House church hasn't happened in a couple weeks, due to people being unable to come or the hosts being unable to host, and thus there haven't been any quotes this month from the book we're reading. Eric & Tiffany came up with a great idea: instead of hosting at their house, house church will meet at the Hilltop, where Andy works. Anyone who can make it can come. Although we're not reading the book anymore, because some people didn't like it, others didn't have copies, and people either (a) finished it themselves and moved to something else or (b) didn't wish to pick it up at all. I'm going to keep plowing through, though in bits and chunks rather than chapter-by-chapter.
Chapter Six: The Work of the Kingdom (I)
"The will of God is reality. It is like a river of life coming down from God to Jesus--a bloodstream through which he draws life even more profoundly and more powerfully than he drew life from his mother. And whoever is ready to do the will of God becomes a part of this bloodstream. The believer and doer is united to the life of Christ Jesus even more truly, deeply, and strongly than Jesus was united to his mother."
"The mind of Jesus is focused on the fulfillment of God's will through the proclamation of the Reign of God. Jesus' intimacy with God and awareness of God's holiness fills him with an all-consuming thirst for the things of God. His interior life of trust and loving surrender is not simply a matter of personal prayer, private religious experience, and delight in God's innate presence. Such a limited relationship with God would ignore the real world and its struggle for redemption, justice, and peace. No, the inner life of Jesus Christ takes expression in a special, vital quality of presence in the world in the most active situations."
"There was a towering desire within Jesus to reveal his Father in serving the poor, the captive, the blind, and all who were in need. Jesus was entirely devoured by this mission. It was Jesus' experience of God's holiness that created the imperative of preaching the reign of God's justice, peace, and forgiving love."
"All three of Satan's [wilderness] ploys ('If you are the Son...') are intended to press the same questions: Is Jesus really Son-Servant-Beloved? Was the Jordan experience merely an illusion? Did anyone else hear the voice Jesus heard? Satan launches a frontal assault on the religious identity of Jesus. The gospel pericope does not dwell on the inner struggle and fierce conflict in the human heart of Jesus, but the issue was tumultuous... Jesus' trust in his Father is not a single decision that leaves him certain of his mission and immune to the Tempter. His brush with the devil in the desert is the first of a series of challenges to his self-awareness and inner identity as Son-Servant-Beloved of the Father."
"Jesus' self-awareness and unflagging zeal in his ministry must be seen in direct and unceasing relation to his interior life of growing intimacy with the Father. We must not lose sight of this logical link: the primacy of mission and his consuming zeal for proclaiming the kingdom of God derive not from theological reflection, the desire to edify others, trendy spirituality, or a loos sense of goodwill towards the world. Its wellspring is God's holiness and Jesus' self-awareness of his relation to God."
"It is highly significant that the gospel is punctuated with numerous references to Jesus' withdrawal from the mainstream of activity to pray. The Bible indicates that Jesus needs this special kind of intimate contact with his Father... The heart of God is Jesus' hiding place, a strong protective space where God is near, where connection is renewed, where trust, love, and self-awareness never die but are continually rekindled. In times of opposition, rejection, hatred, and danger, Jesus retreats to that hiding place where he is loved. In times of weakness and fear, a gentle strength and mighty perseverance are born there. In the face of mounting incomprehension and mistrust, the Father alone understands him."
"In the seclusion of desert places, he meets with El Shaddai, and what those moments mean to him can scarcely be understood. But this much can be said: the primary, growing, definitive identity of Jesus as his Father's Son, Servant, and Beloved is profoundly reinforced there. Nothing must interfere with proclaiming the good news of eternal life and helping people move into a way of life that will enable them to grow toward eternity--a way of peace and justice with room for human dignity to be recognized and for love to blossom."
"One cannot but think of the number of wrong marriages, wrong jobs, wrong personal relationships, and all the concomitant suffering that would be avoided if Christians submitted their decision-making process to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and shared in his intimate trust in God's direction."
"We often forget that we have the same access to God that Jesus enjoyed. But we must never forget that our Creator cares. God knows each of us by names and is deeply involved in the dramas of our personal existence... The sounds of inner peace resonate in the heart attuned to God, while the untuned heart caught up in singing its own song throbs with agitation, conflict, dissonance, and contretemps."
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