Quotes & Sayings


We, and creation itself, actualize the possibilities of the God who sustains the world, towards becoming in the world in a fuller, more deeper way. - R.E. Slater

There is urgency in coming to see the world as a web of interrelated processes of which we are integral parts, so that all of our choices and actions have [consequential effects upon] the world around us. - Process Metaphysician Alfred North Whitehead

Kurt Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem says (i) all closed systems are unprovable within themselves and, that (ii) all open systems are rightly understood as incomplete. - R.E. Slater

The most true thing about you is what God has said to you in Christ, "You are My Beloved." - Tripp Fuller

The God among us is the God who refuses to be God without us, so great is God's Love. - Tripp Fuller

According to some Christian outlooks we were made for another world. Perhaps, rather, we were made for this world to recreate, reclaim, redeem, and renew unto God's future aspiration by the power of His Spirit. - R.E. Slater

Our eschatological ethos is to love. To stand with those who are oppressed. To stand against those who are oppressing. It is that simple. Love is our only calling and Christian Hope. - R.E. Slater

Secularization theory has been massively falsified. We don't live in an age of secularity. We live in an age of explosive, pervasive religiosity... an age of religious pluralism. - Peter L. Berger

Exploring the edge of life and faith in a post-everything world. - Todd Littleton

I don't need another reason to believe, your love is all around for me to see. – Anon

Thou art our need; and in giving us more of thyself thou givest us all. - Khalil Gibran, Prayer XXIII

Be careful what you pretend to be. You become what you pretend to be. - Kurt Vonnegut

Religious beliefs, far from being primary, are often shaped and adjusted by our social goals. - Jim Forest

We become who we are by what we believe and can justify. - R.E. Slater

People, even more than things, need to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone. – Anon

Certainly, God's love has made fools of us all. - R.E. Slater

An apocalyptic Christian faith doesn't wait for Jesus to come, but for Jesus to become in our midst. - R.E. Slater

Christian belief in God begins with the cross and resurrection of Jesus, not with rational apologetics. - Eberhard Jüngel, Jürgen Moltmann

Our knowledge of God is through the 'I-Thou' encounter, not in finding God at the end of a syllogism or argument. There is a grave danger in any Christian treatment of God as an object. The God of Jesus Christ and Scripture is irreducibly subject and never made as an object, a force, a power, or a principle that can be manipulated. - Emil Brunner

“Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh” means "I will be that who I have yet to become." - God (Ex 3.14) or, conversely, “I AM who I AM Becoming.”

Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. - Thomas Merton

The church is God's world-changing social experiment of bringing unlikes and differents to the Eucharist/Communion table to share life with one another as a new kind of family. When this happens, we show to the world what love, justice, peace, reconciliation, and life together is designed by God to be. The church is God's show-and-tell for the world to see how God wants us to live as a blended, global, polypluralistic family united with one will, by one Lord, and baptized by one Spirit. – Anon

The cross that is planted at the heart of the history of the world cannot be uprooted. - Jacques Ellul

The Unity in whose loving presence the universe unfolds is inside each person as a call to welcome the stranger, protect animals and the earth, respect the dignity of each person, think new thoughts, and help bring about ecological civilizations. - John Cobb & Farhan A. Shah

If you board the wrong train it is of no use running along the corridors of the train in the other direction. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

God's justice is restorative rather than punitive; His discipline is merciful rather than punishing; His power is made perfect in weakness; and His grace is sufficient for all. – Anon

Our little [biblical] systems have their day; they have their day and cease to be. They are but broken lights of Thee, and Thou, O God art more than they. - Alfred Lord Tennyson

We can’t control God; God is uncontrollable. God can’t control us; God’s love is uncontrolling! - Thomas Jay Oord

Life in perspective but always in process... as we are relational beings in process to one another, so life events are in process in relation to each event... as God is to Self, is to world, is to us... like Father, like sons and daughters, like events... life in process yet always in perspective. - R.E. Slater

To promote societal transition to sustainable ways of living and a global society founded on a shared ethical framework which includes respect and care for the community of life, ecological integrity, universal human rights, respect for diversity, economic justice, democracy, and a culture of peace. - The Earth Charter Mission Statement

Christian humanism is the belief that human freedom, individual conscience, and unencumbered rational inquiry are compatible with the practice of Christianity or even intrinsic in its doctrine. It represents a philosophical union of Christian faith and classical humanist principles. - Scott Postma

It is never wise to have a self-appointed religious institution determine a nation's moral code. The opportunities for moral compromise and failure are high; the moral codes and creeds assuredly racist, discriminatory, or subjectively and religiously defined; and the pronouncement of inhumanitarian political objectives quite predictable. - R.E. Slater

God's love must both center and define the Christian faith and all religious or human faiths seeking human and ecological balance in worlds of subtraction, harm, tragedy, and evil. - R.E. Slater

In Whitehead’s process ontology, we can think of the experiential ground of reality as an eternal pulse whereby what is objectively public in one moment becomes subjectively prehended in the next, and whereby the subject that emerges from its feelings then perishes into public expression as an object (or “superject”) aiming for novelty. There is a rhythm of Being between object and subject, not an ontological division. This rhythm powers the creative growth of the universe from one occasion of experience to the next. This is the Whiteheadian mantra: “The many become one and are increased by one.” - Matthew Segall

Without Love there is no Truth. And True Truth is always Loving. There is no dichotomy between these terms but only seamless integration. This is the premier centering focus of a Processual Theology of Love. - R.E. Slater

-----

Note: Generally I do not respond to commentary. I may read the comments but wish to reserve my time to write (or write off the comments I read). Instead, I'd like to see our community help one another and in the helping encourage and exhort each of us towards Christian love in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. - re slater

Sunday, April 12, 2020

Good Friday Message - God Is Love




After a brutal night
begun on capture, then
purgerous inquisition,
Jesus was scourged,
marched wounded
under his cross
up Jerusalem's
stony steeps.

His visage marred,
spit upon by haters,
bearing broken body,
wounded and despised,
hailed as Lord a week
before, mercilessly led
up Golgotha' s
weeping Hill.

Crucified mid-morning,
crowned in thorns,
jered and mocked,
hung creation's Savior
forsaken, forgiving,
dying mid-afternoon,
wept by mom, and
disciples forlorn.

Jesus dead body
was taken down,
cleansed, dressed,
and laid in another's
cold tomb three days,
until Sunday morning
met an atoning dawn
and empty tomb.

- r.e. slater
April 12, 2020
*Isaiah 52.13-53.12

@copyright R.E. Slater Publications
all rights reserved







ISAIAH 52.13 - 53.12

The Exalted Servant

13 Behold, My servant will prosper,
He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted.
14 Just as many were astonished at you, My people,
So His appearance was marred more than any man
And His form more than the sons of men.
15 Thus He will sprinkle many nations,
Kings will shut their mouths on account of Him;
For what had not been told them they will see,
And what they had not heard they will understand.

The Suffering Servant

53 Who has believed our message?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot,
And like a root out of parched ground;
He has no stately form or majesty
That we should look upon Him,
Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.
3 He was despised and forsaken of men,
A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
And like one from whom men hide their face
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

4 Surely our griefs He Himself bore,
And our sorrows He carried;
Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten of God, and afflicted.
5 But He was pierced through
for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities;
The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him,
And by His scourging we are healed.
6 All of us like sheep have gone astray,
Each of us has turned to his own way;
But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all
To fall on Him.

7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He did not open His mouth;
Like a lamb that is led to slaughter,
And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers,
So He did not open His mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment He was taken away;
And as for His generation, who considered
That He was cut off out of the land of the [s]living
For the transgression of my people,
to whom the stroke was due?
9 His grave was assigned with wicked men,
Yet He was with a rich man in His death,
Because He had done no violence,
Nor was there any deceit in His mouth.

10 But the Lord was pleased
To crush Him, putting Him to grief;
If He would render Himself as a guilt offering,
He will see His offspring,
He will prolong His days,
And the good pleasure of the Lord
will prosper in His hand.
11 As a result of the anguish of His soul,
He will see it and be satisfied;
By His knowledge the Righteous One,
My Servant, will justify the many,
As He will bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great,
And He will divide the booty with the strong;
Because He poured out Himself to death,
And was numbered with the transgressors;
Yet He Himself bore the sin of many,
And interceded for the transgressors.




 



1 And straightway in the morning the chief priests
with the elders and scribes, and the whole council,
held a consultation, and bound Jesus,
and carried him away,
and delivered him up to Pilate.

2 And Pilate asked him, Art thou the King of the Jews?
And he answering saith unto him, Thou sayest.

3 And the chief priests accused him of many things.

4 And Pilate again asked him, saying, Answerest thou nothing?
behold how many things they accuse thee of.

5 But Jesus no more answered anything; insomuch that Pilate marvelled.


6 Now at the feast he used to release unto them one prisoner,
whom they asked of him.

7 And there was one called Barabbas, [lying] bound with them that had
made insurrection, men who in the insurrection had committed murder.

8 And the multitude went up and began to ask him
[to do] as he was wont to do unto them.

9 And Pilate answered them, saying, Will ye that I
release unto you the King of the Jews?

10 For he perceived that for envy the chief priests had delivered him up.

11 But the chief priests stirred up the multitude,
that he should rather release Barabbas unto them.

12 And Pilate again answered and said unto them,
What then shall I do unto him whom ye call the King of the Jews?

13 And they cried out again, Crucify him.

14 And Pilate said unto them, Why, what evil hath he done?
But they cried out exceedingly, Crucify him.

15 And Pilate, wishing to content the multitude,
released unto them Barabbas, and delivered Jesus, 
hen he had scourged him, to be crucified.


16 And the soldiers led him away within the court,
which is the Praetorium; and they call together the whole band.

17 And they clothe him with purple, and platting a crown of thorns,
they put it on him;

18 and they began to salute him, Hail, King of the Jews!

19 And they smote his head with a reed, and spat upon him,
and bowing their knees worshipped him.

20 And when they had mocked him, they took off from him the purple,
and put on him his garments. And they lead him out to crucify him.

21 And they compel one passing by, Simon of Cyrene,
coming from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, 
to go [with them], that he might bear his cross.

22 And they brought him unto the place Golgotha,
which is, being interpreted, The place of a skull.

23 And they offered him wine mingled with myrrh: but he received it not.

24 And they crucify him, and part his garments among them, 
casting lots upon them, what each should take.

25 And it was the third hour, and they crucified him.

26 And the superscription of his accusation
 was written over, THE KING OF THE JEWS.

27 And with him they crucify two robbers;
one on his right hand, and one on his left.

28 [And the scripture was fulfilled, which saith,
 And he was reckoned with transgressors.]

29 And they that passed by railed on him, wagging their heads,
and saying, Ha! Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest 
it in three days,

30 save thyself, and come down from the cross.

31 In like manner also the chief priests mocking [him] among themselves
with the scribes said, He saved others; himself he cannot save.

32 Let the Christ, the King of Israel, now come down from 
the cross, that we may see and believe. And they that were
crucified with him reproached him.

33 And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness
over the whole land until the ninth hour.

34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice,
Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted,
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

35 And some of them that stood by, when they heard it, said,
Behold, he calleth Elijah.

36 And one ran, and filling a sponge full of vinegar, put it on a reed,
and gave him to drink, saying, Let be; let us see whether
Elijah cometh to take him down.

37 And Jesus uttered a loud voice, and gave up the ghost.

38 And the veil of the temple was rent in two from the top to the bottom.

39 And when the centurion, who stood by over
against him, saw that he so gave up the ghost, he said,
Truly this man was the Son of God.

40 And there were also women beholding from afar: among whom
[were] both Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James
the less and of Joses, and Salome;

41 who, when he was in Galilee, followed him, and ministered unto him;
and many other women that came up with him unto Jerusalem.

42 And when even was now come, because it was the Preparation,
that is, the day before the sabbath,

43 there came Joseph of Arimathaea, a councillor of honorable estate, 
who also himself was looking for the kingdom of God; and he boldly
went in unto Pilate, and asked for the body of Jesus.

44 And Pilate marvelled if he were already dead: and calling unto him 
the centurion, he asked him whether he had been any while dead.

45 And when he learned it of the centurion, he granted the corpse to Joseph.

46 And he bought a linen cloth, and taking him down, wound him
in the linen cloth, and laid him in a tomb which had been hewn out
of a rock; and he rolled a stone against the door of the tomb.

47 And Mary Magdalene and Mary the [mother] of Joses
beheld where he was laid.



Best Easter Songs 2020 - HE IS RISEN - 
Nonstop Easter Sunday Songs




No comments:

Post a Comment