Posts tagged as:

truth

Two frequently misused expressions

December 3, 2009

written by Stephan Joubert

The two most frequently misused expressions today are “I only meant well” and the ever popular “You misunderstood me!” Just take note how many people use these expressions regularly. Some people do the most inappropriate things, even in church, and then afterward they just piously justify it with the well known cliche “I only meant well”. Others attack people left, right and center or quote them incorrectly and out of place. When they’re corrected you have to hear that their words were just misunderstood by everyone. These super excuses of our day mustn’t receive a parking space on our lips. They so easily distract from our responsibility to the Lord and our neighbors. We should just say exactly what we mean… every time. We should test our motives before we say or do something. That way it won’t be necessary for us to try and justify our actions later with one of these false expressions.

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My favorite, highly-dangerous quotes (part 2)

September 23, 2009

written by Stephan Joubert

Stephan JoubertIn the previous blog posting I shared one of my all-time favorite quotes by the German theologian, Ernst Kaesemann. Here it is again: “People and institutions do not like to be kept continually on the alert, and they have constantly devised screens to protect themselves from too much heat­. In fact, they have even managed to reduce Jesus’ red-hot message, which promised to kindle a fire throughout the world, to room temperature.”

Another amazing quote that really rocked my boat comes from Peter Rollins. In his amazing book How (not to) speak of God (2006), he writes the following words: “Orthodoxy as right belief will cost us little; indeed, it will allow us to sit back with our Pharisaic doctrines, guarding the ‘truth’ with the purity of our interpretations. But orthodoxy, as believing the right way, as bringing love to the world around us… That will cost us everything.” Wow, isn’t this true? And then in a fresh, earth-shattering way!

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