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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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The power of Pentecost
Pentecost Sunday is coming. Some thoughts from NT Wright: …when it comes to Pentecost it’s far more important that you’re out there in the wind, letting it sweep through your life, your heart, your imagination, your powers of speech, and transform you from a listless or lifeless believer into someone whose heart is on fire with the love of God.…
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Who IS my neighbor?
We all are tempted to define “neighbor” so we don’t have too much discomfort in our lives. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, the young Jewish leader wants to feel good about his life. He tries to justify his own goodness, leading to a very uncomfortable story from Jesus. NT Wright has this application to the parable:
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Do not read a book for YOUR argument
I am finishing Paul: A Biography by N.T. Wright and my oldest son was looking at it briefly. He mentioned a guy he knows doesn’t call himself a Christian but says the Apostle Paul is the one that is relevant. Not even Jesus, who was to the Jews only. I advised my son to put the book down and not…
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The Feast of the Conversion of Paul
Today is remembered in much of the Church as the “conversion of Paul.” I am working my way through N.T. Wright’s great work, Paul: A Biography. Wright rekindles my love for Paul and his work. Paul was one who caught the vision of a truly new social reality and then worked like crazy to communicate that new reality. He battled…
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Our misunderstanding of the Kingdom of God
I truly wish I could articulate better what I truly believe in the deepest part of my soul about the Kingdom of God. N.T. Wright helps me. He articulates the vision of the Kingdom in a way I understand… but then I try to repeat it… and… ugh. There is so much to “undo” in my old truncated view of…
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The King of Glory is coming in
And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. He said to them, “It is written, My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.”And the blind and the…
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The revolution of mission
I am not saved simply to “go to heaven.” I am saved to understand I have been restored as an image bearer of God and there is a mission given… a human vocation. N.T. Wright: The “royal priesthood” is the company of rescued humans who, being part of “earth,” worship the God of heaven and are thereby equipped, with the…
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The day the revolution began
“The death of Jesus was the moment when the great gate of human history, bolted with iron bars and overgrown with toxic weeds, burst open so that the Creator’s project of reconciliation between heaven and earth could at last be set in powerful motion. The myrtle will at last replace the brier, and the cypress the thorn.” (N.T. Wright —…
Tag: N T Wright
