Eating junk food …
Makes no more sense than consuming junk culture.
One corrupts our bodies …
The other our eternal souls.
Yet the answer to junk culture is not retreat and isolation.
Let’s learn to be immanent in a world God still loves …
While transcending its perils by openly embracing what is eternally true, good and beautiful.
If your faith never offends, it’s not faith …
But some pseudo-spiritualized comfort zone.
Sharing Christ by handing out meals across some impersonal divide to “others” whom we deem “less fortunate” …
May have its place.
But not as a substitute …
For experiencing Christ together, one with another.
Instead, why not consider intentionally sharing life and meals together as “brothers” where you both actually live …
Including your own living room and even their tents in the woods, as you both learn to be the kind of disciples who honor and esteem each other in Christ above yourselves?
Maybe this is why the Kingdom of God advances more through actual community and open hospitality …
Than mere charity.
After all, isn’t this the heart of the Great Commission in action …
And perhaps even the start of ekklesia as the New Testament actually commands it?
Sometimes, facts are not important to others …
Until you first acknowledge their pain.
Most mornings I wake up grateful.
Before the day starts, I like to sit and quietly watch the sun rise while prayerfully contemplating the many blessings God has restored in my life.
Continue reading”Christians” who interpret Christ and judge His Word by their own notions of love …
Rather than conform their notions of love to Christ and His Word …
Worship love, not Christ.
God’s norms apply to all cultures …
But often are uniquely expressed in each.
While holding to those norms, I’ve learned to not interpret another’s situation and culture through the lens of my own situation and culture.
Doing so thwarts mutual esteem and understanding.
That’s true even when done with the best of intentions.
In contrast, the Great Commission requires us to go beyond our own reality and enter into very different realities …
Where people are very different than us.
They may be across the globe, or just down the street.
Few do it.
Nonetheless, Jesus bids us “go” with a fierce love that takes us outside our own limited perspectives.
Only then can we truly embrace “others” as brothers in Him.
Authentic love brings truth …
And truth is never neutral.
Christians who dismiss some as beyond the reach of God’s redeeming grace …
Stand outside His redeeming grace.
Charity and ministry are good, but not when we treat those we seek to help …
As “others” rather than “brothers.”
When possible, be at peace and move on …
By letting those who don’t appreciate your presence appreciate your absence.
God redeems His creation …
Despite its fallenness.
And reconciles us to Himself …
Despite our brokenness.
Because He loves us, Jesus affirms in Romans 13 – and elsewhere – the State’s obligation to stop evildoers and protect innocent lives …
Through the judicious use, if needed, of deadly force.
Some deny this by elevating their own sensibilities above Christ and His Word …
While reducing love to distorted sentimentalities.
Real love doesn’t just affirm what is good and right, but also opposes what enslaves and destroys.
Those ministering authentic grace to folks who are lost and know it …
Understand this.
Those peddling an abstract faith that’s never put into practice …
Don’t.
Doing for others what they should be doing for themselves …
Is no mercy.
Daily, I see how God delights in creating beauty from wrecked lives.
My role is to let Him do it His way …
By recognizing that His mercies are not all up to me.
Be wise.
Don’t sacrifice the lifelong joy of authentic …
For the short term thrill of illicit.
Joy seldom comes without risking failure …
In love, faith, business and all of life.
The fruit of the Spirit are rooted in …
Truth and virtue.
Love without truth is just as corrosive …
As truth without love.
God owes us NOTHING.
Get over it.
Only then can we begin to apprehend the wonders of His grace.
In the cool of the day, God walked side-by-side and fellowshipped face-to-face with Adam …
Amidst the beauty of Adam’s garden and the fruit of his labor.
It’s OK to be human …
That’s where God wants to meet us too.
REDEEMING FAITH
Cynicism denies Christ’s sovereignty over a world He yet loves.
True disciples, however, don’t expect the world to be perfect …
But go forth to redeem its brokenness, as Christ commands.
Everyone loves the prophetic, until it speaks of them …
Everyone loves discipleship, without the discipline …
Everyone loves ekklesia, but not submitting to each other …
Everyone loves truth, when there is no price to pay …
Everyone loves God’s Kingdom, apart from the dictates of His rule …
Everyone loves Jesus, yet seldom on His terms.
So let’s stop being everyone …
Because God calls us to be so much more.
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“Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Phil. 3:13-14
Plumbline Faith 