— Marlena Graves, The Way Up Is Down: Becoming Yourself by Forgetting Yourself. Kindle location 156.

For there is no other kind of life revealed to us in Christ.” Crucifixion and self-emptying—there is no other kind of Christian life. This is the life God calls us to. And it takes practice. It takes God’s strength.”

Good morning.

“Father Stephen Freeman, an Eastern Orthodox priest, writes, “If we are to be transformed ‘from one degree of glory to another’ then it is towards the ‘glory’ of the crucified, self-emptying Christ that we are being transformed. . .

This prayer from Howard Thurman. (Meditations of the Heart, Beacon Press, 2022. 134)

2/2
#theosis #discipleship

Good morning.

“Little by little, or vast area by vast area, my life must be transmuted in the life of God. As this happens, I come into the meaning of true freedom and the burdens that I seemed unable to bear are floated in the current of the life and love of God.”

1/2
#theosis #discipleship

Good morning.

"His justice simply is his unmerited love and prodigal mercy."

That's it. That's all of it. That's enough.

Quote from: Alvin F. Kimel Jr, Destined for Joy: The Gospel of Universal Salvation, with Brad Jersak and David Bentley Hart (2022).8.

Source: Alvin F. Kimel Jr, *Destined for Joy: The Gospel of Universal Salvation*, with Brad Jersak and David Bentley Hart (2022). 33. Quoting George MacDonald in his sermon, “Justice,” from Unspoken Sermons III (1889)

5/5

and therefore sin has, by the creating act of God, come into the world, God is, in his own righteousness, bound to destroy sin.’

The true justice of God is restorative, not punitive. The infliction of suffering, in and of itself, makes better neither the world nor the sinner.”

4/5

‘Primarily, God is not bound to punish sin; he is bound to destroy sin, If he were not the Maker, he might not be bound to destroy sin-I do not know; but seeing he has created creatures who have sinned,

3/5

Retribution has no place in the divine heart. If God is just, he has but one duty: to destroy the sin that has entered into his good world:

2/5

Good morning.

“God forgives! This liberating gospel truth alone should alone compel us to reevaluate our inherited notion of retributive justice. The infliction of suffering upon the wrongdoer does not provide redress; it does not rectify; it does not heal the disorder created by the crime.

1/5

Butter and Nachos are both delicious! As is the Codex -- I just finished playing in a 23-session campaign in the pre-release version. Loved it.

Good morning.

“Conversion is not a precondition for God’s mercy but the discovery of his mercy, a discovery of a love that is always patient and kind.”

- Alvin F. Kimel Jr, Destined for Joy: The Gospel of Universal Salvation, with Brad Jersak and David Bentley Hart (2022). 28.

#Faith #Love

Source: Weil, Simone. Awaiting God: A New Translation of Attente de Dieu and Lettre à un Religieux. Translated by Brad Jersak, Fresh Wind Press, 2012. 142

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#Doubt #Faith #Deconstruction

God seeks us and doesn't abide by the narrow restrictions humans place on when and how God may act. Take heart!

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#Doubt #Faith #Deconstruction

...they will not go a long way without falling into his arms.”

That's Simone Weil, after describing her own transcendent experience of Jesus that happened even though she had been entirely resistant to the church and every Christian practice.

2/4
#Doubt #Faith #Deconstruction

Good morning.

“We can never wrestle God too much if we do so out of pure concern for the truth. Christ loves that we prefer the truth to him, because before being the Christ, he is the Truth. If someone takes a detour from him to go towards the truth...

1/4
#Doubt #Faith #Deconstruction

That's so good to hear. (If you've got a moment, it would be a gift to have you write a short review to this effect on Amazon or another online retailer.)

Thanks Ann.

Source: Felicia Murrell, *AND: The Restorative Power of Love in an Either/Or World.* (Whitaker House, 2024). 15.

2/2
#Love #Living #Faith

Good morning.

“I exist to exist. I exist to love. I exist to receive Love as a continuous experience in my heart, to live in it and give it away to others.”

Sometimes it's not more complicated than this.

1/2
#Love #Living #Faith

- Howard Thurman, Meditations of the Heart, Beacon Press, 2022. 127-128.

Good morning.

“Discipline means effort at times, self-control, a certain mastery of self, or of the situation. But the discipline of trust is a putting down, an easing up, a releasing of tension, an intense relaxation of spirit.”

Oh, thanks! Such encouragement this morning.

Oh, what a lovely note to find this morning! I so much want my extended Christian family to have a more beautiful picture of God and lives that align with that. Thanks so much. The follow-up, Love's Wide Embrace, follows the same formatting and will work well for Eastertide. It's in editing now! :-)

If we know God in the cross, then we should also know that God's majesty is one of power-in-weakness.”

- Michael J. Gorman, Inhabiting the Cruciform God: Kenosis, Justification, and Theosis in Paul’s Narrative Soteriology (William B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 2009). 34.

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Good morning.

"Here we must emphasize that the cross is not just one theophany among many; it is the definitive theophany . . . Unfortunately, however, the embedded theology of most Christians still revolves around a non-cruciform model of God's power, and a crucial corrective is needed.

1/2

Good morning.

"It is quite the fragile god who needs political power to enforce their will. It is quite the powerful God who partners with peasants, is born in poverty, washes feet, heals the sick, advocates for the oppressed, is unjustly killed, and still changes the world."

- Rev. Ben Cremer

although they understand neither what they say nor the things about which they make assertion."

- St. Augustine, De Genasi ad Littterum, written in approx. 410 CE.

11/11
#BiblicalLiteralism

For then, to defend their utterly foolish and obviously untrue statements, they will try to call upon Holy Scripture for proof and even recite from memory many passages which they think support their position,

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#BiblicalLiteralism