THE PARADOXES OF GOD & LIFE

'...it is often in the mysteries of life that we learn most about the mysteries of God. It is the very paradoxes of Scripture that help us come to God most effectively when life itself is a paradox.' 

Krish Kandiah, Paradoxology: Why Christianity Was Never Meant To Be Simple, p.2. 

MINISTRY

'In a culture of individuality that's obsessed with heroes, it's easy to forget that God works through the Body of Christ: the collection of collaborators who each offer their unique gifts, talents and distinctions to the effort that results in the glory of God and the expansion of His Kingdom. Ministry - by God's design - is a team sport.' 

Bob Shank in John Rinehart, Gospel Patrons: People Whose Generosity Changed The World, p.14. 

BIBLE READING

'To open the Bible is to open a window toward Jerusalem, as Daniel did (6.1)) no matter where our exile might have taken us.' 

Tom Wright, Virtue Reborn, p.224. 

HOLINESS & JUSTICE

'The church has been divided between those who cultivate their personal holiness but do nothing about working for justice in the world and those who are passionate for justice but regard personal holiness as an unnecessary distraction from that task. This division has been solidified by the church's unfortunate habit of adopting from our surrounding culture the unhelpful packages of "left-wing" and "right-wing" prejudices, the former speaking of "justice" and meaning "libertarianism" and the latter speaking of "holiness" and meaning "dualism." All this must be firmly pushed to one side. What we need is integration.' 

Tom Wright, Virtue Reborn, p.214. 

THE CHURCH

'The challenge to live as a single body is the challenge to live as the New Human. When the Spirit of Jesus the Messiah comes to dwell in Christians, individually and corporately, this happens so that they can be - all together - the place where his genuinely human life actually and physically continues within the life of the present world.' 

Tom Wright, Virtue Reborn, p.184. 

DISCIPLESHIP

'There is an old saying: Give someone a fish and you feed them for a day; teach someone to fish and you feed them for life. Paul's normal practice, in teaching his converts, is the latter. His version of the saying seems to be: Give people a command for a particular situation, and you help them to live appropriately for a day; teach them to think Christianly about behavior, and they will be able to navigate by themselves into areas where you haven't give any specific instructions.' 

Tom Wright, Virtue Reborn, p.171. 

LOVE

'The English word "love" is trying to do so many different jobs at the same time that someone really ought to sit down with it and teach it how to delegate.' 

Tom Wright, Virtue Reborn, p.p.157. 

ETHICS TODAY

'One of the ironies in the story of Western theology during my lifetime has been the way in which the"liberal" tradition, which used to pride itself above all on clear, rational thinking, has quietly been taken over by emotivism, not least in the area of ethics. Meanwhile, the "conservative" tradition, which used to pride itself on carefully articulated ethical as well as doctrinal stances, has often been so worried about the danger of "work-righteousness" that it has turned a blind eye to the nature of moral understanding and effort upon which Paul is doing his best to insist, and has effectively ruled out virtue before it begins, lest people should suppose themselves to be contributing to their own salvation. No wonder that, when we try to debate key issues, we find ourselves in a dialogue of the deaf.' 

Tom Wright, Virtue Reborn, p.138.  

GOD'S GOODNESS

'We will never have the easy, unhesitating love of God that makes obedience to Jesus our natural response unless we are absolutely sure that its is good for us to be, and to be who we are. This means we must have no doubt that the path appointed for us by when and where and to whom we were born is good, and that nothing irredeemable has happened to us or can happen to us on our way to our destiny in God's full world.' 

Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, p.370. 

DISCIPLESHIP

'When do you suppose was the last time any group of believers or church of any kind or level had a meeting of its officials in which the topic for discussions and action was how they were going to teach their people actually to do the specific things Jesus said?' 

Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, p.345.