We must be global Christians with a global vision because our God is a global God.
John StottRead
As a body without breath is a corpse, so the church without the Spirit is dead.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the essential role of the Holy Spirit in giving life to the church, similar to how breath is vital for a body.
John Stott emphasizes that just as a body is lifeless without breath, a church is without purpose and vitality if it lacks the presence of the Holy Spirit. This serves as a metaphorical warning that spiritual life and guidance are essential for the church to thrive and fulfill its mission.
In practice
In a sermon discussing the importance of spiritual vitality in congregations.
We must be global Christians with a global vision because our God is a global God.
Mission arises from the heart of God Himself and is communicated from His heart to ours. Mission is the global outreach of the global people of a global God.
An unchurched christian is a grotesque anomaly. The New Testament knows nothing of such a person. For the church lies at the very center of the eternal purpose of God. It is not a divine afterthought. It is not an accident of history. On the contrary, the church is God's new community.
Saving faith is resting faith, the trust which relies entirely on the Savior.
It is a great comfort to know that our judge will be none other than our savior.
To encounter Christ is to touch reality and experience transcendence. He gives us a sense of self-worth or personal significance, because He assures us of God's love for us. He sets us free from guilt because He died for us and from paralyzing fear because He reigns. He gives meaning to marriage and home, work and leisure, personhood and citizenship.
If Christianity is untrue, then no honest man will want to believe it, however helpful it might be; if it is true, every honest man will want to believe it, even if it gives him no help at all
By opening our lives to God in Christ, we become new creatures. This experience, which Jesus spoke of as the new birth, is essential if we are to be transformed nonconformists . . . Only through an inner spiritual transformation do we gain the strength to fight vigorously the evils of the world in a humble and loving spirit.
The specific patterns, out of which a building or a town is made_x000D_ may be alive or dead. To the extent they are alive, they let our inner_x000D_ forces loose, and, set us free; but when they are dead they keep_x000D_ us locked in inner conflict.
No advantages in this world are pure and unmixed.
The reduction of the earth to an object simply for human's use/ possession is unthinkable in most traditional cultures... the earth belongs to itself and to all the component members of the community.
Faith is deliberate confidence in the character of God whose ways you may not understand at the time.
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