Archive for the ‘Quotes’ Category

Posted on February 27, 2010 - by admin

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“Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up their sleeves, some turn up their noses, and some don’t turn up at all” – Sam Ewing

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Anyone who has experienced different cultures with a level of depth knows first hand that the philosophy upon which a nation and people are developed will often determine which sort of people it tends to nurture.  In general, some political and ideological frameworks encourage people to do their best, while other encourage people to do something, but never more than anyone else, and some encourage people to avoid doing anything they are not forced to do (and even that can be escaped at times).

Posted on February 22, 2010 - by admin

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“It’s not the hours you put in your work that counts, it’s the work you put in the hours.” – Sam Ewing

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Is this true or not? I think I can see it both ways.  Hours put on a job do matter, but hours without effort produce waning results.  Was Sam Ewing efficient, or lazy?

Posted on February 8, 2010 - by admin

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“The Methodists must take heed of their doctrine, their experience, their practice, and their disciplines.  If they attend to their doctrines only, they will make people Antinomians (believing that salvation by grace caries no moral obligation to then obey God’s law); if to experimental part of religion only, they will make them enthusiasts; if to practical part only, they will make them Pharisees; and if they do not attend to their discipline, they will be like persons who bestow much pains in cultivating their gardens, and put no fence round it to save it from the wild boars of the forest.” – John Wesley.

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Ouch. What a captivating statement. Forget what it means, look how it is written! It’s amazing. I wish I could write sentences like that. The kicker is that it DOES mean something, quite alot actually. “What is MY bend?”, is the question I find comes naturally. Where do I tend to focus and therefore error to the exclusion of the others? I am afraid I may tend to error on the practical side. What about you?

Posted on August 24, 2009 - by admin

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“He that begins by loving Christianity better than truth will proceed by loving his own sect or church better than Christianity, and end in loving himself better than all.” – Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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No comment on this one.  Any thoughts from you?

Posted on June 15, 2009 - by admin

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“Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.” – Robert Frost

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I am not sure I agree with this statement or not. Perhaps I agree with part of it. The part about not losing self-confidence. But I am not sure I agree with the part about losing our temper. Are there some things worth losing our temper over? Yes, but course most of the things we lost our temper over are silly.  In fact if there are things worth losing our temper over, shouldn’t they be those things we know the most about (i.e. – education)?  It makes much more sense to get upset about something we understand or can control, than about something we don’t understand or cannot control.

Just today, I was in the middle of a very long email to a Dr. here in Romania, and the page just changed…while I was typing. I lost everything and had to start all over again. I hit my hand on my desk out of frustration. That’s silly and I realize it. But there are things worth hitting our hands on the table for…or things worth raising our voices over…or things worth getting red-faced about?  And what does education have to do with controlling those emotions?

There are somethings in the world that we have a responsibility to get angry about.  Any emotion other than anger is completely unacceptable.  I can think of a bunch, but I don’t want to ruin your fun.  Can you think of some?  In what situations is anger totally warranted?  Jesus showed anger at appropriate times…even in the temple, i.e. – the middle of church.  Jesus didn’t sin in his anger or unjustly bear his anger on others because of his own short-comings.  Any anger expressed by Jesus was expressed because of a justifiable cause and was borne down upon those justly deserving the emotion.

Jesus was indeed confident in himself (actually in himself and his Father).  He was and is the only person able to have complete self-confidence and he also has complete “education” or understanding.  We would expect in that case, to find no anger in Jesus.  Of course there are those who believe Jesus was never angry and they will use every means possible to try to show that.  But from the beginning of the Bible to the end of the Bible and everywhere in between, we find God angry, among other things of course.

The key for Him, and principle for us, is that God was and is only angry for completely justifiable reasons, and His anger is always and only expressed in appropriate manners.  As a disclaimer I should mention that our “appropriate manners” are more limited than His because we are not, all knowing, all holy, or all powerful.  If we don’t understand that we will be tempted to do stupid things like kill abortionists.  We should be angry about something as barbaric as abortion, but we have no legal or moral rights to take judgment into our own hands.  If an abortionist should be killed, he or she should meet their end by the just means of law, trial, and punishment once they are found guilty of homicide.  I use that example only because it is a current event and an easy one to stir emotions over.

In summary:  hitting desk because you lose an email – wrong.  Being outraged at a child who has been abused, or an elderly person who has been scammed, or a church that has become nothing but a marketplace (in Jesus’ case) – perfectly OK, and nothing less expected.

Posted on June 9, 2009 - by admin

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“The church is the sleeping giant here.  If it wakes up to what is really going on in the rest of the world, it has a real role to play.  If it doesn’t, it will become irrelevant.” – Bono

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I like Bono for some reasons (mostly related to U2’s early albums) but I dislike him for others (mostly related to his sunglasses and U2’s musical direction since the mid 90’s).  While I am not so sure that Bono is the best person to look to for advice or authority on issues of the Church and Scripture, he has a good point in this instance.  The danger is that this quote could be taken the wrong way.

WRONG WAY or WRONG UNDERSTANDING: If the church doesn’t become relevant and begin to get with the program of what’s going on (i.e. – get on the boat with all the social changes in society – the feminization of culture, environmentalism (earth worship), homosexuality, legalized/commercial drug addition, just to name a few) they will miss the chance to make their mark.

This perspective or interpretation of Bono’s statement is wrong for a number of reasons:

#1 – the church does not have to become relevant – it is already relevant.  The Bible, and therefore the church, has much to say about every topic that has ever been thrust upon mankind since the garden of Eden.  The Bible is always relevant.  The question (and I think this is where Bono is right, is that the church must “wake up” to the fact that it has some very important, relevant, and right things to say about the complete chaos going on around us and in the lives of so many.

#2 – we are not to “get with the program”.  Frankly, “the program” is demonic.  The church is not called to express any of the current trends in a Christian manner or with a Christian twist.  I will avoid the touchy issues and deal with environmentalism.  What is the churches role?  That may seem like a good question, but in fact it shows how irrelevant we feel we are.  The church does not have a “role”, it has the answer!  As if there was this huge problem, and the church might have some perspective to offer, or might help be part of the solution.  Let’s just start a church recycling program, or ask the church members to drive fuel efficient cars.  The fact is that whether we will admit it or not, the church holds the key to issues like environmental problems.  Because the Bible give us the proper framework for understanding the proper relationship between Creator, created, and creation.  God is creator, we are created, and we live in creation.  When we understand the flow of relationship, and the responsibility we have to be stewards, we neither error on the side of domination or submission under creation.

Does that make sense?  But to view the situation as “the world has a problem.  The world has a solution.  The church needs to help.”  is a wrong starting point.  This is the way we should approach it.  The world has a problem.  Man is the problem.  God made both the world and man.  God has the answers.  God has given the answers to his people.  We need to teach people about him and implement his solutions.”  That kind of thinking can be applied to any problem, from environmental concerns, to the breakdown of the family.

The problem with so many of these issues is that the church has been castrated and no longer produces the testosterone to step up to the plate and speak boldly about such issues.  A few people I know come to mind, unbelievers, who have been very vocal about their stances on issues like abortion, kids, birth-control, prescription medication, gender roles, and homosexuality.  The ironic thing is that not only are they bold in their opinions, but those opinions line up with a Biblical perspective.  And yet, too many of us as believers, have been brainwashed into thinking that it’s almost illegal to speak the truth on such issues.

I am not proposing we hold signs outside of various establishments or on street corners.  I am proposing that we start in the pulpit, and at our dinner tables, talking plainly about the issues that we face today.  And that as a result of that, we speak plainly to the outside world, and make decisions accordingly.  While at the outset, we may appear to be the only insane ones in a world of normal, highly tolerant, educated people, over time society will be forced to recognize, at least in part that God, His Word, and His Church, ARE relevant in this backwards world.

If we fail at that, we will be written off as irrelevant.  Much like the sharp knife that is lost in the back of the drawer – it could be very useful, but it is overlooked and hidden.  The difference is that someone mistakenly placed the sharp knife in the back of the drawer.  It’s not the knife’s fault.  Whereas we as the Church have relegated ourselves into obscurity on purpose, motivated by fear, cowardice, and a lack of anything to say.

Back to the original quote.  The church must wake up (i.e. realize) that it does indeed have a very significant role to play and that role is to speak sound Biblical truth to the issues going on in the world.  That is the only relevant thing to do.

Posted on June 3, 2009 - by admin

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“Joy is the serious business of heaven.” – C.S. Lewis

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What an amazing and yet simple statement.  And the interplay between words of lightness (joy and heaven) and heaviness (serious and business) is brilliant.

I cannot remember where I heard it first, but I have certainly heard it more than once: “our situation was so difficult, so stressful that we had no other option than to laugh.”  We have all been though trials and circumstances in our lives, to greater or lesser degrees, that place enourmous stress on us.  For our family, the adjustments required to move to a foreign nation, live on support, and work within a different cultural framework created plenty of stress, and a few trials as well.  And I think we are learning, although God keeps raising the bar, how to find joy as a serious occupation.

We find testimony to this in the letters of Paul, where joy becomes a discipline for him like many of the other godly disciplines: something to be practiced, exercised, and invoked,  despite the circumstance, or perhaps rather necessitated by them.

Posted on June 1, 2009 - by admin

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“I would rather fail in a cause that I know some day will triumph, than to win in a cause that I know some day will fail.” – Woodrow Wilson

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Any long-term missionary, and follower of Christ, and any parent can understand the sentiment expressed by Wilson.  As parents, and as missionaries, we lose many battles, but the point is not to lose the war.  And as Christians, we know that while we will lose battles, the ultimate victory has been won.  Well, then why fight?  I am not a war specialist, but I know enough to know one thing: the battle is almost never won by one single decisive battle.  Often the war is won (or lost as the case may be) long before the war is over.  Just because the outcome is determined does not mean that everyone puts down their weapons and goes home.  There are still little battles and territory to be taken.  So it is in the supernatural arenas as well.

There is a deeper question that we can be tempted to miss in our former presidents statement.  It is easy to miss because this can be a very motivational statement.  The temptation is to go away from the quote above thinking only “OK, I get it!  I will not give up, or be discouraged by temporary failure.”  While that is a very important and motivating factor to take away from his statement, he also begs the question of cause.  What are you fighting for, and is it worth it?  This is a much more difficult and tangled question than the question of quitting or not-quitting.

While we might hate to admit it, it is possible to be behind a cause that is destined to fail.  And in such causes, any apparent successes are in the end, quite worthless.  On the contrary, there are causes which will succeed in general, even if we personally don’t succeed at it, or are not involved in the battle at all.  Even apparent losses in those causes will not affect the ultimate outcome.  In fact, they are often the catalyst towards a better outcome, or a more complete outcome, or a more refined outcome.  I am sure inventors can attest to that fact.  One quick ministry application, and then I am done.

I will be blunt.  Expecting missionaries to do all the work (pastoring, leading, pioneering, etc) on the mission field is a hopeless cause.  Even though some have made great attempts, and some have apparently seemed to “pull it off” the fact of the matter remains that those isolated ‘wins’ are nothing in the face of a faulty model which is doomed to fail.

On the other hand, empowering national leaders to fulfill the vision God has given them for their nation is a cause filled with hope.  It is a cause and a strategy that is destined to succeed.  Even when people taking this approach experience failures, they are simply minor battles lost in the great cause to fulfill the great commission through all peoples in a all nations.  That is a cause that will surely succeed.

This is a ministry example.  There are many other everyday examples we could find in the world of investing, parenting, education, international relations, war, etc.  But I am not smart enough to make those links.  Anyone else want to chime in about them?

Posted on May 28, 2009 - by admin

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“In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.” – Augustine

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Mark Driscoll describes this sentiment by the terms “open hand” and “closed hand”.  Open hand refers to issues that are open to different opinions and where some level of freedom is provided.  Take the issue of alcohol.  This would generally fall into an open hand.  Some would say “all alcohol is wrong”.  Others, “alcohol is OK in moderation.  To each his own conscience.  But, scripture dictates that drunkenness is wrong”.  The issue of alcohol is just one example, but a popular one.

I am not stating which I agree with here…it’s just for discussion’s sake.  Many denominations place things in the closed hand that actually belong in the open hand.  They feel so strongly about them (often for good reasons) that they decide to hang their hat on them.  A hat rack with too many hooks and hats…usually tips over.  In other words, there are only a handful of truly important issues, but those issues are of the utmost importance.

Alistar Begg regularly uses this saying: “Let the plain things be the main things, and let the main things be the plain things.  That short phrase appears at first to be a simply little play on words, but it is rather deeper than than.  He is saying two very different things.  1) the simple truths and most basic elements (the plain things) are the things that we should make the most prominent.  2) the things that are of most importance (the main things) should be displayed and communicated very plainly, as to avoid any confusion as to what is really important.

Back to the first idea.  Closed hand refers to issues that are not open to discussion and upon which there must be agreement for partnership in the gospel.  For example, in the closed hand we should place…the deity of Christ, the substitutionary death of Christ, the bodily resurrection of Christ, among others.

Most problems in theology and practice occur when things that belong in the open hand are incorrectly placed in the closed hand, i.e. legalism.   Or, when things which should remain in the closed hand, are wrongly placed in the open hand, i.e. liberalism.

Posted on May 24, 2009 - by admin

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“Remember always to keep chin up, and knees down.” – Dr. V. Ramond Edman

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What a simple yet profound statement.

Chin up - I thought I learned this principle as a youth pastor.  Literally, I think there were a few tough guys who wanted to take swings at me more than a few times during my tenure.  And, if I was completely honest with myself, I would have to admit that there were more than a few teenage boys I wanted to provide “field trips to the hospital” for as well; you know, extend the right hook of fellowship.  Tough love.  In order to not put the people God has called us to minister to in the hospital we often have to develop thick skin and take blows and absorb some cheap shots.

But now that I am a missionary, I recognize even more the need for tough skin at times.  A pastor I listen to regularly on my ipod while I drive here in Romania, Mark Driscoll, has been known to say that when you sign up for ministry “we hand you two things: a Bible, and a cup – and it’s not the kind of cup you drink coffee out of either.” Driscoll, who is not your average nice-guy pastor, has also been heard to say that when looking for male leadership in the church “…we are not looking for people who like to start fights, but you should be the kind of guy who can finish one.”

Yes, ministry requires we keep our chin up, aware, not easily discouraged, and sometimes, ready to box, taking and giving a few punches.

Knees down – Here’s the other side of the coin; prayer.  More generally, dependency on God.  I don’t know if I can honestly say that living in Romania has improved my prayer life or not.  Maybe it has, maybe it has not.  I do know that my disciple in the area of prayer has ebbs and flows for sure.  There are seasons where prayer comes more naturally and I find myself engaged in it more regularly.  And then there are other seasons where it seems my time and my attention is stolen more frequently.  I think this is a common experience.

But, one thing is un-questionable: my sense of dependency on God has multiplied since moving overseas.  My sense of dependency on Him in all areas (big-little, practical-spiritual) rings in my head and heart.  John 15:5 is perhaps the clearest expression of this sentiment found in the New Testament.

In summary – there is a time to fight, and a time to pray…and most of the time we should be doing both daily.  I think we see this in the life of Paul.  We see that Paul has a healthy habit of prayer, and we see he is willing to throw some punches.  We might try to explain them all away as simply verbal punches, but I think there is evidence in there of Paul having to take physical action against dissenters…not knocking them out or anything like that (although he may have, I don’t know) but simply dealing with men as men.  That’s a whole other topic that is closely related to my “Jesus Mafia” concept, but there’s no time for that right now.