Instead of defining success by the results we achieve, we should define it by the actions we take.
“The world is perishing for lack of the knowledge of God and the Church is famishing for want of His Presence.”
― The Pursuit of God: The Human Thirst for the Divine
― The Pursuit of God: The Human Thirst for the Divine
“It’s true: if we live behind a mask we can impress but we can’t connect.”
― Scary Close: Dropping the Act and Acquiring a Taste for True Intimacy
― Scary Close: Dropping the Act and Acquiring a Taste for True Intimacy
“this fellowship with the Lord, is not wholly in the future. As we have seen, we are invited even now to “taste and see that the Lord is good” (Ps 34:8). We can “see” and “taste” his love, at least in part, now (2 Cor 3:18). The great eighteenth-century hymn writer William Cowper suffered from bouts of depression, but he was able to write: Sometimes a light surprises the Christian as he sings; it is the Lord who rises, with healing in his wings: When comforts are declining, He grants the soul again A season of clear shining, to cheer it after rain. In holy contemplation we sweetly then pursue The theme of God’s salvation, and find it ever new. Set free from present sorrow, we cheerfully can say, Let the unknown tomorrow bring with it what it may. It may be fitful and episodic, but fellowship with God is available now.”
― Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God
― Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God
“At its simplest, the parable is a metaphor or simile drawn from nature or common life, arresting the hearer by its vividness or strangeness, and leaving the mind in sufficient doubt to its precise application to tease the mind into active thought.”
― The Parables of the Kingdom
― The Parables of the Kingdom
“Bob Kauflin Kauflin argues that Christians tend to fall into one of three categories when it comes to the relationship between music and words: (1) music supersedes the word; (2) music undermines the word; (3) music serves the word. Arguing for this third paradigm, Kauflin suggests three implications: (1) Singing can help us remember words, which means that we should use melodies that are effective, sing words that God wants us to remember, and seek to memorize songs. (2) Singing can help us engage emotionally with words, which means that we need a broader emotional range in the songs we sing, and that singing them should be an emotional event. (3) Singing can help us use words to demonstrate and express our unity, which means singing songs that unite us instead of divide us, recognizing that musical creativity in the church has functional limits and that it is ultimately the gospel, not music, that unites us in Christ.”
― The Power of Words and the Wonder of God
― The Power of Words and the Wonder of God
Joe’s 2025 Year in Books
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