Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Pete Portal
Read between
December 23 - December 31, 2023
Syncretism means the mixing of different world views into faith, and at its worst it can dilute the message and subsequent power of the Church’s witness in society.
What is the effect of the kingdom of God on us? It is ‘to align our loves and longings with his – to want what God wants, to desire what God desires, to hunger and thirst after God and crave a world where he is all in all’.
And so I’m starting to realise that, far from deconstructing faith, we need to learn how to transform it – taking what has been formed in us, seeking the Holy Spirit’s help in reforming it, and watching the process of sanctification transform it into something God can use to help us help others.
God’s nature is to create, and we partner with God when we offer creative ideas and share imaginative thoughts, not when we shut down or pull apart what currently exists.
How we see the world and our place in it is less about what we are looking at and more about what we are looking with and where we are looking from.
There’s a profound distinction between being led by our convictions and driven by our favourite insta quote. While our feelings are real, they are a poor barometer to gauge what is good or true.
If we live for cheap rewards we become short-sighted. If we make formulas out of God’s generosity, we become entitled. If we cry ‘Hosanna!’ convinced that Jesus will give us what we want on our terms, we may well find ourselves shouting ‘Crucify!’ a week later because our needs haven’t been met the way we wanted. It seems such an obvious point to make but let me say it anyway: success should not be measured by the ‘blessings’ or applause we receive, but by the closeness of our walk of faith to the ‘blesser’.
What if your unique contribution to the world – the most successful thing you could ever do – is first and foremost your yieldedness to God’s voice?
We need to consider not just the ends of mission (people reconciled to God) but also the means of mission (the way we represent God to the world), otherwise we undermine the people we’re trying to reach as well as the message we’re trying to convey.
We can only share in people’s liberation if we know what is keeping them bound. We can only know what that is if we are in relationship. Relationships often bring us to the end of ourselves. The end of ourselves is where grace begins. And it’s grace that transforms people.
We cannot talk about friendship without proximity. And we cannot talk about proximity without reference to where we are located.
The thing is, of course, that so often it’s those of us who derive meaning and purpose from the influence our networks leverage who are most in need of soul-healing but least likely to go there.
The desire to be relevant is the desire to be seen which, ironically, can only truly be found in relationship. I believe the journey ‘westward’ looks like friendship. And friendship affects lifestyle.
We may want relevance because we want to be seen, but it is only in the most intimate of relationships that we truly can be.
the Beatitudes, Jesus declares that the blessed are those who recognise their neediness, grief and pain, who desire more of God but who won’t take up power to try and get it, who extend mercy to others, exhibit purity and pursue peace, and who will probably face criticism for all of the above. With this in mind, I wonder if a reasonable definition of ‘blessed’ might be ‘partakers of the divine nature’ (2 Peter 1:4 rsv); to be someone not immune from the heartache of living in a broken world but, through sharing in the life of the trinity, somehow able to transcend the despair experienced by
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In a world that disembodies human relationship by connecting relevance with number of views of online content, Jesus calls us back to the loving gaze of a Father who views delighted little girls, abused single mothers, celebrated academics and everyone in between – irrespective of how life has panned out – with the same eyes of compassion and affection.
Our problem, as we have seen, tends to be that we pursue favour and reputation as our end but forget about love and faithfulness as the means to it – we do literally the opposite of what Proverbs talks about.
Mainly it’s our inability to live up to the best version of ourselves that lets people down.
We won’t know true influence unless we are able to display true integrity.
Unassuming, unshowy, easily missable but quietly transformative – that’s how Jesus chose to describe the kingdom of God.
Lose place, lose story, lose encounter.
Deconstruction without renovation leads to dystopia.
Followers of Jesus need to be known not for thinking we have answers but for showing we have empathy – because empathy is the answer to every question.
Without kindness you can destroy with your character what you’ve built with your gift.
He speaks to our heart’s motivation over our behaviour, knowing that right bodily actions follow Godly thought processes.
However: Research, study, prayer, meditation, discipline, searching, science can get you to Jerusalem; but only revelation can get you to Bethlehem. Bethlehem, with its vulnerable God in human flesh and its anticipation … of his future suffering, is an emblem of what is unique about Christianity.28 Strategy can get you to Jerusalem; only revelation can get you to Bethlehem.
In an increasingly divided world of tribalism and outrage, true influence will belong to those committed to helping others break out of echo chambers and to uniting disparate voices through the deep work of reconciliation.
around the world the call is for Jesus’ followers to lead culture in deep engagement with local versions of historical injustices that have been left undealt with. The world needs reconciling, and if Spirit-filled believers can’t lead the way, who do we expect will?
The things you revert to for contentment in response to the question ‘What shall I do with my pain?’ will probably define the person you become.
Aaron White comments: ‘What many people inside and outside the church fail to see is that addictions are almost always coping mechanisms in the form of self-medicating solutions for real pain.’
pain seeks pleasure.
Today many of us are part of a generation trying to ‘live our best life’ but no one can tell us how, exactly. So we pretend. And then when that doesn’t work we hear stuff like: ‘I feel “triggered” and need to find “safe places” from “toxic positivity” to be able to “feel my feels”.’ And this perspective doesn’t even begin to venture into the systemic, historical factors that leave whole communities at the receiving end of injustice and oppression. As the writer Resmaa Menakem points out: ‘Trauma in a people, decontextualized over time, looks like culture.’14 It’s enough to trigger you into an
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Our view towards the broken glass transforms from one of frustration to realising that allowing it to come up was the kindest thing God could do for us.
Laying down your life for others is the call of discipleship.
healing happens as calling unfolds; calling happens as healing unfolds.
The seeming lack of ability to display common decency in the public sphere – to first listen, to empathise, to seek to understand and to demonstrate kindness face to face (and especially online, where the guarantee of anonymity fuels the vitriol) – is dramatically antithetical to what Jesus preached.
Nowhere did Jesus tell his followers to fight for political power or even religious freedom.
And so mission is to be concerned with the social, economic and political conditions in this world, not simply growing big congregations.
To trample love underfoot in the name of being right is never right, whichever side you’re coming from.
To be hardhearted is to dehumanise and depersonalise. It’s to give to charity but never of oneself. It’s to critique without offering encouragement. It’s to ignore the means in pursuit of the ends. It’s to see people only for their usefulness – ‘cogs in an ever-turning wheel’23 – rather than for their innate worth. Serpents need doves.
If we believe only the shadow story we can get stuck in cynicism, blame and fear. But if we look for the prophetic promise we fuel imagination, wonder and creativity.
So a private, personal faith that has no recourse to actual physical things and lives is useless.
‘the New Testament often refers to “salvation” and “being saved” in terms of bodily events within the present world’34 and not just life after death. It conceives of salvation as the inbreaking of the kingdom of God into the structures and pain of this world.
It is the epitome of conceit to pursue power and influence in order to have a platform to exhibit the humility and servanthood of Jesus.
And though control is an effective short-term antidote to fear because it meets our need of immediate – but counterfeit – certainty, it will ultimately render us unable to yield to God’s leading and unwilling to discover new facets of his character, leaving us vulnerable to being carried by the currents of culture.
Our loyalty to one perspective at the expense of all others dismembers the body of Christ.
God can make life grow anywhere and in any conditions, and if he’s called you to a place and a people, your responsibility is simply to sow yourself there, wholeheartedly.
The paradox of kingdom success is that it is hidden in the most unsuccessful-looking things: laying down your life leads to fullness; becoming like Jesus in his death leads to resurrection; participation in the example of Jesus’ suffering leads to power: ‘For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one’s surrender to a person other than oneself.’
Everything you do and the effect you have on your world flows from God’s activity within you.
Our spiritual disciplines root us in the goodness of God but they’re also grounded in our geographical and economic realities.
