Flesh Quotes

“If you want a safe faith, you will never really know God because He doesn’t hang out in the shallow end much.”
― Hugh Halter, Flesh: Bringing the Incarnation Down to Earth

“Jesus’s gospel is not about a cosmic religious apocalypse upon rebellious pagans. His gospel is about a new messianic kingdom where He rules in the spirit of His Father, a kingdom full of joy, grace, freedom, and release from all that ails humanity.”
― Hugh Halter, Flesh: Bringing the Incarnation Down to Earth

“In God’s kingdom we are not just people He saves but fellow heirs of all that the King has.”
― Hugh Halter, Flesh: Bringing the Incarnation Down to Earth

“What makes the stories of our lives beautiful are not the people we’ve led to faith, or the churches we’ve grown, or the poor and hurting people we’ve renovated. What makes our stories matter are the day-by-day swan dives we take for the King of glory that may never look that glorious—but to God they are!”
― Hugh Halter, Flesh: Bringing the Incarnation Down to Earth

“I think the reason this was so important to Jesus was that He wanted people to know that God is relational—truly relational without any impure or selfish motives. He wanted His Father to be trusted, and therefore He needed men and women who represented this. The psychology of agendas is that they make relationships transactional, which means that people are used for a purpose. People become a means to someone else’s end, and this erodes a person’s belief that he or she is valued regardless of any production.”
― Hugh Halter, Flesh: Bringing the Incarnation Down to Earth

“The incarnation is what those inside and outside the Christian faith are looking for, and if every Jesus follower truly “got it,” it would fix every negative stereotype people have about Christians, Christianity, and the church. The incarnation of Jesus will give you proof that God understands how hard it is to be human, and it will help you see how to be human to the fullest.”
― Hugh Halter, Flesh: Bringing the Incarnation Down to Earth

“And the day is coming fast when the gospel will again pass through the lives and ministries of normal people who have a full calling to ministry but also have a trade.”
― Hugh Halter, Flesh: Bringing the Incarnation Down to Earth

“Here is a truism. What you say about yourself matters very little, but what others say of you means the world.”
― Hugh Halter, Flesh: Bringing the Incarnation Down to Earth

“We love Jesus as a baby on Christmas, and Jesus risen from the grave on Easter, but somehow we miss Jesus the man, the teacher, the sage, the rebel, the subversive King, the local hero, the neighborhood friend.”
― Hugh Halter, Flesh: Bringing the Incarnation Down to Earth

“to be incarnational and live an incarnational life, you’ve got to settle the issue of your identity in Jesus.”
― Hugh Halter, Flesh: Bringing the Incarnation Down to Earth

“Disappointed? Yep. And grieved to the core. But He came to Adam. He asked Adam some important questions before He addressed his massive misstep. So there goes your Old Testament image of the angry madman. If God didn’t spank Adam then, you are probably safe now! Sure, there were some big consequences, like screwing up the entire universe, but there was a way of redemption for Adam and there is a way for everyone to be bought back. The fact that Jesus came, lived among us, and then died for us is proof of our sin and need for a Savior, but it is just as much proof that we are worth saving. For you to live incarnationally, don’t move past this point. Jesus came to earth for you.”
― Hugh Halter, Flesh: Bringing the Incarnation Down to Earth

“disobeying your earthly father? I do. In fact, one of my most memorable experiences with my dad came after I had spilled a paint can all over the carpet while my parents were remodeling a room. They didn’t see it happen, so I went flying up the stairs and dived under my covers. In a few minutes I could hear the muffled voice of my father discussing how I had ruined the carpet. I tightened the sheet over my head and tried to prop up stuffed animals and pillows so he couldn’t find me. I heard him call out to me. Then I heard his feet coming up the stairs. “Hugh Thomas, where are you?” Trying not to even breathe, I remained silent. Then the door opened with a creak, and I felt his feet moving toward the side of my bed. I was terrified. I knew he had found me. I expected him to grab me by the ankle, jerk me out of the bed, hang me upside down, and whale away on my hind end with a wooden spoon. But he didn’t. I just remember him gently grabbing the corner of the sheet, slowing pulling it up, sliding his face under the covers where he could make eye contact with me, and then saying, “Son, you ruined the carpet, but I love you. Why don’t you come down and help me fix this? I’m not mad, but we have to clean it up, okay?” When God came to find Adam, He was upset, for sure.”
― Hugh Halter, Flesh: Bringing the Incarnation Down to Earth

“God is not a robot. He isn’t a comptroller of an accounting company trying to make things add up or work out. He is a being full of deep emotion, longing, and memories of what it used to be like. The incarnation therefore isn’t about an equation but about remembering what home used to be like and making a plan to get back there. Consider this reboot of the Genesis creation account. It may help you see God’s emotion a little better. First off, nothing … but God. No light, no time, no substance, no matter. Second off, God says the word and WHAP! Stuff everywhere! The cosmos in chaos: no shape, no form, no function—just darkness … total. And floating above it all, God’s Holy Spirit, ready to play. Day one: Then God’s voice booms out, “Lights!” and, from nowhere, light floods the skies and “night” is swept off the scene. God gives it the big thumbs up, calls it “day”. Day two: God says, “I want a dome—call it ‘sky’—right there between the waters above and below.” And it happens. Day three: God says, “Too much water! We need something to walk on, a huge lump of it—call it ‘land’. Let the ‘sea’ lick its edges.” God smiles, says, “Now we’ve got us some definition. But it’s too plain! It needs colour! Vegetation! Loads of it. A million shades. Now!” And the earth goes wild with trees, bushes, plants, flowers and fungi. “Now give it a growth permit.” Seeds appear in every one. “Yesss!” says God. Day four: “We need a schedule: let’s have a ‘sun’ for the day, a ‘moon’ for the night; I want ‘seasons’, ‘years’; and give us ‘stars’, masses of stars—think of a number, add a trillion, then times it by the number of trees and we’re getting there: we’re talking huge! Day five: “OK, animals: amoeba, crustaceans, insects, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals … I want the whole caboodle teeming with a million varieties of each—and let’s have some fun with the shapes, sizes, colours, textures!” God tells them all, “You’ve got a growth permit—use it!” He sits back and smiles, says, “Result!” Day six: Then God says, “Let’s make people—like us, but human, with flesh and blood, skin and bone. Give them the job of caretakers of the vegetation, game wardens of all the animals.” So God makes people, like him, but human. He makes male and female.… He smiles at them and gives them their job description: “Make babies! Be parents, grandparents, great-grandparents—fill the earth with your families and run the planet well. You’ve got all the plants to eat from, so have all the animals—plenty for all. Enjoy.” God looks at everything he’s made, and says, “Fantastic. I love it!” Day seven: Job done—the cosmos and the earth complete. God takes a bit of well-earned R&R and just enjoys. He makes an announcement: “Let’s keep this day of the week special, a day off—battery-recharge day: Rest Day.”2 I’m not normally a paraphrase guy, but we always read the creation story like a textbook. I love this rendition because it captures the enthusiastic emotion that God felt about everything He created, especially humans. He loved it all. He loved us. Most of all, He loved the way things were.”
― Hugh Halter, Flesh: Bringing the Incarnation Down to Earth

“Jesus did not come to convert people. Nowhere did He ever say that was His goal. What we do see is that His primary desire was to give glory to the Father by revealing His glory.”
― Hugh Halter, Flesh: Bringing the Incarnation Down to Earth

“you will learn to see a halo above every friend and enemy God leads you to live next to.”
― Hugh Halter, Flesh: Bringing the Incarnation Down to Earth

“Incarnation is going to ask you to have full faith in God’s ability to transcend what you presently see in someone’s life. During the Haitian relief effort, Beyoncé reworked the lyrics of a song called “Halo.” The phrase “Haiti, I can see your halo” is exactly what I’m talking about. If you can see a halo over a bombed-out city like Port-au-Prince,”
― Hugh Halter, Flesh: Bringing the Incarnation Down to Earth

“Christians often make it sound like Jesus came only to die for sin and then make converts, grow a religion called Christianity, and make more converts. But God never wanted converts, church attenders, prisoners, or parishioners. He wanted His family back.”
― Hugh Halter, Flesh: Bringing the Incarnation Down to Earth

“Day six: Then God says, “Let’s make people—like us, but human, with flesh and blood, skin and bone. Give them the job of caretakers of the vegetation, game wardens of all the animals.” So God makes people, like him, but human. He makes male and female.… He smiles at them and gives them their job description: “Make babies! Be parents, grandparents, great-grandparents—fill the earth with your families and run the planet well. You’ve got all the plants to eat from, so have all the animals—plenty for all. Enjoy.” God looks at everything he’s made, and says, “Fantastic. I love it!”
― Hugh Halter, Flesh: Bringing the Incarnation Down to Earth

“although Satan and his minions don’t like anyone to acknowledge Jesus as his or her Savior, they will settle for that as long as you don’t make Jesus your Lord.”
― Hugh Halter, Flesh: Bringing the Incarnation Down to Earth