Our brokenness and unwillingness to forgive ourselves and forgive others is one of the greatest hindrances to intimacy.
For many of us, the biggest barrier between us and other people is undealt with anger, bitterness, and grudges. We are often either unwilling or unable to forgive someone who has wronged us. We read passages like Matthew 18:21-22 and wonder how we could ever do this.
Then Peter came up and said to him, "Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?" Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.
I think that the parable Jesus tells during this conversation with Peter gives us a glimpse of what Jesus has in mind…
"Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, 'Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.' And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, 'Pay what you owe.' So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, 'Have patience with me, and I will pay you.' He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. Then his master summoned him and said to him, 'You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?' And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart." (Matthew 18:23-35)
While I believe that Jesus is talking primarily about the religious leaders of his day who were very judgmental towards others, I also believe there is a lesson in this parable for you and me.
As long as we refuse to forgive those who wrong us, we will find it impossible to truly receive God’s forgiveness. While we are offered something we cannot possibly purchase, we must be willing to receive and share the reconciliation that God offers us.
shine!
Jason
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Thursday, March 25, 2010
A Titanic misunderstanding
A renewed doctrine of salvation fundamentally alters the way we view mission. Instead of seeking to help people board the life-raft (church) on the sinking Titanic (the world), we are called to work with God in saving the whole ship. The "Titanic" theology that assumes we are simply trying to save souls misses the boat (pun intended). We cannot desert the ship.
The mission of the church is to renew the world with God, knowing that one day God will make all things new. In the meantime, the church works as an extension of God to bring renewal now. We live in the already/not yet tension of God's inbreaking future and save the people, not from the world, but for the renewal of the world.
N.T. Wright is right when he says, "the way forward is to rediscover a true eschatology." (Surprised by Hope, 264) If we want to move towards God's future, we must understand where that future is heading. If our understanding of the eschaton is destruction and desertion of the world, we will marginalize the world. If, instead, the eschaton is renewal and redemption of the world, we will engage the world and join what God is already starting to do here. This is a fundamentally different approach to the mission of the church and, ultimately and essentially, the mission of God.
shine!
Jason
The mission of the church is to renew the world with God, knowing that one day God will make all things new. In the meantime, the church works as an extension of God to bring renewal now. We live in the already/not yet tension of God's inbreaking future and save the people, not from the world, but for the renewal of the world.
N.T. Wright is right when he says, "the way forward is to rediscover a true eschatology." (Surprised by Hope, 264) If we want to move towards God's future, we must understand where that future is heading. If our understanding of the eschaton is destruction and desertion of the world, we will marginalize the world. If, instead, the eschaton is renewal and redemption of the world, we will engage the world and join what God is already starting to do here. This is a fundamentally different approach to the mission of the church and, ultimately and essentially, the mission of God.
shine!
Jason
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Drive
This weekend at Illuminate our theme has been “Drive.” Since I am writing this in advance of the weekend, I am leaning on the Spirit’s leading to mesh this with David’s lessons. I know that the key passage he will be using (used) this weekend is 2 Corinthians 2:14-15…
For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
If we are compelled by Christ’s love, that means we are driven by something working in us and among us. We shouldn’t wait for a youth minister, preacher, or someone else to push us. We should be led by the Spirit of God. As Paul says in Romans 8:9-11, You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
This means our focus as Christians is not to do what is right. Rather, we are called to pursue the One who is righteous. When we focus on works, we miss the point. That would be like pushing your car. When we are filled and led by the Spirit, it’s like having a tank full of gas and using the accelerator. While not a perfect analogy, I hope it makes the point.
If our Christianity is about trying to do the right things without the righteousness of God living in us through the Spirit, it feels like pushing a car without gas. When we allow God’s Spirit to dwell in us, connecting with and pursing God’s will can be much easier.
That doesn’t mean things will be easier, it means that following God will be easier in the sense that it will be more clear. Just like driving a car through mud can still be difficult, pushing a car through mud is virtually impossible. So it is with us and the Spirit of God.
At the same time, we cannot forget that there is an essential communal nature of God’s work. God’s greatest power and work come when we live as the body of Christ. God himself works in community as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Can we expect – as human beings created in the image of God – to function any differently?
This means that to be compelled, driven, by Christ’s love we must embody that love towards God, other Christians, and every other human being we encounter. Without the love of Christ in us, through us, and among us, we will find it difficult to allow that love to drive us.
shine!
Jason
For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
If we are compelled by Christ’s love, that means we are driven by something working in us and among us. We shouldn’t wait for a youth minister, preacher, or someone else to push us. We should be led by the Spirit of God. As Paul says in Romans 8:9-11, You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
This means our focus as Christians is not to do what is right. Rather, we are called to pursue the One who is righteous. When we focus on works, we miss the point. That would be like pushing your car. When we are filled and led by the Spirit, it’s like having a tank full of gas and using the accelerator. While not a perfect analogy, I hope it makes the point.
If our Christianity is about trying to do the right things without the righteousness of God living in us through the Spirit, it feels like pushing a car without gas. When we allow God’s Spirit to dwell in us, connecting with and pursing God’s will can be much easier.
That doesn’t mean things will be easier, it means that following God will be easier in the sense that it will be more clear. Just like driving a car through mud can still be difficult, pushing a car through mud is virtually impossible. So it is with us and the Spirit of God.
At the same time, we cannot forget that there is an essential communal nature of God’s work. God’s greatest power and work come when we live as the body of Christ. God himself works in community as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Can we expect – as human beings created in the image of God – to function any differently?
This means that to be compelled, driven, by Christ’s love we must embody that love towards God, other Christians, and every other human being we encounter. Without the love of Christ in us, through us, and among us, we will find it difficult to allow that love to drive us.
shine!
Jason
Monday, March 15, 2010
Knowing God
When it comes to God, do we have the right concept of knowledge? Peter Rollins writes, "We note that the term 'knowing' in the Hebrew tradition (in contrast to the Greek tradition) is about engaging in an intimate encounter rather than describing some objective fact."
One analogy that comes to mind for me is the idea of knowing a cat. (If you're not a cat person, work with me on this one.)
I can think of at least two different ways of knowing a cat. One is the kind of knowing that happens in a biology lab. We cut the dead cat open and examine its organs. We see how it works as an organism. The other way of knowing a cat is for it to sit on your lap. You pet it, it purrs, etc.
While much of modern theology has leaned more towards the biology lab concept of knowing God, I believe that knowing God looks much more like the cat sitting on your lap. There is a relationship and interaction between God and us. The focus should not be primarily on the “organs and anatomy” as much as it should be on the interplay between beings.
This also changes how we approach the Bible. If the Bible is a document that intends to point beyond itself to the One who, according Anslem, is conceived of as inconceivable, then we will not be able to conceive - in any one context - all that God is seeking to communicate. Rather, from our vantage point, and based on our unique situation, we will interact with God through his word.
The Hebrew author writes, "For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” (Hebrews 4:12-13)
Notice the transition in this passage. The word of God is living and active. But the word of God is not the ultimate subject of these verses. The word of God is a method that God uses to penetrate our soul and spirit. Ultimately, it is our relationship with God that is the topic of conversation.
Our study of God’s word is not a study to learn about God. Rather, it is part of a journey towards learning God. We are investing in a relationship with our Creator. We are entering into a covenant with the One who made us and knows us. This should fundamentally change the way we approach the Bible, and ultimately, God himself.
When you open a Bible, you are not entering into a primarily academic endeavor. Rather, you are committing yourself to be impacted, shaped, and changed by the words you read. In the grand scheme of life, it doesn’t matter how much you know about God if you’re not engaging in an intimate encounter with the One whom the words point us towards.
shine!
Jason
One analogy that comes to mind for me is the idea of knowing a cat. (If you're not a cat person, work with me on this one.)
I can think of at least two different ways of knowing a cat. One is the kind of knowing that happens in a biology lab. We cut the dead cat open and examine its organs. We see how it works as an organism. The other way of knowing a cat is for it to sit on your lap. You pet it, it purrs, etc.
While much of modern theology has leaned more towards the biology lab concept of knowing God, I believe that knowing God looks much more like the cat sitting on your lap. There is a relationship and interaction between God and us. The focus should not be primarily on the “organs and anatomy” as much as it should be on the interplay between beings.
This also changes how we approach the Bible. If the Bible is a document that intends to point beyond itself to the One who, according Anslem, is conceived of as inconceivable, then we will not be able to conceive - in any one context - all that God is seeking to communicate. Rather, from our vantage point, and based on our unique situation, we will interact with God through his word.
The Hebrew author writes, "For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” (Hebrews 4:12-13)
Notice the transition in this passage. The word of God is living and active. But the word of God is not the ultimate subject of these verses. The word of God is a method that God uses to penetrate our soul and spirit. Ultimately, it is our relationship with God that is the topic of conversation.
Our study of God’s word is not a study to learn about God. Rather, it is part of a journey towards learning God. We are investing in a relationship with our Creator. We are entering into a covenant with the One who made us and knows us. This should fundamentally change the way we approach the Bible, and ultimately, God himself.
When you open a Bible, you are not entering into a primarily academic endeavor. Rather, you are committing yourself to be impacted, shaped, and changed by the words you read. In the grand scheme of life, it doesn’t matter how much you know about God if you’re not engaging in an intimate encounter with the One whom the words point us towards.
shine!
Jason
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Creation and missional theology
The Creation Narrative
In Genesis chapters one and two, we find God creating the world as he intended it to be. As we listen to the Creation story in chapter one, we can begin to feel the beating of God’s heart through the rhythm of the days of creation. “And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.”(1) Here we can already sense that God is up to something more than just making a world. He is speaking an entire world into existence that echoes the movement, nature, and character of the One who creates it. At the end of the sixth day of Creation, we read, “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.”(2)
In the second chapter of Genesis, the camera changes angles and zooms in for a different view of day six, and we see a more intimate description of the creation of human beings. It is here that we are introduced to Adam and Eve and Eden’s garden. We hear for the first time about the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We read of a beautiful garden where God and humans dwell together.
We also discover an integral part of our nature as beings created in the image of God. As God considers Adam, who was created to work and keep the garden of Eden, he says “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”(3) Eve, the ideal helper, comes from within Adam. It is though the creation of the woman, who completes man through relationship, that Creation reaches its climax. Things are as God intends them to be in the world.
Making All Things New
Starting in chapter three of Genesis, sin enters the picture. When we view it in the context of the Creation narrative, we can gain a more clear understanding of sin. While many people seem to believe that sin is a list of limitations God has placed on man, sin viewed through the lens of Creation takes on a different meaning. It is not primarily a violation of some arbitrary law, although the first sin did go against God’s advice to Adam and Eve. Rather, sin revealed fracture in the relationship between Creator and creation. By rejecting the relationship with God, Adam and Eve damaged not just their relationship with God, but also the relationship of God with all of creation. In Romans, Paul reiterates this when he writes:
God’s dream for the world has been damaged by the broken relationship between humans and God. As a result, the curse, which is more consequence than punishment, reveals a world that must now deal with the implications of sin.
However, God’s dream is not forgotten or completely destroyed. Instead, through the incarnation of Jesus Christ, God enters the world and lives as a true human.(5) As Andrew Root says, “If our humanity is to be transformed, we need a fully human God. We need a God who bears our reality and takes it fully into Godself.”(6)
Through Jesus Christ, there is a significant turn in God’s plan for the renewal and restoration of creation. Paul hints at the import of the Christ event when he writes, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed; behold, the new has come.”(7) This is a glimpse of God’s final plan for creation. It is in John’s Revelation that we read the final realization of God’s dream:
Engaging God’s Creative Imagination
So what are the implications for the missional church? We revisit Paul and his words of encouragement and challenge to the Corinthian church. He reminds them, and us, that our task as the body of Christ is to carry on the work of Jesus Christ: “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation…Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us.”(9)
Missional theology embraces this idea of engaging in God’s continued work of reconciliation through the renewal and redemption of creation. We are called to partner with God, seeking to restore creation as all things move towards the eschaton. Scot McKnight supports this view of the role of humanity when he writes, “As the Bible moves forward into the New Testament, though, ‘Eikon’ morphs; it shifts from denoting a ruling-representative function to a redemptive role.”(10) Our purpose moves from the original role as seen in the first couple of chapters of Genesis to the one envisioned throughout the New Testament writings.
This re-imagined role causes our function to have an already/not yet nature. When we acknowledge that we are not escaping the world, but seeking to work with God to restore it, we must revisit what salvation and hope really mean in the Kingdom of God. Since our ultimate hope is not to leave this world, but to see it’s potential fully realized(11), we join with God today as his preferred future breaks into the present through the work of the Holy Spirit.
This requires us to take a fresh look at what it means to be a part of God’s Kingdom. We are not saved solely for the benefit of some future reward. Rather, we are called to actively engage in God’s future today by determining what God is already doing in the world and joining him in those efforts. Church is not a place to wait for God’s future salvation; it is a place where God’s salvation is revealed now in anticipation of the total fulfillment that awaits us in the eschaton.
God’s heartbeat is embedded in Creation. We witnessed it in the opening lines of Scripture and it continues today. Human beings, and this creation, are separated from the tree of life since sin continues to fracture our relationship with God. In the end, we will once again stand in the presence of this tree and the One who created it. Until then, the missional church must continue to pursue the inbreaking of God’s dream for the future in the midst of this broken world.
Notes
(1) In Genesis 1:3, we see the first of six repetitions of God’s rhythm in the Genesis 1 creation narrative. This phrase appears five additional times in Genesis 1:8,13,19,23,31. (ESV)
(2) Genesis 1:31 (ESV)
(3) Genesis 2:18
(4) Romans 8:20-22
(5) I owe much of my understanding of God as true human to Andrew Root through the ideas presented in his book, Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry: From a Strategy of Influence to a Theology of Incarnation. In this work, Root examines Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s theology as a framework to explain the significance of the incarnation.
(6) Andrew Root, Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry: From a Strategy of Influence to a Theology of Incarnation (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2007), 91.
(7) 2 Corinthians 5:17
(8) Revelation 21:5a; 22:1-2
(9) 2 Corinthians 5:18,20a
(10) Scot McKinght, A Community Called Atonement (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2007), 19.
(11) In Romans 8:23 and 1 Corinthians 15:35-49, Paul advocates a bodily resurrection for all humans in the eschaton. The redemption of our bodies (Romans 8:23) is the hope in which we live. It is in this hope that all creation will find its rescue and rest from the bondage and destruction of sin.
In Genesis chapters one and two, we find God creating the world as he intended it to be. As we listen to the Creation story in chapter one, we can begin to feel the beating of God’s heart through the rhythm of the days of creation. “And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.”(1) Here we can already sense that God is up to something more than just making a world. He is speaking an entire world into existence that echoes the movement, nature, and character of the One who creates it. At the end of the sixth day of Creation, we read, “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.”(2)
In the second chapter of Genesis, the camera changes angles and zooms in for a different view of day six, and we see a more intimate description of the creation of human beings. It is here that we are introduced to Adam and Eve and Eden’s garden. We hear for the first time about the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We read of a beautiful garden where God and humans dwell together.
We also discover an integral part of our nature as beings created in the image of God. As God considers Adam, who was created to work and keep the garden of Eden, he says “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”(3) Eve, the ideal helper, comes from within Adam. It is though the creation of the woman, who completes man through relationship, that Creation reaches its climax. Things are as God intends them to be in the world.
Making All Things New
Starting in chapter three of Genesis, sin enters the picture. When we view it in the context of the Creation narrative, we can gain a more clear understanding of sin. While many people seem to believe that sin is a list of limitations God has placed on man, sin viewed through the lens of Creation takes on a different meaning. It is not primarily a violation of some arbitrary law, although the first sin did go against God’s advice to Adam and Eve. Rather, sin revealed fracture in the relationship between Creator and creation. By rejecting the relationship with God, Adam and Eve damaged not just their relationship with God, but also the relationship of God with all of creation. In Romans, Paul reiterates this when he writes:
For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.(4)
God’s dream for the world has been damaged by the broken relationship between humans and God. As a result, the curse, which is more consequence than punishment, reveals a world that must now deal with the implications of sin.
However, God’s dream is not forgotten or completely destroyed. Instead, through the incarnation of Jesus Christ, God enters the world and lives as a true human.(5) As Andrew Root says, “If our humanity is to be transformed, we need a fully human God. We need a God who bears our reality and takes it fully into Godself.”(6)
Through Jesus Christ, there is a significant turn in God’s plan for the renewal and restoration of creation. Paul hints at the import of the Christ event when he writes, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed; behold, the new has come.”(7) This is a glimpse of God’s final plan for creation. It is in John’s Revelation that we read the final realization of God’s dream:
And he who is seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new…Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the trees were for the healing of the nations.(8) (Emphasis mine)
Engaging God’s Creative Imagination
So what are the implications for the missional church? We revisit Paul and his words of encouragement and challenge to the Corinthian church. He reminds them, and us, that our task as the body of Christ is to carry on the work of Jesus Christ: “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation…Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us.”(9)
Missional theology embraces this idea of engaging in God’s continued work of reconciliation through the renewal and redemption of creation. We are called to partner with God, seeking to restore creation as all things move towards the eschaton. Scot McKnight supports this view of the role of humanity when he writes, “As the Bible moves forward into the New Testament, though, ‘Eikon’ morphs; it shifts from denoting a ruling-representative function to a redemptive role.”(10) Our purpose moves from the original role as seen in the first couple of chapters of Genesis to the one envisioned throughout the New Testament writings.
This re-imagined role causes our function to have an already/not yet nature. When we acknowledge that we are not escaping the world, but seeking to work with God to restore it, we must revisit what salvation and hope really mean in the Kingdom of God. Since our ultimate hope is not to leave this world, but to see it’s potential fully realized(11), we join with God today as his preferred future breaks into the present through the work of the Holy Spirit.
This requires us to take a fresh look at what it means to be a part of God’s Kingdom. We are not saved solely for the benefit of some future reward. Rather, we are called to actively engage in God’s future today by determining what God is already doing in the world and joining him in those efforts. Church is not a place to wait for God’s future salvation; it is a place where God’s salvation is revealed now in anticipation of the total fulfillment that awaits us in the eschaton.
God’s heartbeat is embedded in Creation. We witnessed it in the opening lines of Scripture and it continues today. Human beings, and this creation, are separated from the tree of life since sin continues to fracture our relationship with God. In the end, we will once again stand in the presence of this tree and the One who created it. Until then, the missional church must continue to pursue the inbreaking of God’s dream for the future in the midst of this broken world.
Notes
(1) In Genesis 1:3, we see the first of six repetitions of God’s rhythm in the Genesis 1 creation narrative. This phrase appears five additional times in Genesis 1:8,13,19,23,31. (ESV)
(2) Genesis 1:31 (ESV)
(3) Genesis 2:18
(4) Romans 8:20-22
(5) I owe much of my understanding of God as true human to Andrew Root through the ideas presented in his book, Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry: From a Strategy of Influence to a Theology of Incarnation. In this work, Root examines Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s theology as a framework to explain the significance of the incarnation.
(6) Andrew Root, Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry: From a Strategy of Influence to a Theology of Incarnation (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2007), 91.
(7) 2 Corinthians 5:17
(8) Revelation 21:5a; 22:1-2
(9) 2 Corinthians 5:18,20a
(10) Scot McKinght, A Community Called Atonement (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2007), 19.
(11) In Romans 8:23 and 1 Corinthians 15:35-49, Paul advocates a bodily resurrection for all humans in the eschaton. The redemption of our bodies (Romans 8:23) is the hope in which we live. It is in this hope that all creation will find its rescue and rest from the bondage and destruction of sin.
Sunday, March 07, 2010
The mind of Christ
In the last two weeks I have been to Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas, and Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota. As I reflect on both experiences, I have been reminded that God is at work in the world, and in me.
I want to share a Scripture from Paul’s letter to the Philippians that the students at Harding reflected on throughout our weekend together:
So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:1-11)
As I consider Paul’s words, I am reminded of something very important. Having the same mind doesn’t mean we agree on everything. Rather, it means that we share the attitude and spirit of Christ. We are called to be servants who serve others. We are called to be humble, even to the point of death.
Imagine how different our churches would be if we could have that kind of mind. What if we lived in a world where Christians really lived out the meaning of their name as followers of Christ?
When we make our faith primarily about embracing a list of beliefs, we miss something significant. The Kingdom of God is not about what we believe; it’s about what we embody. It is about the kind of life we live. This is why Jesus says, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:37-40)
When Christianity becomes something that consumes every part of who we are, we can truly begin to experience the world as God imagines it.
shine!
Jason
I want to share a Scripture from Paul’s letter to the Philippians that the students at Harding reflected on throughout our weekend together:
So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:1-11)
As I consider Paul’s words, I am reminded of something very important. Having the same mind doesn’t mean we agree on everything. Rather, it means that we share the attitude and spirit of Christ. We are called to be servants who serve others. We are called to be humble, even to the point of death.
Imagine how different our churches would be if we could have that kind of mind. What if we lived in a world where Christians really lived out the meaning of their name as followers of Christ?
When we make our faith primarily about embracing a list of beliefs, we miss something significant. The Kingdom of God is not about what we believe; it’s about what we embody. It is about the kind of life we live. This is why Jesus says, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:37-40)
When Christianity becomes something that consumes every part of who we are, we can truly begin to experience the world as God imagines it.
shine!
Jason
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