There is no such thing as an acceptable level of unemployment, because hunger is not acceptable, poverty is not acceptable, poor health is not acceptable, and a ruined life is not acceptable.
I try to think of myself as an apple tree. Time is not linear, it moves in circles. Come spring, I will bloom again.
Amby Burfoot, The Runner's Guide to the Meaning of Life
To put it spiritually, much of our political discourse today dishonors the image of God in each other and in the fragile process of human beings trying to govern themselves in peace. An honest political search to find answers to serious problems has been replaced by a politics of warring factions, where winning and losing become the only considerations. We must do more than simply change our language; we must learn to honor the process and its participants by treating disagreement with respect. When we disagree, we should do so respectfully, without falsely impugning the other’s motives, attacking the other’s character, or questioning the other’s faith. We ultimately need a moral debate.
Political debate, even vigorous debate, is a healthy thing for a democracy. But to question the integrity, patriotism, and even the faith of those with whom we disagree is destructive to democratic discourse. And to threaten or even imply the possibility of violence toward those whose politics or worldview differs from ours is a sign of moral danger and, indeed, a sign of democracy’s unraveling.
This fundamental disrespect in the political debate has harmed the public square.
If to be feelingly alive to the sufferings of my fellow-creatures is to be a fanatic, I am one of the most incurable fanatics ever permitted to be at large.
What is it to serve God and to do His will? Nothing else than to show mercy to our neighbor. For it is our neighbor who needs our service; God in heaven needs it not.
Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks. Then the doing of your work shall be no miracle, but you yourself shall be the miracle.
There are a couple of shows that have really captured my attention on the History Channel.
American Pickers is about these two guys who go around the country searching through peoples stuff and buying what they think they can resale for a profit.
Pawn Stars is about a pawn shop in Las Vegas owned and operated by a father, son and grandson.
I think what interests me in watching these shows is the stuff that people accumulate and how they value it.
We are entering into the March madness time of year when college basketball has their conference tournaments and then the big dance – the NCAA tournament.
You will hear coaches and commentators commenting on a team’s ability to play offense and defense.
During this time of year, I’m always reminded of teamwork and how championships are won by teamwork and good coaching.
Christ followers belong to a team.
They have been selected by Christ alone.
He is their coach and He is a good coach.
He simply asks them to deny self, take up their cross and follow Him.
He showed them how.
They don’t need a popular sports drink.
Their thirst is quenched by the Holy Spirit who empowers them to continue the point of need ministry of their coach.
A lot of defense has been played, but coach showed them by example how to play offense.
It’s time rise up as a team and play offense in our day!
Christianity stands or falls with its revolutionary protest against violence, arbitrariness, and pride of power, and with its plea for the weak. Christians are doing too little to make these points clear... Christendom adjusts itself far too easily to the worship of power. Christians should give more offense, shock the world far more, than they are doing now. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Cowardice asks the question: Is it safe? Expediency asks the question: Is it politic? Vanity asks the question: Is it popular? But conscience asks the question: Is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular -- but he must take it simply because conscience tells him it is right.
- Martin Luther King Jr.,
from his address, "To Chart Our Course for the Future" (1968).
My grandfather, Rev. Andrew Johnson, talked about breaking ice on the creek in the dead of winter to baptize people in the early and mid 1900's once they chose to deny self, take up the cross and follow Jesus.
I've been baptizing people for 18 years now.
I've baptized people indoors.
I've baptized people outdoors.
I've baptized people in swimming pools.
I've baptized people in cow troughs.
I've baptized people in water so cold that my legs where numb and blue, but have never had to break ice yet.
To me, one of the thrills of ministry is baptizing those who choose to deny self, take up the cross and follow Jesus.
But, throughout my time in ministry, it has truly amazed me that there are so many who profess to be Christian, but delay being baptized in water.
Jesus was baptized in water prior to starting His earthly ministry.
If we are following Christ, we will follow Him in water baptism.
If you are a Christian who has not yet been baptized in water, I encourage you to make the transition to being a Christ follower and make the first step of your journey water baptism.
Get your hair wet!
Follow Christ in water baptism.
Allow the Holy Spirit to stir the waters and do something supernatural in your life.
Anne Lamott, in Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith says "Most of what we do in worldly life is geared toward our staying dry, looking good, not going under. But in baptism, in lakes and rain and tanks and fonts, you agree to do something that's a little sloppy because at the same time it's also holy, and absurd. It's about surrender, giving in to all those things we can't control; it's a willingness to let go of balance and decorum and get drenched."
By God's grace, we are called to pick up our cross, deny self and follow Jesus.
We choose to follow or not.
He does not choose for us.
If He did, He would not be a just God.
And He is just.
So the choice is ours.
As we follow Him, a wonderful and supernatural work happens within us on our journey.
We develop His mind.
We develop His heart.
He changes the way we think.
Our behavior toward others change.
His love develops within us and extends to those in need around us.
We stand for faith and justice no matter what it costs us.
That's true religion my friend... that's true religion.
Henry Scougal said "True religion is a union of God with the soul, a real participation of the divine nature, the very image of God drawn upon the soul, or in the apostle's phrase, it is Christ formed in us."
Genuine Christian love is forged against the anvil of our selfishness and possessiveness... It is important to remember that love is more than a feeling. It is active and transitive. The real test of my loving is not that I feel loving, but that the other person feels loved by me. Love is what I do to create this sense of feeling cared for.
We are afraid of religion because it interprets rather than just observes. Religion does not confirm that there are hungry people in the world; it interprets the hungry to be our brethren whom we allow to starve.
Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning.
- Frederick Douglass,
from his speech celebrating West India Emancipation Day (August, 1857)
To take usury for money lent is unjust in itself, because this is to sell what does not exist, and this evidently leads to inequality, which is contrary to justice.
- Thomas Aquinas,
Dominican friar and theologian (1225-1274).
There remains an experience of incomparable value ... to see the great events of world history from below; from the perspective of the outcast, the suspects, the maltreated, the powerless, the oppressed, the reviled -- in short, from the perspective of those who suffer ... to look with new eyes on matters great and small.
God is quick to forgive us of our sins as we repent, but the consequences of those sins can linger for a lifetime and beyond. American theologianReinhold Niebuhr said that “All human sin seems so much worse in its consequences than in its intentions.”
Humility is what gives us the vision to look upon our world with fresh eyes. Humility enables us to respect others enough to put down our spurious images of ourselves and open our arms, as individuals and as a nation.
As we follow Christ, we will practice humility my friend.
The bread that you possess belongs to the hungry. The clothes that you store in boxes, belong to the naked. The shoes rotting by you, belong to the bare-foot. The money that you hide belongs to anyone in need.
Grace begins and ends prayer. Grace is what we call what is left over after the scouring of the self, the dying into self. Grace is what was there before we ever looked at ourselves in prayer. Grace gives us our initial impulse to pray.
He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and third time, till at length it becomes habitual; he tells lies without attending to it, and truths without the world's believing him. -- Thomas Jefferson
Does the compassionate life not demand that we be present to those who suffer; does it not require that we enter into solidarity with the poor, oppressed, and downtrodden; does it not motivate us both to move into the thick of life and to experience the hardships of existence in solidarity with the outcasts?
- Henri Nouwen,
Compassion: A Reflection on the Christian Life
If one had taken what is necessary to cover one's needs and had left the rest to those who are in need, no one would be rich, no one would be poor, no one would be in need.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. We must learn to live together as brothers, or perish together as fools.
I lay there under the stars and thought of what a great responsibility it is to be human. I am a human because God made me. I experience suffering and temptation because mankind chose to follow Satan. God is reaching out to me to rescue me. I am learning to trust Him, learning to live by His precepts that I might be preserved.
Once you become aware that the main business that you are here for is to know God, most of life's problems fall into place of their own accord. -- J. I. Packer
I think Jesus feels strongly about communicating the idea of our brokenness, and I think it is worth reflection. Nothing is going to change in the Congo until you and I figure out what is wrong with the person in the mirror. ~ Donald Miller, Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality
Before we can help others, we have to realize that we are not better than anyone else and it is our human nature to take better care of the person in the mirror than anyone else. Until we understand and believe that Jesus came, died, was resurrected and ascended back to glory for ALL people, we will never love ALL people as Christ does and has commisioned us to show. Until that day, we will take better care of the person in the mirror than we will of anyone else no matter where they are in this world.
What kind of peace do we seek? ... Not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave. I am talking about genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living, the kind that enables men and nations to grow and to hope and to build a better life for their children -- not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women, not merely peace in our time but peace for all time.
The genius of the American system is not freedom; the genius of the American system is checks and balances. Nobody gets all the power. Everybody is watching everybody else. It is as the founding fathers knew, intrinsically, that the soul of man, unwatched, is perverse. ~ Donald Miller, Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality
Checks and balances are not only valuable to a nation, they are also valuable to individuals.
What are some checks and balances that we can incorporate into our lives?
I believe that the greatest trick of the devil is not to get us into some sort of evil but rather have us wasting time. This is why the devil tries so hard to get Christians to be religious. If he can sink a man's mind into habit, he will prevent his heart from engaging God.
One day we will learn that the heart can never be totally right if the head is totally wrong. Only through the bringing together of head and heart – intelligence and goodness – shall man rise to a fulfillment of his true nature.
- Martin Luther King Jr., fromStrength to Love, a collection of Dr. King's sermons
In what ways we can bring together intelligence and goodness?
Fear is a powerful deterrent to progress. Fear left unchecked will overpower hope. Some people use fear as a tactic to get their own way, promote their own ideology, or to keep the status quo.Do you know those that use this tactic?I have met many.I have seen this tactic used by unlikely sources such as teachers, bosses, pastors, religious leaders and politicians.
It’s important to understand that fear is not from God.God will never use fear, but Satan will.The ultimate source of fear is always evil and if one succumbs to it, they can become a slave to it.The Apostle Paul wrote “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children.”-- Romans 8:15-16
Hope is of God and hope never deters progress.In fact it is hope that drives progress and brings peace.
Hope is the strongest driving force for a people. Hope which brings about change, which produces new realities, is what opens man's road to freedom. Once hope has taken hold, courage must unite with wisdom. That is the only way of avoiding violence, the only way of maintaining the calm one needs to respond peacefully to offenses. - Oscar Arias Sanchez, excerpted from his 1987 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech.
I refuse to be a person that uses fear as a tactic or do anything that will propagate fear.If I do, I will be an instrument used by evil and not an instrument used by God.No, I prefer to be a person of hope.
The kingdom of God
is justice and peace
and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Come, Lord, and open in us
the gates of your kingdom.
- Hymn from Taizé,
an ecumenical monastic community in France
What a powerful definition of the kingdom of God and an equally powerful plea for it to come in our lives which will propagate it to the world around us.
Jesus taught us through His words and actions as He walked this earth that the kingdom of God is all about equality for all, including health equality, gender equality, economic equality and racial equality. After the crucifixion and resurrection and just prior to His ascension back to glory, He gave us the great commandment of loving God and people along with the great commission of propagating His Kingdom on earth until He comes.
When we pray, following the model prayer that Jesus gave us, and we pray for His Kingdom to come, He answers that prayer through epowering us by the Holy Spirit to live for justice. We live our life bringing about health, gender, economic and racial equality in our sphere of influence and to the entire world that we live in.
May God’s Kingdom come and may His will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Amen!
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (Heb 12:1-2 ESV)
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says "Most of what we do in worldly life is geared toward our staying dry, looking good, not going under. But in baptism, in lakes and rain and tanks and fonts, you agree to do something that's a little sloppy because at the same time it's also holy, and absurd. It's about surrender, giving in to all those things we can't control; it's a willingness to let go of balance and decorum and get drenched."
.
, a collection of Dr. King's sermons
