Love is not blind; that is the last thing that it is. Love is bound; and the more it is bound the less it is blind.
— G.K. Chesterton
Month: September 2011
Quote: Astonishment
The Christian saint is happy because he has verily been cut off from the world; he is separate from things and is staring at them in astonishment.
— G.K. Chesterton
I Rejected Jesus
At a gas station, a young man asked me for ten dollars. He needed a black pair of shoes to work at Wendy’s or they would tell him to go home on his first day. He said, “I’m just stepping out in faith, man. Please.”
These kinds of things happen in Tampa all the time. Addicts begging for change. As a reflex, I said no. He thanked me and walked off defeated. I suddenly remembered: I had exactly ten dollars in my wallet.
I should’ve stopped him, but I didn’t. I drove off and spent the ten dollars on something probably much less important.
Maybe someone else gave him ten dollars, I thought. Maybe Wendy’s gave him a break. Maybe he was lying. Maybe he would’ve spent it on drugs. Maybe.
I know one thing for sure: I turned down Jesus that day. In Matthew 25:40 he said, “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” The truth is that whether or not this guy would do the right thing with the money, I know I did not. I wish all Christian stories ended in victory with the pastor smiling and church clapping. Sadly many of them end up like this one, regretful over a ten dollar bill that was worth eternity.
I’m sorry young brother. You won’t read this but forgive me. Next time the shoes are on me. And I’ll tell you about the one who will wash your feet, the same one who washed mine.
Quote: Strangers
“The sense that in this universe we are treated as strangers, the longing to be acknowledged, to meet with some response, to bridge some chasm that yawns between us and reality, is part of our inconsolable secret … At present we are on the outside of the world, the wrong side of the door … but all the leaves of the New Testament are rustling with the rumor that it will not always be so. Some day, God willing, we shall get in.”
— C.S. Lewis
Quote: Relentless
“But the great thing to remember is that, though our feelings come and go, His love for us does not. It is not wearied by our sins, or our indifference; and, therefore it is quite relentless in its determination that we shall be cured of those sins, at whatever cost to us, at whatever cost to him.”
— C. S. Lewis
Quote: Neighbor
“A Christian does not live in himself, but in Christ and in his neighbor … He lives in Christ through faith, in his neighbor through love. By faith he is caught up beyond himself into God. By love he descends himself into his neighbor. Yet he always remains in God and in his love.”
— Martin Luther
Quote: Riches
“The only way to deal with remaining sin long-term is to develop a distaste for it in light of the glorious riches we already possess in Christ.”
— Tullian Tchividjian
Quote: Evil
“Evil is anti-creation, anti-life, and the force that seeks to oppose, deface, and destroy God, his good world, and his image-bearers. Simply put, when someone defaces a human being — God’s image-bearer — ultimately an attack is being waged against God himself.”
— Justin S. Holcomb
2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! — 2 Corinthians 5:17.
When Apostle Paul wrote this in the original Greek language, he was so excited he forgot all the verbs (he was normally an eloquent writer). So literally it reads, “Any of you Christ? He new creation.”
—
Originally posted on my Tumblr.
—
Quote: Love
“Love one another, and that will be enough.”
— The last recorded words of Apostle John, whose frail body was carried by his disciples in his last days.
Quote: Expose
“We love to use Bible verses we like but ignore ones that expose our own sins of pride, gossip and disobeying God’s commands.”
— Rick Warren
J.S. Park: Hospital Chaplain 