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Confronting the powers
One of the conclusions from Jesus and the Powers is that followers of Jesus will have to confront spiritual and worldly powers in this life. Conflict will happen. When authority goes wrong, it must be held accountable.
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Jesus and the Powers, Part 8
The final chapters in the book, Jesus and the Powers, are a struggle for me. Chapter 7 is the struggle. Chapter 8 is the summary. The fact of the matter, for Wright and Bird, is that government of some form is necessary. I can’t disagree. For all the shouting people do about corrupt government (on the “right” or the “left”),…
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The root of war
“We have only to open our eyes and look about us to see what our sins are doing to the world, and have done. But we cannot see. We are the ones to whom it is said by the prophets of God: ‘Hearing hear, and understand not; and see the vision, and know it not.” Thomas Merton, Seven Storey Mountain…
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Jesus and the Powers, Part 7
There are governments to resist. We wrestle with the need to submit to a point and then how to resist when there are violations of conscience and crossing allegiances, but then there is a need to understand there are things to resist. The how is tricky, and it takes the wisdom and guidance of the Holy Spirit. This isn’t about…
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Jesus and the Powers, Part 6
It’s been a week without writing mainly because I’ve been absorbing the political shooting from last week and then seeing how it might play out in the Republican National Convention. Along with that was preparation for this coming week’s book study group on Jesus and the Powers. It’s been a week of absorbing and reflecting.
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The call for the moral center to hold
David French writes in the hours following an assassination attempt on Donald Trump at a political rally in Pennsylvania: Now is the time for America’s moral center to rise up and declare — with one voice, neither red nor blue — “Enough.” We either recover our sense of decency and basic respect for the humanity of our opponents, or we…
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Jesus and the Power, Part 5
What will you do with your life? The world needs kingdom-minded Christians now more than ever. This is from p. 89 of Jesus and the Powers, and it is a great question I have carried with me for over 30 years. Where does the Spirit want to have me active in the work of the Kingdom in this world? What…
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Jesus and the Powers, Part 4
In leading a discussion on this book, the first week gave me this observation for our group: they wanted detailed definitions and detailed actions. Here is the “problem” with the book (and, also, with how Jesus leads): no finite details are given. Beautifully, when it comes to “actions,” they readily admit this:
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Jesus and the Powers, Part 3
Notes from NT Wright and Michael Bird’s, Jesus and the Powers. The problem of political power is rooted in the beginning. In creation. God set humanity in place to bring order. The problem is humanity keeps getting in their own way. The history of the Old Testament leaves us in a quandary:
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Remembering the murder of Philando Castile
Yesterday was the 8th anniversary of the murder of Philando Castile. EIGHT YEARS.
