This Sunday’s readings: Psalm 11

Reflections

Escape to God alone if you want to escape from Him. Escape by confessing and not by hiding. Tell Him ‘You are my shelter’ and so let the only love, which grants life, to grow inside you.
~ St. Augustine of Hippo

Fear is strange. It will convince us to guard ourselves from the people that only want to love us. We think we’re keeping ourselves safe by keeping ourselves from love. God didn’t make our hearts to be impenetrable nor has He commanded us to make fear our refuge.
~Jack Hill Perry, contemporary writer and hip-hop artist

We do not render to him the honor which is his due unless we are fully persuaded that his judgment seat is a sacred sanctuary for all who are in affliction and unrighteously oppressed.
~ John Calvin, 1509-1564, reformation leader on Psalm 11

To walk before God means so to walk as to have the thought of God’s presence and supervision constantly in mind, and to shape one’s conduct accordingly.
~ Geerhardus Vos, 1862-1949, Dutch-American Theologian

Certainly our cultural fallback position seems to be that our technologies will get us out of everything they have got us into. That looks like a magical thinking to me, but we don’t really have a better idea.
~ Paul Kingsnorth, 1972- , English Writer

God’s commands are designed to guide you to life’s very best. You will not obey Him, if you do not believe Him and trust Him. You cannot believe Him if you do not love Him. You cannot love Him unless you know Him.
~ Henry Blackaby, 1935- , founder of Blackaby Ministries

“Let Philip cease to rule the world.”
~ Martin Luther to his friend, Philip Melanchthon

This Sunday’s readings: Psalm 8

Reflections

When I have gazed into these stars, have they not looked down upon me as if with pity from their serene spaces, like eyes glistening with heavenly tears over the little lot of man?
~ Thomas Carlyle, 1795-1881, Scottish writer and historian

The ultimate test of our spirituality is the measure of our amazement at the grace of God.
~ D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, 1899-1981, Welsh medical doctor and preacher

Define yourself radically as one beloved by God. This is the true self. Every other identity is illusion.
~ Brennan Manning, from Abba’s Child: The Cry of the Heart

Think about what people are doing on Facebook today. They are keeping up with their friends and family, but they are also building an image and identity for themselves, which in a sense is their brand.
~ Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook

In fact, what is called the secular mentality consists simply of those who, so to speak, mortgage themselves to the world. They use their talents to amass wealth, carry on enterprises. They try to make a name for themselves, but themselves they have not become. Spiritually speaking, they have no self, no self with which they can venture anything, no self before God.
~ Soren Kierkegaard

“Who are you?”
“No one of consequence.”
“I must know.”
“Get used to disappointment.”
~ William Goldman, The Princess Bride