For the record, I would love to be a part of a simple faith community that practices the Gospel of welcome, creates spaces of grace and considers itself “welcoming and mutually transforming.â€
Wouldn’t you?
HT to Andrew Jones for that last thought.
“I wish that Christian men would insist more and more on the unrighteousness of war, believing that Christianity means no sword, no cannon, no bloodshed, and that, if a nation is driven to fight in its own defence, Christianity stands by to weep and to intervene as soon as possible, and not to join in the cruel shouts which celebrate an enemy’s slaughter.†– Charles Spurgeon
“Yes, we live surrounded by those who claim to be our enemies, but we refuse to be enemies. As followers of Jesus, we have no other choice but to see them as our brothers and sisters.†– A Christian living in the West Bank
The world is unprincipled. It’s dog-eat-dog out there! The world doesn’t fight fair.
But we don’t live or fight our battles that way—never have and never will.
The tools of our trade aren’t for marketing or manipulation, but they are for demolishing that entire massively corrupt culture.
We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ.
Our tools are ready at hand for clearing the ground of every obstruction and building lives of obedience into maturity. (2 Corinthians 10:3-6 MSG)
“Imagine the ecstasy, the cry of joy when God makes a person in his own image! When God made you! The Father gives you as a gift to himself. You are a response to the vast delight of God. Out of an infinite number of possibilities, God invested you and me with existence.â€
– Brennan Manning, The Signature of Jesus
Before saying our prayers tonight my boys started explaining what they knew about God and asking a few more questions.
By the end of the day I think they settled on a few things…
1. God is upstairs
2. God is downstairs
3. We can’t see God
4. God leaves his home sometimes to go to the doctor
5. God is big
By the end of it all they had a bit of a debate on whether God was upstairs at our house (which we don’t have) or upstairs at his house.
I’m sure we’ll be able to come to an agreement on that sometime before the next Council of Blundell.