Category Archives: Redemption

Practicing the Promise of Easter

Posted on April 8, 2013 | 3 Comments

Major League Baseball officially began a week ago.*  Fans are full of optimism.  Even though my team, the Cubs, ended the first week with a 2-4 record, I still am optimistic that they can at least play competitive .500 baseball this season.  Of course, a month or two from now much of the optimism will be gone for some.  By then fans will know which teams have a realistic chance of playing meaningful baseball in October during the playoffs and which do not.  After all the expectations and work which the players have put in during the off season, hat’s somewhat disappointing.

The Game that Matters

Then again, baseball is only a game.  When it comes to our own lives…  Well, that’s a different matter.  Failure and defeat are not viable options.  In a Nietzschean worldview where God is dead and life depends on the will to power, the fear of loss and defeat means we must act for our own interests.  That might seem ok if we happen to be the strong who sit atop of the food chain, so to speak.  But most of us are not!  And even the alpha-male dog eventually weakens.

According to a Nietzschean worldview, success depends on independent strength and a willingness to overcome whatever threatens our survival.  Taken to the extreme, we must kill or be killed.  It’s a philosophy ignorant of the sovereign yet benevolent God who stamps his image upon us as his creation.  Consequently, it views human life as animal life where one is either predator or prey.

Yet this way of life is not as foreign to as we might wish to believe.  Turn on the news, the television, etc…  Our world is a place of power where people make decisions every day that serve their own interests, placing their own needs above others, and with enough strength, ascend to the top.

The Game Changer

Fortunately, we know better.  We know because Jesus Christ was crucified and has resurrected, that he has destroyed every kingdom, authority, and power.  We know because of his death and resurrection, that we can never achieve the victorious immortality we crave through our own strength and initiative but in Christ alone.  We know that through his death and resurrection, Jesus frees us from all selfish needs and gives us the power to live as servants of each other.  We know…

Or do we know?

After spelling out the cosmic implications of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, Paul had one practical admonition for the Corinthian Christians.  “Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm.  Let nothing move you.  Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain” (1 Cor 15:58, NIV).  I guess Paul understood how easy it is to spiritualize the gospel, separating it from the way Christians are called to live.

So if I may be so presumptuous, I’ll tell you what I think we know.  I think we encounter the Nietzschean worldview every day in our world making it very difficult to believe that God is bringing about his kingdom here on earth, restoring life as God created and redeemed life to be lived.  That’s why we must hear the gospel of Jesus Christ again and again so that we will stand firm in our faith, knowing that living in the way of Jesus is not in vain.  Unless we do that, the gospel is nothing but one of many religious stories to tell ourselves.  If God is making all things new in Christ, through his death and resurrection, as we confess then we must live accordingly! 

——————–

* This post is a slightly modified version originally published as an article of the same title in Connecting 28 (April 3, 2013), a biweekly publication of the Columbia Church of Christ.

→ 3 Comments

Posted in Columbia Church of Christ, Contemporary Culture, Faith, Redemption, Scripture, Theology

Believing In Jesus

Posted on April 1, 2013 | 4 Comments

This past Sunday was Easter Sunday and so as one would expect, I preached on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  The message I preached before the Columbia Church of Christ was based on the text from Matthew 28:1-10 (here’s the link to the message: What About Us?).

One of the questions about the death and, more importantly, resurrection of Jesus is the question of belief.  Can we reasonably believe in this good news?  That is, though we can believe in whatever we want to believe in, is there any credible reason(s) for believing in the good news of Jesus Christ?  I believe there are and while I don’t want to go into a full scale discussion of Christian apologetics, I do want to share two interesting notes that support the credibility of Jesus’ resurrection.

This passage from Matthew 28:1-10 ends with the resurrected Jesus Christ appearing to the two women, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary.  Verses 9-10 read:

Suddenly Jesus met them.  “Greetings,” he said.  They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him.  Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid.  Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”

Implicit in those two verse are two points of interest to the credibility of Jesus’ resurrection.

First, the two people Jesus appears to first are women.  These two women become the first missionaries, preachers, evangelists, or what ever we want to call it.  They were sent to the other disciples about the news of Jesus’ resurrection.  That’s significant.  In the Mediterranean world of the first century, women were regarded with a much lower esteem than men and their word was not regarded as trustworthy (Keener, A Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, 698-699).  So if Matthew was simply trying to fabricate a story it would be rather self-defeating to include women in the details of the resurrection.

Second, one Jesus appears to the two women, they worshiped Jesus and they then became witnesses of Jesus.  This is significant because as far as a movement is concerned, this is where Christianity begins.  The legacy of these women has been repeated over and over as people have become believers in Jesus, they have also worshiped Jesus and become witnesses of Jesus — and sometimes while facing great persecution and opposition.  But one of the most remarkable facts for believing that the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus is true is the fact that within one hundred years of time, this Jesus movement became so large that Christians were beginning to be regarded as a fourth human race (N.T. Wright, The New Testament and the People of God, 359).

Neither reason proves or substantiates with absolute certainty that Jesus was in fact crucified and resurrected as the scriptures claim but I believe they do offer credible reasons.  I don’t actually believe that absolute proof or certainty can be offered for believing in the good news of Jesus Christ and if it could, there wouldn’t be any need for faith.  Sometimes though, we need to remember that faith in Jesus Christ does not require a suspension of reasonability.

——————–

I also will mention two other article I have recently written.  The first is an article for Peter Horne’s blog titled Easter’s Promise for the Broken Heart.  Sometimes the struggle with faith stems from the grief and disappointments we suffer, which I understand.  So I’ve written in this article about the struggle with doubt and why I have chosen faith (without downplaying doubt).  The second article has been published by New Wineskins, an online Christian magazine and it is titled Living the Way of Jesus.  Those who believe in Jesus are called to follow him, to become his disciple.  In this article I explain what it means to live as a disciple of Jesus Christ and why it is essential that Christians learn to live as disciples.

So if these two articles interest you then you have the links.  Thanks for reading!

→ 4 Comments

Posted in Churches of Christ, Columbia Church of Christ, Faith, Redemption, Scripture

His Passion, Our Salvation!

Posted on March 29, 2013 | Leave a comment

“But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.” — Isaiah 53:5

“Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!” — Revelation 5:12

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Faith, Hope, Redemption, Scripture

Resurrection Sunday: The Elephant in the Room

Posted on March 18, 2013 | Leave a comment

Resurrection Sunday is coming soon to a Sunday morning worship service near you, presented by the church.  We love the story of the resurrection of Jesus.  Now we can talk about new life…eternal life in Jesus.  As the great Gathier hymn goes, “Because he lives, I can face tomorrow…  And life is worth the living, just because he lives.”  But here is a reality check…a wake up call, if you will.  There is no resurrection apart from the cross of Jesus Christ.  We only discover the resurrection of Christ in and through the cross of Christ and that is a path that can only be traveled by a deep submissive faith.

In Matthew 26:36-46 we encounter the story of Jesus praying in the garden of Gethsemane.  There Jesus prays to his Heavenly Father on three different times and the conclusion is “Father… your will be done.”  Regardless of Jesus’ own petition for another possibility, he ultimately submits himself to his Father’s will — the cross.  After his third prayer, Jesus reveals his decisive submission to his Father’s will when he says to his disciples, “Rise!  Let us go…”  

Very soon Jesus was arrested…convicted…crucified.

Father… Your Will be Done!

I wonder if we really are willing to hear this story and embrace it’s trajectory as followers of Jesus.  This story tells us first that the answer to prayer is always “Father… your will be done.”  Yet do we even know what the will of God is?  It’s almost baseball season again and I love baseball.  Contrary to the views of some, I don’t get bothered that some players make multi-millions every year to play the game.  If I was in their shoes, I can’t say that I would turn down such an offer.  However, when the name of God is invoked to suggest that God somehow led these players to this decision, (see here and here), I get concerned.

Yet I know that this is only a symptom of a culture where God seems to lead us to greater prosperity, bigger and better opportunities, safer living and a more secure future.  That’s very different from the God of Abraham, Joseph, Moses and the Israelites, Daniel and his three friends, Jeremiah and Ezekiel along with many other prophets, and last but not least, Jesus and numerous Christian martyrs, missionaries, and preachers.  Get the picture?  The will of God never seems to make life easier, blessing a life of safety and self-sufficiency.

The will of God is that we will learn to live with a deep submissive trust in God’s promise, embracing the way of Jesus and the cross.  But not so in some churches, so it seems.  Safety is too precious.  We can’t fathom that God might want us to remain exposed to a world full of darkness, trusting in him to bring about his redemptive will through endangerment, insecurity, and vulnerability.  Thus, after the state of Arkansas passes a law allowing guns to be carried into church services and other places of worship, an elder of one church invokes the concern for the safety of church goers as his reason for supporting the law in this Christian Chronicle article (see here).  Let me be clear…  Neither I nor anyone I know wants to be gunned down by a deranged person but can we not trust God like Jesus did when the crowd came to arrest and kill him?  What happens when the deranged person entering the church with a gun is a religious or political fanatic coming to harm us because we are Christians?  Could we even fathom that it might be God’s will to allow such evil to happen so that his light may shine though the darkness, in which our aversion to such a scenario impedes the will of God?

The Story of Jesus, The Will of God

I love the story of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection.  I believe in Jesus and place my hope in his death, burial, and resurrection.  But this isn’t just a story to be told, it’s a story to be lived.  I don’t know what that entails for the way it plays out in anyone’s life, much less my own.  What I do know is that the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection will never truly become our story as long as we seek a life that avoids the danger, hardship, risk, and vulnerability that comes with following Jesus.  We arrive in the resurrection of Jesus Christ by traveling with him to the cross.  Any subversion or attempted spiritualization of the cross as we celebrate the resurrection is to do so while ignoring the elephant in the room, so to speak.  Thus we must learn to pray “Father… your will be done!”

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Churches of Christ, Contemporary Culture, Faith, Redemption, Scripture

The Mission of God: Grace and Discipleship

Posted on March 7, 2013 | 3 Comments

In a previous blog post I wrote about the equal need for both proclamation and demonstration as we live on mission with God.*  However, living in word and deed as witnesses of Jesus Christ requires an equal need for grace and discipleship.

Discipleship is all the rage right now among Christianity.  Look up any number of Christian conferences, journals, and blogs and it won’t take long to find something about discipleship.  This is not too surprising as it has become more and more obvious that in general, Christianity in America is lacking in discipleship (with some notable exceptions).  In fact, this is why I believe Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who coined the phrase “cheap grace,” remains ever so popular and relevant today — especially among ministers.

Discipleship, as I understand it, simply means learning to live our lives as Jesus lives his life.  This is who followers of Jesus Christ are.  While that seems simple to understand, it is a difficult challenge to live into.  Part of this challenge involves learn to believe about God and life as Jesus believed and embrace the same values Jesus embraced.  This is one area where preaching and teaching is resourceful.  However, even though cognitive teaching is important to our development as disciples, we also learn through hands on practice.  Thus learning to live as a disciple is like learning to become an electrician or pilot which involves both instruction and practice as a learning-apprentice.

Our call to live as a follower of Jesus and develop followers of Jesus is great but it’s impossible apart from grace.  Following Jesus always begins with the invitation of Jesus, “follow me,” and is therefore an offer of grace.  However, the offer of grace does not end there.  Beginning with the coming of Jesus to his eventual dying on the cross for our sins to the sending of the Spirit who is our Advocate through whom we are sanctified and to the eventual second coming of Jesus, we are recipients of grace.

So discipleship must always be bathed in and pursued within a deep understanding of grace.  While grace without discipleship becomes cheap grace, discipleship without grace becomes lends itself to legalism.  Discipleship apart from grace is just as much of a distortion of God’s will as grace without discipleship.  So as a church, we must always attune our eyes and ears towards both the grace of God in Christ as well as the call of God to live as disciples of Christ.

This is where we must remember that we don’t become disciples of Jesus to earn God’s approval and acceptance.  Rather, we become disciples so that we can live the life God desires to bless us with as our Creator and Redeemer.  When from the deep well of God’s grace we live as followers of Jesus, we are on our way to becoming a church that is both an attractive and committed community of Jesus followers.

——————–

* This is a slightly modified version of an article of the same title that I wrote and was published in Connecting 28 (March 6, 2013), a biweekly publication of the Columbia Church of Christ.

→ 3 Comments

Posted in Churches of Christ, Columbia Church of Christ, Faith, Kingdom of God, Missions and Ministry, Redemption, Theology

Because One Day Could Be Today!

Posted on February 28, 2013 | 2 Comments

I love this song…

Could one day be today?

“And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” – Colossians 2:15

I guess it depends what we believe.  But if we believe that Jesus, crucified and resurrected, has defeated the powers that stand against us then we are free to be the church Jesus has called us to be.  And then one day becomes today, the future breaking into the present.

One day…Today!

→ 2 Comments

Posted in Hope, Kingdom of God, Redemption, Scripture

What Is the Mission?

Posted on February 5, 2013 | 2 Comments

What is the mission of Jesus’ church?

I’ve heard it said several times that the church doesn’t have a mission, rather God has the church for his mission.  I agree which means that  another way of asking the above question is to ask what is the mission of God?  But for practical purposes if the church is to participate in the mission of God, it likely needs to understand it in terms of what the mission of the church is.  Further more, if local churches are to embrace locally contextualized mission that journeys with God in his mission then it seems necessary to understand what the mission of Jesus’ church is.

Here’s the problem.  In my experience, a lot of Christians have trouble articulating a clear and concise understanding of what they believe the mission of Jesus’ church is.  Various responses to the question that I hear offered include  seeking and saving the lost, making disciples, serving others, loving God and neighbor, doing acts of mercy and justice, doing good works, and so on.  None of these responses is wrong and to be sure, we could cite a number of particular passages from scripture to support each answer.  The problem is that neither answer is comprehensive by itself.  In fact, I believe the mission of God or the mission the church is called to participate in involves all of these activities and a few more.

God Restoring Creation

My understanding of the mission of God that God is restoring his creation to be what God created it to be from the very beginning.  Within that restorative mission, God is redeeming people in Christ to share in his life and journey with him in mission by the power of the Spirit as followers of Jesus Christ until this restoration goal (telos) is fully realized in the second-coming of Christ.  That mission calls us to the tasks of evangelism, disciple-making, serving others and doing good works of mercy and justice, live holy and righteous lives, etc…

But I’m still not sure if this helps us understand what this life looks.  To be sure, the mission we journey with God on is a life that we are called to live.  So, what does this missional life look like?  Rather than describing my own understanding of what the missional life we live with God looks like, it would be better served if we all could describe it in our own words and if we can, then we our well on our way to understanding this mission we are called to involves.

So to help us, let me share a tweet from a friend and colleague of mine that I believe gets us somewhere:  Jeremy Hoover, who preachers and ministers with the Otisville Church of Christ, tweeted:

“Read the Bible, compile a picture of the world to come, and then go forth to fashion foretastes of that world…”

Think about that.  Are we able to compile a picture of what the world will be like fully restored (new heaven and new earth)?  If so, then we begin living as a snapshot of this restored life, inviting others to join us as sojourners following Jesus towards the fulfillment of that restored world.  That’s our mission, the mission of Jesus’ church!

Does that make sense?

→ 2 Comments

Posted in Justice and Mercy, Kingdom of God, Missions and Ministry, Redemption, Theology

Do You Believe?

Posted on January 15, 2013 | 3 Comments

Do you believe?  I do.  Or at least I am trying to.

I nearly lost my faith almost ten years ago and I have been rediscovering what it means to believe in Jesus since then.  Back then before I nearly lost my faith, I had been a follower of Jesus for about five years.  I was finishing my undergraduate degree in Bible and I had been to Brazil twice.  I was sure God was calling me to live as a foreign missionary and prayed what I believe was a dangerous prayer.  My prayer was the surrendering of myself to Jesus and asking God to make me who he wants me to be and lead me where he wants me to go.

Then my first son died in 2002.  A year later my younger brother died.  And along with their deaths, my faith appeared to have died as well…or so it seemed.  It wasn’t that I intellectually stopped believing in God, I just couldn’t reconcile what had happened with the mighty and powerful God I believed in.  So my faith seemed torn to pieces…pieces I wasn’t sure could be repaired at the time.

As I said, intellectually I never stopped believing.  Although there is a mighty wide gulf between intellectual belief and living faith.  Nevertheless, the basic story of the gospel still offered a better alternative than a story in which their is no resurrection, no hope for new life, no salvation from the sin and darkness of this life…including my own life.  Eventually God spoke into my life in a way that allowed a new faith to begin emerging (you can read about that moment here).  Looking back, I can see that even in my darkest hour that God was there with me suffering and hoping.

♱ Believe ♱ Follow ♱

Since that time God has been restoring my faith.  I have had my moments where I have raised my objections to God but…  By the grace of God, I want to believe and I do.  I believe in God the Father, Son, and Spirit.  I believe as the Apostle’s Creed professes.  I believe Jesus and want to follow him, living in the power of the Holy Spirit that Jesus promised for all believers.   I want to live as a sold out living witness to Jesus and his kingdom, living as he teaches — loving God, loving my neighbors, and even loving my enemies — knowing that I have eternal life in him and have nothing to fear…not even death.  I want to live as a believer and follower of my Lord, Jesus Christ!

I hope you do too.  It’s not easy.  It never has been and never will be.  But together we are part of a movement that has lived on since Jesus called his first disciples to follow him.  So let’s live a courageous and risky life as living witnesses of Jesus, with a reckless abandonment that’s fueled by the power of the Holy Spirit for God’s glory and mission.  Let’s be the church Jesus called us to be, passionate and faithful followers gathered together in communities across this world who are attractive enough to invite others into our way of life and faithful enough to challenge them to follow in our way of life…the way of Jesus Christ.  Let’s join God in his creative-redemptive work of restoring life, living as that the everlasting kingdom of God!

Do you believe?

→ 3 Comments

Posted in Faith, Kingdom of God, Missions and Ministry, Redemption, Scripture

When The Unbelieving Christian Is Me…

Posted on January 9, 2013 | 2 Comments

Yesterday I blogged about unbelieving Christians who on the surface appear as believers but when the layers of make-up are uncovered…  Read that blog if you want to understand more of what I mean by unbelieving Christians.  I ended that blog with these words:

Sometimes the most unbelieving people we will ever meet are Christians.  So let us pray that we never meet such an unbelievers in our mirrors.

So in the comments, which were good as always, Steven Gains asked about what Christians should do if they find an unbeliever in the mirror?

That is a great question that I’ve thought about all day.  Since the unbeliever I have in mind is not the one who literally disbelieves in the existence of God, the resurrection of Christ, etc…  I am thinking of the Christian who is steeped in dead religion, who is uninterested in following Jesus when it calls for him or her to abandon their comfortable life as it is and go where only those with a living faith are willing to go.  And if we are honest, we all have probably been here at one point or another during our Christian life.  I know I sure have.

So what should be done when we realize that we are that unbeliever with that dead religion?

To begin with, I think if we come to this realization then we have already overcome a huge obstacle.  This is to find ourselves convicted by the Holy Spirit and having awakened in us the need for repentance.  Many stubbornly spurn this work of the Spirit, so we should be thankful that God has been able to penetrate our hearts.  But the conviction of the Holy Spirit demands of repentance of us, which we all know means change.

“Prayer comes from a place of honesty not religiosity.”

So what sort of change?

I listened to Eric Metaxas’ speech at the 2012 National Day of Prayer earlier today (you can view that speech here).  Metaxas is the author of a biographies on both William Wilberforce and Dietrich Bonhoeffer and so his speech had to do with these two men and the living faith the exemplified in contrast to the dead religion other believers often carry on.  During his speech he made this astounding statement about prayer: “Prayer comes from a place of honesty not religiosity.”

Exactly.  The change (repentance) we need to make begins with honest prayer!

For example, consider Psalm 51.  It was the brutally honest prayer of confession and petition offered by David after he was convicted about his sin that involved his affair with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband Uriah.  For example, consider v. 10-12:

Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

Such words, when they become the honest confession and petition of our own heart, could easily be the prayer of deliverance from dead religion just as it is from the haunting guilt of sin for others.

When honest prayer for God to open our eyes and be our true Shepherd becomes our prayer, I am confident that God will restore in us a living faith.  That is where we will crave both an ever deepening relationship with our Triune God who is Father, Son, and Spirit and a relationship with that community whom God dwells within.  As that relationship grows, so will our willingness to follow Jesus into the risky adventure we know as the mission of God.

→ 2 Comments

Posted in Faith, Redemption, Scripture, Theology

Violence: The Christian Response

Posted on January 3, 2013 | 15 Comments

Even though the year 2013 has already began, the tragic school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut is still fresh.  Now many people, including myself, have opined to one degree or another on how to curb the violence.  While I am not for the wholesale ban on gun ownership in America, I have already spoken out in a blog for better regulations on gun ownership and restrictions on assault weapons.  I also want to go on record and say based on my understanding of Romans 13:1-5 that I believe the government has God-ordained authority to employ armed security/police forces in public places, including schools, as a means of protection and crime prevention.

Having said all of that, I believe we are still missing the bigger issue.  I maintain that the problem of violence is “neither a lack of gun-control nor a lack of well-armed citizens” (see this blog).  Rather, the problem of violence is a spiritual issue that lies deep within our hearts and it’s a problem that we as a whole society own.

However, I want to push harder on this to and say that the problem of violence is exasperated because we live in a culture of violence.  That is, I sadly surmise, violence has become part of the American cultural ethos and for the most part, the cultural ethos of American Christianity too!  It’s not just the violent crimes that take place (and thankfully are on the decline), violence is part of the daily rhetoric and entertainment.  Even in the political process, militaristic violence is so easily championed as an expedient that we can hardly envision a way of life without violence.  And when we appeal to common sense or conventional wisdom as the rationale for such violence, it only seems to suggest that we have subconsciously convinced ourselves that violence is natural to creation rather than a departure from God’s creative-redemptive intent.

America needs the church to be what the church alone can be!

So when it comes to a response to the problem of violence, the loudest voice is that which calls for more arms.  In fact, from where I sit this voice has great support from many Christians, something I regard as gospel failure.  The American society already has enough voices advocating for more arms, so the last thing society needs is the voice of the church lending support to this cause.  Though likely not so welcomed, what America needs from the church is for the church to be what the church alone is called to be and that is to be the voice of the gospel that exemplifies forgiveness, love, peace-making, and reconciliation.  This is for the church to do what it is admonished to do in scripture and put off the old, putting on the new self instead, including a new mindset, and speak truthfully as one body (cf. Eph 4:22-25).

Back on October 2, 2006, Americans, myself included, were horrified to learn that a gunman entered an Amish school near the city of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, killing five children before killing himself.  However, in this case, the Amish Christians responded by speaking as all Christians should in the wake of such mayhem.  That is, rather than advocating for a violent resolution, they advocated with the voice of gospel-wisdom.  Ironically, this garnered a sentimental response from many Americans (and a book about the story titled Amish Grace).  But what if the Amish response was the normative response of all Christians?

What if the overwhelming response of Christians to tragedies like Newtown, Aurora, Fort Hood, Columbine, etc… was to be a voice promoting forgiveness, love, peace, and reconciliation, leaving the rest of Americans to be the advocates of violence if they so choose?  Too many Christians seem too eager to dismiss such a forgiving, loving, peace-making, reconciling response as impractical but has such a response ever really given such a chance?  More importantly, does the church have the faith to patiently wait for God too work in such a response?  The church does still believe that God works through the message of the cross, despite how foolish or offensive it may be to the society at large?

Like I’ve said earlier, I am not opposed to the state exercising its right to place armed security in schools and other public places.  But what if society heard from Christians — in conversations, Facebook chats, etc… — the same response the Amish offered to a mass shooting? How might that begin to change society’s ethos of violence?  How many potential future mass shooters might that disarm?  After all, there is more than one way to stop bad people with guns and it’s called the way of Jesus, the gospel way, the way of forgiving, loving, peace-making, and reconciling!  How many mad gunmen will it stop is something we will never know unless and until such a response is given a chance.  But then again, to give that a chance requires the church, from the recesses of deep faith, to echo the voice of truth rather than the voice of American culture.

→ 15 Comments

Posted in Contemporary Culture, Faith, Kingdom of God, Redemption, Scripture