Sunday, October 13, 2024 — Exodus: Salvation in the Desert — Brokenness

It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until He has hurt him deeply.
~ A.W. Tozer

Reflect, Resonate, Reevaluate, Respond

The reason why many are still troubled, still seeking, still making little forward progress is because they haven’t yet come to the end of themselves. We’re still trying to give orders, and interfering with God’s work within us.
~ A. W. Tozer

Exodus 4:1-7

To admit we are foolish, weak, and in need of repentance gives the vindictive and self-righteous camp plenty of ammunition to turn against us and to turn others against our leadership. But the alternatives to living in and living out truth are far worse: we either hide from truth or we choose to spin our sin and our story.
~ Dan B. Allender, from Leading with a Limp: Take Full Advantage of Your Most Powerful Weakness

Weariness is really about this core struggle to hope despite the circumstances and our limitations, and not so much about stress and being tired.
~ Dan B. Allender

Don’t waste your waiting. The time between where we are and the fulfillment of the promise is designed to transform us.
~ Crawford W. Loritts, Jr, pastor

So many of us have become discouraged because we are not in control and we are powerless to do anything about what we face. Because God doesn’t seem to be “showing up” when we think he should, we give up.
~ Crawford W. Loritts, Jr.

It’s not the gift (or the ‘golf’ club) but it’s whose hand it’s in. And that’s what God was telling Moses… Listen to me, the secret to your impact is not that heavy. The secret to your impact is your dependance on me. If you always know that you need me, you’re in a place of usefulness.
~ Crawford W. Loritts, Jr.

Sunday, October 5, 2024 — Exodus: Salvation in the Desert — The Lamb

What are you doing right now that requires faith?
~ Francis Chan

Reflect, Resonate, Reevaluate, Respond

Uncertainty provides rescue from being stuck in the familiar ways of life that keep us from moving forward into the purposes of God. Wandering into the wilderness of the unknown is God’s divine reorientation, from what we know in the present to what God knows about the future.
~ Shelly Miller, from her book Searching for Certainty, 2020

Exodus 12:1-13

There would be no sense in saying you trusted a person if you would not take his advice.
~ C.S. Lewis, 1898-1963, British writer

The man of pseudo-faith will fight for his verbal creed but refuse flatly to allow himself to get in a predicament where his future must depend upon that creed being true. He always provides himself with secondary ways of escape; so that he will have a way out if the roof caves in. What we need very badly these days is a company of Christians who are prepared to trust God as completely now as they know that they must do at that last day.
~ A.W. Tozer, 1897-1963, writer, magazine editor

I do not put much stock in “believing in God.” The grammar of “belief” invites a far too rationalistic account of what it means to be a Christian. “Belief” implies propositions about which you get to make up your mind before you know the work they are meant to do.
~ Stanley Hauerwas, 1940- , American theologian

God’s grace and forgiveness, while free to the recipient, are always costly for the giver. From the earliest parts of the Bible, it was understood that God could not forgive without sacrifice. No one who is seriously wronged can ‘just forgive’ the perpetrator. But when you forgive, that means you absorb the loss and the debt. You bear it yourself. All forgiveness, then, is costly.
~ Timothy Keller, 1950-2023, pastor, author

We have all had the experience of finding that our reactions and perhaps even our deeds have denied beliefs we thought were ours.
~ James A. Baldwin. 1924-1987, writer, activist