“Often the horse knows the rider better than the rider knows the horse.”
Phillips Brooks, The Joy of Preaching, p. 155
Under the Blessing
“Living and working in the presence of God is essential because what constitutes a truly productive person is the fact that they are laboring under the blessing of God. This is because you can have people who strive to do everything technically right, but it is somehow not blessed. There are others who look to the world like they are a walking slapdash, and yet everything lands right side up for them. They are blessed. And there are two other categories as well—there are folks who do everything wrong, and it looks like it, as we see with the sluggard in Proverbs, and then you have that irritating handful of people who do everything right, and they are blessed by God on top of everything else.”
Ploductivity, p. 68
Start There
“Just as every attempt at true godliness in our day-to-day lives should begin with confession, and just as every worship service begins with confession of sin, so also any project as large as building a city, or a temple, or a Christian sanctuary should begin with confession of sin.”
Let the Stones Cry Out, p. 75
If You Want Them to Trust You
“Trust the people to whom you preach more than most ministers do.”
Phillips Brooks, The Joy of Preaching, p. 154
And When the Fire is Hot, It All Burns Clean
“Now if my body is a living sacrifice, this means that everything it rests upon is an altar. The car I drive is an altar, the bed I sleep in is an altar, and the desk where I work is an altar. Everything is offered to God, everything ascends to Him as a sweet-smelling savor. Faith is the fire of the altar, and it consumes the whole burnt offering, the ascension offering . . . Those works include, but are not limited to, writing code, making birdhouses, repairing a carburetor, outlining a novel, or manufacturing microchips.”
Ploductivity, pp. 67-68
And It Was the Best Party of Them All
“When the prodigal son was buying drinks for the house, he was not imitating the character of God. But when his father had the stalled calf killed for the welcome home party, and hired a hot little jazz band for that party, he was providing us with an image of the character of God. But upon returning home, did the returning prodigal really need to go to another party? Well, apparently Jesus thought so.”
Let the Stones Cry Out, p. 74
The Word is for All
“However difficult it may be to do it, it is clearly recognized that men ought to preach so that the wisest and the simplest alike can understand and get the blessing.”
Phillips Brooks, The Joy of Preaching, p. 153
The Prodigal Son’s Stomach Was the First Part of Him to Repent
“But should we repent for the purest of motives? Doesn’t work that way. If we had pure motives we wouldn’t be needing to repent.”
Ploductivity, p. 62
Equal Portions for All, Albeit Somewhat Small
“Let us not teeter along on the rim of some health and wealth nonsense, but at the same time, let us give the steely eye of rebuke to those Christian leftists who want to dance along the other rim of disease and poverty, once those progressive ideals have been suitably renamed.”
Ploductivity p. 62
Ensouled Sanctuaries
“The faith of the people is the soul of the building. The building itself, without living, evangelical faith—without songs pouring out of forgiven hearts, without a proclamation of truth that is piping hot, without prayers of honest and sincere contrition—becomes a mausoleum. When the people are alive, the sanctuary is animated and alive.”
Let the Stones Cry Out, p. 71