.::discover::understand::be::.

ripped from the pages

below are a few excerpts from a book i've been reading lately. i've read and re-read them several times in the last month and they resonate with my soul in a tremendous way... so i thought i'd share them. (the emphasis added is mine.)

"everyone more or less believes in God. but most of us do our best to keep God in the margins of our lives or, failing that, refashion God to suit our convience. (we must) insist that God is the sovereign center, not off in the wings awaiting our beck and call."

"for the ways of the world- it's assumtions, its values, its methods of going about its work- are never on the side of God."

"the God of whom the bible speaks of is far too large to fit into our lives. if we want anything to do with God, we have to fit into Him."

"we humans have an enourmous capacity for denial and self-deceit. we incapacitate ourselves from dealing with the consequences of sin, for facing judgement, for embracing truth."

"one of the bad habits we pick up on early in our lives is seperating things and people into secular and sacred. we assume that the secular is what we are more or less in charge of: our jobs, our time, our entertainment, our government, our social relations. the sacred is what God has charge of: worship and the Bible, heaven and hell, church and prayers. we then contrive to set aside a sacred place for God, designed, we say, to honor God but really indeed to keep God in His place. leaving us free to have the final say about everything else that goes on.

we must have none of this! we must contend that everything, absolutely everything, takes place on sacred ground. God has something to say about every aspect of our lives: the way we feel and act in the so-called privacy of our heart and homes, the way we make our money and the way we spend it, the politics we embrace, the wars we fight, the catastrophes we endure, the people we hurt and the people we help. nothing is hidden from the scrutiny of God, nothing is excempt from the rule of God, nothing escapes the purposes of God. holy, holy, holy.""


that last one hits me especially hard. you?

posted by nathan sean @ Wednesday, August 17, 2005