I have a place for you. There's a reason for you to be on this planet, and here it is. (Parables from the Back Side: Bible Stories with a Twist Vol. 1, page 90; J. Ellsworth Kalas).
Typically “winning souls” can call to mind a church altar with scores of people lined up to affirm for the first time “Jesus is Lord.” The more lined up, the greater the evangelist is deemed to be. This was not my father’s view of things, and neither is it mine. A horde chanting a shibboleth is no guarantor nor substitute for individuals exercising the fruit of the Spirit in every day practice. The ultimate objective of this blog is to promote the view and conviction that the disciplines of love are the most appropriate approach to life and its myriad facets. This includes all the blessings and challenges that living presents. The path of the persuaded in tandem with divine grace is the most effective and realistic approach. It takes into view both the long and short-term. Without this anchor life is confounding: an escapism without meaningful effectiveness.
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There are in our existence spots of time,
That with distinct pre-eminence retain
A renovating virtue, whence--depressed
By false opinion and contentious thought,
Or aught of heavier or more deadly weight,
In trivial occupations, and the round
Of ordinary intercourse--our minds
Are nourished and invisibly repaired;
A virtue, by which pleasure is enhanced,
That penetrates, enables us to mount,
When high, more high, and lifts us up when fallen.
This efficacious spirit chiefly lurks
Among those passages of life that give
Profoundest knowledge to what point, and how,
The mind is lord and master--outward sense
The obedient servant of her will.
(William Wordsworth, The Prelude Book Twelfth)
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