Brad Bright's book- God is the Issue

God is the Issue

 

I was recently reviewing a book that I read a few months ago, compiling some quotes and I thought I would share some of them with you. It really had an impact on me.

 

Pg.11 Morality is a symptom, God is the issue. Do we wish to cure the symptom or the disease. How we answer this question has major implications how we spend out time, energies and resources.

Pg.13 God is the answer to every dysfunction I face

Pg 14 The church in America generally communicates with the culture in one of two ways. Either we preached the straight gospel without regard to the cultural and personal context, or we simply react defensively to the symptomatic cultural ills: such as homosexual behavior, abortion, racism and pornography.

 

Page 20.  The current strategy of promoting morality without reestablishing a source of morality is not working

Pg 21 Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.

Pg 24 Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, articulated the difference between cause and effect: birth-control appeals to the advanced radical because it is calculated to undermine the authority of the Christian churches.  I look forward to seeing humanity free someday from the tyranny of Christianity.

 

Pg 26 We must begin rebuilding the foundation by making the God of the Bible the central issue of life in the minds of those around us

Pg 30 only 9% of all born-again teens believe in absolute moral truth

Pg32 Dr. Christopher Bader: you learn more about people’s moral and political behavior if you know their image of God than almost any other measure

Pg. 37 no amount of marriage counseling would do any good until he decided to put God first in his life

Pg. When God gives me the privilege of mentoring believers I make it very clear that they will hear very little about behavior but a lot about having a heart for God.  Because behavior is an indicator of where the heart is at.

Pg. If we are to win, we must reframe the entire issue in a manner that allows us to move back onto the offense, stay on message.  Therefore, if our rhetorical response is merely to condemn a symptomatic issues such as homosexual behavior, abortion, racism as morally reprehensible we will lose: the behavior will continue or other symptomatic behavior will replace it each time we defensively react to their issue they are able to further marginalize us in the eyes of the broad culture and worse gets us off message because in much of our culture condemning a moral behavior is deemed intolerant.

 

Pg.61 Dr. Martin Luther King – hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that

Pg. do not answer the question asked; rather view the question as an opportunity to talk about our issue -- -- the God of the Bible.  For example – that’s a good question but I think the real issue is….  Move immediately to the critical question of the existence and identity of God.

Pg. 81 we start from their felt need and show how it relates to their real everyday need for God. for example – I would go in and talk about leadership and then transition to the greatest leader who ever lived – Jesus Christ.  Jesus consistently did this. He almost always began with stories to which his audience could relate. He then gave them something they can readily understand and then rhetorically moved them to he wanted them to go.  He not only knew his message – he knew his audience.

Pg.  90 speaking to a homosexual – you start with your behavior and try to conform God to what you want. I start with God and try to conform my behavior to who God is.

Pg.91 never, never, never feel obligated to answer the question (reframe it)

 

Reframing- Chapter 5

Pg.112 perception constitutes reality for most people.

Pg.112 we must learn to aggressively reframe the rhetoric of the opposition, just as Jesus did.  We redefine it. Redefining does two things, first, it broadens the meaning of the opposition’s rhetoric or to carry our message, while simultaneously diluting their original intent.  For example – such as what happened to the term family values under Bill Clinton -- he redefined family to be something other than the traditional nuclear family.  One of the key components in the communication process is creating linkage. E.G. - Visualize world peace – visualize whirled peas.

Pg. 115 violence is a symptom of a person’s beliefs, ultimately one’s view of God, not a symptom of owning a gun.

Pg 116 when the opposition talks about hate crimes we should talk about hate crimes against people of faith.

Pg.124 President Theodore Roosevelt – the thought of modern industry in the hands of Christian charity is a dream worth dreaming.  The thought of industry in the hands of paganism is a nightmare beyond imagining.

Pg. 125 a fuzzy view of God will eventually lead to a fuzzy view of truth.

Pg 150 The next time you face something you truly believe is a problem, ask yourself the following question, “What attribute of God do I not really believe is true in this situation?” (By the way, this is a great question to ask as well when you’re worried, feeling hopeless or angry at someone).  Never forget, life is not about you, rather it is all about who God is.  Until you truly learn that lesson you are destined always to have “problems”.