This Sunday’s readings: John 20:19-23

Reflections

Love is courageously setting aside our personal agenda to move humbly into the world of others with their well-being in view, willing to risk further pain in our souls, in order to be an aroma of life to some and an aroma of death to others.
~ Dan Allender, Psychologist/Author

God doesn’t need our good works, but our neighbor does.
~ Gustaf Wingren, 1910-2000, Swedish Theologian

God isn’t looking for people of great faith, but for individuals ready to follow Him.
~ Hudson Taylor, 1832-1905, Missionary to China

Thus, for followers of Christ, calling neutralizes the fundamental position of choice in modern life. “I have chosen you,” Jesus said, “you have not chosen me.” We are not our own; we have been bought with a price. We have no rights, only responsibilities. Following Christ is not our initiative, merely our response, in obedience. Nothing works better to debunk the pretensions of choice than a conviction of calling. Once we have been called, we literally “have no choice.”
~ Os Guinness, 1941- , Author/Social Critic

We were not called to make converts. Our job is the task of disciple-making. I mean, if we are not making disciples, why are we here? … You are either making disciples or making excuses. Which one are you?
~ Jonathan Hayashi, Ordinary Radicals: A Return to Christ-Centered Discipleship

Everyone will be forgotten, nothing we do will make any difference, and all good endeavors, even the best, will come to naught. Unless there is God. If the God of the Bible exists, and there is a True Reality beneath and behind this one, and this life is not the only life, then every good endeavour, even the simplest ones, pursued in response to God’s calling, can matter forever.
~ Tim Keller on “Why Calling Matters”