Quotes by Jonathan Martin

“The problem is that by their very nature, they are not fixed, not commonly managed by the IT organization and can be lost, stolen or are open to abuse. Without being part of a corporate IT policy, but still being able to gain access to and organizations resources, the danger is that in the wrong pair of hands they provide an open access channel into an organizations applications.”

“We wanted to get a jump on the others and do something that nobody else is doing.”

“I dont go out in front of my house because my block is dangerous.”

“Its catching on around here. We havent had any problems. Of course, Im only a year and a half into it.”

“Every election we get bigger. Weve seen a tremendous surge, especially this year, as far as interest goes.”

“It should be a fun and relaxing way to spend a Saturday afternoon.”

Increasingly, Im coming to believe that fear is at the heart of all sin and disaffection. Fear that God will not be enough for us; fear that the identity weve been given is somehow incomplete.

But thats one way we can identify the devils voice: It always plays to our fears. It is the voice that tells us we must do something to prove who we are, to prove that were worthy, to prove that we are who God has already declared us to be. When we know we are loved by God, we dont have to prove anything to anyone. There is nothing we can do to make ourselves more beloved than we are.

When we protect ourselves from what we fear, we also undermine our capacity for wonder.

The cross of Jesus says to us there is nothing God wont do to bring us home--except force us to choose him. The cross is God laying down his great power so we might be compelled by the beauty of his heart. He will not coerce us, but only woo us.

The fact that your current station in life would seem to conspire against your usefulness to God is of no consequence.

Weve seen how beautiful it can be to follow Jesus into this new way of being human. But one of the things I love most about Jesus is how much He loves humanity in its brokenness. If He was surrounded by fractured people then, why would we expect it to be any different now? I actually think it is a larger mistake when we Christians attempt to pretend that our lives are more together than they really are in order to manage our image before the broader culture. Come look at our perfect church and our perfect family. And if you join us, maybe one day you, too, can have a perfect life! That kind of spin is a breeding ground for disappointment.

Patiently, hopefully, actively we are waiting for Jesus. And yet here is the astonishing twist: As we wait for our Lord and the bodily resurrection yet to come for the departed, the world waits for us. As we long for God, the world is longing for God in us.

This fits the pattern of how God responds to human suffering: We come looking for answers; God sends a hot meal through a warm body. WE come looking for reasons for our hunger; God sends provision to feed us. We come looking for a sermon that will explain the complexity of the cosmos to us and satiate our desire for understanding; Christ responds with, This is my body, given for you; this is my blood, shed for you.People try to offer us an explanation; God offers us a Eucharist.

IT is only when we are no longer in control--because of sickness, death, or our own bad choices--that we no longer cling. The path to salvation is the path of humiliation.

When we begin to live like Jesus, people will perceive our peace as an indictment on their violence; they will see our security as an indictment on their insecurity.

With the tension churning within us, knowing all the ways the earth is not yet as God intended it to be, we are driven to pray daily: Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. We are not looking for an escape from the world; we are looking for the restoration of the world.

Many times in the Old Testament, God refers to human beings as His beloved. But when God called Jesus His beloved, Jesus did something truly remarkable: He believed Him. And He lived every moment of His life fully convinced of His identity.

His body would be crushed, but the words would still remain: You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased. The trajectory of Jesus life and (in a real sense) the fate of the world hung on those few words. They were not the words of a Father celebrating the good things His Son had done, because He hadnt really done anything yet. Even though Jesus was perfect, it wasnt His perfection that brought the Father such delight. It was His very existence.

You can spot people who dont know Jesus very well because the world they see is always so ugly. Even if they use all sorts of religious language, dont be misled—people who get touched by Jesus dont ignore the hurt and pain in the world, and yet they see so much beauty in it.