Signposts » West http://signposts.cowpi.com Words pointing… Sun, 11 Dec 2011 16:22:04 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 All are lunatics… http://signposts.cowpi.com/west/all-are-lunatics http://signposts.cowpi.com/west/all-are-lunatics#comments Mon, 01 Oct 2007 11:09:13 +0000 CowPi http://signposts.cowpi.com/west/all-are-lunatics All are lunatics, but he who can analyze his delusions is called a philosopher.

— Ambrose Bierce  <link>

]]> http://signposts.cowpi.com/west/all-are-lunatics/feed 0 The lived spiritual life is a frequent contradiction… http://signposts.cowpi.com/west/the-lived-spiritual-life-is-a-frequent-contradiction http://signposts.cowpi.com/west/the-lived-spiritual-life-is-a-frequent-contradiction#comments Sun, 30 Sep 2007 11:14:19 +0000 CowPi http://signposts.cowpi.com/west/the-lived-spiritual-life-is-a-frequent-contradiction The lived spiritual life is a frequent contradiction. I reject the kind of “victorious life” formulaic teaching I grew up hearing in fundamentalist circles, and I must also reject the kind of consumeristic emotional junk food that is found everywhere in evangelicalism as a substitute for the presence of God. As much as I count myself a Christian hedonist, I am suspicious that “Delight yourself in the Lord” is often deeply and significantly misunderstood.

— Michael Spencer [via]  <link>

]]> http://signposts.cowpi.com/west/the-lived-spiritual-life-is-a-frequent-contradiction/feed 0 Christian Consumerism http://signposts.cowpi.com/west/christian-consumerism http://signposts.cowpi.com/west/christian-consumerism#comments Sat, 29 Sep 2007 11:53:06 +0000 CowPi http://signposts.cowpi.com/west/christian-consumerism Christian Consumerism

Christian consumerism is just one witness to the state of our spirituality. There are many others. Ministerial burnout. Pornography addiction. Divorce. Prayerlessness. Church hopping. Sexual promiscuity. Rampant materialism. Pastoral turnover. Addiction to fashion, sports, pets, opinions. Hours spent in front of video game screens, staring at web sites, reading MySpace, talking to our friends on the cell, saying nothing.

And then we’ll go to church on Sunday and hear the minister say the LOST are living empty lives and don’t have the joy of the Lord. It’s a good thing the few lost folks in our churches are too polite not to laugh out loud.

— Michael Spencer [via]  <link>

]]> http://signposts.cowpi.com/west/christian-consumerism/feed 0 We are not called to be pretenders… http://signposts.cowpi.com/west/we-are-not-called-to-be-pretenders http://signposts.cowpi.com/west/we-are-not-called-to-be-pretenders#comments Fri, 28 Sep 2007 11:07:57 +0000 CowPi http://signposts.cowpi.com/west/we-are-not-called-to-be-pretenders The wind blows where it will, and we are pilgrims in the life of prayer and faith. We are not called to be pretenders of certainties that do not exist in our experience.

— Michael Spencer [via]  <link>

]]> http://signposts.cowpi.com/west/we-are-not-called-to-be-pretenders/feed 0 Love is a flower… http://signposts.cowpi.com/west/love-is-a-flower http://signposts.cowpi.com/west/love-is-a-flower#comments Thu, 27 Sep 2007 11:58:45 +0000 CowPi http://signposts.cowpi.com/west/love-is-a-flower Love is a flower

Love is a flower, and hope is its stem. Salvation is the whole plant. God’s grace, God’s own life, comes into us by faith, like water through a tree’s roots. It rises in us by hope, like sap through the trunk. And it flowers from our branches, fruit for our neighbor’s use.

— Peter Kreeft, Fundamentals of the Faith  <link>

]]> http://signposts.cowpi.com/west/love-is-a-flower/feed 0 Life in Hopeful Tranquility http://signposts.cowpi.com/west/life-in-hopeful-tranquility http://signposts.cowpi.com/west/life-in-hopeful-tranquility#comments Wed, 26 Sep 2007 11:46:52 +0000 CowPi http://signposts.cowpi.com/west/life-in-hopeful-tranquility Life in Hopeful Tranquility

[Jean] Giono termed his confidence in the future espérance, or hopefulness, not espoir, which is the masculine for hope, but espérance, the feminine word designating the permanent state or condition of living one’s life in hopeful tranquility. Whence springs this well of espérance, Giono wondered?

— Norma L. Goodrich, in afterword to Jean Giono’s The Man Who Planted Trees<link>

]]> http://signposts.cowpi.com/west/life-in-hopeful-tranquility/feed 0 Truth doesn’t change according to… http://signposts.cowpi.com/west/truth-doesnt-change-according-to http://signposts.cowpi.com/west/truth-doesnt-change-according-to#comments Tue, 25 Sep 2007 11:42:57 +0000 CowPi http://signposts.cowpi.com/west/truth-doesnt-change-according-to The truth doesn’t change according to our ability to stomach it.

— Flannery O’Connor  <link>

]]> http://signposts.cowpi.com/west/truth-doesnt-change-according-to/feed 0 Root of superstition… http://signposts.cowpi.com/west/root-of-superstition http://signposts.cowpi.com/west/root-of-superstition#comments Mon, 24 Sep 2007 11:33:20 +0000 CowPi http://signposts.cowpi.com/west/root-of-superstition The general root of superstition is that men observe when things hit, and not when they miss, and commit to memory the one, and pass over the other.

— Francis Bacon  <link>

]]> http://signposts.cowpi.com/west/root-of-superstition/feed 0 Proper rewards are… http://signposts.cowpi.com/west/proper-rewards-are http://signposts.cowpi.com/west/proper-rewards-are#comments Sun, 23 Sep 2007 11:16:36 +0000 CowPi http://signposts.cowpi.com/west/proper-rewards-are Proper rewards are not simply tacked on to the activity for which they are given, but are the activity itself in consummation.

— C.S. Lewis, from sermon “The Weight of Glory”  <link>

]]> http://signposts.cowpi.com/west/proper-rewards-are/feed 0 There are no ordinary people… http://signposts.cowpi.com/west/there-are-no-ordinary-people http://signposts.cowpi.com/west/there-are-no-ordinary-people#comments Sat, 22 Sep 2007 11:12:16 +0000 CowPi http://signposts.cowpi.com/west/there-are-no-ordinary-people All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one of these destinations [to heaven or to hell]. It is in light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendours

— C.S. Lewis, portion of last paragraph of sermon, “The Weight of Glory”  <link>

]]> http://signposts.cowpi.com/west/there-are-no-ordinary-people/feed 0 One may understand the cosmos… http://signposts.cowpi.com/west/one-may-understand-the-cosmos http://signposts.cowpi.com/west/one-may-understand-the-cosmos#comments Fri, 21 Sep 2007 11:05:28 +0000 CowPi http://signposts.cowpi.com/west/one-may-understand-the-cosmos One may understand the cosmos, but never the ego; the self is more distant than any star.

— G.K. Chesterton  <link>

]]> http://signposts.cowpi.com/west/one-may-understand-the-cosmos/feed 0 A man may love evil… http://signposts.cowpi.com/west/a-man-may-love-evil http://signposts.cowpi.com/west/a-man-may-love-evil#comments Thu, 20 Sep 2007 11:51:15 +0000 CowPi http://signposts.cowpi.com/west/a-man-may-love-evil Neither Creator nor creature can be without love, but if this love is turned aside to evil, then the creature goes against the creator… A man may love evil by willing evil to his neighbors in three ways: For first, he may hope to be prosperous through his neighbor’s degradation; and again, he may himself fear to lose power, grace, honour, or reputation because of his neighbour’s advancement, and may therefore be miserable at that advancement; and again, he may feel himself injured by his neighbour, and wish to be revenged, so that he sets himself to seek out the other’s hurt.

— Dante Alighieri, Purgatory [via]  <link>

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