Kenton J. Kutney

Remembering a dear old friend - a creative mentor, godly and faithful friend. I read this today in his honour to family and friends gathered together to say goodbye and to celebrate. From a novel by Wendell Berry, Hannah Coulter , about memory and time: "And so you have a life that you are living only now, now and now and now, gone before you can speak of it, and you must be thankful for living day by day, moment by moment, in this presence. But you have a life too that you remember. It stays with you. You have lived a life in the breath and pulse and living light of the present, and your memories of it, remembered now, are of a different life in a different world and time. When you remember the past, you are not remembering it as it was. You are remembering it as it is. It is a vision or a dream, present with you in the present, alive with you in the only time you are alive." You have today. And you have memory. Cherish both. Love with all your heart. 

  A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society Eugene H. Peterson InterVarsity Press, 2000 -  212 pages.  (This revised and expanded edition includes the Psalms of Ascent in The Message translation as well as a new epilogue. This is a book for modern pilgrims who want to learn to live in communion with God. Also available from IVP is a companion volume, A Long Obedience Journal.) Just the other day I was taken back to a book on the Ascent Psalms that I initially discovered while attending Regent College written by pastor-theologian, Eugene Peterson, called "A Long Obedience In The Same Direction".  What took me back in my memory was a newly released online video by Fuller Studios which featured Bono from the rock band U2 joining in conversation with Peterson at his rustic home at Flathead Lake, Montana. As Bono walks the path up to their home he is welcomed by Jan Peterson in a most grandmotherly way. Immediately Eugene's raspy sage-lik...

A Conversation with Author Wendell Berry http://world.regent-college.edu/leading-ideas/we-are-still-near-the-beginning

  Annie Holmquist   | April 8, 2016                                    Although he was in power for only a handful of years, Hitler and his Nazi government slaughtered millions. One of the more well-known victims of that slaughter was Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was executed on   April 8 th , 1945 , a few short weeks before Hitler’s own death. Unlike many of Hitler’s victims, Bonhoeffer was not a Jew, but a Lutheran minister, scholar, and theologian who boldly spoke against Hitler’s policies. Bonhoeffer landed a position in the German government during WWII and subsequently used that position as cover for assassination attempts against Hitler. While awaiting execution, Bonhoeffer recorded a number of his thoughts in a work we now know as   Letters and Papers from Prison .   One of these essays, entitled   On Stupidity,   records som...

  On Silence “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.” On Judging Others “Judging others makes us blind, whereas love is illuminating. By judging others we blind ourselves to our own evil and to the grace which others are just as entitled to as we are.” ―   The Cost of Discipleship On Gratitude “In normal life we hardly realize how much more we receive than we give, and life cannot be rich without such gratitude. It is so easy to overestimate the importance of our own achievements compared with what we owe to the help of others.” ― Letters and Papers from Prison On Injustice “We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice, we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself.” On 'Defending' the Bible "Do not try to make the Bible relevant. Its relevance is axiomatic. Do not defend God's word, but testify to it. Trust to the Word. It is a ship loaded to the ...

Give us grace, almighty Father, to address you  with all our hearts as well as with our lips.   You  are present everywhere: from you no secrets can  be hidden.   Teach us to fix our thoughts on you,  reverently and with love, so that our prayers are  not in vain, but are acceptable to you,    Now and  always, through Jesus Christ our Lord. — Jane Austen

You are holy, Lord, the only God, and your deeds are wonderful. You are strong. You are great. You are the most high. You are almighty. You, holy Father are the King of heaven and earth. You are three in one, Lord God, all Good. You are Good, all Good, supreme Good, Lord God living and true. You are love. You are wisdom. You are humility. You are endurance. You are rest. You are peace. You are joy and gladness. You are justice and moderation. You are all our riches, and you suffice for us. You are beauty. You are gentleness. You are our protector. You are our guardian and defender. You are our coverage. You are our haven and our hope. You are our faith, our great consolation. You are our eternal life, great and wonderful Lord, God almighty, merciful Savior.  — St. Francis of Assisi