Living the Lord's Prayer

I just finished reading "Living the Lord's Prayer" by Albert Haase (InterVarsity Press). I've been reading it off and on, slowly for devotion, since November. It's easy to read, I just wanted to breathe it all in. A former Roman Catholic missionary to China, he writes with a rich usage of scripture, church history, personal illustrations and insights, and memorable turns of phrase. The man really knows how to use alliteration!
This book is so full of great quotations.
Haase loves to speak of the ego as "easing God out." Some other good quotes:
"Remember your suffering. It need not be in vain. It can become the womb of compassion." (p. 44)
"Many descendants of Adam and Eve to this day do not see a tree until they have need of paper." (p. 49)
"Ministry is about people-- not paper, processes or procedures." (p. 69)
Speaking of anxious living: "With antacids in their pockets and ulcers in their stomachs, they race toward tomorrow." (p. 69-70)
"Always putting ourselves down is just as wrong and just as sinful as always raising ourselves up." (p. 80)
"Trust your gut-- but use your head." (p. 127)
"Constantly reminding us of our sin, the ego then condemns us to forced labor in a cemetery where we are repeatedly exhuming skeletons, only to bury them and exhume them again." (p. 156)
"There is never reason to despair or doubt the forgiveness of God, no matter how hideous, heinous or hateful the sin may be." (p. 161)
"God loves us not because we are good but because God is good." (p. 161)
"Emotional wounds are like physical wounds: They do not heal if they are neglected; they only become infected." (p. 187)
"There is no 'spiritual microwave oven' that guarantees instant holiness; holiness occurs in the slow cooker of daily fidelity." (p. 204)
"When we mistakenly allow feelings to become the barometer of our souls, we risk the possibility of our spiritual life devolving into a self-centered narcissism focused on 'me' and not on 'Thee.'" (p. 218)
"Trust in God's power and grace can never be overdone, since no situation is too complex, too complicated or too convoluted for God." (p. 234)

Words of wisdom from Kenny Grant

What a great revival we had this past week with Rev. Kenny Grant.

As promised, I have collected some of the one-liners that Brother Kenny shared with us this week.

Here are a few quotations:

"I want to be brief tonight, but I probably won't be."

"If you can't say 'Amen,' say 'Oh, me.'"

"We're fooling ourselves if we say we worship God and we live like common yard dogs."

"We make a big deal out of building God a house because we don't want Him in our own house."

Talking about men being under Christ's headship before being head of the home: "You gotta be under what you're supposed to be under before you can be over what you're supposed to be over."

"Missing men produce broken boys."

"A wife's job is to complete her husband, not to finish him off."

"The church is like Noah's ark; there might be a stench on the inside but there's a storm on the outside."

"Sin takes you further than you planned on staying and costs you more than you planned on paying."

Regarding the prodigal son and the elder brother: "The one who started out out, ended up in, and the one who started out in ended up out."

"Love isn't a fall. Love is a climb."

"Love isn't blind. Love just knows how to overlook the junk it can see."

"Safe sex is a myth. You can't do an unsafe thing in a safe way."

"The only safe sex is sacred sex. And the only sacred sex is married sex."

"Girls will play at sex because they really want love, and boys will play at love because they really want sex."

"I know we're not perfect people and this isn't a perfect world, but this Bible is a perfect book and we cannot dumb it down."

"Failure doesn't have to be final."