Join The Underlines // The Best Of What I Read

A batch of the best highlights from what Joshua's read, .

The most constant “whim,” historically, has been the disastrous idea just mentioned: that Jesus is here giving laws. For if that is all he is doing, they will certainly be laws that are impossible to keep. The keeping of law turns out to be an inherently self-refuting aim; rather, the inner self must be changed. Trying merely to keep the law is not wholly unlike trying to make an apple tree bear peaches by tying peaches to its branches.

The Divine Conspiracy

Dallas Willard

God pursues Nazis and whores, but his people often refuse to go with him.

The Pursuing God

Joshua Ryan Butler

Moses in Deuteronomy says to rest: Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. (5:15) Remember the exodus! Remember that the coercive system of Pharaoh was disrupted. Remember that the brick quota was declared null and void. Moses warned the Israelites: if you forget this, you will give your life over to coercive competition. But if you remember, you will know that Pharaoh and all like agents of coercion have been defeated. You do not need to meet expectations of your mother or your work or your boss or your broker or anybody else. You are free from the quota . . . if you remember, if you situate yourself in the covenant memory.

Sabbath as Resistance, New Edition With Study Guide

Walter Brueggemann

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