Worship

Sunday, October 20, 2024 — Exodus: Salvation in the Desert — Escape

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Total need requires total help
~ Karl Barth

Reflect, Resonate, Reevaluate, Respond

Taste and see that the Lord is sweet. He was made sweet to you because he liberated you. You had been bitter to yourself when you were occupied only with yourself. Drink the sweetness.
~ Augustine of Hippo, Sermon on the 33rd Psalm

“I said, ‘The truth is whatever you can get away with.’ ‘No, that’s journalism. The truth is whatever you can’t escape.'”
~ Greg Egan, 1961- , Australian Sci-fi writer

Exodus 14:10-22

Our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers.
~ M. Scott Peck, 1936-2005, Psychiatrist & Author, People of the Lie

When people long for some kind of escape, it’s worth asking: What would “back to the land” mean if we understood the land to be where we are right now? Could “augmented reality” simply mean putting your phone down? And what (or who) is that sitting in front of you when you finally do?
~ Jenny Odell, 1986- , American Artist and writer

While the truth that we cannot escape God’s all-seeing eye may weigh us down at times, it is finally the only remedy for our uneasiness. If we wish to hide from the penetrating gaze of holy love, it is because we know it falls on what is unholy and unloving within us. Only under God’s steady gaze of love are we able to find the healing and restoration we so desperately need.
~ Marjorie Thompson, Author & Minister, Soul Feast

When we begin to talk about hope, it isn’t just some kind of mild-mannered, “I hope things get better” whim, a mere fleeting desire. It’s really the depths of what our hearts most deeply, deeply long for—and that is the very presence of God… This is what we’re being invited by God to: hope in him requires our imagination, our eagerness, our suffering. […] If we’re actually being called by God to hope in him, then it has to be a full-bodied hope.
~ Dan Allender, Psychologist & Author

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Worship

Sunday, October 13, 2024 — Exodus: Salvation in the Desert — Brokenness

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It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until He has hurt him deeply.
~ A.W. Tozer

Reflect, Resonate, Reevaluate, Respond

The reason why many are still troubled, still seeking, still making little forward progress is because they haven’t yet come to the end of themselves. We’re still trying to give orders, and interfering with God’s work within us.
~ A. W. Tozer

Exodus 4:1-7

To admit we are foolish, weak, and in need of repentance gives the vindictive and self-righteous camp plenty of ammunition to turn against us and to turn others against our leadership. But the alternatives to living in and living out truth are far worse: we either hide from truth or we choose to spin our sin and our story.
~ Dan B. Allender, from Leading with a Limp: Take Full Advantage of Your Most Powerful Weakness

Weariness is really about this core struggle to hope despite the circumstances and our limitations, and not so much about stress and being tired.
~ Dan B. Allender

Don’t waste your waiting. The time between where we are and the fulfillment of the promise is designed to transform us.
~ Crawford W. Loritts, Jr, pastor

So many of us have become discouraged because we are not in control and we are powerless to do anything about what we face. Because God doesn’t seem to be “showing up” when we think he should, we give up.
~ Crawford W. Loritts, Jr.

It’s not the gift (or the ‘golf’ club) but it’s whose hand it’s in. And that’s what God was telling Moses… Listen to me, the secret to your impact is not that heavy. The secret to your impact is your dependance on me. If you always know that you need me, you’re in a place of usefulness.
~ Crawford W. Loritts, Jr.

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