I. Living in the Present
"A new beginning! We must learn to live each day, each hour, yes, each minute as a new beginning, as a unique opportunity to make everything new. Imagine that we could live each moment as a moment pregnant with new life. Imagine that we could live each day as a day full of promises." p.15
our imagination can lead us to the truth of our lives...The problem is that we allow our past, which becomes longer and longer each year, to say to us: 'You know it all; you have seen it all, be realistic; the future will be just another repeat of the past. Try to survive it as best as you can.' There are many cunning foxes jumping on our shoulders and whispering in our ears the great lie: 'There is nothing new under the sun...don't let yourself be fooled.' p.15
Rev 21:2-5
Without 'oughts' and 'ifs'
Here and now-the most important ; "Prayer is the discipline of the moment. When we pray, we enter into the presence of God whose name is God-with-us. To pray is to listen attentively to the One who addresses us here and now. When we dare to trust that we are never alone but that God is always with us, always cares for us, and always speaks to us, then we can gradually detach ourselves from the voices that make us guilty or anxious and thus allow ourselves to dwell in the present moment. This is a very hard challenge bc radical trust in God is not obvious." p.18
"Listening to the voice of love requires that we direct our minds and hearts toward that voice with all our attention. ...prayer." p.19
"One of the discoveries we make in prayer is that the closer we come to God, the closer we come to all our brothers and sisters in the human family. God is not a private God. The God who dwells in our inner sanctuary is also the God who dwells in the inner sanctuary of each human being." p.20
"We often wonder what we can do for others, especially for those in great need. It is not a sign of powerlessness when we say: 'We must pray for one another.' To pray for one another is, first of all, to acknowledge, in the presence of God, that we belong to each other as children of the same God. Without this acknowledgement of human solidarity, what we do for one another does not flow from who we truly are.' p.21
II. Joy
Joy & sorrow. "Joy is essential to spiritual life. ... Joy is the experience of knowing that you are unconditionally loved and that nothing--sickness, failure, emotional distress, oppression, war, or even death--can take that love away." p.25
Joy is not the same as happiness. We can be unhappy about many things, but joy can still be there bc it comes from the knowledge of God's love for us. ...sorrow and joy can exist together. ...when we think about some of our deepest life experiences, such as being present at the birth of a child or the death of a friend, great sorrow and great joy are often seen to be parts of the same experience. Often we discover the joy in the midst of the sorrow." p.25
"Joy doesnt simply happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day. It is a choice based on the knowledge that we belong to God and have found in God our refuge and our safety and that nothing, not even death, can take God away from us." p25
"It is important to become aware that at every moment of our life we have an opportunity to choose joy. Life has many sides to it. There are always sorrowful and joyful sides to the reality we live. And so we always have a choice to live the moment as a cause for resentment or as a cause for joy. It is in the choice that our true freedom lies, and that freedom is, in the final analysis, the freedom to love." p.26 at the end of the day decide to remember the day as a day to be grateful for. increase our heart's capacity to choose for joy. As our hearts become more joyful, we will become a source of joy for others.
Joy is contagious
"He is a realist, but his deep faith allows him to know that hope is more real than despair, faith more real than distrust, and love more real than fear." spiritualrealism p.27
Surprised by joy instead of sorrow (news)
Hope frees us from the need to predict the future and allows us to live in the present, p.32
III. Suffering
Jesus shows, both in his teachings and in his life, that true joy often is hidden in the midst of our sorrow, and that the dance of life finds its beginnings in grief. ...It is the way in which pain can be embraced, not out of a desire to suffer, but in the knowledge that something new will be born in the pain." p.37 Jn 16:21
Our desire for communion
Be faithful to our vocation
IV. Conversion
The Spirit of Love: "The Spirit of God is soft and gentle like a small voice or a light breeze. It is the Spirit of love. ...Maybe we still distrust the Spirit, afraid to be led to places where our freedom is taken away." p.51
Set your hearts on God's kingdom first...and all other thgs will be given you as well' summarise best the way we are called to live our lives. ...God's kingdom is, first of all, the active presence of God's Spirit within us, offering us the freedom we truly desire. p.52
How to set our hearts on the kingdom first when our hearts are preoccupied with so many things? Somehow a radical change of heart is required, a change that allows us to experience the reality of our existence from God's place." p52
Jesus answers from above to questions raised from below. e.g. Matt 20:22, Acts 1:7-8
the reverse mission
being freed from the burden of judgement-Only when we claim the love of God, the love that transcends all judgements, can we overcome all fear of judgement. p.61
V. Disciplined Living
Living for the one clear goal: What is our prize? Is it the divine life, the eternal life, the life with and in God?
Eternal life starts now, it is not the afterlife. It is living in communion with God p.68
Spiritual reading: books that have spiritual content or reading the news of today with a spiritual reading (not to master knowledge or info but to let God's Spirit master us." p71
VI. The Spiritual Life
Matt 11:28-30
God is eternal love
Fatalism vs. faith. Faith is the deep trust that God's love is stronger than all the anonymous powers of the world and can transform us from victims of darkness into servants of light. p.78
VII. Prayer
'Well, when you spend one hour a day adoring your Lord and never do anything which you know is wrong...you will be fine!'-Mother Teresa to Nouwen after he explained all his complicated problems p89
from worrying to prayer.
Contemplating Psalm 23
VIII. Compassion
be compassionate, as the Father is.
Being the beloved.
downward mobility Jn 12:25, Matt 18:3, Matt 20:25-28
"Compassion means to become close to the one who suffers. But we can come close to another person only when we are willing to become vulnerable ourselves." p.197
IX. Family
X. Relationships
XI. Who We Are
Dec 13, 2016-Jan 3, 2018
London: St Pauls, 2002.
Showing posts with label suffering. Show all posts
Showing posts with label suffering. Show all posts
Thursday, January 4, 2018
Monday, February 20, 2017
15. (Moving Through Your Problems Toward) Finding God - Larry Crabb
"Did the fact ever cross your mind that you are here in this world just to understand the Lord Jesus Christ, and for no other reason?" -George MacDonald p.15
-Feeling better (recovering from pain, finding comfort) has become more important to us than finding God. And worse, we assume that people who find God always feel better. p. 18
"We have learned to praise God the way we tip a specially attentive waiter. Good treatment we expect, but exceptional treatment deserves special recognition.... But this is backwards! We have rearranged things so that God is now worthy of honor because he has honored us. "Worthy is the Lamb," we cry, not in response to his amazing grace, but because he has recovered what we value most: the ability to like ourselves. We now matter more than God." p. 18
"With his blood Christ purchased a people for God and made us priests to serve him (Rev. 5:9-10). We exist for him, not the other way around." p. 19
Hebrews 11:6 "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him."
-Not merely living, but walking with God. (Enoch's life.)
-"Agreeing to join him requires that every other ambition in my heart become secondary to promoting Christ. Anything that contradicts this purpose must be abandoned." p. 33
-"Our agenda is to fix the world until it can properly take care of us. God's agenda is to bring all things together in Christ until every knee bows before him." p. 35
"The deepest pleasures of life don't satisfy--they point us forward." p. 56
"Future hope is more valuable than present relief." p.61
-"No one will conclude that God is good by studying life. The evidence powerfully suggests otherwise. Belief in the goodness of God and the worship that naturally flows from this confidence depends on the revealing work of the Holy Spirit. When he ushers us into the presence of ultimate goodness, when our darkest tragedy is pierced by one glimpse of invisible glory, then faith is born. And the faith given by God's Spirit makes self-concern laughably unnecessary. We know we're in good hands no matter what comes. And our manner of living reflects our knowledge. We relax and get on with the purpose of life on this earth--worshipping God and advancing his kingdom." pp. 104-105
"You know you're finding God when you believe that God is good no matter what happens." "Finding God is developing, through Christ, an unshakable confidence in God's absolute goodness and perfect love no matter what we may experience in this life." p.106
Finding God means to face all of life, both good and bad, with a spirit of trust. We have a higher calling than finding joy in good things and working through bad things: we must reflect confidence in God in all our relationships and activities, in all our joys and sorrows.
"But our search for him must be on his terms. ... We are rather the judged, the forgiven, and the invited." p.107
-Replace the fallen structure on which so much of my life is built with a godly foundation.
-"Imagine relating to God with complete contentment, joyfulness, and eagerness to give." the foundation of "I Believe God" rather than "I Doubt God": You no longer doubt, but believe in his goodness. You no longer feel terror, but feel calm at his words: "I'll never leave you. You can walk through the valley of the shadow of death with me. Be of good cheer. You'll have trouble in this world but I've overcome it. Your story has an ending too happy to describe. Trust me." You no longer feel rage, but want to worship. "God, you alone are worthy. I believe that those who love you will never be ashamed." pp. 107-8.
The last Word: Christ.
"To believe Christ (faith), to serve Christ (love), and to wait for Christ (hope): that is what it means to find God. But to the degree that you haven't found him, your passions are out of control. Trust is out. You want to explain and control;" p. 211
"Let your passion to heal become a passion to give hope. The wounds won't all go away now... but you can continue on, doing the work of faith and carrying out the labour of love...A better city awaits you." p.212
'It is time to find our way back to the living room and into the Father's arms, where we can listen to his Spirit tell the story of Christ." p.213
"I am making plans right now to take the step that God has placed before me. I've already taken it in my heart. Panic is giving way to the terror of trust. A quiet sense of adventure--almost a thrill--is replacing the despairing boredom. The world is too bad a place--and far too uncertain--to build a home and to count on enjoying it. But it's a perfect place to find God." p. 216
17-21 Feb, 2017
Singapore: Methodist Book Room PTE LTD, 1993 (Asia Edition)
P: A really good and honest book about the inner life of every Christian and how we can move through our problems toward Finding God, which is the most important thing.
-Feeling better (recovering from pain, finding comfort) has become more important to us than finding God. And worse, we assume that people who find God always feel better. p. 18
"We have learned to praise God the way we tip a specially attentive waiter. Good treatment we expect, but exceptional treatment deserves special recognition.... But this is backwards! We have rearranged things so that God is now worthy of honor because he has honored us. "Worthy is the Lamb," we cry, not in response to his amazing grace, but because he has recovered what we value most: the ability to like ourselves. We now matter more than God." p. 18
"With his blood Christ purchased a people for God and made us priests to serve him (Rev. 5:9-10). We exist for him, not the other way around." p. 19
Hebrews 11:6 "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him."
-Not merely living, but walking with God. (Enoch's life.)
-"Agreeing to join him requires that every other ambition in my heart become secondary to promoting Christ. Anything that contradicts this purpose must be abandoned." p. 33
-"Our agenda is to fix the world until it can properly take care of us. God's agenda is to bring all things together in Christ until every knee bows before him." p. 35
"The deepest pleasures of life don't satisfy--they point us forward." p. 56
"Future hope is more valuable than present relief." p.61
-"No one will conclude that God is good by studying life. The evidence powerfully suggests otherwise. Belief in the goodness of God and the worship that naturally flows from this confidence depends on the revealing work of the Holy Spirit. When he ushers us into the presence of ultimate goodness, when our darkest tragedy is pierced by one glimpse of invisible glory, then faith is born. And the faith given by God's Spirit makes self-concern laughably unnecessary. We know we're in good hands no matter what comes. And our manner of living reflects our knowledge. We relax and get on with the purpose of life on this earth--worshipping God and advancing his kingdom." pp. 104-105
"You know you're finding God when you believe that God is good no matter what happens." "Finding God is developing, through Christ, an unshakable confidence in God's absolute goodness and perfect love no matter what we may experience in this life." p.106
Finding God means to face all of life, both good and bad, with a spirit of trust. We have a higher calling than finding joy in good things and working through bad things: we must reflect confidence in God in all our relationships and activities, in all our joys and sorrows.
"But our search for him must be on his terms. ... We are rather the judged, the forgiven, and the invited." p.107
-Replace the fallen structure on which so much of my life is built with a godly foundation.
-"Imagine relating to God with complete contentment, joyfulness, and eagerness to give." the foundation of "I Believe God" rather than "I Doubt God": You no longer doubt, but believe in his goodness. You no longer feel terror, but feel calm at his words: "I'll never leave you. You can walk through the valley of the shadow of death with me. Be of good cheer. You'll have trouble in this world but I've overcome it. Your story has an ending too happy to describe. Trust me." You no longer feel rage, but want to worship. "God, you alone are worthy. I believe that those who love you will never be ashamed." pp. 107-8.
The last Word: Christ.
"To believe Christ (faith), to serve Christ (love), and to wait for Christ (hope): that is what it means to find God. But to the degree that you haven't found him, your passions are out of control. Trust is out. You want to explain and control;" p. 211
"Let your passion to heal become a passion to give hope. The wounds won't all go away now... but you can continue on, doing the work of faith and carrying out the labour of love...A better city awaits you." p.212
'It is time to find our way back to the living room and into the Father's arms, where we can listen to his Spirit tell the story of Christ." p.213
"I am making plans right now to take the step that God has placed before me. I've already taken it in my heart. Panic is giving way to the terror of trust. A quiet sense of adventure--almost a thrill--is replacing the despairing boredom. The world is too bad a place--and far too uncertain--to build a home and to count on enjoying it. But it's a perfect place to find God." p. 216
17-21 Feb, 2017
Singapore: Methodist Book Room PTE LTD, 1993 (Asia Edition)
P: A really good and honest book about the inner life of every Christian and how we can move through our problems toward Finding God, which is the most important thing.
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