Tag: Chrestomathy

“There have been churches where the organist thinks that God will be most honored if he, the organist, shows up with pink slippers with tassels on them. There is a toney, nose-in-the-air, tall steeple, moneyed attitude that is, as far as the Holy Spirit is concerned, just another thing that the cat drug in.”

Let the Stones Cry Out, p. 138

“Christian worship ought to be familial and reverent, which is quite a different thing than the very common ‘come as you are’ approach, the come to church in your jammies approach . . . The triune God really ought to be worshiped with more than one or two chords.”

Let the Stones Cry Out, pp. 137-138

“Our lives are a mist, a vapor, a bit of cloud in the mountains.”

Let the Stones Cry Out, p. 135

“For any new construction, there are three basic elements to the project. Take the square footage, take the quality of design and materials, and take the dollar amount to be spent. Those are the three corners of your triangle. As you look at those three elements, you may pick any two, and the two you pick will determine the third for you.”

Let the Stones Cry Out, p.133

“Had God not sent them around, the world would have seen a rather gaudy display of my ongoing administrative skills, which would have put them in mind of the crash of the Hindenburg.”

Ploductivity, p. 110

“We are told that it is better to have a little money and fear of the Lord than to have lots of wealth and big trouble with it (Prov. 15:16). We are also told that thin soup and thick love is better than a sumptuous meal and hatred around the table (Prov. 15:17). It is better to be humble and with the lowly than to divide the spoil with the proud (Prov. 16:19).”

Let the Stones Cry Out, p. 131

“Another way of thinking about this is that we are not conducting a presidential campaign, trying to get as many people as possible to vote for Jesus, so that if we are successful, then He can assume a position of authority. No, His position is already one of conquering monarch, and He is already on the throne . . . The Kingdom of God is not a democracy.”

Ploductivity, p. 107

“Every true preacher must be a poet . . . A belief in the Incarnation, in the divine Son of Man, makes such poets of us all.”

Phillips Brooks, The Joy of Preaching, p. 187

“Jesus is the Lord of history, which means His authority extends from Adam’s first honeycomb stick, at the beginning, down to the last tool invented, which will probably be something like a transport barge for hauling radioactive waste to be dumped into the sun. It’ll be totally safe. We did tests and everything.”

Ploductivity, p. 104

“So we need to remember that the eschatological future promised by the prophet Isaiah, and the future that was shaped by the industrial revolution and will continue to be shaped by the digital revolution, are the same future. I don’t believe in an invisible spiritual future, shaped by the Holy Spirit, full of sweetness and light, and an actual historical future shaped by the Devil, Halliburton, the Illuminati, and Murphy’s law. The world, this world, is presently going where Jesus is taking it. So we should be wise, and stop worrying.”

Ploductivity, pp. 98-99