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Christianity is not primarily a moral code but a grace-laden mystery; it is not essentially a philosophy of love but a love affair; it is not keeping rules with clenched fists but receiving a gift with open hands. — Brennan Manning (The Ragamuffin Gospel) The end of Ezekiel 21—the last of the four sword oracles—contains [...]

Naiveté serves a better purpose than the dark magic of exercising control. — Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Spiritual Care) In this third sword oracle, Ezekiel is told to perform another action-prophesy. I can see him grabbing the spoon from a cooking pot and using the handle-end to draw a map in the dirt.  He drew a path [...]

Cheap grace means the justification of sin without the justification of the sinner. — Dietrich Bonhoeffer (The Cost of Discipleship) “I don’t want to!” screamed the red-faced six-year-old. “You have to eat everything on your plate, or you can’t have any desert,” mom replied. “NO!” “Come on, take a bite.” “I won’t, I won’t, I [...]

When a man finally has to bear his own cross, this cross can become meaningful and redemptive only if it is seen as the sword God uses to cut us loose from the tyranny of false gods. —Robert L. Short (The Parables of the Peanuts) I’ll admit it. That whole section about forest fires at [...]

The fire of sin is intense, but it is put out by a small amount of tears, for the tear puts out a furnace of faults, and cleans our wounds of sin. — John Chrysostom As we move into chapter 21, there are four oracles about Yahweh’s sword. Some of most brutal judgment language in [...]