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Archive for the ‘Quotes’ Category

Self Condemnation

Posted in Brother Lawrence, Judgment, Quotes, tagged on May 5, 2011| Leave a Comment »

“I am not at all concerned about being judged … I don’t even pass judgment on myself.” – Apostle Paul (1st Corinthians 4:3-4)

Jesus frees us from all condemnation, even from self. We no longer have to make excuses for our actions or beat ourselves up for our misdeeds – Christ has taken all of that for us. He has become my judge and my justifier so I no longer need to step into those roles.

Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection

There was a monk in Paris’ Carmelite monastery who was simply known as Brother Lawrence. After his death in 1691 some of his conversations were published – here is one that applies:

“[He said] that when an occasion of practicing some virtue offered, he addressed himself to GOD, saying, LORD, I can not do this unless Thou enablest me; and that then he received strength more than sufficient.

That when he had failed in his duty, he only confessed his fault, saying to GOD, I shall never do otherwise, if You leave me to myself; ’tis You must hinder my falling, and mend what is amiss. That after this he gave himself no uneasiness about it.” – Practicing the Presence of God by Father Joseph de Beaufort, Second Conversation”

Prayer: Thank you, Father, you have justified me in Christ. I no longer need to justify myself nor make excuses but turn all my actions, good or bad, to your care.

Sound Bite: Jesus is my judge and justifier, I no longer need to step into those roles.-fritz@langgang.com

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How to Connect Life and Prayer

Posted in Anthony Bloom, Prayer, Quotes, tagged on April 28, 2011| 2 Comments »

Anthony Bloom

Take a moment to read and consider this prescription for connecting life and prayer; I think you will be blessed, I was!

Prayer arises from two sources: either from our wonder at God and the things of God …or else from the sense of tragedy, our own, and especially other people’s.  But otherwise? At other times life and prayer must be made one. For instance, get up in the morning, stand before God and say: «Lord, bless me, and bless this day that is beginning», and then treat the whole day as a gift of God and consider yourself as God’s envoy in this unknown which is the new day.

This simply means something very difficult: that nothing which happens today will be alien to the will of God: everything without exception is a situation in which God will have placed you in order that you should be His presence, his love, his compassion, his creative intelligence, his courage… And on the other hand, every time you encounter a situation, you will be the one whom God has put there to perform the office of a Christian, to be a particle of the body of Christ and an action of God.

If you do that, you will easily see that at every moment you will have to turn to God and say: «Lord, clarify my intelligence, strengthen and direct my will, give me a heart of fire, help me.» At other moments you may say: «Thank you, Lord!» And if you are wise and know how to be thankful, you will avoid the folly that is called vanity or pride, which consists of imagining that one has done something that one could have left undone. It is God who has done it. It is God who has given us this marvelous gift of having that to do.

And when in the evening you present yourself again before God and make a quick examination of the day, you will be able to sing his praises, glorify Him, thank Him, weep over others and weep over yourself.

If you begin to connect your prayer to life in this way, the two will never again be separated

– Anthony Bloom, September 2, 1967

Sound Bite: You are the one God put there to perform the office of a Christian”

– fritz@langgang.com
Read Metropolitan Anthony’s whole message here.
Related Post: God is At Work – Feburary 24, 2011

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Failed Expectations

Posted in Anthony Bloom, Expectations, Holy Week, Quotes on April 22, 2011| Leave a Comment »

We would never cry “Crucify Him!”  But haven’t we?

Holy Week commemorates the events leading to Christ’s resurrection.  Long ago the same people who greeted Jesus with excitement and, “Hosanna!”, later cried “Crucify Him!” – Why?  Failed Expectations.   They expected immediate political deliverance – what do we expect?   Anthony Bloom, former archbishop in the Russian Orthodox Church, said in his Palm Sunday message on April 4, 1993,

How many are those people who have turned away in hatred from Christ because He has disappointed one hope or another.

I remember a women who had been a believer for all her life and whose grandson died, a little boy, and she said to me, “I don’t believe in God anymore.   How could He take my grandson?”   And I said to her, “But you believed in God while thousands and thousands and millions of people died.”   And she looked at me and said, “Yes, but what did that do to me?   I didn’t care, they were not my children”

He goes on to say,

[S]omething happens to us in a small degree so often that we waver … when something which we expect Him to do for us is not done, when He is not an obedient servant, when we proclaim our will, He does not say, “Amen,” and does not do it

So we are not so alien from those who met Christ at the gates of Jerusalem and then turned away from Him.

What do you do when God doesn’t meet your expectations?

– fritz

Read Metropolitian Anthony’s whole message here.

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