This Sunday’s readings: John 16:12-15

Reflections

If we think of the Holy Spirit only as an impersonal power or influence, then our thought will constantly be, how can I get hold of and use the Holy Spirit; but if we think of Him in the biblical way as a divine Person, infinitely wise, infinitely holy, infinitely tender, then our thought will constantly be, ‘How can the Holy Spirit get hold of and use me?’
~ R. A. Torrey, 1856-1928, Pastor, Educator, Writer

The matter is quite simple. The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand we are obliged to act accordingly. Take any words in the New Testament and forget everything except pledging yourself to act accordingly. My God, you will say, if I do that my whole life will be ruined. How would I ever get on in the world?
~ Soren Kierkegaard, 1813-1855, Danish Philosopher/Theologian

A writer who says that there are no truths, or that all truth is ‘merely relative,’ is asking you not to believe him. So don’t.
~ Roger Scruton, Modern Philosophy: An Introduction and Survey

Lord Peter Wimsey complains, “When I was a boy I always hated facts. Thought of them as nasty, hard things, all knobs.” Bunter replies, “My lord, facts are like cows. If you look them in the face hard enough, they generally run away.” … “A man was taken to the zoo and shown the giraffe. After gazing at it a little in silence: ‘I don’t believe it,’ he said.” Somehow, we humans interpret, dismiss or ignore the facts to keep our beliefs intact. The cows run away, and we don’t believe our lying eyes as we gaze at the giraffe.
~ Dorothy Sayers (1893-1957), English writer and essayist

Reflections


If you have enemies, good that means you stood up for something.
~ Marshall Bruce Mathers iii, American Rapper—Hip-Hop


You have no enemies, you say? Alas, my friend, the boast is poor. He who has mingled in the fray of duty that the brave endure, must have made foes. If you have none, small is the work that you have done. You’ve hit no traitor on the hip. You’ve dashed no cup from perjured lip. You’ve never turned the wrong to right. You’ve been a coward in the fight. ~ Charles Mackay, 1814-1889, Poet / Author


… many ordinary, well-adjusted Christians might imagine that this passage, at the end of John 15, was bordering on the paranoid. The world is going to hate you, says Jesus. The world will persecute you. The world is guilty, and it hates me and my father as well as you! We can imagine someone saying, ‘Look here, how paranoid can you get?’ … But this doesn’t take away from the fact that Jesus’ warnings in this section are not paranoid, even if they may sound like that to a comfortable, armchair version of Christianity. ~ N.T. Wright, scholar, former Bishop of Durham


Hope for the Christian isn’t just confidence in a certain, glorious future. It’s hope in a present providence. It’s hope that God’s plans can’t be thwarted by local authorities or irate mobs, by unfriendly bosses or unbelieving husbands, by Supreme Court rulings or the next election. The Christian hope is that God’s purposes are so unassailable that a great thunderstorm of events can’t drive them off course. Even when we’re wave-tossed and lost at sea, Jesus remains the captain of the ship and the commander of the storm. ~ Elliot Clark, Cross Cultural Church Planter


My barn having burned to the ground, I can now see the moon.
~ Mizuta Masahide (1657-1723), Japanese Poet and Samurai