The Good News means we can stop lying to ourselves. The sweet sound of amazing grace saves us from the necessity of self-deception. It keeps us from denying that though Christ was victorious, the battle with lust, greed and pride still rages within us. As a sinner who has been redeemed, I can acknowledge that I am often unloving, irritable, angry and resentful with those closest to me. When I go to church I can leave my white hat at home and admit I have failed. God not only loves me as I am, but also knows me as I am... I can accept ownership of my poverty and powerlessness and neediness. (Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel, p.23)

This has been one of the most freeing realizations ever, for me.  Without this understanding, the gospel slowly stops being good news, I think.

I remember trying to motivate myself to talk about the gospel with others, while struggling with sin myself, and trying to hide it from myself and from everybody else... It felt horrible, hypocritical...

With this understanding I find in me a freedom to accept that while I am being mended by the grace of God in some broken places, my eyes are also being opened to greater brokenness within me, and the gospel keeps becoming gooder and gooder news by the minute - for me.

Very grateful...

Olympic marathon gold medalist Samuel Wanjiru died early Monday from injuries sustained after jumping from the balcony of his Nyahururu home in central Kenya, a senior police official said.

Wanjiru jumped from the second-floor of his home late Sunday after his wife caught him in the company of another woman, said Jasper Ompati, a police official in Nyahururu.

Wanjirus wife, Tereza Njeri, and another woman were taken to the police station to give statements but were not considered suspects, Ompati said. The death remains under investigation, he said.

Njeri, who lives in Nairobi, returned home unexpectedly to find the two together, Ompati said. Wanjiru is believed to have jumped after his wife locked him inside a bedroom on the second floor, making it impossible for him to leave, he said.

Wanjiru achieved worldwide fame when he became Kenyas first Olympic marathon champion at the Beijing Games in 2008.

via CNN.com.

Barth CD I/2 10:02 am

"our faith in Jesus consists in our recognition & admitting... & accepting ... that everything has actually been done for us in Jesus"

2:37 pm

"It is the characteristically pious element in the pious effort to reconcile Him to us which [is] an abomination to God"

2:53 pm

"sin is always unbelief. And unbelief is always man's faith in himself"

Barth CD I/2 10:45 pm

"religion is unbelief. it is a concern, indeed we must say that it is the one great concern, of godless man"

Barth CD I/2 10:47 pm

not suited for the kingdom? strong words: http://goo.gl/5Qvfz

11:08 am

@epaga he's complex. he asserts himself in one direction and then another, without defense or resolution. Favors proof by assertion.

11:14 am

"for us, and therefore against us... the work of the kindness we cannot grasp": http://goo.gl/Tf3qJ

11:10 am

“@epaga: @pavi would love to hear your thoughts on some of the [quotes]” for now immersing, listening... to truly hear. in time...

11:17 am

"It is a great affliction when our right to have our own desires & to pursue them is so radically questioned & finally taken away"

Barth, CD 1/2 p.278

But where the Word of God is master by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, there enters in an interest or concern which does not allow any rivals, for the simple reason that in the Word of God it is always a matter of our own interest and concern. But it is our own interest and concern not as seen from our standpoint, but as seen from the opposite but beneficent standpoint of the wisdom of God, as judged by the righteousness of God, as adopted by the goodness of God.  That is the work of God: the work of God upon us: for us and therefore against us: the work of the kindness which we cannot grasp, which we have outraged, which does good to us, as to those who always do evil.  Where it is heard as such, there is still an active will to assert and help ourselves, to maintain and justify and advertise ourselves, but it has been fundamentally broken and its vital power destroyed... If that means humiliation, it also means comfort. If it means Law, it also means Gospel.  It is a great affliction when our right to have our own desires and to pursue them is so radically questioned and finally taken away. But, of course, it is an even greater help, when the common necessity of worrying about our own situation is so radically relativised and in fact basically set aside.

"For us, and therefore against us" - so much wisdom in six words.

Barth, CD I/2, p.277

Further, we have to note that this following is distinguished from an arbitrary action, like imitation, by the fact that it is conditioned by the call of Jesus.  It is therefore a Messianic gift. The individual who decides ("Lord I would follow thee") to tread this way on his own initiative, at once proves that he is not suited for the kingdom of God (Lk. 9:61f.) Finally, the frequent inter-relating of the idea of following with the idea of self-denial ought also to prevent us from thinking that this is the kind of formation and direction which a man can undertake of himself.

Strong words.