Sunday Dispatch Megathread

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
Sunday Dispatch.587

Sunday Dispatch.587


I am an historian, I am not a believer, but I must confess as a historian that this penniless preacher from Nazareth is irrevocably the very center of history. Jesus Christ is easily the most dominant figure in all history.

~H.G. Wells
 
Sunday Dispatch.588

Sunday Dispatch.588


Thanksgiving

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food,
For love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.

~Ralph Waldo Emerson
 
Sunday Dispatch.589

Sunday Dispatch.589


Through million miles of walking and a million things to say
I can’t cut closer to the bone, hard time, they never go away.
Through million miles of walking and a million things to say
I can’t cut closer to the bone, hard time, they never go away.

~Kelly Joe Phelps / Brother Sinner and the Whale
 
Sunday Dispatch.590

Sunday Dispatch.590

So many years, dead on a hollow road,
Dirty old blood running through my veins.
Make it all kind of weird decision,
Caught all the life from the sky.
See it change as my knees are falling down to the praying ground.
Oh, wouldn’t mind, grateful give my soul for God, for God, yeah.

It’s been a time I should’ve know of it soon,
Rather be lying in the cold, cold ground
Instead I’m walking along on this highway and even the God’s holy word,
Oh, I pray to the Lord in Heaven, forgiveness is what I came for.
Holy might, grab hold of my soul, for God.

Oh, Lord, forgive me, Lord, have mercy, Lord, have mercy, Lord, forgive me.
I’m gonna live for God.

~Kelley Joe Phelps / Brother Sinner and the Whale
 
Sunday Dispatch.591

Sunday Dispatch.591

People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.
If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway.
If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway.
The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway.

For you see, in the end, it is between you and God.
It was never between you and them anyway.

~Mother Teresa
 
Sunday Dispatch.593

Sunday Dispatch.593


Charlie Brown:I guess you were right, Linus. I shouldn't have picked this little tree. Everything I do turns into a disaster. I guess I really don't know what Christmas is all about.
[shouting in desperation]
Isn't there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?

Linus Van Pelt:Sure, Charlie Brown, I can tell you what Christmas is all about.
[moves toward the center of the stage]

Lights, please.

[a spotlight shines on Linus]
"And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, 'Fear not: for behold, I bring unto you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.' And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.'"
[Linus picks up his blanket and walks back towards Charlie Brown]

That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.

~Charles Schulz


He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

~Colossian 1:15
 
Sunday Dispatch.594

Sunday Dispatch.594


The world is indeed full of peril and in it there are many dark places.
But still there is much that is fair. And though in all lands, love is now
mingled with grief, it still grows, perhaps, the greater.

~J.R.R. Tolkien
 
Sunday Dispatch.595

Sunday Dispatch.595

We must cast ourselves into the depths, if we want to catch something, and if at
times we must work throughout the night without catching anything, it is good not
to give in, but to cast the net again in the morning.

So let us go quietly on, each on his own road, going toward the light, "sursum
corda"[lift up the heart], and those who know that we are what others are and
that others are what we are and that it is a good thing to love one another; namely
in the best way, believing all things and hoping all things and enduring all things,
perishing nevermore.

And not grieving too much if we have imperfections, for he who has none has, after
all, one-namely that of not having any-and he who thinkshimeslf wise in every way
would do well to start being foolish all over again.

Nous sommes aujourd'bui ce que nous etions hier, namely "honest men," men
who must be tried in the fire of life to become strengthened within, and be, by
the Grace of God, what they are by nature.

So be it with us, and may you have blessings on your way, and God be with you
in all things and make you succeed, that is the wish, with a warm handshake on
your deparure.

Your loving brother, Vincent


~Selected from the Complete Letters of Vincent van Gough, from a letter to
his brother Leo
 
Sunday Dispatch.597

Sunday Dispatch.597

Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out;
you formed me in my mother’s womb.

I thank you, High God—you’re breathtaking!
Body and soul, I am marvelously made!
I worship in adoration—what a creation!

You know me inside and out,
you know every bone in my body;
You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit,
how I was sculpted from nothing into something.

Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth;
all the stages of my life were spread out before you,
The days of my life all prepared
before I’d even lived one day.

~Psalm 139:13-16 (The Message)
 
Sunday Dispatch.598

Sunday Dispatch.598


If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.

~ C.S. Lewis
 
Sunday Dispatch.599

Sunday Dispatch.599

When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for
people were saying, "He has gone out of his mind."

~Mark 3:21
 
Sunday Dispatch.600

Sunday Dispatch.600


“Are you listening to this? Really listening?”

When they were off by themselves, those who were close to him, along with the Twelve, asked about the stories. He told them, “You’ve been given insight into God’s kingdom—you know how it works. But to those who can’t see it yet, everything comes in stories, creating readiness, nudging them toward receptive insight. These are people—

Whose eyes are open but don’t see a thing,
Whose ears are open but don’t understand a word,
Who avoid making an about-face and getting forgiven.”

He continued, “Do you see how this story works? All my stories work this way.

~Mark 4:9-13 (The Message)
 
Sunday Dispatch.601

Sunday Dispatch.601


“He is the playfulness of creation, scandal and utter goodness, the generosity of the ocean and the ferocity of a thunderstorm; he is cunning as a snake and gentle as a whisper; the gladness of sunshine and the humility of a thirty-mile walk by foot on a dirt road.”

~John Eldredge, Beautiful Outlaw: Experiencing the Playful, Disruptive, Extravagant Personality of Jesus
 
Sunday Dispatch.602

Sunday Dispatch.602

Jesus once again addressed them: “I am the world’s Light. No one who follows me stumbles around in the darkness. I provide plenty of light to live in.”

The Pharisees objected, “All we have is your word on this. We need more than this to go on.”

Jesus replied, “You’re right that you only have my word. But you can depend on it being true. I know where I’ve come from and where I go next. You don’t know where I’m from or where I’m headed. You decide according to what you can see and touch. I don’t make judgments like that. But even if I did, my judgment would be true because I wouldn’t make it out of the narrowness of my experience but in the largeness of the One who sent me, the Father. That fulfills the conditions set down in God’s Law: that you can count on the testimony of two witnesses. And that is what you have: You have my word and you have the word of the Father who sent me.”

They said, “Where is this so-called Father of yours?”

Jesus said, “You’re looking right at me and you don’t see me. How do you expect to see the Father? If you knew me, you would at the same time know the Father.”


~John 8:12-19 (The Message)
 
Sunday Dispatch.603

Sunday Dispatch.603


Come on up to the house
Come on up to the house
The world is not my home
I'm just a passin thru
Come on up to the house

There's no light in the tunnel No irons in the fire
Come on up to the house
And your singin lead soprano
In a junkman's choir
You gotta come on up to the house

Does life seem nasty, brutish and short
Come on up to the house
The seas are stormy
And you can't find no port
Come on up to the house

~Tom Waits
 
Sunday Dispatch.604

Sunday Dispatch.604


Imagine a new religious sect suddenly emerging that
uses an electric chair or a gas chamber as the symbol of their faith.

First century people were horrified by the early Christians using a cross.
 
Sunday Dispatch.606

Sunday Dispatch.606

The servant grew up before God—a scrawny seedling,
a scrubby plant in a parched field.
There was nothing attractive about him,
nothing to cause us to take a second look.

He was looked down on and passed over,
a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand.
One look at him and people turned away.
We looked down on him, thought he was scum.

But the fact is, it was our pains he carried—
our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us.
We thought he brought it on himself,
that God was punishing him for his own failures.

But it was our sins that did that to him,
that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins!
He took the punishment, and that made us whole.
Through his bruises we get healed.

We’re all like sheep who’ve wandered off and gotten lost.
We’ve all done our own thing, gone our own way.

And God has piled all our sins, everything we’ve done wrong,
on him, on him.

~Isaiah 53:2-6 (The Message)
 
Sunday Dispatch.607

Sunday Dispatch.607

The iron hand, it ain't no match for the iron rod
The strongest wall will crumble and fall to a mighty God

For all those who have eyes and all those who have ears
It is only he who can reduce me to tears
Don't you cry and don't you die and don't you burn
For like a thief in the night
He'll replace wrong with right
When he returns

Truth is an arrow
and the gate is narrow that it passes through
He unleashed his power at an unknown hour that no one knew

How long can I listen to the lies of prejudice?
How long can I stay drunk on fear out in the wilderness?
Can I cast it aside, all this loyalty and this pride?
Will I ever learn that there'll be no peace
That the war won't cease
Until he returns?

Surrender your crown on this blood-stained ground, take off your mask
He sees your deeds, he knows your needs even before you ask

How long can you falsify and deny what is real?
How long can you hate yourself for the weakness you conceal?

Of every earthly plan that be known to man
He is unconcerned

He's got plans of his own to set up his throne
When he returns


~from Slow Train Coming, Bob Dylan
 
Sunday Dispatch.608

Sunday Dispatch.608

Have some of you noticed that we are not yet perfect? (No great surprise, right?) And are you ready to make the accusation that since people like me, who go through Christ in order to get things right with God, aren’t perfectly virtuous, Christ must therefore be an accessory to sin? The accusation is frivolous. If I was “trying to be good,” I would be rebuilding the same old barn that I tore down. I would be acting as a charlatan.

What actually took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn’t work. So I quit being a “law man” so that I could be God’s man. Christ’s life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not “mine,” but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that.

Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God’s grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily.

~Galatians 2:17-21 (The Message)
 
Sunday Dispatch.609

Sunday Dispatch.609

Welcome with open arms fellow believers who don’t see things the way you do. And don’t jump all over them every time they do or say something you don’t agree with—even when it seems that they are strong on opinions but weak in the faith department. Remember, they have their own history to deal with. Treat them gently.

For instance, a person who has been around for a while might well be convinced that he can eat anything on the table, while another, with a different background, might assume he should only be a vegetarian and eat accordingly. But since both are guests at Christ’s table, wouldn’t it be terribly rude if they fell to criticizing what the other ate or didn’t eat?

God, after all, invited them both to the table. Do you have any business crossing people off the guest list or interfering with God’s welcome? If there are corrections to be made or manners to be learned, God can handle that without your help.

Or, say, one person thinks that some days should be set aside as holy and another thinks that each day is pretty much like any other. There are good reasons either way. So, each person is free to follow the convictions of conscience.

What’s important in all this is that if you keep a holy day, keep it for God’s sake; if you eat meat, eat it to the glory of God and thank God for prime rib; if you’re a vegetarian, eat vegetables to the glory of God and thank God for broccoli. None of us are permitted to insist on our own way in these matters. It’s God we are answerable to—all the way from life to death and everything in between—not each other. That’s why Jesus lived and died and then lived again: so that he could be our Master across the entire range of life and death, and free us from the petty tyrannies of each other.

So where does that leave you when you criticize a brother? And where does that leave you when you condescend to a sister? I’d say it leaves you looking pretty silly—or worse. Eventually, we’re all going to end up kneeling side by side in the place of judgment, facing God. Your critical and condescending ways aren’t going to improve your position there one bit. Read it for yourself in Scripture:


“As I live and breathe,” God says,
“every knee will bow before me;
Every tongue will tell the honest truth
that I and only I am God.”

So tend to your knitting. You’ve got your hands full just taking care of your own life before God.


~Romans 14:1-12 (The Message)
 
Sunday Dispatch.610

Sunday Dispatch.610

Make sure you don’t take things for granted and go slack in working for the common good; share what you have with others. God takes particular pleasure in acts of worship—a different kind of “sacrifice”—that take place in the kitchen and workplace and on the streets.

~Hebrews 13:16 (The Message)
 
sunday Dispatch.611

Sunday Dispatch.611

Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.

~Philippians 4:6-7 (The Message)
 
Sunday Dispatch.612

Sunday Dispatch.612


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

~Elizabeth Barrett Browning
 
Sunday Dispatch.613

Sunday Dispatch.613


People always got the image I was an anti-Christ or antireligion. I'm not. I'm a most religious fellow. I was brought up a Christian and I only now understand some of the things that Christ was saying in those parables.

~John Lennon-1980.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

cobl04
New Zealander and Australian champion DOMINATES and embarrasses NASCAR field on debut
Replies
2
Views
521
cobl04
cobl04
M
Ticketmaster app
Replies
3
Views
495
rosephile
R
Miroslava
Friday, February 23, 2024 - MSG Sphere - Las Vegas, NV
Replies
2
Views
500
Miroslava
Miroslava
N
NBA 2023-24 Thread
11 12 13
Replies
371
Views
11K
cobl04
cobl04
MrsSpringsteen
Gilead States Of America
Replies
16
Views
902
MrsSpringsteen
MrsSpringsteen

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom