This Sunday’s readings: John 15:9-17

Reflections

I’ve got a new friend, all right. But what a gamble friendship is! Charlotte is fierce, brutal, scheming, bloodthirsty—everything I don’t like. How can I learn to like her, even though she is pretty and, of course, clever?
~ E.B. White, Charlotte’s Web

The man of knowledge must be able not only to love his enemies but also to hate his friends.
~ Friedrich Nietzsche, Philosopher

You want people to hold you to a high standard, because whenever you degenerate in the multiple ways you’re likely to, they will (metaphorically) whack you on the back of the head and say, ‘clue-up’! You are demeaning yourself and you’re less than what you could be … A true friend wants the best, for the best in you.
~ Jordan Peterson, Psychologist, Author, Speaker

The truth is, everyone is going to hurt you. You just got to find the ones worth suffering for.
~Bob Marley (1945-1981), Jamaican musician

In friendship…we think we have chosen our peers. In reality a few years’ difference in the dates of our births, a few more miles between certain houses, the choice of one university instead of another…the accident of a topic being raised or not raised at a first meeting–any of these chances might have kept us apart. But, for a Christian, there are, strictly speaking no chances. A secret master of ceremonies has been at work. Christ, who said to the disciples, “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you,” can truly say to every group of Christian friends, “Ye have not chosen one another but I have chosen you for one another.” The friendship is not a reward for our discriminating and good taste in finding one another out. It is the instrument by which God reveals to each of us the beauties of others.”
~ C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

This Sunday’s readings: John 15:1-8

Reflections

A machine can do work; only life can bear fruit. A law can compel work; only love can spontaneously bring forth fruit. Work implies effort and labor; the essential idea of fruit is that it is the silent, natural, restful produce of our inner life.
~ Andrew Murray, The True Vine

God’s actions are all intended to nudge you—lovingly, wisely, persistently—toward the life and character you desire but can’t reach without help.
~ Bruce H. Wilkinson, Secrets of the Vine: Breaking Through to Abundance

Here’s the marvelous news. When you look up away from yourself and you look up to God, you see a God who is able…you see a God who has capacity and competence and power. You see a God who himself is not weak. And he will use that ability…in your life.
~Thabiti Anyabwile, Washington, D.C.-based pastor and author

The contemporary climate is therapeutic…. People today hunger… for the feeling, the momentary illusion, of personal well-being, health, and psychic security.
~ Christopher Lasch (1932-1994), American historian and social critic

There are two ways to drink tea. Some people are dippers. They dip their tea bag up and down in the mug. A lot of Christians are like that. They dip in on Sunday morning then dip back out. They dip back in on Wednesday night then they dip back out. But there’s another way to drink tea and that’s to be an abider. It involves the act of just dropping the tea bag in the water and letting it stay there. Without touching the bag an amazing thing will happen. The color of the water begins to change as the influence of the bag in the hot water effects change in the cup. A person can just sit and watch the transformation take place because of the act of abiding.
~ Tony Evans, Pastor