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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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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 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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Missing the Kingdom of God
Last Sunday our gospel text was Mark 3:23-35. The story here is the pressure Jesus is getting from his family and then the religious leaders. Neither one is happy with him. For his family, Jesus was avoiding them and his ministry was attracting so many people that his own family couldn’t get into their own home to eat. This put…
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The tests
Daniel 3 is the test of allegiance. It is not about being delivered from the fire. It is about the willingness to go through the fire. Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were all tested. (I won’t use the Babylonian names forced on them.) They had survived in Babylon by learning the culture (rather than be summarily executed) and contributing to the…
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The way ahead is tough, necessary, and glorious
I have been reviewing the month of May in my journaling and notes and found there have been only two places that have been a catalyst for a longer exploration, though “longer exploration” is a bit of a misnomer as they took me on a path of further Scriptural exploration that was a few days… not months. Yet, in these…
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Why the “isms” ultimately fail
There is a struggle between “liberalism” and “authoritarianism” currently, according to David Brooks. Yet, we have to understand every “system” is severely flawed.
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Honest reflection lacks in our current world
We are good at pointing out the utter absurdity of ideologies opposed to our very true and righteous ideals. We, of course, have the right ideals and that other side is, well, obviously wrong. This is the condition in which we find ourselves consistently. In the Church or in politics, what seriously lacks is self reflection. Conservatives or progressives, it…
Tag: Culture
