Impossibilities become possibilities

A renewed mind has an utterly changed conception,
not only of reality, but of possibility. A turn
away from the kingdom of this world to the Kingdom
of God provides a whole set of values based not on
the human word, but on Christ's. Impossibilities
become possibilities.
- Elisabeth Elliot

He bids him come and die

The cross is laid on every Christian.... When Christ
calls a man, He bids him come and die. It may be a
death like that of the first disciples who had to
leave home and work to follow Him, or it may be a
death like Luther's, who had to leave the monastery
and go out into the world. But it is the same death
every time - death in Jesus Christ, the death of
the old man at His call. Jesus' summons to the rich
young man was calling him to die, because only the
man who is dead to his own will can follow Christ.
In fact, every command of Jesus is a call to die,
with all our affections and lusts. But we do not
want to die, and therefore Jesus Christ and his call
are necessarily our death as well as our life.
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

Love does not inquire

Love does not inquire into the character of the
recipient but it asks what he needs. It does not
love him because he is such-and-such a person but
because he is there. In all this it is quite the
opposite of natural love: it "does not seek its own"
. It does not perform the characteristic natural
impulse of love and life. Therefore it is basically
independent of the conduct of the other person;
it is not conditional but absolute. It wants nothing
for itself but only for others. Therefore it is also
not vulnerable. It never 'reacts" but is always
"spontaneous", emerging by its own strength - rather,
from the power of God. Love is the real God-likeness
of man for which he has been created. In so far as
love is in man he really resembles God and shows
himself to be the child of God.
- Emil Brunner

Non-duality

"Subhuti asked: "Is it possible to find perfect wisdom through reflection or listening to statements or through signs or attributes, so that one can say 'This is it' or Here it is'?" The Buddha answered, "No, Subhuti. Perfect wisdom can't be learned or distinguished or thought about or found through the senses. This is because nothing in this world can be finally explained; it can only be experienced, and thus all things are just as they are. Perfect wisdom can never be experienced apart from all things. To see the Suchness of things, which is their empty calm being, is to see them just as they are. It is in this way that perfect wisdom and the material world are not two, they are not divided. As a result of Suchness, of calm and empty being, perfect wisdom cannot be known about intellectually. Nor can the things of the world, for they are understood only through names and ideas. When there is no learning or finding out, no concepts or conventional words, it is in that place one can say there is perfect wisdom."

~Ashtasahasrika

Enlightenment as beginning

"In traditional mystical teachings, enlightenment means it's all over. You have reached the end of becoming. But in an evolutionary teaching, enlightenment is where it all begins. Everything begins when you become enlightened. That's when you become available--free from narcissism and self-concern and available for the noble endeavor of creating the future. That's when new life opens up before you. That's when the work of evolutionary becoming starts."

~Andrew Cohen

Chaos

"love transcends the chaos

and brings a calm.

but don't be fooled-

for in that calm

the real chaos cooks-

bubbling up our answers."

~terri st. cloud

The Center

"Sometimes we have to travel to the edge of ourselves to find our center."

~Buck Ghosthorse, Lakota Medicine Man


"The moon and sun are travelers through eternity. Even the years wander on. Whether drifting through life on a boat or climbing toward old age leading a horse, each day is a journey, and the journey itself is home."

~Basho


"I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center."

~Kurt Vonnegut

A transfer of our worship

A sinful act involves worship of the wrong kind,
submitting ourselves at that moment to serve the
appetites of our pride or lust, and so repentance
is literally a transfer of our worship back to the
One who rightfully owns it..... Worship has been
misunderstood as something that arises from a
feeling which "comes upon you," but it is vital that
we understand that it is rooted in a conscious act
of the will, to serve and obey the Lord Jesus Christ.
The feelings, the joy of having been forgiven, follow
on as a consequence of our reunion with him.
- Graham Kendrick

God, invade and conquer us

We might well pray for God to invade and conquer us,
for until He does, we remain in peril from a thousand
foes. We bear within us the seeds of our own
disintegration...The strength of our flesh is an ever
present danger to our souls. Deliverance can come to us
only by the defeat of our old life. Safety and peace come
only after we have been forced to our knees...So He
conquers us and by that benign conquest saves us
for Himself.
- A. W. Tozer

You are a light

Has it never dawned upon you that the essence of
witnessing is just plain honesty? You are salt -
whether you feel like it or not. You are not
told to act like salt but to be what you are. You
are a light. God has done a work in your life.
Don't try to shine. Let the light that God put
there shine out. It demands no more than honesty.
It demands honesty before unbelievers. In fact such
honesty is ninety per cent of witnessing. Witnessing
is not putting on a Christian front as to convince
prospective customers. Witnessing is just being
honest, that is, being true to what God has made you
in your speech and everyday behaviour.
- John White

It is necessary to die

It is necessary to die, but nobody wants to; you don't
want to, but you are going to, willy-nilly. A hard necessity
that is, not to want something which cannot be avoided. If it
could be managed, we would much rather not die; we would
like to become like the angels by some other means than
death. . . . We want to reach the kingdom of God, but we
don't want to travel by way of death. And yet there stands
Necessity saying: "This way, please." Do you hesitate, man,
to go this way, when this is the way that God came to you?
- St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430), "Exposition II, Sermon I on
Psalm 30"

Our Role in an Evolving Creation

In the way that I use the term, God is the energy and intelligence that created the universe and is driving the process forward in every moment. And that energy and intelligence cares desperately about change and innovation and the release of potentials that have not existed before. So it is constantly looking for portals through which it can enter into the world and consciously engage with creating its next step. As conscious human beings who have been blessed with self-awareness and free agency, we are those portals. Each and every one of us is potentially a portal for the energy and intelligence that created the universe. You have a human body and a human personality, but from a certain perspective these are merely sheathes through which the cosmic creativity can shine. From the vantage point of the creative process, your human form, your personality, with all the particulars of your own history, your personal relationships, and your life circumstances, is a vessel for an infinite process that is trying to go somewhere. How conscious are you of this? How conscious is any one of us that in this very moment the cosmic process that produced us is now dependent on us to take its next step?

~Andrew Cohen

Don't Wait

"don't wait for it.
know it's there already.
don't stop to feel it,
move in its flow without thinking.
don't test the wind..
just lift your wings and leap."

~terri st. cloud

Find Center

"Sometimes we have to travel to the edge of ourselves to find our center."
~Buck Ghosthorse, Lakota Medicine Man

"The moon and sun are travelers through eternity. Even the years wander on. Whether drifting through life on a boat or climbing toward old age leading a horse, each day is a journey, and the journey itself is home."
~Basho

"I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center."
~Kurt Vonnegut

Devotion

Devotion is not a passing emotion--it is a fixed,
enduring habit of mind, permeating the whole life,
and shaping every action. It rests upon a conviction
that God is the Sole Source of Holiness, and that our
part is to lean upon Him and be absolutely guided and
governed by Him; and it necessitates an abiding hold
on Him, a perpetual habit of listening for His Voice
within the heart, as of readiness to obey the dictates
of that Voice.
- Jean Nicolas Grou (1731-1803), "The Hidden Life of
the Soul"