a week of holiness

I’m sitting at the airport in Oslo, Norway on my way home from the Nordic Brengle Holiness conference.  I was invited to be part of the leadership/teaching team.  It was an amazing week and I have lots of ideas and challenges to process.  Besides that, it was a really fun week and I have lots of stories to tell.  For this blog entry, I’m simply going to note some of the more inspiring or thought-provoking quotes from the week.  Later I’ll fill in some detail.  These quotes may be a bit hard to understand out of context, but if you read something that you’d like to respond to, please do.  As I said, I’m still trying to process what I should do with my mind and heart full of inspiration.  Most of the quotes are from our guest, Lyell Rader who has a beautiful and rich speaking style.  Others are noted.  All are related to holiness and life.  Here goes:

From Petter (Finnish training principal): “our first language is the language of our faith and our discipleship”

“All His.  All holy.”

from the Rader patriarch (father of Lyell, Paul, etc.) “Always assume grace.”  “Do not doubt in the dark what God has revealed in the light.”

Elaine Rader:  “Practice the discipline of alertness to God.  ‘eyes wide open’.”

“Ponder anew what the Almighty can do” but “bend my dreams to your will”

“Prayer is the breath of the soul.”  O. Hallesby

“Holiness is the flourishing of our humanity – in beauty, fruitfulness and wholeness.  In the secular world holiness has a connotation of ‘incense, hypocrisy and mold.’ Wrong assumption is that holiness is about spirituality.  We are about humanity – body, mind and spirit.”

Psalm 103 – Praise to a God who puts everything right.

Hemingway: “We are all broken.  We live by mending.  Grace is the glue.  Some are stronger in the broken places.”

“By our wounds we may heal.  “

“The healing work of God is carried on characteristically through a healing community.”  Dr. Herb Rader

about the healing of the 10 lepers in Luke 17: “Mercy incarnate hears the shout, covers the distance, mends the broken.”

Vocational holiness – we need to ‘develop a contemplative life adequate to our vocation.’ Eugene Peterson