the beat

Feb
19th

Sun

Gal. 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Taken literally, I can’t think of a self-consciousness more selfless.

Oct
23rd

Sun

I’ll define you a Christian people by the opposite. The opposite of a Christian people is a people grown sad and old. You’ll be saying that isn’t a very theological definition. I agree.

— Cure de Torcy (in Bernanos’ Diary of a Country Priest)

(Source: joehaack)

Jul
28th

Thu

The great visionary encounters [of the Bible] did not take place in temples, but in sheep pasture, in the desert, in the wilderness, on mountains, on the shores of rivers and sea…. I don’t think it’s enough appreciated how much an outdoor book the Bible is…. It is best read and understood outdoors, and the further outdoors the better…. Passages that within walls sem improbable or incredible, outdoors seem merely natural. This is because outdoors we are confronted everywhere with wonders; we see that miraculous is not extraordinary but the common mode of existence. It is out daily bread.

— Wendell Berry

Jul
22nd

Fri

To Isaiah the voice said, “Go” and for each of us there are many voices that say it, but the question is which one will we obey with our lives, which of the voices that call is to be the one that we answer. No one can say, of course, except each for himself, but I believe that it is possible to say at least this in general to all of us: we should go with our lives where we most need to go and where we are most needed.
Where we most need to go. Maybe that means that the voice we should listen to most as we choose a vocation is the voice that we might think we should listen to least, and that is the voice of our own gladness. What can we do that makes us gladdest, what can we do that leaves us with the strongest sense of sailing true north and of peace, which is most of what gladness is? Is it making things with our hands out of wood or stone or paint or canvass? Or is something we hope like truth out of words? Or is it making people laugh or weep in a way that cleanses their spirit? I believe it is a good thing and it is our thing and it is the calling voice that we were made to answer with our lives…..To be Christs with whatever gladness we have and in whatever place, among whatever brothers we are called to. That is the vocation, the destiny to which we were all of us called even before the foundations of the world.

—

The Hungering Dark

Fredrick Buechner

p. 31-2

Jul
14th

Thu

The saint never believes circumstances to be haphazard, or thinks of his life as secular and sacred; he sees everything he is dumped down in as the means of securing the knowledge of Jesus Christ. There is a reckless abandonment about him. The Holy Spirit is determined that we shall realize Jesus Christ in every domain of life, and He will bring us back to the same point again and again until we do.

— Oswald Chamber

Jun
21st

Tue

In the biblical story, prayer doesn’t resolve the tension of living in a fallen world; it intensifies the ache. Prayer makes us groan louder, not softer. Groaning gets us in touch with the pain AND the hope, the ache and the glory, the deep sadness and the nearly unbearable joy of life in a Christ-redeemed world. Groaning is a sure sign that we’re facing reality, with all its beautiful-ragged edges. It shows that we’re connected to the whole creation. Christians should be the best and loudest groaners in the world. We are the leaders of the great cosmic groan chorus.

— The Folly of Prayer

May
19th

Thu

NOT TO SEEK YOUR OWN, IN A SELFISH SENSE, IS THE BEST WAY OF SEEKING YOUR OWN IN A BETTER SENSE

If you are selfish, and make yourself and your own private interests your idol, God will leave you to yourself, and let you promote your own interests as well as you can.

But if you do not selfishly seek your own, but do seek the things that are Jesus Christ’s, and the things of your fellow human beings, then God will make your interest and happiness his own charge, and he is infinitely more able to provide for and promote it than you are. The resources of the universe move at his bidding, and he can easily command them all to subserve your welfare.

So that, not to seek your own, in the selfish sense, is the best way of seeking your own in a better sense. It is the directest course you can take to secure your highest happiness.

— Jonathan Edwards (in Charity And Its Fruits)

(Source: whatsbestnext.com)

Apr
3rd

Sun

sincerity is about honesty, not about emotion matching perfectly what we believe to be true. Over time, the degree of the match will improve as we dig and struggle and live out of the truth. That is what we are striving for, and that striving is sincere.
~Dr. Matthew Elliott

— http://oasisinternational.typepad.com/blogwithmatthew/

Jan
29th

Sat

When the world my heart is rending
With its heaviest storm of care,
My glad thoughts to heaven ascending,
Find refuge from despair.

Oct
8th

Fri

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

I haven’t the faintest idea who this is.