COMMUNICATION

'I love that you can ask people what they meant right after they've said the most obvious things and almost invariably they'll think they are the ones who've failed to be clear and go to elaborate lengths to make themselves understood.' 

Greg Jackson, 'Wagner in the Desert' in Prodigals, p.22. 

DIVINE HUMOUR

'"Father Peregrine, won't you ever be serious?"

"Not until the good Lord is. Oh don't look so terribly shocked, please. The Lord is not serious. In fact, it is a little hard to know what else He is except loving. And love has a lot to do with humour, doesn't it? For you cannot love someone unless you put up with him, can  you? And you cannot put up with someone constantly unless you can laugh at him. Isn't that true? And certainly we are ridiculous little animals wallowing in the fudge-bowl, and God must love us all the more because we appeal to his humour." 

"I never thought of God as humorous," said Father Stone. 

"The Creator of the platypus, the camel, the ostrich, and man? Oh, come now!" Father Peregrine laughed.' 

Ray Bradbury, The Martian Chronicles, p.153. 

SPEAKING THE TRUTH IN HATE

'Enemies, he knew, often tell the truth. And these days, enemies. honest enemies, are few and far between. Nobody says anything unpleasant. Enemies will often tell you unsuspected truths about yourself, just as a photograph or a double mirror will show you your snoutish nose.' 

Walker Percy, The Second Coming, p.170. 

SONG OF SONGS

'The historical books I may compare to the outer courts of the Temple; the Gospels, the Epistles, and the Psalms, bring us into the holy place or the Court of the priests; but the Song of Solomon is the the most holy place: the holy of holies, before which the veil still hangs to many an untaught believer...The Song is a golden casket, of which love is the key rather than learning.' 

Charles Spurgeon in Charlie Cleverly, Song of Songs: Exploring the Divine Romance, p.15.

SPIRITUAL PARENTING

'In Acts, the Genesis 1:28 language of "be fruitful and multiply" marks the growth of the Church:

And the word of God continued to be fruitful and the number of disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem. (Acts 6:7; our translation). 

But the word of God bore fruit and multiplied (Acts 12:24; our translation)

So the word of the Lord continued to bear fruit and prevail mightily. (Acts 19:20; our literal translation 

....Genesis 1:28 likely does not have in mind only physical children, but children who were also to be spiritual image bearers of God.'
GK Beale and Mitchell Kim, God Dwells Among Us: Expanding Eden to the Ends of the Earth, p.36. 

UNITING CONSERVATIVES & LIBERALS AROUND GOD'S ORDER OF THINGS

'At present "conservative" Christians are often vociferous on issues like abortion and homosexuality while embodying a Western consumer lifestyle and laughing off global warming. Liberal Christians tend to take environmental issues more seriously but are more cautious on "sin" and tend to be pro-choice and in favor of blessing same-sex unions. A recovery of the biblical notion of creation order and its allied motif of the antithesis that runs through the whole of creation would go a long way toward challenging this polarity. God's order applies as much to marriage and sexuality as it does to how we care for the earth. So, just as it is important that Christians hold onto God's order for marriage and sexuality and thus refuse to affirms same-sex relationships as normative, and just as they uphold the sanctity of human life and refuse to condone most practice of abortion, so too Christians must be clear that environmental destruction and Western-style consumerism is downright sin.' 

Craig G Bartholomew, Where Mortals Dwell, p.312. 

IDENTITY, PEOPLE & PLACE

'We necessarily live much of our lives in exile, so to be able to spot the people and places that re-establish our true identity is so important.' 

Eugene Peterson, in Craig G Bartholomew, Where Mortals Dwell, p.304. 

GOD'S LOVE

''Nothing! Nothing can separate us from Christ's love! Why? Because God loves us simply because of his choice, not because of anything in us (which may change), nor anything around us (which may change). He loves us because he loves us.' 

Timothy Keller, Romans for You, p.54. 

CHURCH BUILDINGS

'...it is to be expected that as a worshiping community takes root in a place, it will need a building of its own set apart for worship and institutional church activities. Worship of God clearly does not demand a place set apart for the gathered church, but then neither is a house essential to a family or an auditorium to an orchestra. However normal cultural development as we experience it would require that a church would sooner or later require a building of its own.' 

Craig G Bartholomew, Where Mortals Dwell, p.293. 

HOMES NOT HOUSES

'An essential ingredient in the redemption of our towns, cities and countryside is a proliferation of houses that are in fact homes.' 

Craig G Bartholomew, Where Mortals Dwell, p.284. 

INCARNATION, RESURRECTION & CREATION

'The incarnation and resurrection are the ultimate affirmation of creation.'

Craig G Bartholomew, Where Mortals Dwell, p.245. 

THEOLOGY OF PLACE

'The doctrine of creation is fundamental to a theology of place. Indeed the failure of Christians to attend to place is largely owing to the eclipse of the doctrine of creation.'

Craig G Bartholomew, Where Mortals Dwell, p.244.  

WHAT THE INCARNATION SAYS ABOUT CREATION

'...like as when a great king has entered into such large city and taken up his abode in one of the houses there, such city is at all events held worth of high honour, nor does any enemy or bandit any longer descend upon it and subject it; but, on the contrary, it is though entitled to all care, because of the king's having taken up his residence in a single home there: so, too, has it been with the Monarch of all.' 

Athanasius in Craig G Bartholomew, Where Mortals Dwell, p.241. 

THE WONDER OF CREATION

'If you really examine a kernel of grain thoroughly, you would die of wonder.' 

Martin Luther in Craig G Bartholomew, Where Mortals Dwell, p.236. 

EARLY ENVIRONMENTALISM

'The custody of the garden was given in charge to Adam, to show that we possess the things which God has committed to our hands, that being content with a frugal and moderate use of them, we should take care of what shall remain. Let him who possesses a filed, so partake of its yearly fruits, that he may not suffer the ground to be injured by his negligence; but let him endeavour to hand it down to posterity as he received it, or even better cultivated. Let him so feed on its fruits, that he neither dissipates it by luxury, nor permits it to be marred or ruined by neglect. Moreover, that this economy, and this diligence, with respect to those good things which God has given us to enjoy, may flourish among us; let every one regard himself as the steward of God in all things which he possesses. Then he will neither conduct himself dissolutely, nor corrupt by abuse those things which God requires to be preserved.' 

John Calvin in Craig G Bartholomew, Where Mortals Dwell, p.215. 

WHY BODIES MATTER

'It is my body that separates me in space from other men and that presents me as a man to other men.' 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Craig G Bartholomew, Where Mortals Dwell, p.213. 

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF CHURCH HISTORY

'Church history is the hidden center of world history.' 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Craig G Bartholomew, Where Mortals Dwell, p.211. 

WHY BODIES MATTER

'For if the flesh were not in a position to be saved, the Word of God would in no wise have become flesh.' 

Irenaeus in Craig G Bartholomew, Where Mortals Dwell, p.195.