Quick… take this well known passage and fill in your name in each of the blanks ::
If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.
Continue reading Fill in the blank
the greatest joy in giving the greatest sacrifice…
we joined another part of the body of Christ this morning, so missed our usual gathering with encounter – but Brian brought it this morning for sure. watch the video (the message starts about 15 min in).
video on ustream
Been a big fan of The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks as of late.
Today they shared a couple great signs that mention some guy named “Jesus.”
Apparently this is an ongoing problem… there are 12 other related posts on the site, including ::
“Jesus” is coming
Open your heart to “Jesus”
and this one really worries me…
“Jesus” he know how much we can bare
53/365
Originally uploaded by Jonathan D. Blundell
illumination
Brian began a new series today about illumination. where does your light shine? or does it? really enjoyed it – and like usual it was challenging. I hope my life-light is shining as I think it is.
1 John 1:5-7
This, in essence, is the message we heard from Christ and are passing on to you: God is light, pure light; there’s not a trace of darkness in him.
If we claim that we experience a shared life with him and continue to stumble around in the dark, we’re obviously lying through our teeth—we’re not living what we claim. But if we walk in the light, God himself being the light, we also experience a shared life with one another, as the sacrificed blood of Jesus, God’s Son, purges all our sin.
Shaun Groves has an amazing blog. If you’re not follow it – you should be. Monday he wrote a post that shook me. It took my ideas of pacifism and really made me rethink my ideas — and more importantly God’s ideas.
Shaun quotes theologian Stanley Hauerwas ::
What in the world?
Let’s look at that again….
OK. Really, its OK to go back and read that a couple more times. Think on it. Chew on it. Wrestle with it.
Shaun writes that while he doesn’t particularly care for his choice of words but he’s a big fan of Stanley’s honesty.
His brief explanation gets directly to one of the most convincing (at least for me) reasons I, a follower of Christ, must embrace non-violence: I am, by nature, violent.
He continues…
I am sinful so I must embrace virtue.
To be more specific…
I lust after women who are not my wife, so I must embrace monogamy.
I covet your cell phone and your neighborhood and your jeans, so I must embrace simplicity.
I lie to get a laugh or make my life easier, so I must embrace honesty.
I think I’m smarter than you, so I must embrace humility.
I need to be in control, so I must embrace submission.
I’m a loner, so I must embrace community.
I want to ruin your name, so I must embrace forgiveness.
I want to be served, so I must embrace service.
And I want to harm when I’m harmed, so I must embrace non-violence.
As Christians aren’t we called to put away the selfish and old way of doing things? Aren’t we called to take part in this upside down Kingdom of God?
Isn’t the Kingdom of God really about the great reversal? Where the last will be first and the first will be last? Isn’t the Kingdom of God really about serving the meek and loving our enemies — no matter how many times they’ve hurt us or ignored us in the past?
The sinful nature of mankind is often cited in arguments against Christian non-violence. Violence, it’s said, is sometimes necessary to slow or even stop sin’s march across the world.
Mankind’s nature? What about my own?
Non-violence stops my sinful nature’s march from within me into the world. Into your world.
I’m a pacifist because I know who I really am.
What about you?
In Matthew 20 & 21 its interesting that Jesus tells 3 parables related to a vineyard.
I’m really struck by the third and final one here.
“Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place. When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit. The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. Last of all, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said.
“But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance.’ So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.”
“Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?â€
“He will bring those wretches to a wretched end,†they replied, “and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time.â€
Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: “‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?”
“Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. Anyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.â€
It’s that last bit that gets me (the part in bold letters – Matt 21:43). I wonder if I’m producing fruit like God requires. Would/could/should the Kingdom of God be taken from me? Do we just ignore this passage and say, “Once saved, always saved?” Do we just pass over it and say that a quick prayer is the fruit Jesus is referring to/looking for?
What are your thoughts? Chew on it, wrestle with it and then share your thoughts.