Sane, Simple, Sacred: Church: the Glory and the Grotesque

Church: the Glory and the Grotesque

"The Church or something like it must be cherished, criticized, nourished and reformed. The Church of Jesus Christ, with all its blemishes, its divisions and its failures, remains our best hope of spiritual vitality. However poor it is, life without it is worse." (Elton Trueblood)

Our Sunday School class is studying Choose the Life by Bill Hull--this week, chapter 9. Hull says, "I am saying ...that the church will always vacillate between glory and the grotesque...there will be periods of great glory when Christ is paramount and the world all around will be infected with the life of Christ through us...when our little communities of grace show those around us who God is and what God has. It is for these periods of glory that we live, for which we train, and for which we pray."

These are the empty pews in which MY "little community of grace" gathers this morning.

O, Christ Jesus, let YOUR glory fall on us today!

Show us who You are and what You have for us this morning!

Please.

9 comments:

Kathleen November 15, 2009 at 8:24 AM
How true; how true! The church is either cherished or hated, and has been down through the ages. As our Pastor is often heard to say: The church - you (as he reminds us) - is God's Plan A. There is no Plan B.

May His church, His body, be full of His presence and power; and may His sheep learn to obey the Shepherd.

Blessings,
Kathleen
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AndreaNovember 15, 2009 at 9:32 AM
AMEN...great post. May GOD BLESS each person in those pews on this Lords day!
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EileenNovember 15, 2009 at 11:41 AM
Great post, Rebecca!
And thank you for sharing this photo of your Church. Beautiful! I think that would be a nice idea for all of us to do sometime.
And I think it's so true what Bill Hull said about the church vacillating between glory and the grotesque.

By the way, you've won my give-away at Stick Close To Home!
Love and Prayers,
Eileen
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TamaraNovember 15, 2009 at 12:22 PM
Amen, my Sister, Amen!
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DianaNovember 15, 2009 at 1:03 PM
Well now I feel bad because I didn't attend today. I am going to try to post later and you will undersatnd why. Blessed Sunday to you Rebecca. Love Di
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JackieNovember 15, 2009 at 3:06 PM
"Where one or two are gathered together.."
May we praise His name....and always let others see Christ in us.
Thank you Rebecca.
In His love,
Jackie
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UnknownNovember 15, 2009 at 5:21 PM
Hi Rebecca! Thanks for stopping by my blog! I am excited to dig into yours! I write a little about faith and fitness, I am a born again christian and think the two are so important and tie together SO easily. I am loving your quotes on this blog, especially the prayer one from Tozer! I go to John Pipers church in Mpls and LOVE the theology heavies!! Thanks for the husband comment, I am praying and waiting for the Boaz for me. :) Have a great day!
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Donna's Book NookNovember 15, 2009 at 6:30 PM
I enjoyed the picture of your sanctuary. I hope you are enjoying the study of "Choose the Life". Blessings and peace. Donna
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DeniseNovember 15, 2009 at 7:08 PM
Praying for you my friend.
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"We simplify, not just to be less busy, even though we may be right to pursue that. Rather, we simplify to remove distractions from our pursuit of Christ. We prune activities from our lives, not only to get organized, but also that our devotion to Christ and service for His kingdom will be more fruitful. We simplify, not merely to save time, but to eliminate hindrances to the time we devote to knowing Christ. All the reasons we simplify should eventually lead us to Jesus Christ!" (Donald S. Whitney)

Dedicated to my sister-in-law, Beth--a TRUE home manager....

"I work for a King. He has put me in charge of his home. When He comes to see how I have managed His possessions and His children, I do not want to be found wanting. I want to do my best. Everything I have is on loan from Him. I have room and board and a job to do, but it is all for Him. Therefore I want to dress my best and do my best in all my work. I also want to be creative, for this is a sincere attempt to glorify Him and His beautiful creation. How I manage my home is a form of worship to Him." --Lydia Sherman

"A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry,
and see a fine picture every day of his life,
in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul."

~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Contentment makes poor men rich.

-Benjamin Franklin

"What I am gradually discovering is that in the writing I come in touch with the Spirit of God." ~ Nouwen

~~"Reading without reflecting is like eating without digesting."~~Edmund Burke

C.S. Lewis: "To trust Him means, of course, trying to do all that He says. There would be no sense in trusting a person if you wouldn't take his advice. Thus if you have really handed yourself over to Him, it must follow that you are trying to obey Him."

"To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich; to listen to stars and birds, babes and sages, with open heart; to study hard; to think quietly, act frankly, talk gently, await occasions, hurry never; in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common--this is my symphony." William Henry Channing

“Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Apostle Paul: "But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 3:13-14)

"It's a good thing to have all the props pulled out from under us occasionally. It gives us some sense of what is rock under our feet, and what is sand. It stops us from taking anything for granted. It has also taught me alot about living in the immediate moment. I am somehow managing to live one day, one hour at a time." Madeleine L'Engle

FIVE CERTAINTIES
WITH WHICH TO
START YOUR DAY

God holds you. Each day he carries us in his arms. Psalm 68:19 NLT
God sustains you. THE LORD is my Shepherd [to feed, guide, and shield me], I shall not lack. Psalm 23:1 AMP
God covers you. He will cover you with His pinions, and under His wings shall you trust. Psalm 91:4 AMP
God pours His love upon you. Through each day the Lord pours his unfailing love upon me. Psalm 42:8 NLT
God will not fail you. The unfailing love of the Lord never ends! Lamentations 3:22 NLT

THE BLOGGER'S PRAYER Lord, help me to learn to spell without spellcheck, manage to visit all that visit me, and post regularly - all in 5 minutes a day, so that I can clean house and take care of my family. Help me to not look at every occurrence in my life as a blog post, and to quit taking pictures of weird things to share as well. Please Lord, help me to stop talking about my blog friends as though they are next door neighbors or someone I have known all of my life. And help me, dear Lord, to think of something witty and wise to post tomorrow.
Love, The Dust Bunny Hostage

Sane, Simple, Sacred

Mercy

Church: the Glory and the Grotesque

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