Christy > Recent Status Updates

Trying the series again, started two years ago and only made it to book 4.

“A determination to resolve our emotional struggles inevitably subordinates God as a servant of our healing rather than a Person to be praised.”

“A friend knows that they bear a responsibility to speak the word of Christ that is stronger in their mouth. It is a holy obligation..”

“Anyone who knows relationships knows you cannot disrupt a mood with an argument, you must disrupt it with a presence.”

“When he thought of his history, what resonated with him now was not all that he had suffered but the divine love that he believed had intervened to save him.”

“… the way that honest words are the logical followup to vulnerability for those who are interested in becoming more like Jesus.”

“If love is giving all of yourself for the good of others, that doesn’t just mean your strength. It also means your weaknesses.”

“Goodness is the simplest thing in the world, and the most complex, like opening a door. “

Can’t rate it.
Very well written for what it is, but also exactly what you would expect of a Viking story and more: much much violence, pagan lore & sexuality. Not sure I’ll finish the series, pretty raunchy, which is a bummer, because the story is so well told.

“”She had lived in a context where fellow Christians tended to see people in terms of US and THEM. Now she saw this as “a make-believe world in which people were merely sinners, in need of redemption, I.e, what I had…”

“It is Christ’s faithfulness that enables ours. It is our job to cast off sins, to be faithful. It is Christ’s job renew us.”

“A church without hesed no longer shines the light of Jesus, no matter how much ministry it may be doing. It may have perfect doctrine, but as one commentator writes, ‘without love the congregation ceases to be a church.’”

… love, the primary mover of character, is absent. Without hesed, we little transformation.”

“Its easy to believe that if our Christian communities have solid biblical teaching and doctrine (truth) and we are encouraged to apple the teaching to our lives (good choices), the Holy Spirit will enable us to understand the truth and make good choices. We expect this will lead to transformation. The formula looks reasonable to modern eyes but it has a fatal flaw - it is missing the most important variable… >

“Attachment is the strongest force in the human brain.”

OKAY CHAPTER TWO

“We do not directly choose to be more joyful any more than we can choose to have lower blood pressure. The joy and blood pressure systems in the brain are not subject to direct choice. Joy levels are regulated indirectly through relationships.”

“Gratitude is the first step to building joy into our lives and helps us experience a more consistent attachment with God.”

“Ignoring right-brain relational development creates Christians whole believe in Gods love but have difficulty experiencing it in daily life, especially during distress.”

“One of the biggest mistakes we’ve made in the modern church is to reimagine spiritual maturity as the need to confess less.”

“Adoration is not always the overflow of our hearts. In fact, it rarely is. It is an act of rebellion against the empty promises of this world and defiance in the face of circumstances.”

“A good book is not problem-centered, it is people-centered. It reveals how to be a human being and what the possibilities of life are; it offers hope.”

“Sacrifice! Yes! Of course, we must be willing to have little, to live in frugal conditions, to have no ‘security’ financially and to depend utterly upon God to supply what would enable us to do His will. But SACRIFICE does not mean UGLINESS, nor does it mean CARELESSNESS.”

“We should be conscious of the fact that this environment which we produce by our very ‘being’ can affect the people who live or work with us. The effect on them is something they cannot avoid. We should have thoughtfulness concerning our responsibility in this area.”

“There is no need to lock up this capacity for expression because you have not been able to make a career of it. Develop it for YOUR OWN SAKE, for the ENRICHMENT of the lives of those you live with and as an unconscious spark to set fire to OTHER DRY WOOD, other creative creatures on a finite level [my kids].”

“But - and this needs emphasis - a Christian, above all people, should live ARTISTICALLY, AESTHETICALLY and CREATIVELY.”