But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
1 Corinthians 15:10 KJV
"While the voices of blockbuster movies and pop culture cry out for a life outside the matrix of numb efficiency, Christianity often has offered little to the world, other than the hope that things will be better in heaven."
"Sometimes we speak out to change the world, and other times we speak to try to keep the world from changing us."
"In our culture of "seeker sensitivity" and radical inclusivity, the great temptation is to compromise the cost of discipleship in order to draw a larger crowd. With the most sincere hearts, we do not want to see anyone walk away from Jesus because of the discomfort of his cross, so we clip the claws on the Lion a little, we clean up a bit the bloody Passion we are called to follow."
"We would like to include people like the rich ruler and Ananias and Sapphira, but we would end up with the sort of Christianity that arose after Constantine, in which everyone can be a Christian but no one knows what a Christian is anymore."
"For us, belief is only the beginning. What really matters is how we live, how what we believe gets fleshed out, so we also have a statement of orthopraxis (meaning, "right living, right practices"). And this is where most belief-oriented faith communities fall short. They tell us only what they believe, but they do not tell us how their beliefs affect their lifestyles."
"We live in an age in which people, when they hear the word Christian, are much more likely to think of people who hate gays than people who love outcasts, and that is a dangerous thing."
"The world has seen Christian extremists who will blow up abortion clinics and dance on doctors' graves. We have seen Christian extremists who hold signs that say, "God hates fags." The world has seen Christian extremists who declare war in the name of the Lamb. But where are the Christian extremists for love and grace?"
Non traditional thoughts about life, the world, and God from a Christian's perspective.
"I am seized with fear that my own will will be given place, and I will thus ruin my usableness for God. It would be easy to follow my feelings...to interfere with the voice of the Lord when He says, 'This is the way, walk ye in it.' "
Elisabeth Elliott
Christian Carnival 136 is up at Parableman.
Check it out. I won't do any highlights this week because I'm exhausted and my allergies have flared up.
Tags: Christian Carnival
Labels: Christian Carnival
Posted by Amanda at 8/23/2006 08:40:00 PM
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