Jeff Tacklind’s message on Luke 6:37-42
Sermon notes:
“Without the infinite personal God, all a person can do, as Nietzsche points out, is to make systems. In today’s speech we would call them game plans. A person can erect some sort of structure, some type of limited frame in which he lives, shutting himself up in that frame and not looking beyond it.” Francis Schaeffer
“If you asked me what it is I know, I would be hard pressed to tell you. All I know is that there is a deep “okayness” to life—despite all the contradictions—which has become even more evident in the silence. Even when much is terrible, seemingly contradictory, unjust, and inconsistent, somehow sadness and joy are able to coexist at the same time.” Richard Rohr
“For me, comedy starts as a spew, a kind of explosion, and then you sculpt it from there, if at all. It comes out of a deeper, darker side. Maybe it comes from anger, because I’m outraged by cruel absurdities, the hypocrisy that exists everywhere, even within yourself, where it’s hardest to see.” Robin Williams
Psychological projection is a theory in psychology in which humans defend themselves against their own unconscious impulses or qualities by denying their existence in themselves while attributing them to others.
“You might also notice how easy it is to notice people who are much worse at driving than you are–but that you almost never recognize someone who’s driving better than you are.” Seth Godin
God became man to turn creatures into sons: not simply to produce better men of the old kind but to produce a new kind of man. It is not like teaching a horse to jump better and better but like turning a horse into a winged creature. Of course, once it has got its wings, it will soar over fences which could never have been jumped and thus beat the natural horse at its own game. But there may be a period, while the wings are just beginning to grow, when it cannot do so: and at that stage the lumps on the shoulders—no one could tell by looking at them that they are going to be wings—may even give it an awkward appearance.” C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION
What are the things in others that bother me deeply? What do I catch myself condemning? What is God wanting to show me about my own heart? What in me still needs mending?
Is there a place where I’ve become stuck? How am I using other people’s faults and flaws as an excuse to not grow?
Is there anyone I am withholding mercy and forgiveness from? How can I respond in generosity and compassion?