Church and religious experience

Reid's law of religious evasion: 'We structure our churches and maintain them so as to shield us from God and to protect us from genuine religious experience.' He also comments: 'The adult members of churches today do not raise serious religious questions for fear of revealing their doubts or being thought of as strange. There is an implicit conspiracy of slience on religious matters in churches. This conspiracy covers up the fact that the churches do not change lives or influence conduct to any appreciable degree.' There is a lot of truth in this comment!

Rely on grace

God forgives but people remember. That is why we have to rely on God's grace and not people's memory! Mike Pilavachi. Life and Scripture assures us that this is true!

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the Lord's intimacy

"The crooked man is an abomination to the Lord, but he is intimate with the upright" - Proverbs 3.32

corpses

'The analogy may be strong and extreme; but it is well to be reminded that a number of corpses put together will not produce a resurrection' - Gwyn Walters

His rule

We discover the effectiveness of his rule with us precisely in the details of day-to-day existence. Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy - great challenge to my Christian walk. A book worth reading!

perfection

The first thing is always what God wills as Creator; but—even apart from our sin—it is not the last. For he wills to lead the creation out beyond itself, into the perfecting of all things. God does not preserve the world simply in order to preserve it, but in order that he may perfect it. Emil Brunner

the danger of self rejection

“Over the years, I have come to realize that the greatest trap in our life is not success, popularity, or power, but self-rejection. Success, popularity, and power can indeed present a great temptation, but their seductive quality often comes from the way they are part of the much larger temptation to self-rejection. When we have come to believe in the voices that call us worthless and unlovable, then success, popularity, and power are easily perceived as attractive solutions. The real trap, however, is self-rejection. As soon as someone accuses me or criticizes me, as soon as I am rejected, left alone, or abandoned, I find myself thinking, "Well, that proves once again that I am a nobody." ... [My dark side says,] I am no good... I deserve to be pushed aside, forgotten, rejected, and abandoned. Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us the "Beloved." Being the Beloved constitutes the core truth of our existence.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen