More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Jen Hatmaker
Read between
March 22, 2019 - February 23, 2020
I’m still learning that the arrival is truly not the destination, that somehow the journey is the destination itself.
“Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy”
Jesus came to the foulest, filthiest place possible (earth), a place full of
ungrateful, self-destructive people who would betray Him far more than they’d love Him
yet His grace was theirs for the asking until they drew their last breaths, even if all they could offer Him was a lifetime of hatred and one moment of repentance.
weeds is not sufficient reason to avoid the whole field of human suffering, because I assure you, identifying with the wheat but not the weeds is a gross overestimation of our own station.
Our holy Savior advised us well: humans must treat the wheat and weeds the same.
“Benefactor” was a title assumed by rulers in Egypt, Syria, and Rome as a display of honor, though it had no bearing on actual service rendered to the people.
power, prestige, and possessions are the three things that prevent us from recognizing and receiving the reign of God.
The only ones who can accept the proclamation of the reign are those who have nothing to protect, not their own self-image or their reputation, their possessions, their
theology, their principles, or their certitudes. And these ar...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
course. The pursuit of ascension is crippling
and has stunted my faith more than any other evil I’ve
ironically, the more I accumulate, the less I enjoy any of it.
found. The path of descent becomes our own liberation.
thus relieved from the burden of maintaining some reputation.
I hate the top. I hate who I have to be to live there. I hate the biblical two-step I have to perform to justify top-dwelling. I hate the posturing up there. I can’t stand the fear of heights, since falling is a constant danger. I can’t bear how far it is from the Spirit who said He was “close to the brokenhearted” (Psalm 34:18) and that “the highborn are but a lie” (Psalm 62:9).
In order for God’s kingdom to come, my kingdom had to go.
Perhaps this is why the church is gaining ground in impoverished and oppressed regions but declining in the United States and affluent continents like Europe and Australia.
The rest of the world struggles with hunger and sickness, but we have to conquer the diseases of greed and ego,
Americans are the richest people on the planet but plagued with depression, suicide, and loneliness. We’re
When Jesus spoke, it was the “losers” who understood while the “winners” were stumped and called Him a lunatic.
Simplicity by Richard Rohr Isn’t She Beautiful? Mars Hill church conference Mother Teresa: In My Own Words by Mother Teresa The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini My Sister, My Brother by Henri J. M. Nouwen Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger by Ronald J. Sider Don’t Waste Your Life by John Piper
Hopkins wrote, “Christ plays in ten thousand places, lovely in limbs and lovely in eyes not his.”[1]
Ultimately, it is not nation or race, church or citizenship that gives people value. It is not sinlessness or innocence that makes us precious. It is not that Jesus looks on us as helpless or powerful, poor or rich, weak or strong. We are loved because we are living images of God,
The Gospels say very clearly that God loves imperfect things. But it’s only the imperfect and the broken who can believe that. Those who don’t have anything to prove or protect can believe that they are loved as they are. But we who have spent our lives
ascending the spiritual ladder have a harder time hearing the truth. For the truth isn’t found up at the top, but down at the bottom. And by trying to climb the ladder we miss Christ, who comes down through the Incarnation.[2]
God may be leading you away without a clear final destination yet. As maddening as that is, could it be that He needs you to release what was before you can appropriately grasp what will be?
we are Americans; we like a plan, we like assurances. But the ways of faith exist so far outside of our tidy boundaries, it is a wonder we can ever receive its mysteries at all. As it was, we could only hold loosely to something we didn’t even understand, and that put us in a position of faith and terrible humility. We can wreck the spirit of a mission by prematurely focusing on the strategy. When the “how” eclipses the “why” too soon, we create a positional shift to defend and execute rather than listen and receive. Once clear territory is staked, we turn into guards, protecting our
...more
Most people don’t want American staples like comfort and safety and prosperity challenged. Your instincts will say, “Defend and protect or possibly abandon ship,” but that is the worst internal advice ever. Don’t listen to yourself. You can lose it all—all the things you thought mattered most—and rise up to tell a better story yet. Turn it loose.
The decisions you make in a low position are completely opposite those made in a high place.
The people you seek counsel from are different. The leaders you expose yourself to are different.
The way you move forward is...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
There are top-dwelling rules that are irrelevant at the bottom, and you’re free from adhering to them. It’s not just a positional change that affects you today; it informs every decision and relationship in your future. This is probably why it wasn’t until we were lying on th...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
would have destroyed that dream had we possessed it when we were higher up. Not a single decision would have had any integrity. We were so unprepared to receive our mission until the second we did. When we had nothing left to protect, no position left to defend, no reputat...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
You have likely not heard of the Free Methodists because they’ve been quietly doing global ministry since 1860, when they split from the main Methodist conference over racial inequality. Not only that, churches had developed a nasty habit of charging congregants for preferred seating; the more you paid, the closer you sat. Poor people were
relegated to the back, often pushed out altogether by paying members. Convinced that people and church attendance should be free, the Free Methodist church was born.
There are hot controversies about the true Church. What constitutes it, what is essential to it? . . . Does a church preach the gospel to the poor—preach it effectively? Does it convert and sanctify the people? . . . If not, we need not
take the trouble of asking any more questions about it. It has missed the main matter. . . .
Methodists were found in black and mixed congregations; on mission fields in India, Africa, and China; and later in rescue missions in US cities. They insisted on simple buildings and plain dress on Sundays so the poor would feel comfortable among them. (How wonderful.)
The Holy Ghost presses home the truth that Christ’s disciples are characterized by self denial, humility, and love.
Free Methodist churches, by their posture and passions, attract two types of people: believers hungry for the straight-up gospel—simple in presentation, powerful in expression—and the marginalized who need good news in the form of salvation, assistance, and Christian fellowship.
Barely two weeks after we hit the pavement, the following prayers were answered: complete funding effective immediately, a core team already in place, pastoral mentorship in the form of a Hawaiian-bowling-shirt–wearing saint and others like him, prayer cover, vision, a perfectly matched partnership in the work of the church, and overwhelming relief that not only were we no longer alone, we were part of something inspiring and beautiful and much larger than the scope of our reach.
Church, we are on the same team. What
As Americans, we cannot act contrary to God’s Word and His will yet expect His blessings. You know what God would say? “As if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God.” As if.
growing church can quickly become distracted with the necessary business of things and miss the whole point, even annihilate the point, jeopardizing its DNA along the way.
If all of us are not careful, priorities can shift to chasing growth or success at all costs.
King David constantly invited God to search his heart and the hidden motives within as he led the nation of Israel.
We are easily distracted, losing perspective and reacting desperately, but no circumstance gives us license to discard the essentials: love, mercy, compassion, justice. The means do not justify the end when it comes to God’s kingdom. The means are everything; the end is secondary.
We can’t ignore God’s ways and expect to
