I was challenged by Mark’s love for learning & passion for change. Some of my favorite quotes:
Christianity that is more educated but less powerful, more civilized but less compassionate more acceptable but less authentic
I wonder...if the accumulated layers of Christian traditions & institutions have unintentionally obscured what lies beneath
"Christianity has a perception problem...Christians...
more I was challenged by Mark’s love for learning & passion for change. Some of my favorite quotes:
Christianity that is more educated but less powerful, more civilized but less compassionate more acceptable but less authentic
I wonder...if the accumulated layers of Christian traditions & institutions have unintentionally obscured what lies beneath
"Christianity has a perception problem...Christians are more known for what we’re against than what we’re for."
before confronting...our culture, we need to be humble enough, honest enough & courageous enough to repent of what’s wrong with us
Does your heart break for the things that break the heart of God? Craig Groeschel
"If we could read the secret history of our enemies we should find in each man's life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility." Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
It is a sad commentary and sadder irony that Christians are often viewed as heartless...we have engaged our culture mind-first
Rick Warren-the five global Goliaths-spiritual emptiness, self-serving leadership, extreme poverty, pandemic diseases, & rampant illiteracy.
"If you are in Christ and Christ is in you, you cannot be okay with suffering or injustice or starvation."
"The blessings of God are always a means to an end. And the end is blessing others. We are blessed to bless."
Mall Effect-Malls are designed to feed greed. Mission Trip Effect-the antidote is one trip to a third-world country
I believe that God will bless National Community Church in proportion to how much we give to missions & care for the poor.
What do you think brings more joy to the heart of our heavenly Father - singing songs or caring for the poor?"
What if, instead of sound quality or lyrical creativity, our litmus test for worship was a heart that breaks for the things that break the heart of God?
Is it possible we've studied the God of logic without truly worshiping the God of wonders?"
loving God with all our soul means a soul full of wonder, a soul flooded with the glory of God, a soul awed by beauty and mystery, a soul that hallows God above all else."
One of the great mistakes we’ve made in modern Christianity is approaching God deductively as an object of knowledge instead of approaching Him inductively as the cause of wonder.
Awed silence in the presence of divine beauty is a form of worship that is often deeper and truer than sung words.
“Earth's crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God; But only he who sees, takes off his shoes, the rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.” Elizabeth Barrett Browning
The way you master a text isn't by studying it. The way you master a text is by submitting to it. You have to let it master you.
The goal of knowing the Bible isn't Bible knowledge. The goal of knowing the Bible is knowing God. Anything less is bibliolatry.
What is the best translation of Acts 1:8? It’s not with your mind. It’s with your life. You can read it. You can meditate on it. But it doesn’t translate if you don’t live it out. You can’t just audit it. You have to act on it.
"In essential things, unity. In nonessential things, freedom. In all things, love." Rupertus Meldenius
Have you ever noticed how many times Psalms tells us to sing a new song? That creative command is repeated no fewer than half a dozen times. Evidently God gets tired of old songs. He doesn’t just want you to worship Him with your memory; He wants you to worship Him with your imagination. Love isn’t repetitive. Love is creative.
“Faithfulness is playing offense for the kingdom even if some Pharisees find it offensive.”
We need fewer commentators and more innovators. We need fewer critics and more creators. We need fewer imitators and more dreamers.
2 Corinthians 10:5, “Take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” the way we create culture and change culture is by taking those God ideas captive and turning them into reality via blood, sweat and tears.
"Change of pace + Change of place = Change of perspective"
One God idea has the potential to make more of a difference than a thousand good ideas. Take yours captive and make it obedient to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5)
"Taking out the garbage is romantic. Why? Because love isn't measured by words spoken. Love is measured by calories burned."
We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased. CS Lewis
“most church problems don’t come from the abundance of sin but rather the lack of vision. I’m not suggesting that there aren’t sin problems or that those sin problems aren’t serious. But in too many instances, there isn’t enough vision to keep churches busy. Our vision isn’t big enough to demand all our energies, so we manufacture petty problems to keep us busy.”
"Loving God with all your strength really means loving God with all His strength. It's not about what you can do for God. It's about what God can do in you and through you."
"if God gives you a dream, and the dream comes to life and God shows up in it, and then the dream dies, it may be that God wants to see what is more important to you - the dream or him." That quote is from Me, Myself and Bob by Phil Vischer
The last reformation was a reformation of creeds. The next reformation will be a reformation of deeds.
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