mean (2) that we must try to keep out of his mind the knowledge that he is born into a world of death, violence, wounds, adventure, heroism and cowardice, good and evil.  If they mean the first I agree with them but not if they mean the second... Since it is so likely that they will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage...

The Business of Heaven - April 23, pp.108-109

Welcome to my devotional "choice bits"

So here's the deal.  I read around six different devotionals every day so I was thinking I'll just post the most interesting thought or insight and put it out particularly for the Kindle and let people subscribe to it. I'm not really about sharing my own insights but sharing the wisdom of those who inspire me.


Today is Good Friday and the other day in "Through the Bible Through the Year" by John Stott I read something that was pretty cool.

When he had received the drink, Jesus said, "It is finished."  John 19:30

"One could perhaps claim that the words of the sixth cry ("It is finished") are the most momentous ever spoken." p. 261