Gleanings… July 2019

Thought you might enjoy a few quotes and questions that seem to accumulate.  Here are some that have gathered on my desk.  Hope you enjoy them.

“When it comes to change, churches will always worry more about members they might lose than strangers they might bless.”

— Thomas G. Bandy

God loves you.

God is on your side.

God is coming after you.

God is relentless.

The only message of Eugene Peterson’s ministry as related by his son at his funeral.

Don’t let what you do define who you are.

Don’t smack the rock, speak to the rock.

Your focus will determine your flow.

You were created to thrive in a particular environment.

You must let go the past to embrace the future.

Don’t allow your past to dictate your future.

It doesn’t have to be either/or, but both/and.

Above All, Trust in the Slow Work of God

Above all, trust in the slow work of God.  We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay.  We should like to skip the intermediate stages.  We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new.

Yet it is the law of all progress that is made by passing through some stages of instability and that may take a very long time.  And so I think it is with you.  Your ideas mature gradually.  Let them grow.  Let them shape themselves without undue haste.

Do not try to force them on as though you could be today what time — that is to say, grace — and circumstances acting on your own good will will make you tomorrow.  Only God could say what this new Spirit gradually forming in you will be.

Give our Lord the benefit of believing that his hand is leading you, and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself in suspense and incomplete.

Above all, trust in the slow work of God, our loving vine-dresser.

Amen.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Did anything catch your attention?  Were any questions raised in your heart?  Let me know if you would like to sit and talk about any of these.  I would love to hear your thoughts.

See you Sunday if not before,      Pastor Braxton ><>