GOSPEL MOTIVATION

'Tell someone to do something, and you change their life - for a day; tell someone a story and you change their life.'

Tom Wright in Michael R Emlet, CrossTalk: Where Life & Scripture Meet, in p.62.

BEAUTY

'Could it be that there are
only
two kinds of beauty?
In this world there is
Source beauty
and
Reflected beauty.
Source beauty is
true beauty
pure beauty
timeless beauty
independent beauty
definitional beauty
divine beauty.
Reflected beauty is
shadow beauty
tainted beauty
dependent beauty
ill-defined beauty
creation beauty.'
Paul David Tripp, A shelter in the time of storm, p.99.

JUSTICE

'Dame Matthews used to live at the Home Farm at Langley Burrell. She was a member of the family, but she must have lived a long time ago, as Mrs Banks remarked, because she called cows "Kine". The Dame used to sit in the chimney corner and near her chair was a little window through which she could see all down the dairy. One evening she saw one of the farm men steal a pound of butter out of the dairy and put it into his hat, at the same moment clapping his hat upon his head.

"John," called the Dame. "John, come here. I want to speak to you." John came, carefully keeping his hat on his head. The Dame ordered some ale to be heated for him and bade him sit down in front of the roaring fire. John thanked his mistress and said he would have the ale another time, as he wanted to go home at once.

"No, John. Sit down by the fire and drink some hot ale. 'Tis a cold night and I want to speak to you about the kine."

The miserable John, daring neither to take his hat off nor go without his mistress's leave, sat before the scorching fire drinking his hot ale till the butter in his hat began to drip all over his face. "Now, John," she said "you may go. I won't charge you anything for the butter."'

Francis Kilvert in Alan Taylor (Ed.), The Country Diaries: A Year in the British Countryside, p.307.

ADVENT

'The celebration of Advent is possible only to those who are troubled in soul, who know themselves to be poor and imperfect, and who look forward to something greater to come.'

Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Edwin Robertson (Ed.), Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Christmas Sermons, p.21.

MATERIALISM

'Paul challenged the gods of the city of Ephesus (Acts 19:26), which led to such an alteration in the spending patterns of new converts that it changed the local economy. That in turn touched off a riot led by local merchants. Contemporary observers have often noted that modern Christians are just as materialistic as everyone else in our culture. Could this be because our preaching does not, like Saint Paul's, include the exposure of our culture's counterfeit gods?'

Timothy Keller, Counterfeit Gods, p.167.

READING NEWSPAPERS

'Here are a few suggestions...

Know what you're buying. Reporting is now so contaminated by bias and campaigning, and general mischief, that no reader can hope to get a picture of what is happening without first knowing who owns a paper and who it is being published for...

Follow the names. If you find a reporter who seems to know the score, particularly in an area you know about, cherish him or her...

Register bias. Even when you read the same paper every day, be aware that reporters are now less embarrassed to let the bias show...

Read the second paragraph, and look for quote marks. Surprisingly often, the key fact is not in the first paragraph, which is general and designed to grab attention...

If the headline asks a question, try answering 'no'. Is this the true face of Britain's Young? (Sensible reader: No.) Have We Found the Cure for AIDS? (No, or you wouldn't have put a question mark in.)...

And watch out for quotation marks in the headlines, too. If you read 'Marr "Stole" Book Idea' then the story says nothing of the kind...

Read small stories and attend to page two. Just because something is reported in a single paragraph does not mean it is insignificant...

Suspect 'research'. Hundreds of dodgy academic departments put out bogus or trivial pieces of research purely designed to impress busy newspaper people and win themselves some cheap publicity...

Check the calendar... Not simply for April Fool's, but for the predictable round of hardy annuals that bulk up thin news lists...

Suspect financial superlatives... Even if the underlying rate of inflation is modest, then in the ordinary way of things, prices for many limited goods - Pre-Raphaelite painitings, or seaside huts, or football shirts, are going to be "the highest ever"...

Remember the news is cruel. Reading the awful things that people apparentely say about each other, or newspapers say about them, can be depressing...

Finally, believe nothing you read about newspaper sales - nothing. Newspaper sales have been falling in Britain for a long time...'

Andrew Marr, My Trade, p.252-255.

PRAYER

'I woke up in the middle of the night recently with this rather odd question in my mind: How could you love someone without prayer? I mean, what would it look like if you loved someone but couldn't pray for that person? It was a puzzle to me. I couldn't figure out what it would look like. Love without being able to pray feels depressing and frustrating, like trying to tie a knot with gloves on. I would be powerless to do the other person any real good. People are far too complicated; the world is far too evil; and my heart is far too off center to be able to love adequately without praying. I need Jesus.'

Paul E Miller, A Praying Life, p.260.

PRAYER

'Prayer is where I do my best work as a husband, dad, worker, and friend. I'm aware of the weeds of unbelief in me and the struggles in other's lives. The Holy Spirit puts his finger on issues that only he can solve.

I'm actually managing my life through my daily prayer time. I'm shaping my heart, my work, my family - in fact everything that is dear to me - through prayer in fellowship with my heavenly Father. I'm doing that because I don't have control over my heart and life or the hearts and lives of those around me. But God does.'

Paul E Miller, A Praying Life, p.257.

GOD'S WORD

'If we focus entirely on God's written Word when looking for God's activity in our lives but don't watch and pray, we'll miss the unfolding story of his work. We'll miss the patterns of the divine artist etching the character of his Son on our hearts. Our lives will lack the sparkle and immediacy of God's presence.'

Paul E Miller, A Praying Life, p.242.

PRAYER & SUFFERING

'When I begin praying Christ into someone's life, God often permits suffering in that person's life. If Satan's basic game plan is pride, seeking to draw us into his like of arrogance, then God's basic game plan is humility, drawing us into the life of his Son. The Father can't think of anything better to give us than his Son. Suffering invites us to join his Son's life, death and resurrection. Once you see that, suffering is no longer strange.'

Paul E Miller, A Praying Life, p.236.