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.

Who is Your Family?

Lifting women out of poverty

Gates Foundation via Compfight

Living in the tension of the already and the not yet is a blog written by Americans living in India who have chosen to live among the poor at their same economic level. They’ve written a post called On Miracles and Justice through Community. It contains a challenge to rethink who our family is. Check it out!

Here’s an excerpt from the post:

The redefinition of family and responsibility for our fellow human beings is at the very heart of the Kingdom Jesus preached. He scandalized his listeners by declaring that his mother and brother and sisters were not merely his biological kin, but included all those who did the will of God. He revolutionized our concept of the “neighbor” whom we are to love as we love ourselves to include not just those who are ethnically, religiously, or geographically close to us but even those who are our enemies. Many people were offended by these teachings because they believed that Jesus was devaluing the relationships between parents and children, or between people of the same nation or religion. Those people didn’t understand him. He was actually telling us that we owe that same level of committed care and compassion to whoever is in need of it, whether they’re biological family or not.

Related Reading

Standing Our Ground Together

  Osheta Moore is someone we’ve featured here before. She’s a lovely, thoughtful, passionate African-American woman of God ministering with her husband T.C. Moore in Boston. Osheta has been featuring a series called Standing Our Ground…In Prayer. In the wake of the tragic and senseless death of Jordan Davis, she struggled to articulate the grief and…

Poverty & Homelessness Part 1: Laura Solberg — How Broken Relationship Contributes to Poverty (podcast)

Dan chats with Laura Solberg about how developing relationship helps heal the sources of poverty. See the public event with Brian Fikkert HERE. Laura’s work can be found here: ThereIsJustUs.com Episode 499 http://traffic.libsyn.com/askgregboyd/Episode_0499.mp3

Jesus Feminist

http://youtu.be/FBYELPZmdL4 Sarah Bessey’s book Jesus Feminist releases today. We’re so excited for her and for anyone who gets to read this book. She is first, and foremost a disciple of Jesus, and her embrace of feminism is inextricably wrapped in her identity as a disciple. Here’s a little snippet of something she’s written that beautifully…

The Church & Racism in America

Elias Schewel via Compfight Over the weekend, tapes were released that revealed some shocking racists statements attributed to the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers. President Obama has commented. Sports analysts have opined. Coaches and players in the NBA are understandably disgusted and overwhelmed by it all. What should the church say at a time like this?…

If you really want to defend the poor from Caesar, shouldn’t we use the political means that exist? It’s easy to make your argument when you are in a position of privilege.

Question: I’ve been reading your blogs for a while. I’ve read multiple texts written by you and it’s difficult to listen much longer as someone in poverty. It’s easy to make your argument when you are in a position of privilege. The Church doesn’t have the power and resources to help the poor everywhere. Christians…

When Good Choices Are Not Enough

J J via Compfight Our friend Rachel Held Evans posted on the CNN Belief Blog in response to a blog on Dave Ramsey’s website entitled The 20 Things Rich People Do Every Day. Rachel points out, rightly, that Dave Ramsey has helped many people get rid of debt and make wise financial changes in their lives. But…