Sunday Dispatch Megathread

[the iron horse]

Sunday Dispatch.537

Sunday Dispatch.537


When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark,
you don't throw away the ticket and jump off.

You sit and trust the engineer.

~Corrie Ten Boom

 

[the iron horse]

Sunday Dispatch.538

Sunday Dispatch.538

It is absurd for the Evolutionists to complain that it is unthinkable
for an admittedly unthinkable God to make everything out of nothing,
and then pretend that it is more thinkable that nothing should turn itself into everything.

~G.K.Chesterton

 

[the iron horse]

Sunday Dispatch.539

Sunday Dispatch.539


The scepter will not depart from Judah,
nor the ruler's staff from his descendants,
until the coming of the one to whom it belongs,
the one whom all nations will honor.

~Genesis 49:10 (New Living Translation)

 

[the iron horse]

Sunday Dispatch.540

Sunday Dispatch.540


The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites.

You must listen to him.


~Deuteronomy 18:15 (NIV)

 

[the iron horse]

Sunday Dispatch.541

Sunday Dispatch.541

Look! The virgin will concieve a child!
She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means 'God is with us').

~Isaiah 7:14


What if God was one of us
Just a slob like one of us
Just a stranger on the bus
Trying to make his way home

If God had a face what would it look like
And would you want to see
If seeing meant that you would have to believe
In things like heaven and in Jesus and the saints and all the prophets

~as recorded by Joan Osbourne

 

[the iron horse]

Sunday Dispatch.542

Sunday Dispatch.542

The way to Christmas lies through an ancient gate....It is a little gate, child-high, child-wide, and there is a password: "Peace on earth to men of good will." May you, this Christmas, become as a little child again and enter into His kingdom.

~Angelo Patri

 

[the iron horse]

Sunday Dispatch.543

Sunday Dispatch.543


Be Glad. Be Good. Be Brave

~Eleanor H. Porter

 

[the iron horse]

Sunday Dispatch.544

Sunday Dispatch.544

The Christian task is not to provide easy answers to every perplexing question;
it is to make us ever more aware of a gracious and wonderful mystery, the mystery of God.
Rather than an object of our knowledge, God should be the cause of our wonder (Psalms 8:1).

~Barry L.Callen

 

[coolian2]

and tebow said let there be jesus

 

[the iron horse]

Sunday Dispatch.545

Sunday Dispatch.545


The World Is Not a Stage

1 "Be especially careful when you are trying to be good so that you don't make a performance out of it. It might be good theater, but the God who made you won't be applauding.

2-4"When you do something for someone else, don't call attention to yourself. You've seen them in action, I'm sure—'playactors' I call them— treating prayer meeting and street corner alike as a stage, acting compassionate as long as someone is watching, playing to the crowds. They get applause, true, but that's all they get. When you help someone out, don't think about how it looks. Just do it—quietly and unobtrusively. That is the way your God, who conceived you in love, working behind the scenes, helps you out.


Pray with Simplicity

5"And when you come before God, don't turn that into a theatrical production either. All these people making a regular show out of their prayers, hoping for stardom! Do you think God sits in a box seat?


6"Here's what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won't be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace.

7-13"The world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer-ignorant. They're full of formulas and programs and advice, peddling techniques for getting what you want from God. Don't fall for that nonsense. This is your Father you are dealing with, and he knows better than you what you need. With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply.

~Matthew 6 (The Message)

 

[nathan1977]

REALLY like the Ten Boom quote. Very relevant for a situation I'm going through right now. Thanks.

 

[the iron horse]

Sunday Dispatch.546

Sunday Dispatch.546


Show me the place help me roll away the stone
Show me the place I can't move this thing alone
Show me the place where the Word became a man
Show me the place where the suffering began

~Leonard Cohen, from the album Old Ideas

 

[the iron horse]

Sunday Dispatch.547

Sunday Dispatch.547


I discovered later, and I'm still discovering right up to this moment, that is it only by living completely in this world that one learns to have faith. By this-worldliness I mean living unreservedly in life's duties, problems, successes and failures. In so doing we throw ourselves completely into the arms of God, taking seriously, not our own sufferings, but those of God in the world. That, I think, is faith.

~Dietrich Bonhoeffer

 

[the iron horse]

Sunday Dispatch.548

Sunday Dispatch.548

Happy is he who has faith in God, for in the end he will overcome all the difficulties of life, albeit not without
trouble and sorrow. One cannot do better than hold onto the thought of God through everything, under all
circumstances, at all places, at all times, and try to aquire more knowledge about Him, which one can do from the
Bible as well as from all other things.

~Vincent van Gogh, Letters to Theo

 

[the iron horse]

Sunday Dispatch.549

Sunday Dispatch.549


Earth's crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God, but only he who sees takes off his shoes.

~Elizabeth Barrett Browing

 

[the iron horse]

Sunday Dispatch.550

Sunday Dispatch.550


Every happening, great and small, is a parable whereby God speaks to us, and the art of life is to get the message.

~Malcom Muggereridge

 

[the iron horse]

Sunday Dispatch.551

Sunday Dispatch.551


And Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”

Philip said to him, “Come and see.”


~John 1:46

 

[the iron horse]

Sunday Dispatch.552

Sunday Dispatch.552


Those who tell the Truth love you. Those who tell you what you want to hear love themselves.

~Angelica

 

[the iron horse]

Sunday Dispatch.553

Sunday Dispatch.553

Life is difficult. This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths.
It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it.
Once we truly know that life is difficult-once we truly understand and accept it-then life is no longer difficult.
Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters.

~M. Scott Peck

 

[the iron horse]

Sunday Dispatch.554

Sunday Dispatch.554


There he is. In the temple again. Causing trouble.

Speaking very different from other preachers.
Speaking with authority about sorrow, anxiety, sickness,and death.

Penetrating the dark corners of human existence.

Shattering illusion.

Make no mistake about it; this is a dangerous man


~ Martin Bell

 

[the iron horse]

Sunday Dispatch.555

Sunday Dispatch.555


Religious Fashion Shows

Now Jesus turned to address his disciples, along with the crowd that had gathered with them. "The religion scholars and Pharisees are competent teachers in God's Law. You won't go wrong in following their teachings on Moses. But be careful about following them. They talk a good line, but they don't live it. They don't take it into their hearts and live it out in their behavior. It's all spit-and-polish veneer.

"Instead of giving you God's Law as food and drink by which you can banquet on God, they package it in bundles of rules, loading you down like pack animals. They seem to take pleasure in watching you stagger under these loads, and wouldn't think of lifting a finger to help. Their lives are perpetual fashion shows, embroidered prayer shawls one day and flowery prayers the next. They love to sit at the head table at church dinners, basking in the most prominent positions, preening in the radiance of public flattery, receiving honorary degrees, and getting called 'Doctor' and 'Reverend.'

"Don't let people do that to you, put you on a pedestal like that. You all have a single Teacher, and you are all classmates. Don't set people up as experts over your life, letting them tell you what to do. Save that authority for God; let him tell you what to do. No one else should carry the title of 'Father'; you have only one Father, and he's in heaven. And don't let people maneuver you into taking charge of them. There is only one Life-Leader for you and them—Christ.

"Do you want to stand out? Then step down. Be a servant. If you puff yourself up, you'll get the wind knocked out of you. But if you're content to simply be yourself, your life will count for plenty.


~Matthew 23:1-12 (The Message)

 

[the iron horse]

Sunday Dispatch.556

Sunday Dispatch.556


Hey, King! Where’s your crown, where’s your Cadillac?
I’ve never seen a king before – on a donkey’s back.

~Paul Grant & Marian Palmer



The next day the huge crowd that had arrived for the Feast heard that Jesus was entering Jerusalem. They broke off palm branches and went out to meet him. And they cheered:

Hosanna!

Blessed is he who comes in God's name!

Yes! The King of Israel!
Jesus got a young donkey and rode it, just as the Scripture has it:

No fear, Daughter Zion:
See how your king comes,
riding a donkey's colt.

The disciples didn't notice the fulfillment of many Scriptures at the time, but after Jesus was glorified, they remembered that what was written about him matched what was done to him.

The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus from the tomb, raising him from the dead, was there giving eyewitness accounts. It was because they had spread the word of this latest God-sign that the crowd swelled to a welcoming parade. The Pharisees took one look and threw up their hands: "It's out of control. The world's in a stampede after him."

~John 12 (The Message)

 

[the iron horse]

Sunday Dispatch.557

Sunday Dispatch.557


He was a plain man
and learned no Latin

Having left all gold behind
he dealt out peace
to all us wild men
and the weather

He ate fish, bread
country wine

and God's will

Dust sandalled his feet

He wore purple only once
and that was an irony


~Luci Shaw

 

[the iron horse]

Sunday Dispatch.558

Sunday Dispatch.558


They drove me up the hill, Thomas
I am the man

They made me carry the cross, Thomas
I am the man

I am the man, Thomas
I am the man

Look at these nail scars
Here in my hand

They crowned my head with thorns, Thomas
I am the man

They nailed me to the cross, Thomas
I am the man

I am the man, Thomas
I am the man
Look at these nail scars
Here in my hand

They pierced me in the side, Thomas
I am the man

I died on the cross,
Thomas
I am the man

I am the man, Thomas
I am the man
Look at these nails scars
Here in my hand

They buried me in the tomb, Thomas
I am the man

In three days I rose, Thomas
I am the man

I am the man, Thomas
I am the man
Look at these nails scars
Here in my hand


~Ralph Stanley and Larry Sparks

 

[the iron horse]

Sunday Dispatch.559

Sunday Dispatch.559

Life isn't about having, it's about being. You could surround yourself with all that money can buy, and you'd still be as miserable as a human can be. I know people with perfect bodies who don't have half the happiness I've found. On my journeys I've seen more joy in the slums of Mumbai and the orphanages of Africa than in wealthy gated communities and on sprawling estates worth millions. Why is that? You'll find contentment when your talents and passion are completely engaged, in full force. Recognise instant self-gratification for what it is. Resist the temptation to grab for material objects like the perfect house, the coolest clothes or the hottest car. The if I just had X, I would be happy syndrome is a mass delusion. When you look for happiness in mere objects, they are never enough. Look around. Look within.

~Nick Vujicic

 

[the iron horse]

Sunday Dispatch.560

Sunday Dispatch.560


September 25,1875
Paris

Dear Theo,

The path is narrow, therefore we must be careful. You know how others have arrived where we want to go, let us take that simple road too.

Ora et Labora, [Pray and work] let us do our daily work, whatever the hand finds to do, with all our strength and let us believe that God will give good gifts, a part that will not be taken away, to those who ask Him for it.

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new!” [2 Cor. v.17.]

How I am longing for Christmas, but let us have patience, it will come soon enough.

Courage, lad; my compliments to all the friends, and believe me,

Your loving brother,

Vincent


~From Letters to Theo, Vincent van Gogh

 

[the iron horse]

Sunday Dispatch.561

Sunday Dispatch.561

Christianity is realistic because it says that if there is no truth, there is also no hope;
and there can be no truth if there is no adequate base. It is prepared to face the consequences
of being proved false and say with Paul: If you find the body of Christ, the discussion is finished,
let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die. It leaves absolutely no room for a romantic answer.

~Francis Schaeffer

 

[the iron horse]

Sunday Dispatch.562

Sunday Dispatch.562


Why should I feel discouraged, why should the shadows come,
Why should my heart be lonely, and long for heav’n and home,
When Jesus is my portion? My constant Friend is He:
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me;
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.

I sing because I’m happy, I sing because I’m free,
For His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.


~Civilla Martin and Charles Gabriel

 

[the iron horse]

Sunday Dispatch.563

Sunday Dispatch.563


Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life.
I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it.
Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you.
Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly.

~Matthew 11:28-30 (The Message)

 

[the iron horse]

Sunday Dispatch.564

Sunday Dispatch.564


To all the people doing lines
Don't do it, don't do it
Inject your soul with liberty
It's free, it's free
To all the kids with heroin eyes
Don't do it, don't do it
Cos it's not, not what it seems
Oh no it's not, not what it seems

Salvation, Salvation, Salvation is free
Salvation, Salvation, Salvation is free

~The Cranberries