fun Oswald quotes!

Every time we pray our horizon is altered, our attitude to things is altered, not sometimes but every time, and the amazing thing is that we don't pray more.

We have to pray with our eyes on God, not on the difficulties.

Get into the habit of dealing with God about everything. Unless in the first waking moment of the day you learn to fling the door wide back and let God in, you will work on a wrong level all day; but swing the door wide open and pray to your Father in secret, and every public thing will be stamped with the presence of God.

If you have ever prayed in the dawn you will ask yourself why you were so foolish as not to do it always: it is difficult to get into communion with God in the midst of the hurly-burly of the day.

When a man is at his wits' end it is not a cowardly thing to pray, it is the only way he can get in touch with Reality.

God's silences are His answers. If we only take as answers those that are visible to our senses, we are in a very elementary condition of grace.

Pray because you have a Father, not because it quietens you, and give Him time to answer.

is there really more to it than this?

Marks of the True Christian

Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written 'Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.' To the contrary, 'if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.' Do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good.

-Romans 12:9-21

favourite tweets

I guess Twitter is blogging for lazy people like myself. So here are some snippets from the past year or so of my life, in tweet form.

Friday night: 1. Janey is terrified of ceiling fans. 2. chocolate frozen yogurt with almonds is the best. 3. everyone should read Orthodoxy.
9:28 PM May 1st, 2009 via web

gets to write a paper on A Christmas Carol!!!!! (nerd alert!)
8:03 PM May 7th, 2009 via web

||Renaissance Faire tomorrow!!!!!
7:30 PM May 16th, 2009 via web

♥ Rob Bell.
7:02 PM Sep 29th, 2009 via web

"put that thing back where it came from or so help me! so help me! so help me! and CUT!"
4:10 PM Oct 2nd, 2009 via web

"you have come to fight as free men...and free men you are. what will you do with that freedom?"
1:36 PM Oct 3rd, 2009 via web

"you calm the storms, and you give me rest/ you hold me in your hands, you won't let me fall."
4:08 PM Oct 5th, 2009 via web

"one thing I can tell you is you've got to be free."
4:48 PM Oct 7th, 2009 via web

I loooooooove Heavyweights. Fantastic movie. "Lars?! What kind of name is that? Where are you from?" "Far away."
8:06 PM Oct 18th, 2009 via web

♥ Doheny.
4:12 PM Oct 20th, 2009 via web

is shopping for sealing wax on amazon. Nerd alert!
7:46 PM Oct 20th, 2009 via web

I'm watching Heavyweights yet again. "When I sleep at night, I make a very disturbing sound. Don't be alarmed. I am fine."
10:43 PM Oct 30th, 2009 via web

watching Friends with her sickie brother, and once again trying to be productive.
10:11 PM Nov 2nd, 2009 via web

Mere Christianity blows my mind every time I read it.
5:29 PM Nov 3rd, 2009 via web

"Your goodness must have some edge to it - else it is none." -Emerson
8:17 PM Nov 3rd, 2009 via web

I like National Treasure. Don't judge me.
12:37 PM Nov 5th, 2009 via web

I might just go on a C.S. Lewis binge.
10:25 PM Nov 5th, 2009 via web

"Thou and Thou only, first in my heart"
11:01 PM Nov 10th, 2009 via web

well stab me in the retina!
7:19 PM Nov 15th, 2009 via web

I'm watching the Barbie Nutcracker DVD with Anna and thoroughly enjoying it.
3:04 PM Nov 16th, 2009 via web

the blinking cursor mocks me.
12:02 PM Nov 18th, 2009 via web

♥ G.K. Chesterton.
8:25 AM Nov 21st, 2009 via web

♥ Handel's Messiah. Seriously. I want the score.
5:02 PM Nov 30th, 2009 via web

"you are the strength that keeps me walking/ you are the hope that keeps me trusting"
5:45 PM Dec 3rd, 2009 via web

"He gives all. He asks all."
11:14 AM Dec 6th, 2009 via web

I think I'd make a good x-wing pilot.
6:06 PM Dec 10th, 2009 via web

I like the word "tacit."
10:04 AM Dec 16th, 2009 via web

"Explosive thermonuclear processes on white dwarfs and neutron stars produce novae and bursters." Blech.
12:22 AM Dec 17th, 2009 via web

I nearly wrote "Elsa Stanlie" on an exam today.
5:06 PM Dec 17th, 2009 via web

Craig, at a very busy Mimi's Cafe last night: "I officially hate Christmas Eve. 86 Hope, you guys."
11:33 AM Dec 25th, 2009 via web

My dad loves dates & anchovies. Not together. But he's still pretty weird.
12:41 PM Dec 29th, 2009 via web

just paid $9.99 for 116.9 MB of religious sentiment.
4:56 PM Jan 7th via web

"you can't be serious! you ran a woman over this morning!" "everybody inside the car was fine, Stanley!"
7:26 AM Jan 10th via web

I might just watch Prince of Egypt.
2:15 PM Jan 22nd via web

Cat Stevens & John Milton make an interesting combination.
6:04 PM Feb 16th via web

"Yet I argue not/Against heavns hand or will, nor bate a jot/Of heart or hope; but still bear up and steer/Right onward" -John Milton
3:32 PM Feb 24th via web

Martin & I are debating bunny names.
8:08 AM Mar 2nd via web

sometimes I wish I lived before the Industrial Revolution.
1:19 PM Mar 3rd via web

don't be shy - just let your feelings roll on by
3:50 PM Mar 5th via web

it's officially time to listen to Christmas music again. At least I held out 'till March this year.
9:19 PM Mar 6th via web

I have read so much today. My eyes might just fall out.
10:12 PM Mar 15th via web

"Drawing and quartering is the combo plate of executions." -Dr. Blaine
9:11 AM Mar 17th via web

"you learned all the songs, memorized the verse, took the bread and wine, and even got the shirt - it's time"
11:23 AM Mar 21st via web

I shouldn't be allowed to use toasters - they're clearly dangerous for me.
10:26 PM Mar 25th via web

"We are, in short, to love and serve without judgment, without condition, and without any consideration of what's in it for us." -Greg Boyd
6:00 PM Mar 30th via web

hanging out with Ted, hole-punching, the Office Season 2, and teacher blogs.
9:11 PM Apr 7th via web


...also, for the millionth time - I love the Braveheart soundtrack.

Greg Boyd

Is seriously so cool. I'm reading his Myth of a Christian Nation, and I want to copy out whole chapters of it. Here's a particularly good part - he's arguing against the religious right's idea of "taking back America for God," and all of the social implications it has.

"I, for one, confess to being utterly mystified by the phrase. If we are to take America back for God, it must have once belonged to God, but it's not at all clear when this golden Christian age was.

Were these God-glorifying years before, during, or after Europeans 'discovered' America and carried out the doctrine of 'manifest destiny' - the belief that God (or, for some, nature) had destined white Christians to conquer the native inhabitants and steal their land? Were the God-glorifying years the ones in which whites massacred these natives by the millions, broke just about every covenant they ever made with them, and then forced survivors onto isolated reservations? Was the golden age before, during, or after white Christians loaded five or six million Africans on cargo ships to bring them to their newfound country, enslaving the three million or so who actually survived the brutal trip? Was it during the two centuries when Americans acquired remarkable wealth by the sweat and blood of their slaves? Was this the time when we were truly 'one nation under God,' the blessed time that so many evangelicals seem to want to take our nation back to?

Maybe someone would suggest that the golden age occurred after the Civil War, when blacks were finally freed. That doesn't quite work either, however, for the virtual apartheid that followed under Jim Crow laws - along with the ongoing violence, injustices, and dishonesty toward Native Americans and other nonwhites up into the early twentieth century - was hardly 'God-glorifying.' ...

If we look at historical reality rather than pious verbiage, it's obvious that America never really 'belonged to God.' As we've said, when the kingdom of God is manifested, it's obvious. It looks like Jesus. But America as a nation has clearly never looked remotely like Jesus...The fact that was largely done under the banner of Christ doesn't make it more Christian, any more than any other bloody conquest done in Jesus' name throughout history (such as the Crusades and the Inquisition) qualifies them as Christlike."

and this is another good part, in which he argues that Christians have no right to act as the "morality police" of America, especially on issues like gay marriage:

"Do evangelicals fear gay marriage in particular because the Bible is much more clear about the wrongfulness of gay marriage than it is about the wrongfulness of divorce and remarriage? No, for the Bible actually says a good deal more against divorce and remarriage than it does against monogamous gay relationships. Doe they go after this particular sin because the research shows that gay marriage is more damaging to society than divorce and remarriage? It seems not, for while one might grant that neither is ideal, there's no clear evidence that the former is socially more harmful than the latter - especially given the fact that divorce and remarriage is far more widespread than gay marriage. But in any case, the point is completely irrelevant since the present issue isn't over gay unions. The issue is only over whether these unions should be called 'marriages.' To the best of my knowledge, no one has shown that the social welfare of our nation is significantly harmed by what monogamous gay unions are called.

Why then are so many evangelicals publicly obsessed with cracking down on this particular sin? There are undoubtedly a number of reasons, not least of which is that the loss of the traditional definition of marriage is a poignantly symbolic indication that the quasi-Christian civil religion of America is on the wane. And as we've said, many evangelicals believe that preserving and recovering this civil religion is their central kingdom duty. Whatever the reasons, however, outsiders have the impression that evangelicals go after this sin because it's one they don't generally have.

We evangelicals may be divorced and remarried several times; we may be as greedy and unconcerned about the poor and as gluttonous as others in our culture; we may be prone to gossip and slander and as blindly prejudiced as others in our culture; we may be more self-righteous and as rude as others in our culture - we may even lack love more than others in the culture. These sins are among the most frequently mentioned sins in the Bible. But at least we're not gay!

So despite the paucity of references to homosexuality relative to the sins we minimize or ignore, and despite empirical evidence that some of the sins we minimize are far more harmful to people and to society than this sin (for instance, greed and gluttony arguably kill millions!), this is the sin evangelicals as a group has decided to take a public stand on. Why? Because by drawing a line in the sand on this point we can feel that we're doing something righteous. We're standing up for truth and godliness; we're defending 'God and country'; we're playing the role of moral guardian that (we believe) God has called us to play.

Tragically, the self-serving and hypocritical nature of this moral posturing is apparent to nearly everyone - except those who do the posturing. And just as tragically, it causes multitudes to want nothing to do with the good news we have to offer. While the church was supposed to be the central means by which people became convinced that Jesus is for real, activity like this has made the church into the central reason many are convinced he's not for real. If I had ten dollars for every time I've encountered someone who resisted submitting to Christ simply because they 'can't stand Christians,' I'd have a fairly robust bank account...

To be clear, I'm not suggesting that the church should publicly take a stand for gay marriage, nor am I trying to influence how evangelicals vote. Some may feel it best for society to outlaw gay marriages - others to allow it. In a democracy you're asked to give your opinion on such matters, so give it according to your conscience. I'm simply maintaining that, in our role as public representatives of the kingdom of God, Christians should stick to replicating Calvary toward gay people (as toward all people), and trust that their loving service will do more to transform people than laws ever could."