Author Archives: Seth Grotzke

Wisdom

Posted on by
Reply

A shade of sorrow passed over Taliesin’s face. ‘There are those,’ he said gently, ‘who must first learn loss, despair, and grief. Of all paths to wisdom, this is the cruelest and longest. Are you one who must follow such a way? This even I cannot know. If you are, take heart nonetheless. Those who reach the end do more than gain wisdom. As rough wool becomes cloth, and crude clay a vessel, so do they change and fashion wisdom for others, and what they give back is greater than what they won.
Lloyd Alexander, The High King (The Chronicles of Prydain #5)

Village visit

Posted on by
Reply

On our way back from an errand we decided to visit a village which we hadn’t been to. We met a really nice couple who showed us around their grove of chestnut trees, pointed out routes to hike, and even sent us home with a bag of their garden potatoes.

IMG_3287.JPGIMG_4904

Everyone allows Tanzen to take a picture of themIMG_4905

Church

Posted on by
Reply

It is because of the church’s diversity that the followers of Christ were first called Christians in Antioch. You could not call them Jews or Gentiles, for both were in the church. You could not label them wealthy or poor, intellectuals or idiots, because the church was made up from all categories of humanity. The only thing that all these diverse people had in common was Christ, and therefore that was the only title you could give them: Christians.

Leonard, Get Real

Old Testament God

Posted on by
Reply

If we think God isn’t compassionate and forgiving in the Old Testament, we haven’t read about his patience with the Israelites. And if we think he isn’t demanding and warlike in the New Testament, we’ve missed some of Jesus’s most pointed teaching—not to mention the book of Revelation. We’ve also been blind to the uncompromising violence of the cross.

Klumpenhower, Jack. Show Them Jesus: Teaching the Gospel to Kids. New Growth Press, 2014.

Double force

Posted on by
Reply

The seventeenth-century English pastor Walter Marshall brilliantly pointed out that the good news is a double force in a believer’s life. The good news that we’re forgiven, adopted, and forever loved by God creates thankfulness and hope of life with Jesus. This draws us to him in love—like the tide pulls a ship. The good news that we’re in Christ and given the Spirit means that we can rely on God’s power in us. This is the power to flee from sin—like the wind propels that same ship.3 Tide and wind. Attraction and power. Pull and push. The good news is the double force believing kids need.

Klumpenhower, Jack. Show Them Jesus: Teaching the Gospel to Kids. New Growth Press, 2014.