We run our website the way we wished the whole internet worked: we provide high quality original content with no ads. We are funded solely by your direct support. Please consider supporting this project.
How We Are Defined
Zack Hunt wrote a piece called Abortion, Gay Marriage, Immigration, Gun Control, and the Church over at A Deeper Story. He points out that we have a big problem on our hands when it comes to the ways we have come to be defined by these issues. Christians are primarily defined in our culture for what we’re against. But Jesus was not known in this way. And we are called to follow him. What are you known for?
From Zack’s article:
Ironically, many of us in the church have taken the complete opposite approach to bringing the kingdom of God to earth just as it is in heaven. Instead of going out of our way to incarnate the radical love and grace of God to our neighbors and enemies alike, more often than not we seem to go out of our way to avoid doing just that. Rather than extend grace, we vote it down at every chance we get. Rather than loving our enemies and serving our neighbors, we treat them as subhumans, not worthy of the dignity and respect we demand for ourselves.
Rather than being and doing, we denounce and abstain.
But if the name Christian is going to have any credibility, then we have to actually live our lives like Christ did.
Which means we have to live lives defined by what we’re for and what we actually do.
Category: General
Tags: Church, Kingdom Living, Love Your Neighbor, Politics, Zack Hunt
Related Reading
Political Solutions Won’t Save Us
Image by h.koppdelaney via Flickr Jesus followers must retain a healthy suspicion toward every version of the kingdom of the world. After all, on the authority of God’s Word, we know that however good a particular government may be by world standards, it is nevertheless strongly influenced by fallen principalities and powers. Consequently, no kingdom-of-God citizen…
How Do You Handle Feelings of Being Overwhelmed? (podcast)
Greg talks about being overwhelmed. Episode 500! http://traffic.libsyn.com/askgregboyd/Episode_0500.mp3
A Cross-Like Church
When God’s church loves like God loves—which means valuing the other at cost to self—it will puzzle those outside the church. While such love might cause the religious to rail with outrage, it will cause the searching and the hungry to ask, “how can people love like this?” In God’s plan, this puzzle is what…
A Brief Theology of Faith
It is often argued that Hebrews 11:1 provides us with a clear definition of faith. The NIV translates it as, “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” Most of the times when we use different translations of the Bible, the differences between them are about…
Showing Up
Jonathan Kos-Read via Compfight Shauna Niequist over at Donald Miller’s Storyline blog shared some thoughts on Why You Should Stop Waiting for Life to be Perfect. She points out that sometimes this waiting for perfection gets in the way of noticing the goodness that is already here for you. Show up to your life today, even…
Responding to Critics of a Pacifist View of the Syrian Crisis-Part 2
United Nations Photo via Compfight Yesterday I posted a response to Tyler Tully’s criticism of some of my thoughts on the Syrian crisis. The second blog I’d like to review is Two Friars and a Fool by Aric Clark. Like Tully, Aric approved of much of what I said, but also like Tully, he raised several…