Drunken Mystic

Who else?

Some King quotes for the kids.

… the nonviolent resister does not seek to humiliate or defeat the opponent but to win his friendship and understanding. This was always a cry that we had to set before people that our aim is not to defeat the white community, not to humiliate the white community, but to win the friendship of all of the persons who had perpetrated this system in the past. — From “The Power of Non-Violence” 1958

… nonviolent resistance is also an internal matter. It not only avoids external violence or external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. And so at the center of our movement stood the philosophy of love. — “The Power of Non-Violence” 1958

… there are some things within our social order to which I am proud to be maladjusted and to which I call upon you to be maladjusted. – “The Power of Non-Violence” 1958

I am convinced that for practical as well as moral reasons, nonviolence offers the only road to freedom for my people. — “Nonviolence: The Only Road to Freedom” 1966

Nonviolence was never more relevant as an effective tactic than today for the North. It may also be the instrument of our national salvation. — “Showdown for Nonviolence” 1968

We have, through massive nonviolent action, an opportunity to avoid a national disaster and create a new spirit of class and racial harmony. We can write another luminous moral chapter in American history. All of us are on trial in this troubled hour, but time still permits us to meet the future with a clear conscience. — “Showdown for Nonviolence” 1968

This morning, you can only be on his right hand and his left hand if you serve. It’s the only way in.
Every now and then I guess we all think realistically about that day when we will be victimized with what is life’s final common denominator — that something we call death. We all think about it. And every now and then I think about my own death, and I think about my own funeral. And I don’t think of it in a morbid sense. Every now and then I ask myself, “What is it that I would want said?” And I leave the word to you this morning.
If any of you are around when I have to meet my day, I don’t want a long funeral. And if you get somebody to deliver the eulogy, tell them not to talk too long. Every now and then I wonder what I want them to say. Tell them not to mention that I have a Nobel Peace Prize, that isn’t important. Tell them not to mention that I have three or four hundred other awards, that’s not important. Tell him not to mention where I went to school.
I’d like somebody to mention that day, that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to give his life serving others. I’d like for somebody to say that day, that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to love somebody. I want you to say that day, that I tried to be right on the war question. I want you to be able to say that day, that I did try to feed the hungry. And I want you to be able to say that day, that I did try, in my life to clothe those who were naked. I want you to say, on that day, that I did try, in my life to visit those who were in prison. I want you to say that I tried to love and serve humanity.
Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice; say that I was a drum major for peace; I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter. I won’t have any money to leave behind. I won’t have the fine and luxurious things of life to leave behind. But I just want to leave a committed life behind.
And that’s all I want to say … if I can help somebody as I pass along, if I can cheer somebody with a word or son, if I can show somebody he’s traveling wrong, then my living will not be in vain. If I can do my duty as a Christian ought, if I can bring salvation to a world once wrought, if I can spread the message as the master taught, then my living will not be in vain.
Yes, Jesus, I want to be on your right side or your left side, not for any selfish reason. I want to be on your right or your best side, not in terms of some political kingdom or ambition, but I just want to be there in love and in justice and in truth and in commitment to others, so that we can make of this old world a new world.
— From “The Drum Major Instinct”, a sermon in 1968, just two months before his assassination.

Peace.

Finished a book this week, The Heavenly Man, a semi-autobiography of Brother Yun, a Chinese house church pioneer and amazing disciple of God.

Born to a poor farmer in China, Yun was saved at a young age in 1976 after God miraculously healed his father. Soon after, Brother Yun prayed and fasted for a Bible, which God supernaturally provided. He proceeded to memorize all of Matthew and half of Acts. Yun then began to spread the gospel to surrounding villages, started numerous house churches, and began to suffer greatly under Communist rule. He spent years under , imprisonment and on the run. His wife faithfully stayed by him through all of this. Now they live in Germany and try to give a face to the house church movement in China.

This is a powerful book. Yun is passionate about the Lord and matter of fact about his . He also testifies greatly to the power of God through miracles and the supernatural way that he was led by God. A great strength of the book is his wife’s honest recounting of her struggle while her husband was in prison or separated from them for some reason.

Here are some quotes:

We never pray against our government or call down curses on them. Instead, we have learned that God is in control of both our own lives and the government we live under.

We shouldn’t pray for a lighter load to carry, but a stronger back to endure!

In the West many Christians have an abundance of material possessions, yet they live in a back slidden state. They have silver and gold, but they don’t rise up and walk in Jesus’ name. In China we have no possessions to hold us down, so there’s nothing preventing us from moving out for the Lord.

You can never really know the scriptures until you’re willing to be changed by them.

Multitudes of Church members in the West are satisfied with giving their minimum to God, not their maximum.

I’m often asked about the rights of pastors in China. A pastor has no rights, except the rights of a slave! Everyone in this world is a slave. They’re either slaves to sin, or slaves to Christ. Our “rights” are in the hands of Jesus. We must fall on our knees in complete dependence upon him.

The world can do nothing to a Christian who has no fear of man.

Never be satisfied with God’s calling or his gifts in your life. Be satisfied with Jesus Christ himself!

There’s more … but I’ll leave you with that.

Peace.

Got a good book this Christmas, quotes from Mother Theresa. Being raised a conservative protestant (both terms I’m not particularly fond of), Mother Theresa was never really revered in my little subculture … she was marginalized more than anything for her Catholicism and New Age or universalist type of statements.

I’ve appreciated more about her as I read more about her. She really understood some deep (and yet simple) things of God. Of course there are some statements I appreciate more than others. I’ll put a couple here for you.

Holiness is not the luxury of a few. It is everyone’s duty: yours and mine.

The fact of death should not sadden us. The only thing that should sadden us is to know that we are not saints.

To sometimes experience disgust is something quite natural. The virtue, which at times is of heroic proportions, consists in being able to overcome disgust, for the love of Jesus.
This is the secret we discover in the lives of some saints: the ability to go beyond what is merely natural.
This is what happened to Saint Francis of Assissi. Once, when he ran into a leper who was completely disfigured, he instinctively backed up. Right away he overcame the disgust he felt and kissed the face that was completely disfigured. What was the outcome of this? Francis felt himself filled with tremendous joy. He felt totally in control of himself.
And the leper went on his way praising God.

The saints are all the people who live according to the law God has given us.

Prayer begets faith, faith begets love, and love begets service on behalf of the poor.

My secret is a very simple one: I pray. To pray to Christ is to love Him.

Prayer is not asking. Prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God, at His disposition, and listening to His voice in the depths of our hearts.

“What is a Christian?” someone asked a Hindu man. He responded, “The Christian is someone who gives.”

If one gives a little bit of rice to a poor person in India, that person feels satisfied and happy. The poor in Europe do not accept their poverty, and for many it is a source of despair.

Do we share with the poor, just like Jesus shared with us?

A great poverty reigns in a country that allows taking the life of an unborn child — a child created in God’s image, created to live and to love. His or her life is not for destroying but for living, despite the selfishness of those who fear that they lack the means to feed or educate one more child.

If there are poor on the moon, we will go there too.

So much more. I’ll share next week.

Peace.

Reading through Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning. It’s not quite as good as I expected, but I have enjoyed it. Wouldn’t put it top 5 or 10 yet, but it has blessed me. Some quotes:

Children are our because they have no claim on heaven. If they are close to God, it is because they are incompetent, not because they are .

The institutional Church has become a wounder of the healers rather than a healer of the wounded.

Never confuse your perception of yourself with the mystery that you really are accepted.

… the experience of absence does not mean the absence of experience.

And Manning loves to quote from others. Some good ones there, too. From Hans Kung:

And though it is true that the Church must always dissociate itself from sin, it can never have any excuse for keeping any sinners at a distance. If the Church remains self-righteously aloof from failures, irreligious and immoral people, it cannot enter justified into God’s kingdom.

And from something Jesus told a 24 year old widow, Marjory Kempe, in 1667:

“More pleasing to Me than all your prayers, works, and penances is that you would believe I love you.”

Peace.

I also read The Hobbit by Tolkien this week. I actually found a couple good quotes in here, too.

May the wind under your wings bear you where the sun sails and the moon walks (Gandalf to the Eagles)

If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world (Thorin to Bilbo Baggins before his death)

Peace.

I finally finished Cost of Discipleship by Bonhoeffer. He got a little too liturgical towards the end for me, but overall an outstanding book. Here are some last quotes for you.

Earthly possessions dazzle our eyes and delude into thinking that they can provide security and freedom from anxiety. Yet all the time they are the very source of all anxiety.

To allow a baptized brother to take part in the worship of the Church, but to refuse to have anything to do with him in everyday life, is to subject him to abuse and contempt. If we do that, we are guilty of the very Body of Christ. And if we grant the baptized brother the right to the gifts of salvation, but refuse him the gifts necessary to earthy life or knowingly leave him in material need and distress, we are holding up the gifts of salvation to ridicule and behaving as liars.

The visible Church, with its perfect common life, invades the world and robs it of its children.

When a man is baptized into the Body of Christ, not only is his personal status as regards to salvation changed, but also the relationship of daily life.

By pursuing sanctification outside the Church, we are trying to pronounce ourselves holy.

The whoremonger and the covetous person are both perfect embodiments of desire.

He (Jesus) too held that the only way to safeguard the gospel of forgiveness was by preaching repentance.

Indeed, it is wrong to speak of a Christian life; we should speak rather of Christ living in us.

Peace.

Still reading Cost of Discipleship by Bonhoeffer. Still kicking my butt. Here are a few quotes for you this week.

Unbelief thrives on cheap grace, for it is determined to presist in disobedience.

The grown-up man with his freedom of conscience vaunts his superiority over the child of obedience.

If we refuse to take up our cross and submit to suffering and rejection at the hands of men, we forfeit our fellowship with Christ and have ceased to follow Him.

We must face up to the truth that the call of Christ DOES set up a barrier between man and his natural life.

Though we all have to enter upon discipleship alone, we do not remain alone. If we take Him at His word and dare to become individuals, our reward is the fellowship of the Church.

A community of Jesus which seeks to hide itself has ceased to follow Him.

When we come before God with hearts full of contempt and unreconciled with our neighbors, we are, both individually and as a congregation, worshipping an idol.

God will not be separated from our brother.

And of course the famous:

When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.

That’s a pacifist for you.

Peace.

Been more interested in the Moravian movement lately. Two people I read often, Tozer and Ravenhill, both refer to them as a powerful move of God. In my initial research, I found this quote, which was their motto, and I really like it …

In essentials, unity; in nonessentials, liberty; in all things, love.

They also have as part of their creed the following …

Our lamb has conquered, let us follow Him.

I like the idea of the conquering lamb, because that implies to me an idea that we conquer not through might but by self-sacrifice. Let us follow Him in that.

One more. At some point, while fighting with the idea of separation of church and state, the Moravians clearly stated their stand in the Barmen declaration:

the church “is solely Christ’s property, and that it lives and wants to live
solely from his comfort and from his direction in the expectation of his
appearance.”

Pretty cool. They were also the ones who began the Boy Scouts. I didn’t know that before.

Peace.

The title of a book I saw recently … don’t remember the author … (p.s. …. see comment!)

We don’t say great things … we live them!

Which is interesting, since that is a great thing to say.

Peace.