Under the Overpass

Some of my favorite quotes from the book:

"Sacrifice promotes believability" - Francis Chan

"We should be terrified if we have mastered the art of becoming convicted & doing nothing in response" - Francis Chan

Psalm 34:18 says "the Lord is close to the broken hearted"... I wonder if pretending you're not broken keeps God at a distance.

On youth groups coming to serve the homeless:
"Something critical is missing in places that care for the broken & needy, if the only people there are also broken & needy"

On preachers preaching nothing but Fire & Brimstone in shelters:
"Jesus did thunder warnings of suffering & condemnation, but primarily to those who were convinced they were healthy & in no need of Him.  To the weak, diseased, hungry & sin-bound, He had another message.  Come to me, all you who are weary & burdened..."

On the same issue:
"You will never scare anyone into Heaven".... I began to see the truth in that statement at the Denver Rescue mission.  Telling someone who is suffering deeply that he's going to suffer more is probably a waste of breath.  Its like warning someone who is already starving that they're about to get really hungry.  But tell him of a restaurant that serves heaping meals to all who come no matter where they're from or what they look like, & he's more likely to listen.... weren't these well-intentioned speakers condeming the broken for being broken?"

"Jesus promises a life in which we increasinly have to stretch out our hands & be lead into places where we would rather not go" -Henri Nouwen

*Sam learned to see that all God's children are beggars at the foot of the cross, broken people in need of mending.

*A church is just a building if there's no one in it.

*Begging is hard - its something you expect hungry dogs to do - but not men & women made in God's image.

On children noticing the homeless while adults ignore:
"While kids might pretend people dont exist do, its the parents who pretend that unwanted people who do exist dont."

*A hungry man can be a fast learner.  When you come to a table with nothing but need, you are grateful for things you might have pushed aside before.  And when you kneel, hungry & broken at His table, you receive a grace from Him you might, at some other times, have comletely missed.

*Why do we kick drug users out of the church while quietly over looking those who are ignoring their own different but equally destructive sins?  Why do we reject the loving, self-sacrificing, giving, encouraging, Jesus-pursuing drug addict but recruit the clean, self-interested, gossiping, loveless church goer?

*Why do we so often overlook obvious ways to show the love of God we so loudly proclaim?

On a man who the homeless called "The Jesus guy" because he brings pizza & conversation... he said he never once "preached" the message of Jesus:
"Isnt it amazing that when we live as we're called & do what we're commanded, the gospel still gets preached"

On a church that ignored Sam & Mike - but had a sermon that was very precise & scheduled:
"What says more about who you are in Christ - how loudly you say AMEN! in the service or how well you treat strangers in the foyer?"

"Heavenly expectation begins precisely at the moment when earthly expectation sinks down in weakness & despair"

*Again & again it seems that the culture we had returned to knew how to enjoy God's material blessings, but had forgotten - or didnt are to know - how to use those blessings to help others in Jesus' name.

On whether or not to give money/help the homeless (use for drugs/alchol):
*We're responsible to hellp others towards hope in Jesus' name... but we're not responsible for their choices.