March 8 is International Women’s Day. Here is an inspiring story of a woman who went from baby refugee to wife, mother, and World Vision staffer.
A Great Example for All of Us
This post, The Forgiveness and Reconciliation Train, is a must read. Any comments I might make would be superfluous. Read the entire post yourself (HT: Alan Knox).
Weekend Wanderings
February has passed. March came in like a lamb here in the sunny South, with a high temperature of 80. We’ll see if March goes out calm or ferocious. Pray for the folks who have lost homes and loved ones in the storms the last couple of days. The devastation in some areas is incredible. Hopefully, this is not a harbinger of things to come.
On to the links:
Eric Carpenter on tension.
This encouraged and challenged me.
Bobby Auner has a story of restoration.
The dance toward God.
Unconquerable.
The wilderness of life under the Law.
Alan Knox on communication.
Grazing on Astroturf.
Ronnie McBrayer says, “Don’t waste it.”
Good question at More Than Cake.
Eat pray love.
Storm at sea.
A nice bit of poetry.
Skye Jethani interviews Rob Bell.
“This is all we can do.”
The wilderness of falsity.
Did you sign up for this?
What are we fired up about?
Have a blessed weekend!
N.T. Wright Interview: “Simply Jesus” & Wright Responds to Critics
Click this link to read the unedited interview: http://frankviola.org/2012/01/23/ntwright
Who is Your Pastor?
Alan Knox points to a post over at More Than Cake, titled, Paparazzi Pastors Leading a Celebrity Church. There is an increasing trend among Christians today to follow what can best be described as “celebrity pastors,” whether those people be in a local church, another city in the same state, on the other side of the country, or halfway around the world. In the post there are listed a number of ways how these folks gain such a following.
It is dangerous when we try to “follow” someone who we don’t know, someone who is not a part of our daily lives. We know nothing about how they are living out what they are preaching, or if they even are living it out at all. The only thing we see is a carefully choreographed performance designed to make the speaker look good. Such performances can be inspiring, but there is very little instruction as to how it shakes out in the day-to-day. There are certainly no examples of how to follow Christ. Those must come from seeing each other in action.
As Alan states, “If you do not know someone – or are not growing to know someone – and if you never see them in a context other than speaking in front of a group of people, then that person is not shepherding (pastoring) you, regardless of what title the person may take for himself or be given by others.”
Who Do You Love?
I heard a couple of things recently that made me think. I know that can be dangerous, and it sometimes gets me in trouble, but I thought anyway. The first was a statement by an individual that he wasn’t indebted to anyone. The second was a Facebook post to the effect that if you want a world where true love is possible, you must allow each person to freely choose who to love. While I can understand the sentiment behind both statements, I believe that they are anti-thetical to the way a follower of Jesus should see things.
The statement about not being in debt to anyone is directly contradicted by Paul’s admonition in Romans 13:8 to owe nothing to anyone except love. Alan Knox has a good post on this here. As those who are loved by the Father and indwelt by his Spirit, we do have one debt. We owe love to our fellow believers, our brothers and sisters.
In Alan’s post, he states that, “I can’t choose who to love.” That leads me to the second statement. As followers of the one who gave his life for us, we have only one choice, to love. Anything else is disobedience to our Master. In John 15, Jesus tells us that his command is to love each other as he has loved us. Since our Savior’s love led him to lay down his life for us, we are to do the same for our brothers and sisters. Doesn’t sound like freely choosing who to love, does it? Jesus also states that the second greatest commandment is to love our neighbor. He then goes on to state that our neighbor is anyone who we come in contact with. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus takes the whole idea of love to the extreme when he tells us to even love our enemies! Sounds to me like he leaves us with no choice. In John 13:35, Jesus says that the world will know that we belong to him because of our love.
There is entirely too much pain and suffering in this world, much of it caused by a lack of love. Unfortunately, this is also true among those who claim to follow the King who founded his kingdom on sacrificial love. Those who are not followers of Jesus know that we are supposed to be different. Many of them also know that the main thing that is supposed to distinguish us is love. Is it any wonder they look at the church and feel that we have nothing to offer them?
Brothers and sisters, we have a debt. It is to love. We have no choice. We are to love everyone who crosses our path. Anything else is blatant disobedience to our Lord and Master.
Weekend Wanderings
It’s been quite the roller coaster this week here in the sunny South. Sunday brought us cold temps and rain. By Thursday, it was in the 70s and sunny. This morning, it’s 35 on our back porch. It’s been up and down for me as well. After a restful long weekend, I spent two days at home with some kind of nasty stomach virus or something. Yesterday, I went back to work, and now it’s the weekend again. Enough about me. I know why you’re really here.
Here are the links of the week:
Let go of your baggage.
Mark Galli on Lent (HT: iMonk).
Ben Sternke on the cost of non-discipleship (HT: Scot McKnight).
Aspiring to be a nobody.
How God views your local church.
Feast.
Eric Carpenter writes about what he’s for. I am for that as well.
Brant kills things.
Bobby Auner’s exodus from church camp.
Arthur Sido on the attraction of cultural Christianity.
Patience and progress.
Circle or cross?
Interesting idea for Lent.
Come and die.
Follow your fears.
Does this seem familiar?
Fr. Richard Rohr on Lent.
Membership is no substitute.
Resurrection spirituality.
This is very encouraging to me.
Holy ignorance.
Have a restful weekend!
World Vision Wednesday
There has been a new twist in the ethnic violence in South Sudan. Up till now, women and children have been spared from attack. The situation has deteriorated, as children are now being targeted. Read more about this tragedy here.
Trust
This is something that I’m constantly having to be reminded of:
“Above all, trust in the slow work of God. We are, quite naturally, impatient in everything to reach the end without delay. We should like to skip the intermediate stages, we are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new. And yet, it is the law of all progress that it is made by passing through some stages of instability . . . and that it may take a very long time.”
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
The Making of a Mind: Letters from a Soldier-Priest.
Weekend Wanderings
No new news here from the sunny South, so we’ll get right to the links:
Eric on the Ten Commandments.
Life as an avatar.
Rush of love.
A parable.
Smoke and mirrors.
Resilience.The business of religion.
The end of football?
Free to be ourselves.
They don’t know you.
The R-word.
Good question from Keith Giles.
Ronnie McBrayer on Barbie.
Charles Redfern on the “New Evangelicals” and politics.
The end of church?
The Story and daily life.
Good post by Jeff Dunn.
Arthur Sido on conformity.
Alan Knox on what we owe.
iMonk classic on grace.
I hope you have a blessed week!