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God changing the world — through us
When God wants to change the world, he doesn’t send in the tanks. He sends in the meek, the mourners, those who are hungry and thirsty for God’s justice, the peacemakers, and so on… It is because of this that the world has been changed by people like William Wilberforce, campaigning tirelessly to abolish slavery, by Desmond Tutu, working and…
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The paradigm of kingdom thinking
One of the more important chapters in Simply Jesus by NT Wright is on Space, Time, and Matter. It’s a mind-bender for me, which I enjoy. The contention is that Jesus wasn’t about telling people how to get to heaven. Jesus was about announcing the coming of the Kingdom HERE… NOW. Not in some “Kingdom Now” type of theology, but…
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Surrendering our allegiance to the magisterium of the state
Thoughts from NT Wright’s Simply Jesus. I blame him. Don’t shoot me. 😉 The church for centuries lived in the true power of the Kingdom (not fully, but more at times than others). The church lived out what was demonstrated in the life of Christ and they simply believed him when he commanded them to go and do the same. Now…
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Jesus in Charge
I have started into Wright’s book, Simply Jesus. I have grown to really like his writing and am challenged by his thinking. To start off this book, it is about recognizing Jesus is in charge. It was dangerous talk in Jesus’ day. It’s not very welcome in our day, either. “Our culture has become used to thinking of Jesus as a ‘religious’ figure…
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The Astonishing Reality of Christ
The issue we need to face in our lives is not getting the answers “right” in our Christianity. It’s not about a test we take to see if we have the right answers about Jesus. When someone comes to a college, I shouldn’t give them instructions just so they have right answers. If I am doing my job right, I…
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What is the Church?
From NT Wright’s book, Simply Jesus. The church is not supposed to be a society of perfect people doing great work. It’s a society of forgiven sinners repaying their unpayable debt of love by working for Jesus’s kingdom in every way they can, knowing themselves to be unworthy of the task. And this: Jesus has all kinds of projects up…
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Shouldn’t it be DIFFERENT?
N T Wright in Simply Jesus leaves me with all kinds of crazy questions. If Jesus IS King… why are in such a mess? What has gone wrong? Or, what IS going wrong? One of the tough questions he poses: What is the use of announcing love and peace if you make angry, violent war to achieve it? The message…
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Parables
“The parables, in fact, are told as kingdom explanations for Jesus’s kingdom actions. They are saying: ‘Don’t be surprised, but this is what it looks like when God’s in charge.’ They are not ‘abstract teaching,’ and indeed if we approach them like that, we won’t understand them at all.” — N T Wright, Simply Jesus
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Following Christ and Surrendering Dreams
N T Wright’s book Simply Jesus is a real challenge to understanding the gospel Think on this quote: He commands his hearers to give up their other dreams and to trust his instead. This, at its simplest, is what Jesus was all about. Help me follow you, Lord.
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The Utilitarian Jesus
N T Wright’s book Simply Jesus is filling my imagination right now. Surprised by Hope was a book that jarred me awake to the realities of the Kingdom of God in the present, and I still need to re-read that one! Wright continues to bring out what I feel about myself and about our culture in general: We want a…
Tag: Simply Jesus
