I had a hard time reading this book, but I muscled through. I definitely underlined some passages and reveled in some of the chapters' epigraphs, but overall found it difficult. I think this has more to do with my internal landscape than the book, or maybe it was a combination. Peterson always reminds me that the Christian walk is an adventure beyond us (we need the Spirit) rather than a tedious moral TDL. This reminder I need. He reminds me that for all material acts there is a spiritual dimension and vice versa. The church is both a geographic and theological reality. Worship is far more profound than feel-good emotion; it's entering into eternity. Salvation is a meal and a war. Prayer definitely fits in both categories. He lambasts gnosticism and materialism.
Some quotations:
"To live in the past or future is easy. To live in the present is like threading a needle." Walker Percy
Church:
"The life of faith is developed under the image of the Trinity in the context of community." (44)
Worship:
Christians worship with a conviction that they are in the presence of God. Worship is an act of attention to the living God who rules, speaks and reveals, creates and redeems, orders and blesses. Outsiders, observing these acts of worship, see nothing like that.... Revelation 4 and 5 answers the question and gives the last word on worship in five parts: worship centers, gathers, reveals, sings and affirms." (59)
"During the act of worship something has been happening to the worshipers: minds are cleared; perceptions come into focus; spirits are renewed." (66)
Evil:
"But nothing evil has the staying power of good." (77)
Politics:
"Politics reaches into dimensions of behavior and belief.... Dissenters in a society are as dangerous as criminals to the political establishment." (123)
No comments:
Post a Comment