Du Toit Quotes

A l'adolescence, on rêve du jour où l'on quittera ses parents, un autre jour ce sont vos parents qui vous quittent. Alors, on ne rêve plus qu'à pouvoir redevenir, ne serait-ce qu'un instant, l'enfant qui vivait sous leur toit, les prendre dans vos bras, leur dire sans pudeur qu'on les aime, se serrer contre eux pour qu'ils vous rassurent encore une fois.

Knowledge is a dangerous thing. But ignorance is no protection.

Elle lui demanda en quoi un jour de pluie pouvait être beau : il lui énuméra les nuances de couleurs que prendraient le ciel, les arbres et les toits lorsqu'ils se promèneraient tantôt, de la puissance sauvage avec laquelle leur apparaîtrait l'océan, du parapluie qui les rapprocherait pendant la marche, de la joie qu'ils auraient à se réfugier ici pour un thé chaud, des vêtements qui sécheraient auprès du feu, de la langueur qui en découlerait, de l'opportunité qu'ils auraient de faire plusieurs fois l'amour, du temps qu'ils prendraient à se raconter leur vie sous les draps du lit, enfants protégés par une tente de la nature déchaînée...

Every invention begins with an original thought. You are God’s original thought. You are his initiative, the fruit of his creative inspiration, his intimate design and love-dream.

Peace is a place of unhindered enjoyment of friendship beyond guilt, suspicion, blame of inferiority

The destiny of the logos was not the printed page. A mirror can only reflect the object; likewise, the purpose of the page was only to reflect the message which is “Christ in you.

Beyond the tablet of stone, the papyrus scroll or parchment roll, human life has become the articulate voice of God. Jesus is the crescendo of God’s conversation with humankind; he gives context and content to the authentic thought. Everything that God had in mind for man is voiced in him. Jesus is God’s language.

The moment you exchange spontaneity with rules you've lost the edge of romance

So next time you go to a museum, keep your eyes open; you never know what you will see.

Agape is your genesis. Loving everyone around you is what you are all about.” (Our love for one another is awakened by God’s love for us.) 

12:13  Purpose with resolve to treat strangers as saints; pursue and embrace them with fondness as friends on equal terms of fellowship. Make yourself useful in the most practical way possible. (Eph 3:18)

One of the most popular legends was the tale of Lady Alexandra Greenwood, who was said to appear whenever something grave was about to happen. Her apparition was supposedly last witnessed weeping in the darkness of the cellar on the night before the death of Mrs Humphrey Devereux.

Man began in God. You are the greatest idea that God has ever had!

The mission of Jesus was not to begin the Christian religion. His mandate was to reveal and redeem the image and likeness of God in human form. While

16:14  Agape is your genesis. Loving everyone around you is what you are all about. (Our love for one another is awakened by God’s love for us.)

15:22  In Adam all died; in Christ all are made alive.

7:23  You are not for sale (to the law of works). The ransom God paid for your freedom now binds you to the lordship of his love. The sign over your life says, SOLD!

I've walked their streets and they've walked mine, yet we’re separated by a wall of time.

Faith is not something we do to get God to do something back to us; faith is what happens to us when we realize what God has already done for us!

To struggle to do means to fail to see. Doing spontaneously is directly related to perceiving and realising the integrity of your individual identity and value. Doing follows conclusion. I am, therefore I can!

2:2  The testimony of God is my only persuasion concerning you: Jesus Christ died your death on the cross! I can see you in no other light! (For I determined to know nothing in you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.)

Jesus did not come as an example for us, but of us. Beholding Jesus in any other way, sentimentally or religiously, will bring no lasting change. Now in Christ we may know ourselves, even as we have always been known (1 Cor 13:12).

Our hostility and indifference towards God did not reduce his love for us; he saw equal value in us when he exchanged the life of his son for ours. Now that the act of 1reconciliation is complete, his life in us saves us from the gutter-most to the uttermost.

12:16  Esteem everyone with the same respect; no one is more important than the other. Associate yourself rather with the lowly than with the lofty. Do not distance yourself from others in your own mind. (“Take a real interest in ordinary people.”— JB Phillips)

Child detective Noah Edward was standing in front of his new home. It was an old-fashioned building made of brick. It had a tall, spiky wrought iron fence. There was a billboard attached to the side of the fence. It read “Richard Seddon’s Home for Vulnerable Children.

Eph 4:9  The fact that he ascended confirms his victorious descent into the deepest pits of human despair. [In John 3:13: “No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended from heaven, even the son of man.” All mankind originates from above; we are anouthen, from above.

Les Poets de Sept ans Et la Mère, fermant le livre du devoir, S'en allait satisfaite et très fière sans voir, Dans les yeux bleus et sous le front plein d'éminences, L'âme de son enfant livrée aux répugnances. Tout le jour, il suait d'obéissance ; très Intelligent ; pourtant des tics noirs, quelques traits Semblaient prouver en lui d'âcres hypocrisies. Dans l'ombre des couloirs aux tentures moisies, En passant il tirait la langue, les deux poings A l'aine, et dans ses yeux fermés voyait des points. Une porte s'ouvrait sur le soir : à la lampe On le voyait, là-haut, qui râlait sur la rampe, Sous un golfe de jour pendant du toit. L'été Surtout, vaincu, stupide, il était entêté A se renfermer dans la fraîcheur des latrines: Il pensait là, tranquille et livrant ses narines. Quand, lavé des odeurs du jour, le jardinet Derrière la maison, en hiver, s'illunait , Gisant au pied d'un mur, enterré dans la marne Et pour des visions écrasant son oeil darne, Il écoutait grouiller les galeux espaliers. Pitié ! Ces enfants seuls étaient ses familiers Qui, chétifs, fronts nus, oeil déteignant sur la joue, Cachant de maigres doigts jaunes et noirs de boue Sous des habits puant la foire et tout vieillots, Conversaient avec la douceur des idiots ! Et si, l'ayant surpris à des pitiés immondes, Sa mère s'effrayait, les tendresses profondes, De l'enfant se jetaient sur cet étonnement. C'était bon. Elle avait le bleu regard, - qui ment! A sept ans, il faisait des romans, sur la vie Du grand désert où luit la Liberté ravie, Forêts, soleils, rives, savanes ! - Il s'aidait De journaux illustrés où, rouge, il regardait Des Espagnoles rire et des Italiennes. Quand venait, l'Oeil brun, folle, en robes d'indiennes, -Huit ans -la fille des ouvriers d'à côté, La petite brutale, et qu'elle avait sauté, Dans un coin, sur son dos, en secouant ses tresses, Et qu'il était sous elle, il lui mordait les fesses, Car elle ne portait jamais de pantalons; - Et, par elle meurtri des poings et des talons, Remportait les saveurs de sa peau dans sa chambre. Il craignait les blafards dimanches de décembre, Où, pommadé, sur un guéridon d'acajou, Il lisait une Bible à la tranche vert-chou; Des rêves l'oppressaient, chaque nuit, dans l'alcôve. Il n'aimait pas Dieu; mais les hommes qu'au soir fauve, Noirs, en blouse, il voyait rentrer dans le faubourg Où les crieurs, en trois roulements de tambour, Font autour des édits rire et gronder les foules. - Il rêvait la prairie amoureuse, où des houles Lumineuses, parfums sains, pubescences d'or, Font leur remuement calme et prennent leur essor ! Et comme il savourait surtout les sombres choses, Quand, dans la chambre nue aux persiennes closes, Haute et bleue, âcrement prise d'humidité, Il lisait son roman sans cesse médité, Plein de lourds ciels ocreux et de forêts noyées, De fleurs de chair aux bois sidérals déployées, Vertige, écroulement, déroutes et pitié ! - Tandis que se faisait la rumeur du quartier, En bas, - seul et couché sur des pièces de toile Écrue et pressentant violemment la voile!

15:58  For this reason you can afford to be absolutely settled and rock-solid in faith’s persuasion and always ready to go beyond where you would have gone before. Your doing now is inspired by your knowing that you are in him. If his resurrection is yours then his victory over sin and death is equally yours.

What must I do now?” Mrs. Muller considered her silently for a while. “You are still a child. You must go where you are told and do as you are told. But it won’t always be so. Soon you will be in charge of yourself. Until that time: Be aware. Listen. Look. Touch. Smell. And remember. But for now, you must go home.

— Que m’as-tu apporté ? a-t-elle demandé d’une voix tout excitée. — Et toi, que m’as-tu apporté ? l’ai-je taquinée en souriant. Elle a souri à son tour et ouvert une main. Quelque chose a lui sous la clarté des étoiles. — Une clé, a-t-elle annoncé fièrement en me la tendant. Je l’ai prise. Elle pesait agréablement dans ma main. — C’est très gentil. Et qu’est-ce qu’elle ouvre ? — La lune, a-t-elle répondu d’un air grave. — Ça peut être utile. — C’est ce que je me suis dit. Comme ça, s’il y a une porte sur la lune, tu pourras l’ouvrir. Elle s’est assise en tailleur tout au bord du toit et m’a souri. — Ce qui ne veut pas dire que j’encouragerais une entreprise aussi périlleuse, a-t-elle ajouté.

1:4  There is no contradiction of any proportion that we can possibly face that has what it takes to exasperate us or distance us from God. Our consciousness of his inseparable nearness immediately reinforces us to extend the same tangible 1closeness to you in your difficult times, and together we snuggle up in the 1comfort of his intimate embrace!

(The Greek word for the love of God is 1agape from the word, agoo, meaning to lead like a shepherd guides his sheep, and pao, meaning to rest, i.e. “he leads me beside still waters.” By the waters of reflection my soul remembers who I am. [Ps 23]. God’s rest is established upon his image and likeness redeemed in us. Thus, to encounter agape is to remember who I am.

The law of the Spirit is the liberating force of life in Christ. This leaves me with no further obligation to the law of sin and death. Spirit has superseded the sin enslaved senses as the principle law of our lives. (The law of the spirit is righteousness by faith vs the law of personal effort and self righteousness which produces condemnation and spiritual death which is the fruit of the DIY tree.)

13:11  You must understand the urgency and context of time; it is most certainly now the hour to wake up at once out of the hypnotic state of slumber and unbelief. Salvation has come. 13:12  It was 1night for long enough; the day has arrived. Cease immediately with any action associated with the darkness of ignorance. Clothe yourself in the radiance of light as a soldier would wear his full weaponry. (The night is far spent, 1prokopto, as a smith forges a piece of metal until he has hammered it into its maximum length.)

16:20  God who is the author of our peace shall quickly and utterly trample 1Satan, doing it with your feet. Your victory is realized in the revelation of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and echoed (personalized) in your amen. (We are the body of Christ. God desires to demonstrate his reign of peace in us by confirming satan’s defeat in our practical day to day experience. The defeat of 1accusation is celebrated in what grace communicates. The word, 1satanos, means accuser. The law of faith defeated the law of works!)

Le peuple savait depuis longtemps où chercher, ailleurs que dans ces pénitenciers officiels, la culture et l'éducation dont il avait besoin dans sa lutte contre le règne vermoulu de la bourgeoisie, et les moineaux sifflaient sur les toits que notre type d'école, tel qu'il est issu de l'école monastique du Moyen Âge, constituait un anachronisme et une vieillerie ridicule, que personne au monde ne devait plus sa culture proprement dite à l'école, et qu'un enseignement libre et accessible à tous par des conférences publiques, par des expositions et par le cinéma était infiniment supérieur à tout enseignement scolaire.

10:13 Your situation is not unique! Every human life faces contradictions! Here is the good news: God believes in your freedom! He has made it possible for you to triumph in every situation that you will ever encounter! 10:14  My 1dearly loved friends! Escape into his image and likeness in you where the 2distorted image (2idolatry) loses its attraction! (Dearly loved friends, translated as  1agapetos; to know the agape love of God is to know our true identity! The word, agape, comes from agoo, meaning to lead as a shepherd guides his sheep, and pao, to rest, like in Psalm 23, ”he leads me beside still waters where my soul is restored; by the waters of reflection my soul remembers who I am! Now I can face the valley of the shadow of death and fear no evil!”)

Les habitants, dans leurs chambres assombries, avaient l’affolement que donnent les cataclysmes, les grands bouleversements meurtriers de la terre, contre lesquels toute sagesse et toute force sont inutiles. Car la même sensation reparaît chaque fois que l’ordre établi des choses est renversé, que la sécurité n’existe plus, que tout ce que protégeaient les lois des hommes ou celles de la nature se trouve à la merci d’une brutalité inconsciente et féroce. Le tremblement de terre écrasant sous les maisons croulantes un peuple entier ; le fleuve débordé qui roule les paysans noyés avec les cadavres des bœufs et les poutres arrachées aux toits, ou l’armée glorieuse massacrant ceux qui se défendent, emmenant les autres prisonniers, pillant au nom du Sabre et remerciant un Dieu au son du canon, sont autant de fléaux effrayants qui déconcertent toute croyance à la Justice Éternelle, toute la confiance qu’on nous enseigne en la protection du Ciel et en la raison de l’Homme.

12:6  We might be doing things differently but we are drawing from the same source. God energizes each and everyone for their particular purpose. 12:7  Every expression of the spirit is given to bring that which God accomplished in Christ 1into full focus. (The word, 1sumphero, means to co-bear, bring together.) 12:8  To one is given a word that clears the air; and wisdom prevails; to another a word of knowledge, where something that could not be known in any other way comes to light! The same spirit is the source. 12:9  Yet another person is inspired with a gift of faith in the same spirit and another with gifts of healing of specific diseases in the same spirit. 12:10  And to another the working of mighty acts of miracles, and to another enlightened speech (prophecy); to another the ability to discern the difference between God’s spirit and a foreign spirit; to someone else the ability to communicate in many different languages; another has a gift to interpret these languages. 12:11  All these various gifts are inspired by the same spirit who individually works in every person as he desires. (See 1 Cor 14:1) 12:12  The many members of the same body does not divide the oneness of the individual. The various gifts and workings of the spirit of Christ find a beautiful similitude taken from the mutual dependence of the numerous parts of the human body. All the parts unite harmoniously into one whole. The spirit of Christ is one spirit; although his workings in each one of us may seem different they do not distract from his oneness in us.

Et cependant, je me découvris plein de songes. Ils me vinrent sans bruit, comme des eaux de source, et je ne compris pas, tout d'abord, la douceur qui m'envahissait. Il n'y eut point de voix, ni d'images, mais le sentiment d'une présence, d'une amitié très proche et déjà à demi devinée. Puis, je compris et m'abandonnai, les yeux fermés, aux enchantements de ma mémoire. Il était, quelque part, un parc chargé de sapins noirs et de tilleuls, et une vieille maison que j'aimais. Peu importait qu'elle fût éloignée ou proche, qu'elle ne pût ni me réchauffer dans ma chair ni m'abriter, réduite ici au rôle de songe il suffisait qu'elle existât pour remplir ma nuit de sa présence. Je n'étais plus ce corps échoué sur une grève, je m'orientais, j'étais l'enfant de cette maison, plein du souvenir de ses odeurs, plein de la fraîcheur de ses vestibules, plein des voix qui l'avaient animée. [...] Non, je ne logeais plus entre le sable et les étoiles. Je ne recevais plus du décor qu'un message froid. Et ce goût même d'éternité que j'avais cru tenir de lui, j'en découvrais maintenant l'origine. Je revoyais les grandes armoires solennelles de la maison. Elles s'entrouvraient sur des piles de draps blancs comme neige. Elles s'entrouvraient sur des provisions glacées de neige. La vieille gouvernante trottait comme un rat de l'une à l'autre, toujours vérifiant, dépliant, repliant, recomptant le linge blanchi, s'écriant : « Ah ! mon Dieu, quel malheur » à chaque signe d'une usure qui menaçait l'éternité de la maison, aussitôt courant se brûler les yeux sous quelque lampe, à réparer la trame de ces nappes d'autel, à ravauder ces voiles de trois-mâts, à servir je ne sais quoi de plus grand qu'elle, un Dieu ou un navire. Ah ! je te dois bien une page. Quand je rentrais de mes premiers voyages, mademoiselle, je te retrouvais l'aiguille à la main, noyée jusqu'aux genoux dans tes surplis blancs, et chaque année un peu plus ridée, un peu plus blanchie, préparant toujours de tes mains ces draps sans plis pour nos sommeils, ces nappes sans coutures pour nos dîners, ces fêtes de cristaux et de lumière. Je te visitais dans ta lingerie, je m'asseyais en face de toi, je te racontais mes périls de mort pour t'émouvoir, pour t'ouvrir les yeux sur le monde, pour te corrompre. Je n'avais guère changé, disais-tu. Enfant, je trouais déjà mes chemises. - Ah ! quel malheur ! - et je m'écorchais aux genoux ; puis je revenais à la maison pour me faire panser, comme ce soir. Mais non, mais non, mademoiselle ! ce n'était plus du fond du parc que je rentrais, mais du bout du monde, et je ramenais avec moi l'odeur âcre des solitudes, le tourbillon des vents de sable, les lunes éclatantes des tropiques ! Bien sûr, me disais-tu, les garçons courent, se rompent les os, et se croient très forts. Mais non, mais non, mademoiselle, j'ai vu plus loin que ce parc ! Si tu savais comme ces ombrages sont peu de chose ! Qu'ils semblent bien perdus parmi les sables, les granits, les forêts vierges, les marais de la terre. Sais-tu seulement qu'il est des territoires où les hommes, s'ils vous rencontrent, épaulent aussitôt leur carabine ? Sais-tu même qu'il est des déserts où l'on dort, dans la nuit glacée, sans toit, mademoiselle, sans lit, sans draps. « Ah ! barbare », disais-tu. Je n'entamais pas mieux sa foi que je n'eusse entamé la foi d'une servante d'église. Et je plaignais son humble destinée qui la faisait aveugle et sourde. [...] Mes songes sont plus réels que ces dunes, que cette lune, que ces présences. Ah ! le merveilleux d'une maison n'est point qu'elle vous abrite ou vous réchauffe, ni qu'on en possède les murs. Mais bien qu'elle ait lentement déposé en nous ces provisions de douceur. Qu'elle forme, dans le fond du cœur, ce massif obscur dont naissent, comme des eaux de source, les songes. Mon Sahara, mon Sahara, te voilà tout entier enchanté par une fileuse de laine ! p64-66

18 Love is your reservoir of super human 1strength which 2causes you to see everyone equally sanctified in the context of the limitless extent of love’s breadth and length and the extremities of its dimensions in depth and height.

Derrière la maison, la pluie et la tempête des derniers jours ont ravagé le jasmin, ses fleurs blanches flottent éparpillées dans les flaques noires sur le toit plat du garage. Mais quelque part en moi ce jasmin continue à fleurir, aussi exubérant, aussi tendre que par le passé." (176)

Every time we love, encounter joy, or experience beauty, a hint of the nature of our Maker reflects within us; even in the experience of the unbeliever. In the incarnation Jesus unveils God’s likeness, not his “otherness”, in human form as in a mirror.

Father paid a non-negotiable price to redeem his own. He bought the whole field because only he knew the treasure it holds. Jer. 1:5, 2 Cor. 4:7 and Matt. 13:44.

David confirms this principle when he speaks of the blessedness of the one who discovers God’s approval without any reference to something specific that they had done to qualify themselves. 4:7 Oh what 1happy progress one makes with the weight of sin and guilt removed and one’s slate wiped clean! (The Aramaic/Hebrew word 1ashar, אשׁר blessed, means to advance, to make progress. [See Ps 41:2 and Psalm 72:12].) 4:8 “How blessed is the one who receives a 1receipt instead of an invoice for their sins.” (1logitzomai, to make a calculation to which there can only be one logical conclusion, to take an inventory.)

they prefer a life of labors, annoyances and hardships.

Pour me consoler du présent, ici, il y a le passé accoudé sur les vieux toits, la stabilité apparente, une illusion sereine et quelque chose de figé dans le temps, qui raille doucement l'agitation.

Oh, the wizardry of history. All the people who have lived and died, the people whose stories have survived.

Mais le deuxième objectif de la vie humaine me paraît être le sens. Si l'on ne peut tout de même pas être heureux, l'on aimerait au moins que la vie, même la vie malheureuse, ait un sens. Cependant, d'après moi, la notion de sens est prétexte à toutes sortes de sottises. J'entends surtout par là la tendance très en vogue à trouver à tout prix que tout a un sens. Coupable, au premier chef, de la perversion de la notion de "sens" est la religion chrétienne, sans aucun doute, qui nous enseigne qu'aucun moineau ne tombe du toit sans la volonté du constructeur de cet oiseau. Le dogme chrétien enseigne : si le moineau reste sur le toit, c'est voulu par Dieu et cela a un sens ; si le moineau tombe, c'est aussi voulu par Dieu et cela a un sens, seulement ce sens, nous ne le comprenons pas. Donc si l'oiseau reste sur le toi, cela a un sens que nous pouvons comprendre ; mais si l'oiseau ne reste pas sur le toit, cela a un sens que nous ne pouvons pas comprendre. Ergo, tout a un sens. Il y a dans ce raisonnement une contradiction qui me dégoûte au point que je ne saurais la supporter sans rien faire. En un pareil moment, il faudrait carrément inventer Dieu qui a créé ce moineau (car, personnellement, je crois qu'il n'existe pas) rien que pour lui casser la gueule. (p. 243-244)

Man began in God. You

The whole Bible is about Jesus, and Jesus is all about you.

Our neighbor, Hugo du Toit, was a very handsome Afrikaner, who, with his two sisters, was a close friend of Louis Botha, the first Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa, and also a close friend of General Jan Christiaan Smuts, the Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa from 1919 until 1924. He became a South African military leader during World War II. Although some accuse Smuts of having started apartheid, he later stood against it and was a force behind the founding of the United Nations. He is still considered one of the most eminent Afrikaners ever…. At his expansive farm house, Hugo had autographed photos of both men on his study wall. Parties were frequently held at my grandparents’ home and the thought of roasted turkeys and potatoes which Cherie had prepared, brings back warm memories of a delightful era, now lost forever.” The Colonial History of South Africa For many years South Africa was occupied primarily by Dutch farmers known as Boers who had first arrived in the Cape of Good Hope in 1652 when Jan van Riebeeck established the Dutch East India Company and later by British settlers who arrived in the Cape colony after the Napoleonic wars in the 1820’s, on board the sailing ships the Nautilus and the Chapman. For the most part the two got along like oil and water. After 1806, some of the Dutch-speaking settlers left the Cape Colony and trekked into the interior where they established the Boer Republics. There were many skirmishes between them, as well as with the native tribes. In 1877 after the First Boer War between the Dutch speaking farmers and the English, the Transvaal Boer republic was seized by Britain. Hostilities continued until the Second Boer War erupted in October of 1899, costing the British 22,000 lives. The Dutch speaking farmers, now called Afrikaners, lost 7,000 men and having been overrun by the English acknowledged British sovereignty by signing the peace agreement, known as the “Treaty of Vereeniging,” on May 31, 1902. Although this thumbnail sketch of South African history leaves much unsaid, the colonial lifestyle continued on for the privileged white ruling class until the white, pro-apartheid National Party, was peacefully ousted when the African National Congress won a special national election. Nelson Mandela was elected as the first black president on May 9, 1994. On May 10, 1994, Mandela was inaugurated as The Republic of South Africa's new freely elected President with Thabo Mbeki and F.W. De Klerk as his vice-presidents.

Your Actions Become your Legacy

What is your message ? And who will you be telling ?

His dominion is destined to subdue all hostility and contradiction under his feet.

There is no contradiction of any proportion that we can possibly face that has what it takes to exasperate us or distance us from God. Our consciousness of his inseparable nearness immediately reinforces us to extend the same tangible 1closeness to you in your difficult times, and together we snuggle up in the 1comfort of his intimate embrace!

This bliss and closeness we now participate in was made possible through the enormous 1consequence of the sufferings of Christ. The overwhelming extent of his sufferings brought about this overwhelming sense of inseparable oneness!

The Bible was never meant to be a manual; its message is all about Emmanuel! God with us! Every definition of distance is cancelled in Christ (Isa 40:4, 5). When Scripture is interpreted as a mere instruction manual for moral behavior its message is veiled. 2 Corinthians 3:15 says, “Whenever Moses is read the veil remains.

You are not what your career or job description say you are.

No one can afford to underestimate and be blasé about this final message, a salvation of such magnificent proportions! There is no alternative escape. Salvation as it is articulated in Christ is the message that God spoke from the beginning, and it was confirmed again and again by those who heard him. We cannot afford to delay the promise to a future event yet again.”)

I am overwhelmed with gratitude! Wherever my travels take me I am so aware that God leads us as trophies in his victory parade. What he knows to be true about us diffuses through us like a perfume of sweet aroma everywhere we go, celebrating the success of the cross.

Do not 1underestimate God’s 2kindness. The wealth of his 2benevolence and his 3resolute refusal to let go of us in his 4patient passion is to 5shepherd everyone into a 6radical mind shift.

The destiny of the Logos was not to be caged in a book or a doctrine but to be documented and unveiled in human life! Human life is the most articulate voice of Scripture. Jesus is God’s language; mankind is his audience (Heb 1:1-3).

Long before the first line of Scripture was penned on papyrus scroll, the Word, unwritten, existed as the mind of God. Before the books were gathered collated as sacred text, the Word, intangible; invisible, was planning, was ordering the ages that were to come. This Word predates the Bible, this Word predates creation, this Word is alive and active and speaking still today.                                     — Andre Rabe

God has found us in Christ before he lost us in Adam. He associated us in Christ before the foundation of the world (Eph 1:4 ). He has always known us; now in Christ he invites us to know ourselves even as we have always been known (1 Cor 13:12)!

Jesus did not reveal a “potential” you, he revealed the truth about you so that you may know the truth about yourself and be free indeed! In the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God did not redeem a compromised replica of you; he rescued the original, blueprint you, created in his radiant mirror likeness! Any other ‘self’ you’re trying to find or esteem will disappoint! Reckon your ‘DIY-law of works-self’ dead, and your redeemed self co-raised and co-seated together with Christ! This is freedom indeed!

Mankind is god-kind, designed to live by the complete word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

In the incarnation God deleted every definition of distance; every possible excuse man could have to feel separated or even neglected by God was removed in one day, through one sacrifice, once and for all.

Jesus is the crescendo of God’s conversation with humankind; he gives context and content to the authentic thought. Everything that God had in mind for man is voiced in him. Jesus is God’s language. His name declares his mission. As Savior of the world he truly redeemed the image and likeness of the invisible God and made him apparent again in human form (Heb 1:1-3). The destiny of the logos was not the printed page. A mirror can only reflect the object; likewise, the purpose of the page was only to reflect the message which is “Christ in you.” He completes the deepest longing of every human heart. The incarnation is the ultimate translation.

Isaiah 55:8-11 gives meaning to metanoia: “your thoughts were distanced from God’s thoughts as the heavens are higher than the earth, but just like the rain and the snow would cancel that distance and saturate the soil to awaken its seed, so shall my word be that proceeds from my mouth.

Your belief in God does not define him; his faith in what he knows to be true about you defines you.

When Adam lost the glory of God (Hebrew, kabod, weight; the consciousness of God’s likeness and image) the law proved that no amount of good works could balance the scale again. Grace reveals how God redeemed his image and likeness again in human form; now the scale is perfectly balanced! No wonder Jesus cried out on the cross, “It is finished!

Oh what 1happy progress one makes with the weight of sin and guilt removed and one’s slate wiped clean!

The law presented man with choices; grace awakens belief! Willpower exhausts, love ignites! If choices could save us we would be our own Saviors! Willpower is the language of the law, love is the language of grace and it ignites faith that leads to romance; falling in love beats “making a decision to believe in love”!

Jesus is God’s grace 1embrace of the entire human race. So here we are, 2standing tall in the joyful bliss of our redeemed innocence! We are God’s 3dream come true! This was God’s 4idea all along!

Baptism pictures how we were co-buried together with Christ in his death; then it powerfully illustrates how in God’s mind we were co-raised with Christ into a new lifestyle. (Hos 6:2) 6:5  We were like seeds planted together in the same soil, to be co-quickened to life. If we were included in his death we are equally included in his resurrection.

 He pre-designed and engineered us from the start to be jointly fashioned in the same mold and image of his son according to the exact blueprint of his thought. We see the original and intended pattern of our lives preserved in his Son. He is the firstborn from the same womb that reveals our genesis. He confirms that we are the invention of God.

Faith-righteousness announces that every definition of distance in time, space, or hostility has been cancelled. Faith says, “The Word is near you. It is as close to you as your voice and the conviction of your heart.” We publicly announce this message (because we are convinced that it belongs to every man).

The Spirit also sighs within us with words too deep for articulation, assisting us in our prayers when we struggle to know how to pray properly. When we feel restricted in our flesh, he supersedes our clumsy efforts and hits bulls-eye every time. (He continues to call things which seem nonexistent as though they were! [Rom 4:17]. He is never distracted, he only sees and celebrates perfection.)

Do not allow 1current religious tradition to mold you into its pattern of reasoning. Like an inspired artist, give attention to the detail of God’s desire to find expression in you. Become acquainted with perfection. To 2accommodate yourself to the delight and good pleasure of him will transform your thoughts afresh from within.

He desires to find visible, individual expression in your person.

The good news is the fact that the cross of Christ was a success. God rescued the life of our design; he redeemed our innocence. Man would never again be judged righteous or unrighteous by his own ability to obey moral laws! It is not about what man must or must not do but about what Jesus has done! God now persuades everyone to believe what he knows to be true about them. [It is from faith to faith.]

Love celebrates the completeness of all that God has always had in mind for us. Love is not some prize one has to labor for; love mirrors who you are! What we perceived in prophetic glimpses is now concluded in completeness! (1 Cor 13:9, 10)

You have been restored to the harmony of your original design, made holy in Christ Jesus; no wonder then that you are surnamed Saints.

The soulish man has no capacity to comprehend the language of the Spirit of God; spiritual things seem meaningless to him; he is incapable to discern that which can only be spiritually appreciated. (A performance-based mind-set cannot access what grace communicates. It would be as impossible as trying to get airborne with a motor car. Law cannot compete with grace.)

Love is not about defending a point of view; even if I am prepared to give away everything I have and die a martyr’s death; love does not have to prove itself by acts of supreme devotion or self sacrifice!

Love is large in being passionate about life and relentlessly patient in bearing the offenses and injuries of others with kindness.

Love is completely content and strives for nothing. Love has no desire to make others feel inferior and has no need to sing its own praises.

Love is a fortress where everyone feels protected rather than exposed!

It is not our style to hesitate between two opinions. We have no desire to make promises that we cannot keep. When we said yes to you we did not mean, no! 1:18  God’s certainty is our persuasion; there is no maybe in him!

whatever it is that I accomplish now has grace written all over it.

Human life was reduced to slavery and the soul-ruled earthly realm through Adam’s fall but is now awakened to lordship in the heavenly realm of spiritual realities through the knowledge of our co-resurrection with Christ. ([See Col 3:1-11.] We theologically created the idea of man being “sinful by nature” as if humans are flawed by design. In fact it is a distorted mind-set that we inherited from Adam that Jesus had to free us from. “Your indifferent mind-set alienated you from God into a lifestyle of annoyances, hardships, and labors, sponsored by the law of sin and death that lodged in your bodies hosting a foreign influence, foreign to your design; just like a virus that would attach itself to a person.” Col 1:21  There is nothing wrong with our design or salvation, we were thinking wrong. [See Isa 55:8-11, Eph 4:17, 18 and also Eph 2:1-11.])

The love of Christ resonates within us and leaves us with only one conclusion: Jesus died humanity’s death; therefore, in God’s logic every individual simultaneously died.

Your victory is not a maybe; because of the magnanimous doing of Jesus Christ, it is a given! (But now in a single victorious stroke of Life, all three—sin, guilt, death—are gone, the gift of our Master, Jesus Christ. Thank God! — The Message)

Your victory is not a maybe; because of the magnanimous doing of Jesus Christ, it is a given!

Agape is your genesis. Loving everyone around you is what you are all about.

The love of Christ resonates within us and leaves us with only one conclusion: Jesus died humanity’s death; therefore, in God’s logic every individual simultaneously died.  “Now if all were included in his death they were equally included in his resurrection. This unveiling of his love redefines human life! Whatever reference we could have of ourselves outside of our association with Christ is no longer relevant. “This is radical! No label that could possibly previously define someone carries any further significance! Even our pet doctrines of Christ are redefined. Whatever we knew about him historically or sentimentally is challenged by this conclusion.  (By discovering Christ from God’s point of view, we discover ourselves and every other human life from God’s point of view!) “Now whoever you thought you were before, in Christ you are a brand new person! The old ways of seeing yourself and everyone else are over. Look! The resurrection of Jesus has made everything new

In Adam all died; in Christ all are made alive.

1:22  He accomplished this in dying our death in a human body; he fully represented us in order to fully present us again in blameless innocence, face-to-face with God; with no sense of guilt, suspicion, regret, or accusation; all charges against us are officially cancelled.

Mentor today for the Leadership of Tomorrow