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In a nutshell, congregations located in multicultural contexts need to consider having more than one language spoken (and heard) in their worship services. Doing so honors God who shows no favoritism (Acts 10:34) and is no respecter of
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“God has no needs. Human love, as Plato teaches us, is the child of Poverty – of want or lack; it is caused by a real or supposed goal in its beloved which the lover needs and desires. But God's love, far from being caused by goodness in the object, causes all the goodness which the object has, loving it first into existence, and then into real, though derivative, lovability. God is Goodness. He can give good, but cannot need or get it. In that sense , His love is, as it were, bottomlessly selfless by very definition; it has everything to give, and nothing to receive.”
― The Problem of Pain
― The Problem of Pain
“We can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world....No doubt pain as God's megaphone is a terrible instrument; it may lead to final and unrepented rebellion. But it gives the only opportunity the bad man can have for amendment. it removes the veil; it plants the flag of truth within the fortress of the rebel soul.”
― The Problem of Pain
― The Problem of Pain
“One of the marvelous things about community is that it enables us to welcome and help people in a way we couldn't as individuals. When we pool our strength and share the work and responsibility, we can welcome many people, even those in deep distress, and perhaps help them find self-confidence and inner healing.”
― Community and Growth
― Community and Growth
“I am struck by how sharing our weakness and difficulties is more nourishing to others than sharing our qualities and successes.”
― Community and Growth
― Community and Growth
“A community is only being created when its members accept that they are not going to achieve great things, that they are not going to be heroes, but simply live each day with new hope, like children, in wonderment as the sun rises and in thanksgiving as it sets. Community is only being created when they have recognized that the greatness of man is to accept his insignificance, his human condition and his earth, and to thank God for having put in a finite body the seeds of eternity which are visible in small and daily gestures of love and forgiveness. The beauty of man is in this fidelity to the wonder of each day.”
― Community and Growth
― Community and Growth
Constant Reader
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A forum for friendly discussion of classics, literary fiction, nonfiction, poetry and short stories. We also love movies and art. Don't ask to join th ...more
Despond’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Despond’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
692 books
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168 friends
4,107 books
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3,329 friends
112 books
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75 friends
436 books
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90 friends
635 books
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423 friends
3 books
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79 friends
35 books
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39 friends
20 books
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1,945 friends
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