Yesterday, I gave you links to some free books I’ve found helpful in my journey. Today, I’d like to whet your appetite by highlighting one of them. As I was reading it last week, I pulled some quotes that I thought fellow TM alumni might enjoy.
– “That’s the worst part of religious thinking. It takes our best ambitions and uses them against us. People who are trying to be more godly actually become more captive to their appetites and desires. That’s exactly what happened to Eve. She just wanted to be like God, which is also exactly what God wants for us. It wasn’t what she wanted that got her in trouble, but that she relied on her own strength to get her there.
– “Sorting out a relationship with Jesus is a lifetime journey.”
– (On Accountability) “Because real body life isn’t built on accountability. It’s built on love. We’re to encourage each other in the journey without conforming people to the standard we think they need.”
– (On grace and a license to sin) “That’s sounds like relativism, John!”
“It’s not, it simply respects the process God uses to bring people into truth. I’m not talking about different things being true, but people discovering that truth in different time frames. If we hold people accountable, they will never learn to live in love. We’ll reward those who are better at putting on a better front and miss those who are in the real struggle of learning to live in Jesus.”
– (On Christian Institutions) It’s love with a hook. If you do what we want, we reward you. If not we punish you. It doesn’t turn out to be about love at all. We give our affection only to those who serve our interests and withhold it from those who do not.”
That’s all for this week. I’ll be back next week with some hard-hitting posts. Happy Thanksgiving.
3 comments:
Man I can’t believe no one has written in this!
I was an Jan 97 intern and for the past 5-7 years I have really struggled with wanting to go to church. I do, because I feel guilty if I don’t but I have to say that the whole concept of holding people accountable got me into a lot of trouble because I lacked love. LOVE is what it takes to bring about healing and reconcilation.
I have believed far to long the formula approach that if you do this, God will do that. So in TM terms don’t sin and you won’t have problems. God will bless you and protect you.
Well this didn’t work for me! Still doesn’t even though I want it to….GOD is not a formula based person….he is a Relationship person and that’s so hard for me right now! I am still caught in the works mentality.
Thank you everyone for sharing….I am just devouring all the postings
April…a friend of mine has written extensively on this topic. I’ll recommend you check out his site: http://branthansen.typepad.com/letters_from_kamp_krusty/2007/12/we-quit-going-t.html?no_prefetch=1
April – Its amazing how many things we do in the Christian life out of guilt or fear – neither of those are healthy motivations. Just recognizing that is half the battle! We are all learning to live in love – its so foreign to us, especially if we grew up steeped in religion.