QUOTING: "A Scandalous Freedom: The Radical Nature of the Gospel"

"Quotes from "A SCANDALOUS FREEDOM" by Steve Brown:

p.7 - "If Jesus said we're free, we ought to accept His declaration at face value and run with it. It ought to help us define ourselves. But it doesn't. Christians will do almost anything to get away from the simple meaning of the word and the wonderful experience of freedom.
Something about freedom scares us to death. We continue in our bondage ~ and that is a major tragedy. It's a tragedy because Christ went to so much trouble to set us free. It is a tragedy because there is so much more to being a Christian than obeying rules, doing religious things, and being "nice". And it is a tragedy because our heritage is freedom..."

p.9 - "A Christian does have an advantage over those who aren't Christians. Not only do we know the truth about what God wants us to do, He provides the power to do it. If we don't have the freedom not to do what He wants, however, we have redefined the word 'freedom'."

p.38 - "Too many Christians blandly accept the clichés of the faith ("Jesus loves me, this I know..") without dealing with the complexity."

p.41 - "Do you want to know what God is like? Then look at Jesus. If you want to know how God reacts to people, look at how Jesus reacted to people."

p.44 - "What we say about God has no bearing on who God really is. I can say that God is the Great Pumpkin, but my declaration doesn't make it so. God remains who He is.
I think it was C.S. Lewis who pointed out, in answer to Freud and others who charged that Christians had created and worshipped a "father" god out of their own desire, that we certainly wouldn't create the God of the Bible. I know that, if I created a god for myself, he would be far safer and far less terrifying than the one in the Bible."

p.64-5 - "Before I gave up, I spent half of my time trying to do something I couldn't do, and the other half of my time trying to convince others that I had done it. It is called hypocrisy, and it's quite human and quite injurious to your sanity...as well as your freedom. That's why I gave it up.
One of my problems is that I like to be liked. I spend most of my social and professional life around Christians, so it is mostly Christians I want to please. Any "real" Christian must say and do certain things, thus ensuring acceptance by the Christian community. You have to subscribe to a certain standard, and live reasonably close to it; you must use certain catchwords popular in the Christian community; and you must never express doubts or ask questions..."

p.68 - "Are you a sinner? Me, too!... But, so is everyone else... Martin Luther, John Wesley, Billy Graham, Mother Theresa, and your pastor. None of us is probably going to get a whole lot better ~ and yet, Jesus is still fond of us."

p.68-9 - "The only people who get better are people that know that, if they never get better, GOD WILL LOVE THEM ANYWAY... God will not only love you if you don't get better, He'll teach you that getting better isn't the issue; His love is the issue."

p.71 - "There really is something neurotic about Christians who spend most of their time trying desperately to please a God who is already very pleased. They don't have any freedom, and they sometimes take away the freedom of others.
...I'm getting better by not trying so hard to be better... when I stopped working so hard at being better and turned to Jesus, that's when, almost without noticing it, I started getting just a little bit better. So, I have decided to get as close as I can to Jesus, who will always love me, even if I don't get any better."

p.76 - "Religion can make people mean, angry, gloomy, critical, judgemental and neurotic. Religion can also become an abuser of Christians. I have seen so many people hurt by religion that sometimes I think it would be better to be a pagan.
Worst of all, religion can keep you from God. It can become the substitute ~ and not a very good one ~ for a relationship with God Himself. Something about institutional Christianity (as necessary as it is) will kill your freedom if you aren't careful.
Whenever a new Christian comes into the church I wince a bit, because I'm afraid that they will get the 'religion disease', that the 'church virus' will kill off the joy and freedom Jesus purchased on the cross to give them."

p.113 - "The church should be a place where we can say anything and know we won't be kicked out, where we can confess our sins knowing others will help us, where we can disagree and still be friends. It ought to be the one place in the world where we don't have to wear masks."

p.108 - "When the requirement for acceptance in any particular group is to think certain thoughts, to act in certain ways, and to fit certain molds ~ and we don't think or act that way, or fit the mold ~ we tend to fake it. We put on a mask that says, 'I'm just like you. Now, will you please love me and accept me?' I can think of hardly anything that will kill your joy and freedom more than wearing a mask geared to get others to accept you because you're acting like them."

p.108 - "Allow me to let you in on a secret: NOBODY fits the mold & most of us wear masks to cause others to think we do. The greatest tragedy of the church is that, in many cases, the most dishonest hour of the week is the hour we spend at church."

p.127 - "Never again would I be so irresponsible as to, without thinking and without questioning, give control of my life to another human being. I would always remember that others don't deserve that kind of worship and unthinking obedience."

p.129 - "You can accept truth & trust authority ONLY if the truth allows questions, and the authority allows challenge."

p.156 - "But, what if it didn't have to be a secret? What if we recognized that the church wasn't a gathering place for saints, but a recovery group for sinners? What if we didn't have to pretend to be good? What if we didn't have anything to protect any more?"

p.163 - "...something a Christian should never forget: The battle is already over. GOD WON. It's final. There is no contest. Our side has already triumphed!"

p.171 - "Christians are dangerous! ...No, not those ones. The real ones... The weenies aren't dangerous. They're irrelevant. But those Christians who've discovered they don't have anything to protect and nothing to lose, who have learned that Jesus is Lord, and that it doesn't matter what others think about them or do to them ~ they are dangerous... REALLY dangerous!"

p.165 - "Whenever religion becomes leverage, it ceases to be the religion of Jesus. The gospel of God's grace takes away the leverage. Why? Because, if I'm forgiven without condition, you can't make me feel guilty. If God loves me, you can't manipulate me by threatening to take away your love. If God knows my secrets and doesn't condemn me, then you can't use my secrets as blackmail."

p.171 - "Jesus didn't die to make Christians 'nice'. Gentle? Yes. Kind? Yes. Loving? Free? Of course! But NOT nice! In fact... you are now free to be bold. Sometimes boldness can be seen as quite offensive."

p.172-173 - "The ministry with which I'm involved (Key Life Network) sponsors a Born Free seminar in various places around the country. Part of that seminar features a section on assertiveness training for Christians. The very fact that it is a part of the seminar creates controversy in some circles. Why, people ask, would Christians need assertiveness training? Aren't Christians supposed to be different from the world? How can assertiveness bring honor to Christ?
The very fact that those questions get asked suggests we have a problem in the church that needs addressing. Something has happened in the church, and it isn't good.
It is not that we don't have some leaders who are aggressive, manipulative, and power hungry. It is not that we don't have neurotics in the church who are
critical, angry and mean. The real problem is that we have people in the church who let these leaders and neurotics get away with being aggressive, manipulative, power hungry, critical, angry and mean.
There is a problem in the world, too. Some people believe that we agree with the "spiritual" nonsense that some people call "Christian", with worldviews
that destroy and imprison the poor and the wounded, with silly propositions passed as truth, and with shallow thinking that passes for philosophy. Our problem is that we have said nothing to disabuse people of such views....
This chapter addresses the question "Why are we so bound and so imprisoned that we feel afraid to speak up, stand up, and be Christ's witness in the church
and in the world?...
In other words, if we're free, why don't we use our freedom to be bold?"

p.173 - "Try it. Just say 'no' (without explanation). And then wait. Since the Christian subculture expects you to explain yourself, the person who asks will wait for your explanation. But, you don't need to give one. Just let your 'no' be 'no'. (Matthew 5:37; James 5:12)."

p.176-177 - "The church is supposed to be the place where honesty is a given. The church is supposed to be the testing place for the people of God where a filter of supernatural love cleanses & purifies ~ but doesn't eliminate ~ godly expressions of honesty, criticism, and even harshness. In the church, we are supposed to understand the idiocy of worshipping at human, fallible & silly alters. If we don't understand this when we're with the people of God, then how are we going to be an asset to our culture ~ the place to which Jesus called us?"

p.185 - "Do you want to know something that will make you both free and bold in proclaiming the truth? Desire to be understood, and then take steps to make sure that those who don't know Christ can grasp the reality of what you believe."