Daniel Rose

“Of the many reasons for Incarnation, surely one was to answer Job’s accusation: Do you have eyes of flesh? For a time, God did.”

From : The Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancey 📚

For so many years I regularly thought of Jesus as this divine superman. I am so intrigued by his god-ness that I missed his ordinariness. Yet, now it is his sheer ordinariness that most attracts me. This man who ate, drank, got annoyed, ran away from people, teased his friends, and took naps but also introduced the world to grace.

I am drawn the man. I am drawn to the homeless, wandering Rabbi.

“Looking in retrospect on my years at Bible college, I see that, despite all the devotional intimacies, Jesus grew remote from me there. He became an object of scrutiny.”

From: The Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancey 📚

This is, I think, one of the great struggles for not only people at Bible college or seminary, but also much of Protestant evangelicalism. Evangelicalism is buried in information. Jesus, for many, has become “an object of scrutiny.”

When we lose the relational connection to the divine we have lost the very core of what it is to follow Christ. To be learner of Christ is to grow in Christ’s character and competency. These can’t be learned when Christ is nothing more than an “object of scrutiny.”

Monday, I am going to start sharing quotes and my reflections from this book…

Currently reading: The Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancey 📚

I’m reading: The Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancey, and it is so good. I read it ages ago, but the timeliness of it remarkable.

I think I will start sharing some quotes and brief thoughts from it and other books.

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“Friendship is a much underestimated aspect of spirituality. It’s every bit as significant as prayer and fasting. Like the sacramental use of water and bread and wine, friendship takes what’s common in human experience and turns it into something holy.”

📚: Eugene Peterson, Leap Over A Wall

“Love—God’s love in particular—is fundamental to the world’s existence. Love is the background against which everything else is played…”

📚: Leap Over A Wall by Eugene Peterson

This might be one of the most challenging books I’ve read. It is impacting my soul in ways I didn’t expect.

Currently reading: Run with the Horses by Eugene H. Peterson 📚

“Commands assume freedom and encourage response. Addressed by commands we are trained in response-ability.” Currently reading: Run with the Horses by Eugene H. Peterson 📚

“What we do in secret determines the soundness of who we are in public. Prayer is the secret work that develops a life that is thoroughly authentic and deeply human.”

Currently reading: Run with the Horses by Eugene H. Peterson 📚

This was a challenging and hope-filled Lenten devotional. I’m grateful for the time spent considering the deep and weighty things of Scripture these last forty days.

Finished reading: Wondrous Encounters by Richard Rohr 📚

“No child is just a child. Each is a creature in whom God intends to do something glorious and great.”

Currently reading: Run with the Horses by Eugene H. Peterson 📚

Currently reading: Deep Work by Cal Newport 📚

I’m going back through this book and creating a list of questions to process. As a pastor, I feel like I need deep work and somehow maintain connection via modern digital network tools.

Curious what others think…

Just started a new, to me, book by Eugene Peterson. The opening sentences:

“The puzzle is why so many people live so badly. Not so wickedly, but so inanely. Not so cruelly, but so stupidly.”

This book is going to be something else.

Currently reading: Run with the Horses by Eugene H. Peterson 📚

This book was really insightful and helpful. I am excited to begin putting some of Dr Li’s insights into practice. For instance, today I began drinking green tea.

Finished reading: Eat to Beat Your Diet by William M. Li 📚

Currently reading: Wondrous Encounters : Scripture for Lent by Richard Rohr 📚

Currently reading: The World-Ending Fire by Wendell Berry 📚

As I continue to slowly work my way through this text, I am reminded that I live too fast. I don’t savor life and am rarely as present as I would like to be.

Currently reading: The World-Ending Fire by Wendell Berry 📚

Finished reading: Faithful Presence: Seven Disciplines That Shape the Church for Mission by David E. Fitch 📚

Currently reading: The Acts of the Apostles by JG Dunn 📚

Currently reading: The Wisdom Pattern by Richard Rohr 📚