"But I'm right!"

You're right not because others agree with you, but because your facts are right. - Warren Buffett

Abandoned by God

Meanwhile, where is God? This is one of the most disquieting symptoms. When you are happy, so happy that you have no sense of needing Him, if you turn to Him then with praise, you will be welcomed with open arms. But go to Him when your need is desperate, when all other help is vain and what do you find? A door slammed in your face, and a sound of bolting an double bolting from the inside. After that, silence. You may as well turn away.

CS Lewis
A Grief Observed

The next chapter

You can't start the next chapter of your life if you keep re-reading the last one.

Your talent

Your unused talents give you no advantage over one who has no talents at all.

Living in Forgiveness

The penance of perpetual regret can be a cruel stumbling block. Despite acknowledging God’s forgiveness, you can’t forgive yourself. You must let go of attempts to “make up” for your failures and instead rest in complete forgiveness.  “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).  Let that renewal flow through you to others so that you become a channel of forgiveness, freeing others from the bonds you suffered from yourself.

“The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?’ They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, ‘If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.’ Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. At this, those who heard began to go away. One at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" ‘No one, sir,’ she said. Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin.’ (John 8:3-11)

There was one man who had a right to throw a stone at her that day. Instead, he forgave and told the women to live in the knowledge of that forgiveness. Likewise, he forgives us and tells us to live in that forgiveness and not in condemnation.

The prison door is open. Will you walk out?

Stephen Goforth

Travelling within

Your circumstances.. shall not long remain if you but perceive an ideal and strive to reach it. You cannot travel within and stand still without. - James Lane Allen

Your anger

You will not be punished for your anger, you will be punished by your anger.
-Buddha

Murder your future

You must choose a future—and then, one by one, murder all the futures you passed over. – Andrew Boyd

"I don't feel like it"

You can’t get too much done in life if you only work on the days when you feel good. -Jerry West

There's a knock at the door

You probably won’t hear opportunity knock if you the television set is always on.

God in your own image

You may safely assume that you have created God in your own image, when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.  -Anne Lamott

Fighting again

You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it. - Margaret Thatcher

Plowing your field

You can't plow a field by turning it over in your mind.

Holding a man down

You can’t hold a man down without staying down with him.
Booker T Washington

My Confession: I deny the Resurrection

Without equivocation or hesitation I fully and completely admit that I deny the resurrection of Christ. This is something that anyone who knows me could tell you, and I am not afraid to say it publicly, no matter what some people may think… I deny the resurrection of Christ every time I do not serve at the feet of the oppressed, each day that I turn my back on the poor; I deny the resurrection of Christ when I close my ears to the cries of the downtrodden and lend my support to an unjust and corrupt system.

However there are moments when I affirm that resurrection, few and far between as they are. I affirm it when I stand up for those who are forced to live on their knees, when I speak for those who have had their tongues torn out, when I cry for those who have no more tears left to shed.

Peter Rollins

The Drama of His Last Days

It is clear that all through the trail Jesus never thought of himself as a victim. "I lay down my life, that I may take it again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord (John 10:17). In this situation Jesus still saw the guiding hand of God. When Pilate sought to remind him that his life was in his hands, Jesus reminded Pilate that he could have possessed no power at all, unless it had been given to him (John 19:10). Even amidst that heartbreaking injustice it was still the conviction of Jesus that he was not the victim of men but the chosen instrument and servant of God. The happenings of the last days and hours were to Jesus, not fragments in a set of circumstances which were out of control, but events in a drama, whose course and whose culmination were in the hands of God.

William Barclay
Jesus and the Cross

This is how

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.
1 John 3:16

The Forgiveness of Jesus

On the cross we see the invincible forgiveness of Jesus. Even as they drove the nails through him, he prayed, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. (Luke 23:34). It is as if Jesus said, “No matter what you do to me, I will still forgive.” If in Jesus we see the mind of God fully displayed, it means that there are no limits to the love, the grace, the forgiveness of God. We see Jesus on the cross embodying the message of divine forgiveness which he brought to men.

William Barclay
Jesus and the Cross

Jesus on the Campaign Trail

We have the image of Christ as a glorified presidential candidate roaming the ancient world. In our grand vision, he swoops through crowds, the center of attention, making speeches and inspiring thousands. Yet what we read about Jesus in the Gospels is very different. He choose to spent much of his time by himself and alone with his disciples.

Many people might have criticized him for not spending more time with large crowds where he could “really make a difference." And today, men and women work hard to draw attention to themselves and their political campaign, promoting themselves to friends and potential admirers as if life were an exercise in branding.

Jesus, on the other hand, shunned the crowds. He knew his mission and was not going to allow himself to get sidetracked. Even if it made for some “bad press."

If Jesus needed time alone and time with his closest companions, how much more do we need to pull away from the day-to-day chaos to recharge and refresh and refocus?

Stephen Goforth

The making of a fool

Nature seldom creates a fool – she merely supplies the raw material for a do-it-yourself job.