Gems from Recent Reading

“It is then, as we face death itself, that all this world’s gifts are but deceit, if there be none of another order, of the order of life itself, a gift to which our human strength cannot attain by itself, despite all its efforts, joys, and triumphs. The great gift, the only one which can be unchanging in value, is the assurance of life beyond the grave, of peace beyond our remorse. It is the assurance of reconciliation with ourselves, with our fellows, and with God, beyond all the conflicts which have accompanied and tarnished the joys of our existence. The great gift, the unique and living one, is not a thing but a person. It is Jesus Christ himself. In him God has given himself, no longer just things which he creates or has created, but his own person, his own suffering, and his own solitude, given unto death itself…

Thus it is that God offers it freely. He is the One who has paid its price, in the death of his Son. The erasure of all our failings and all our remorse, of all our regrets and our rebellion, what a gift it is! The redemption of all our joys about to be swallowed up in death, and their fulfillment in the eternal joy it’s self –what a gift indeed!” (Paul Tournier, The Meaning of Gifts, pages 56-57, 1961)

“Woe betide those who no longer feel thrilled at anything, who have stopped looking for adventure!” (Paul Tournier, The Adventure of Living, page 13, 1965)

“Nothing is more poisonous than the sense of entitlement that permeates our culture and sometimes, sadly, our churches. We’re disappointed with family, friends, neighbors, the church, the airlines, the waiter -- nearly everyone. And in the process, it becomes clear that it’s God we’re really disappointed with -- after all if he’s sovereign, he’s the one subjecting us to all these irritations. How dare he not give us everything we want, when we want it?  

If only we could see our situation clearly. We deserve expulsion; he gives us a diploma. We deserve the electric chair; he gives us a parade. Anything less than overwhelming gratitude should be unthinkable. He owes us nothing. We owe him everything.

'Who has ever given to God, that God should repay them?' (Romans 11:35, NIV) The answer is nobody.

Christians in dire situations, undergoing persecution, are often deeply grateful for God’s daily blessings. How dare we whine and pout when our latte isn’t hot enough? 

God, Open our eyes to the wonders of your grace! (Randy Alcorn, Happiness, page 369, 2015)

“Each person who heard Jesus’s invitation on the great day of the Feast was faced with the decision -- would he believe or not? And every person who hears the invitation of Jesus Christ in the second half of the 20th Century is faced with the same decision. Whether you hear it through the preached Word of God or through reading the Scripture,  this invitation gives you only two choices: to accept or reject him, to believe on Him or cry with the crowd, ‘Not Christ, but Barabbas. Crucify Him!’ There is no neutrality, no alternative, no third choice. They could not say, ‘He is a nice man.’ On the basis of Jesus’s claim, either the Jews had to believe on Him or they had to cry out against Him.” (Francis Schaeffer, No Little People, page 156, 1974)

“If the Party could thrust its hand into the past and say of this or that event, ’it never happened’ – that, surely, was more terrifying than mere torture and death…And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed -- if all records told the same tale -- then the lie passed into history and became truth. ‘Who controls the past,’ ran the Party slogan, ‘controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.’… 

This process of continuous alteration was applied not only to newspapers, but to books, periodicals, pamphlets, posters, leaflets, films, sound tracks, cartoons, photographs -- to every kind of literature or documentation which might conceivably hold any political or ideological significance. Day by and almost minute by minute the past was brought up to date. In this way every prediction made by the Party could be shown by documentary evidence to have been correct; nor was any item of news, or any expression of opinion, which conflicted with the needs of the moment, ever allowed to remain on record. All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and reinscribed exactly as often as was necessary.” (George Orwell, 1984, pages 32 and 36, 1949)