Stories Are Verbal Acts Of Hospitality.

This Kingdom Of God Life Is Not A Matter Of Waking Up Each Morning With A List Of Chores Or An Agenda To Be Tended To, Left On Our Bedside Table By The Holy Spirit For Us While We Slept. We Wake Up Already Immersed In A Large Story Of Creation And Covenant, Of Israel And Jesus, The Story Of Jesus And The Stories That Jesus Told. We Let Ourselves Be Formed By These Formative Stories, And Especially As We Listen To The Stories That Jesus Tells, Get A Feel For The Way He Does It, The Way He Talks, The Way He Treats People, The Jesus Way.

The Life Of Faith Isn't Meant For Tourists. It's Meant For Pilgrims.

People Learn To Shop For Churches; There Is No Loyalty To The Church. They're Consumers Being Attracted To One Product Or Another. I Think It's Sacrilege, To Tell You The Truth, It Really Is.

Real Faith Is Refined In The Fires And Storms Of Pain.

Repentance Is A Realization That What God Wants From You And What You Want From God Are Not Going To Be Achieved By Doing The Same Old Things, Thinking The Same Old Thoughts. Repentance Is A Decision To Follow Jesus Christ And Become His Pilgrim In The Path Of Peace. Repentance Is The Most Practical Of All Words And The Most Practical Of All Acts. It Is A Feet-on-the-ground-kind-of-word. It Puts A Person In Touch With The Reality That God Creates.