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Saturday, March 25, 2006

Booth, C. (1881) Papers on Godliness 

Concept of 'Spurious Charity'

True charity looks at th eend - th espresd of righteousness in the earth - the reign of the king.. pp58

But you see it is self-evident that until the Church -I mean the people of God-have explored all the ideas which are in the Divine mind for the propagation of His Kingdom in the earth, SOMEBODY must be ALWAYS RECEIVING NEW LIGHT and making new departures, and there has never been a single instance in the history of the Church in which this has been done, but nearly the whole of that generation has raised a hue and cry against it! How would it be possible for God to bring about a revolution, - a true revival, - a grand aggressive movement of Christianity, without giving new light and calling somebody to some path in advance of all that has gone before ? pp 59

That is, it always manifests itself in harmony with the great moral law of the universe-it never does evil that good may come! You never hear it saying-' 1 cannot say that this is exactly square; I know this is not exactly the right course, but then 1 can 'accomplish such and such objects by adopting it.' Never! that is of the devil. You may always know that the law of righteousness is entwined round the very heart of Divine Charity, and as justice and judgment are the habitation of the throne of its Divine Author, so righteousness is in the very core of its soul. It will never sacrifice righteousness for peace, or anything else, howsoever precious.

Now, what is the whole duty of man ? To do justly, to love mercy, and walk humbly with God; and, when the Holy Spirit has brought about that result in your soul, God will look on you with a beneficent eye, with a smile of approbation, and its genial influence will sun your whole being, and you will walkin th elight of it, even as the angels do in heaven. "Do justice, love mercy, an dwalk humbly with God:" that is the duty of man - everything is included in that. pp 65ff

Perfect Heart - speaks of sincerity and thoroughness in love. Demonstrated in its loyalty to God; in its obedience to God; and in its trust of God.

We want sanctified humanity, not sanctimoniousness (the curse of a great deal of religion of this day)

What does God want with us? He wants us just to be, and to do. He wants us to be like His Son, and then to do as His Son did; and when we come to that He will shake the worldd through us pp 165

How do you read the history of the miracles - the stories of His opening the eyes, unstopping the ears, cleansing the leper, and,raising the dead ? The Lord show us how to read it.

He will heal you if you will let Him. These are the sort of words the world wants - the living words, living embodiments of Christianity, walking embodiments of the Spirit, and life and power of Jesus Christ. You may scatter Bibles, as you have done, all over the, world. You may preach, and sing, and talk, and do what you will; but, if you don't exhibit to the people living epistles, show them the transformation of character and life in yourself which is brought about by the power and grace of God - if you don't go to them and do the works of Jesus Christ, you may go on preaching, and the world will get worse and worse, and the Church too. We want a living embodiment of Christianity. We want JESUS TO COME IN THE FLESH AGAIN....

You want a real, living embodiment of Christianity over again, and if The Salvation Army is not going to be that, may God put it out! I would be willing to pronounce the funeral oration of The Army if 1 did not believe it was going to be that. The world is dying for this.

pp 166-167

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Monday, March 20, 2006

Booth. C (1880) Aggressive Christianity 

This is the way to get the world to look at it. Show the world a real, living, self-sacrificing, hardworking, toiling ,triumphing religion, and the world will be influenced by it; but anything short of that they will turn round and spit upon.

Pp7

While the gospel message is laid down with unerring exactness, we are left at perfect freedom to adapt our measures and modes of bringing it to bear upon men to the circumstances, times and conditions in which we live… Adapt your measures to your circumstances and to the necessities of the times in which you live. Pp 50-51

So you see the law begets first a knowledge of sin; secondly, it begets guilt and condemnation on account of sin; and thirdly, desire after righteousness and effort to attain it

R0 8:4 righteousness pp 108

On selfish religion

“You want him saved, so that he may get into HEAVEN, not that he might serve, honour and glorify God. You don’t care at all about that. He might live on in disobedience. Oh, be as much concerned for the honour of God as you are for your friend’s Salvation at the last…” 117

If you can cast a reflection upon the character or the veracity of a witness, you shake his testimony, and take away its value. Oh! How important that Christ’s witness should be good witnesses – that is, that they should fairly and truly represent Him and His truth – for if they misrepresent Him, somebody is sure to be damned through their inconsistency…. 124

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Monday, March 13, 2006

Manning, B. (2000) Ruthless Trust: The Ragamuffin's Path to God 

gratitude is theocentric. GK Chesterton once remarked that the worst moment for an atheist is when he/she feels gratitude and there is no one to thank pp33

Frederick Buechner Bendan

Eisegesis can be a slippery slope - the imposition of a meaning in a biblical text that might not be there, depending on the whim or inspiredinsight of the individual

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Saturday, March 04, 2006

books for college 

gc: ALAN J. ROXBURGH - the sky is falling
gc: Lesslie Newbigin, Missionary Theologian: A Reader- edited by Paul Weston
gc: Mission-Shaped Church A Theological Response John Hull
gc: Leadership from Inside Out: Spirituality and Organizational Change (Paperback) by Wes Granberg-Michaelson
gc: Constants in Context: A Theology of Mission for Today (American Society of Missiology)
gc: Ross Langmead: The Word Made Flesh: Towards an Incarnational Missiology # Sanneh Lamin: Whose Religion Is Christianity?: The Gospel Beyond the West
gc: Journeying in Faith by A. Jamieson
gc: Mission: an Essential Guide by Carlos F. Cardoza-Orlandi
gc: christ of the indian road by e. stanley jones
GC: Emerging Churches: Creating Christian Communities in Postmodern Cultures Eddie Gibbs, Ryan Bolger
GC: The Open Secret, by Leslie Newbigin
GC: A Reader's Guide to Transforming Mission (American Society of Missiology) Stan Nussbaum
gc: Walk On: The Spiritual Journey of U2 by Steve Stockman
gc: http://www.ionabooks.com/
gc: Stockman, S. (2005) Walk On: the Spiritual Journey of U2
gc: The Mountain of Silence by Kyriacos Markides
**GC: Nussbaum, Stan, A Readers Guide to Transforming Mission, Orbis Books, 2005

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Hornby, N (2001) How to be Good. Penguin 

He talks like some dodgy geezer vicar, all cockiness and glottal stops and suspect solicitude. pp94

Love is ... as undemocratic as money, so it accumulates around people who have plenty of it already: the sane, the healthy, the loveable. I am loved by my children, my parents, my brother, my spouse, I suppose, my friends; Brian has none of these people, and never will, and much as we would like to spread it all around a little, we can't. pp 232

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