Jesus began His ministry by stating a set of paradoxes that we call the Beatitudes found in Matthew 5. George focused on the first two (poor in spirit, mourning) and their relationship in our everyday lives to help us keep living from an open heart.
SLIDES GEORGE'S READ IN OUR GATHERING
When we describe God, we can only use similes, analogies, and metaphors. All theological language is an approximation offered tentatively in holy awe. That’s the best human language can achieve.
-Richard Rohr, The Divine Dance
We’ve substituted theological ideas for the experience of life; we are full of religious notions, but our great weakness is that for our hearts, there is no one there.
-A. W. Tozer, The Divine Conquest (1950)
We've lost our capacity for enchantment, our ability to see and experience God as a living, vital presence in our lives.
-Richard Beck, Recovering An Enchanted Faith In A Skeptical World
Opening your heart is moving to a place of understanding a deeper, wider, stronger, more enduring nature to life that is good. To open your heart is to get better and better at receiving the goodness of life as it flows toward you.
-Rob Bell
