This Sunday’s readings: John 17:1-5

Reflections

As much money and life as you could want! The two things most human beings would choose above all – the trouble is, humans do have a knack of choosing precisely those things that are worst for them.
~ J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

Christianity set itself the goal of fulfilling man’s unattainable desires, but for that very reason ignored his attainable desires. By promising man eternal life, it deprived him of temporal life, by teaching him to trust in God’s help it took away his trust in his own powers; by giving him faith in a better life in heaven, it destroyed his faith in a better life on earth and his striving to attain such a life. Christianity gave man what his imagination desires, but for that very reason failed to give him what he really and truly desires.
~ Ludwig Feuerbach, Lectures on the Essence of Religion

It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.
~ C. S. Lewis

God’s love is not an invitation to passivity. Instead, it is a call to wise and risky creativity.
~ Dan B. Allender, To Be Told: Know Your Story, Shape Your Future

The point cannot be overemphasized: your plight is also your redemption. The Bible assumes that its stories are also our story… We are Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Their stories are a paradigm of our own. Each of us is called, redeemed, and exiled – again and again.
~ Dan B. Allender

The Christian is the really free human—he is free to have imagination. This too is our heritage. The Christian is the one whose imagination should fly beyond the stars.
~ Francis Schaeffer, Pastor, founder of L’Abri

This Sunday’s readings: John 17:20-26

Reflections

One hundred religious persons knit into a unity by careful organization do not constitute a church any more than eleven men together make a football team.
~ A.W. Tozer, 1897-1963, Pastor/Author

The right manner of growth is to grow less in one’s own eyes.
~ Thomas Watson

The kingdom of self is heavily defended territory.
~ Eugene Peterson, Author/Pastor

Whatever disunites man from God, also disunites man from man.
~ Edmund Burke, 1729-1797, Statesman/Philosopher

Paul would not only be astonished by our lackadaisical attitude towards holiness, but he would be horrified that mostly we just don’t care – unity and holiness to Paul, is the greatest thing. Unity is easy if you don’t care about holiness. Holiness is easy if you don’t care about unity. … Paul was trying to hold these two things together through his ministry.
~ N.T. Wright, former bishop of Durham

A man of a right spirit is not a man of narrow and private views, but is greatly interested and concerned for the good of the community, to which he belongs, and particularly of the city or village in which he resides, and for the true welfare of the society of which he is a member.
~ Jonathan Edwards, 1703-1758, Pastor/Philosopher

You (Millennials) are the generation most afraid of real community because it inevitably limits freedom and choice. Get over your fear.
~ Tim Keller, Pastor/Author

All for one and one for all.
~ Alexandre Dumas, The Three Musketeers