beautiful bits

Taken from Under the Overpass (excellent book)

"For some reason I hardly ever admitted when things weren't going well. Instead, I usually glossed over my struggles with an easy liche like 'it's all gd' or 'hanging in there' and thought nothing of it. Psalm 34:18 'The Lord is close t the broken hearted'. I wondered if pretending you're not broken keeps God at a distance. The men I was eeting were at the bottom-the worste point of their lives-and weren't afraid to admit it. But their ruin opened the way fr honesty. Pretending didn't help anyore, and anyway, they didnt' have the strength to keep it up. They just told it as it was, when it was. I fund that part of living in ruin refreshing."

"If we are the body of Christ-and Christ came not for the healthy but the sck-we need to be fully present in teh places where people are ost broken. And it has to be more than just a financial presence. That helps, of course. But too often money is insulation-it conveniently keeps us from ever having to come face to face wtih a man or woman whose life is in tatters. A bunch of highschool kids from Nebraska showed me something important; When we're willing to get down to eating together, listening and telling the truth together, cleaning together, pealing potates together, the Gospel comes alive."

"A hungry man can be a fast learner. When you come to a table with nothing but need, you are grateful for things you might have pushed aside before. And when you kneel, hungry and broken at His table, ceu receie a grace from Him you might, at some other time, have completely missed. You'll know this grace when you take it. It goes deeper, quicker, and it burns all the way down."

"We hear a Christian assure someone that he will 'pray over' his problem, knowing full well that he intends to use prayer as a substitute for service. It is much easier to pray that a poor friend's needs may be supplied than to supply them." -A.W. Tozer, of God and men