“I cannot imagine a more ready instrument in the hands of Satan for the ruin of souls than a minister who tells sinners that it is not their duty to repent of their sins or to believe in Christ, and who has the arrogance to call himself a gospel minister, while he teaches that God hates some men infinitely and unchangeably for no reason whatsoever but simply because he chooses to do so.”
Christ in the world
“The world into which Christianity came forth was racked with cruelty and superstition. Severe asceticism, hyper-spiritualized Gnosticism, and infant sacrifice all reflected distorted notions of the relationship of body, soul, and spirit, concepts corrosive to the meaning of human life. As Christian faith spread throughout the Mediterranean and beyond, it transformed human self-understanding, and with it social structures and practices. Most significantly, within the prayerful reflection and lived experience of Christian faith, a deeper spiritual anthropology was distilled –one that magnified the sanctity and dignity of the human person. Christians rescued the unwanted babies abandoned on the trash heaps of Rome; and abortion, a practice that was widespread in the ancient world, was strictly forbidden in the Didache, one of the earliest Christian writings. A family of faith emerged, transcending boundaries of rich and poor, slave and free; and male and female were recognized as “joint heirs to the grace of life” (1 Peter 3:7). ”
The whole essay is well worth reading.
Holy Saturday
“It is a very different God, and a very different power, that we have discovered in the story of divine self-emptying, God’s capacity for weakness, the ability - without loss of Godness – to suffer and perhaps to die. This is the triune God of Jesus, fulfilled, majestic, glorified through self-expenditure in the lowly ignominy of our farthest country. There is power here, resurrecting, death-destroying, Devil-defeating; but it is the power of love, defying human expectation, which flowers in contradiction and negation, allowing sin its increase and giving death its day of victory, but only the more abundantly to outstrip both in the fecundity of grace and life. To live in the face of death an Easter Saturday existence, trusting in the weak but powerful love of the crucified and buried God, is itself to be objective, turned outward, away from self-reliance and self-preoccupation, away from our own determination to conquer death, which is in fact self-defeating and destructive. Instead, we are invited bravely and with frankness to admit or own defenselessness against the foe and entrust our self and destiny to the love of God which in its defenselessness proves creative and victorious.”
A pair of great quotes
Read this morning...
“In dysfunctional systems, the problem is never the problem, but rather the person who reveals the problem becomes the problem.”
“... blessed are the celebrities, for they will be rigorously held to a much lower standard of behaviour than the rest of us”
Religious enforcement
Fascinating. Roughly one in ten countries in the world have special religious police to enforce religious speech, action, and appearance. From the Pew Research Center:
As of 2012, at least 17 nations (9% worldwide) have police that enforce religious norms, according to a new Pew Research analysis of 2012 data. These actions are particularly common in the Middle East and North Africa, where roughly one-third of countries (35%) have police enforcing religious norms.
Dialog & open hands
“I believe one of the healthiest dynamics of Evangelicalism has been the cross-pollination that takes place through inter-denominational dialog (Br. – dialogue) and worship. Instead of conferences where only one theological brand is raised, we need to encourage events in which a variety of voices are heard. Instead of bloggers posting blogrolls where they are afraid to list someone who is outside their faith family, we need to be familiar with the much wider Christian blogosphere. Instead of encouraging Christian young people to only read certain authors and one or two particular Bible translations, we need to encourage them to study the wider compendium of Christian thought.
Basically, we need to avoid situations where our personal preferences lead to being cut off from the larger, worldwide Body of Christ.”
Welfare State
http://blog.heritage.org/2014/04/15/taxes-2013-2014-where-did-your-tax-money-go/?utm_source=Featured%2BPosts&utm_medium=FP1&utm_campaign=Top%2BNav%2BFeatured%2BPosts
Wonder where all the money paid in taxes today goes? Straight to entitlements. Anybody think that kind of system is sustainable?
“In 2013, the major entitlement programs - Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and other health care consumed 49 percent of all federal spending. These programs, and interest on the debt, are on track to consume an even greater share of spending in future years, while the portion of federal spending dedicated to other national priorities will decline.”
Being offended
“Human maturity is neither offensive nor defensive; it is finally able to accept that reality is what it is. Ken Keyes so wisely said, “More suffering comes into the world by people taking offense than by people intending to give offense.” The offended ones feel the need to offend back those who think they have offended them, creating defensiveness on the part of the presumed offenders, which often becomes a new offensive– ad inifinitum. There seems to be no way out of this self-defeating and violent Ping-Pong game– except growing up spiritually. The True Self, you see, is very hard to offend.”
Outreach to nominal believers
Christianity Today ran an interesting article recently: Three Views: How Can Churches Reach Nominal Believers Before They Become 'Nones'?
In the article, Drew Dyck argues we need to stop pussy-footing around and instead challenge nominal believers:
There's still a place for this kind of frank conversation. Often, loving nominal Christians means presenting them with the hard truth of what it means to follow Jesus. Seeing their true spiritual status may be a necessary step toward faith.
Kenda Creasy Dean thinks showing better biblical hospitality to nominal believers is the answer:
When nominally religious people experience the church as a community of people who embrace first and preach later, who celebrate life in those given up for dead, who err on the side of grace in matters of doctrine and politics so that no one, ever, must sit on the margins—we're far less likely to lose people around the edges.
Eddie Gibbs is convinced that too many churches lack authentic, consistent, relational discipleship:
The church members most at risk of becoming nominal avoid close personal relationships, which provide the context for encouragement, accountability, and ministry opportunities. These are bored consumers who "go missing without being missed." At the other extreme, Christians who are burned out may also be at risk. It is not unusual for church leaders who are worn out by ministry demands to move elsewhere and drop out entirely.
Also, unfortunately, biblical illiteracy is disturbingly high among many churchgoers. This creates vulnerability to the prevailing secular culture.
All three have valid perspectives. All three are right. The whole article is worth reading.
Worth remembering
I should write this on a 3x5 and carry it with me as a reminder.
“Beware you be not swallowed up in books! An ounce of love is worth a pound of knowledge”