God Space - Doug Pollock (May - July 2016)
1. ‘Jesus did not send the Holy Spirit to simply reside in our bodies but to preside over them.’
2. ‘Because as soon as you lay your hands on a conversation to steer it, it’s not a conversation anymore; it’s a pitch. And you’re not a human being; you’re a marketing rep… Spiritual conversations should be our ultimate motive, not our ulterior motive.’
3. ‘Our body language, tone of voice, and verbal responses are dead giveaways to the reality that we disagree with much of what people in our culture are saying and doing. When we become self-designated spiritual umpires, calling balls and strikes on the culture by writing letters to the editor, calling in to talk radio shows, and staging boycotts of one kind or another, our reactions speak for themselves… what we need are supernatural responses – “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control” (Galatians 5:22-23)- that communicate radical acceptance, if we hope to create space for spiritual conversations to happen naturally.’
4. ‘When I start seeing the world the way Jesus does, I’m moved to do something about it in his name.’
5. ‘The social gospel divorced from personal salvation is like a body without a soul. The message of personal salvation without a social dimension is like a soul without a body. The former is a corpse; the latter is a ghost.’ – E. Stanley Jones
6. ‘Any time you feel anxious, fearful, uncomfortable, or downright scared to death, there’s a good change that a significant spiritual conversation is waiting for you on the other side of those feelings – if you don’t give in to them. In Luke 9:23-24, Jesus states that we must lose our lives to find them. Listening requires us to die to ourselves and our agendas.’
7. ‘Good questions create a dissonance that compels a change in thinking.’
8. ‘They want us to demonstrate how a book written several thousand years ago could possibly have something to say to them in this day and age… I think that real people talking about real faith in a relevant way is what makes sense in the real world.’
9. ‘Sometimes ‘I don’t know’ is not a cop-out; it’s a humble acknowledgement that God doesn’t come to you for advice.’
10. ‘How God uses your conversations is totally up to him. Therefore, success has nothing to do with the results, but everything to do with being faithful, available, and teachable.’
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