Skye Jethani QUOTES

2 " Silence is the beginning of all worship. "

― Skye Jethani , The Divine Commodity: Discovering a Faith Beyond Consumer Christianity

4 " God does not judge our effectiveness. He judges our faithfulness. "

― Skye Jethani , Immeasurable: Reflections on the Soul of Ministry in the Age of Church, Inc.

6 " By placing all our focus on receiving God's blessings and gifts, we behave just like the arrogant young man in the story [Parable of the Prodigal Son] - we value what God can do for us but not God himself. We seek a relationship with God as a utilitarian means to an end. And although we may praise him with our words, our hearts are set on what we hope to get from him. We become jerks cloaked in religiosity. "

― Skye Jethani , With: Reimagining the Way You Relate to God

8 " Richard Halverson, former chaplain of the United States Senate, is said to have observed that: In the beginning the church was a fellowship of men and women centered on the living Christ. Then the church moved to Greece, where it became a philosophy. Then it moved to Rome, where it became an institution. Next, it moved to Europe, where it became a culture. And, finally, it moved to America, where it became an enterprise. "

― Skye Jethani , The Divine Commodity: Discovering a Faith Beyond Consumer Christianity

10 " My concern is that we are inoculating an entire generation to the Christian faith. Many come with a holy desire to know God, to experience his presence in their lives, to be cared for like sheep entrusted to a meek and gentle shepherd. But this is not what they see or experience. In fact, they may leave the church without ever seeing a beautiful and enthralling vision of LIFE WITH GOD. The lights are never turned on to reveal the beauty that is present just behind the shadows. Instead they are offered a substitute form of Christianity, one that cannot break through the shadows and that never really satisfies the deepest longings of their souls. When their experience of faith leaves them disappointed, they may falsely conclude that Christianity has failed. In reality, to quote G. K. Chesterton, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.”2 Or perhaps it might be more accurately said of our time that Christianity has not been presented and therefore has been left untried. The result is a generation disaffected and inoculated to the true Christian message. "

― Skye Jethani , With: Reimagining the Way You Relate to God

12 " The LIFE FROM GOD posture is so appealing because it doesn’t ask us to change. What we desire, what we seek, what we do, and how we live—all shaped by consumerism—are not disrupted. Our values and way of life are simply projected onto God and incorporated into a religious system in which we receive divine assistance to meet our desires. In this way LIFE FROM GOD is nothing more than consumerism with a Jesus sticker slapped on the bumper. "

― Skye Jethani , With: Reimagining the Way You Relate to God

14 " it is not our circumstances or behaviors or radical decisions that give our lives meaning and hope, but our unity with God himself. "

― Skye Jethani , With: Reimagining the Way You Relate to God

16 " I believe Jesus had another reason for commanding us to pray for our enemies. He understands that we cannot genuinely pray for another and continue to hate him. In prayer, our vision of the person is transformed as we see him in the light of God’s presence. Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote about the reorienting power of prayer within Christian communities (where a great many of our enemies are often found): A Christian community either lives by the intercessory prayers of its members for one another, or the community will be destroyed. I can no longer condemn or hate other Christians for whom I pray, no matter how much trouble they cause me. In intercessory prayer the face that may have been strange and intolerable to me is transformed into the face of one for whom Christ died, the face of a pardoned sinner. That is a blessed discovery for the Christian who is beginning to offer intercessory prayer for others. As far as we are concerned, there is no dislike, no personal tension, no disunity or strife that cannot be overcome by intercessory prayer. Intercessory prayer is the purifying bath into which the individual and the community must enter every day.1 READ MORE Luke 23:33–34; 1 Peter 3:8–9 "

― Skye Jethani , What If Jesus Was Serious?: A Visual Guide to the Teachings of Jesus We Love to Ignore

18 " How can a prisoner plot his escape if he doesn’t believe a world exists outside the prison walls? "

― Skye Jethani , The Divine Commodity: Discovering a Faith Beyond Consumer Christianity

20 " Christian researcher George Barna concludes, “American Christianity has largely failed since the middle of the twentieth century because Jesus’ modern-day disciples do not act like Jesus. "

― Skye Jethani , The Divine Commodity: Discovering a Faith Beyond Consumer Christianity