I took Becoming the Answer to our Prayers off the shelf to pull out the quotes I highlighted and write a quick review. And now I want to read it again. I thought the book would be a good companion blog for my week on Rekindle, but it’s not just good, it’s great, it’s perfect. And its calling me to take another look.

Becoming the Answer explores what it means to be community, real community, the community God calls us to be. Shane and Jonathan provide a practical look at putting aside what we want and allowing the Spirit’s fire to ignite in us and spread to a world desperately needing an answer to prayers.

Quotes:

• Prayer is not so much about convincing God to do what we want God to do as it is about convincing ourselves to do what God wants u to do.
• The first word of the Lord’s Prayer is Our.  That’s important.  The prayer Jesus taught us is a prayer of community and reconciliation, belonging to a new kind of people who have left the land of “me.”
• Christian community is the gift of a life that is worthy of God’s name.  Forgetting ourselves, we become the sort of joyful people who hallow God’s name by how we live with one another.
• The kingdom that we beg God to send “on earth as it is in heaven” is a kingdom of generosity.  And it is contagious.
• Temptation is part of the exodus adventure.  Temptation is a sign that we are still on our way to the Promised Land.  It reminds us that we have left something good for something better.
• “Beware of the almost good, for if the devil can’t get you to do bad things, he will get you to settle for the almost good, just short of the good that God has for you.”
• In his book Life Together, Bonhoeffer observes that the person who loves their dream of community will destroy community, but the person who loves those around them will create community.
• We have a God who enters the world through smallness.. who values the little offering… who speaks through little people…
• The love that keeps community alive isn’t the warm-fuzzy you feel… or the little flutter… the love that makes community is the willingness to do someone else’s dirty work.
• “Everybody wants a revolution, but nobody wants to do the dishes…” the revolution must begin with little acts of love, like washing feet or doing dishes.
• We are the masters of keeping people breathing, but we know every little about really being alive.
• …being God’s people together, on mission in the world.
• Yes, parts of the church are always dying. But what really excites us is the way our God stirs up the ruins, always eager to give new life.
• One of the greatest witnesses of the church can be our ability to disagree well. The world has not seen many folks who can do that.
• We are to follow in the footsteps of our rabbi so closely that we get his dust on us.
• …we are not just called to be candles. We are called to be a fire.
• We are to be a fire, to weave our lives together so the Spirit’s inferno of love spreads across the earth.