Check out this provocative article I read today:
Stop Teaching Young People About Their Faith
I think some of the reason I enjoy doing college ministry at in a secular environment is that the young people I am training are being tested constantly in what they learn. I also find it more engaging than doing it in the 'ivory tower' that so often typifies church settings. The front lines are the best place to train!
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Saturday, June 16, 2012
Eyes to See
I have just finished the second chapter in Phillip Yancey's Rumors of Another World. Thus far, it is excellent. A seeming impossible combination of Apologetic and Devotional, it stimulates both my mind and heart. This is a rare combination. Some of the greatest pleasures in it are the quotes that he carefully laces through this work along with his own thoughts. (This provides me with much further reading as well.) My favorite so far is by Robert Barron:
[God] delights, it seems, in using trees, flowers, rivers, automobiles, friends, enemies, church buildings, paintings in order to announce His presence or to work out His purposes....There is something crude in the depiction of God intervening directly in the play, the clumsy deus ex machina interrupting the speeches of the other actors and upsetting the stage. How much more tantalizing the God who hints an lurks and cajoles hiddenly through and around the actors, even unbeknownst to them. It is the humble God who chooses so to act.
He has an absurd and distasteful desire who demands that God should shout "here I am" in response to his requirements. It is the I AM he would manipulate. I believe in signs and wonders, but it is "he who has an ear to hear" that will hear. It is the ability to see that such a person should ask for.
Now, to quote Mr. Yancey: "It takes the mystery of faith, always, to believe, for God has no apparent interest in compelling belief. (If he had, the resurrected Jesus would have appeared to Herod and Pilate, not to His disciples.)" (Rumors, p.41)
He didn't appear to the pharisees either. He appeared to His friends...because His friends, though not without doubt, believed in Him already.
[God] delights, it seems, in using trees, flowers, rivers, automobiles, friends, enemies, church buildings, paintings in order to announce His presence or to work out His purposes....There is something crude in the depiction of God intervening directly in the play, the clumsy deus ex machina interrupting the speeches of the other actors and upsetting the stage. How much more tantalizing the God who hints an lurks and cajoles hiddenly through and around the actors, even unbeknownst to them. It is the humble God who chooses so to act.
He has an absurd and distasteful desire who demands that God should shout "here I am" in response to his requirements. It is the I AM he would manipulate. I believe in signs and wonders, but it is "he who has an ear to hear" that will hear. It is the ability to see that such a person should ask for.
Now, to quote Mr. Yancey: "It takes the mystery of faith, always, to believe, for God has no apparent interest in compelling belief. (If he had, the resurrected Jesus would have appeared to Herod and Pilate, not to His disciples.)" (Rumors, p.41)He didn't appear to the pharisees either. He appeared to His friends...because His friends, though not without doubt, believed in Him already.
Friday, January 6, 2012
A Prayer
"Lord, I know not what I ought to ask of thee; thou only knowest what I need....I simply present myself before thee, I open my heart to thee. Behold my needs which I know not myself. Smite, or heal; depress me, or raise me up; I adore all thy purposes without knowing them; I am silent; I offer myself in sacrifice; I yield myself to thee; I would have no other desire than to accomplish Thy Will. Teach me to pray. Pray yourself in me. Amen."
- Francois Fenelon
- Francois Fenelon
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