People try to persuade us that the objections against Christianity spring from doubt. That is a complete misunderstanding. The objections against Christianity spring from insubordination, the dislike of obedience, rebellion against all authority. As a result people have hitherto been beating the air in their struggle against objections, because they have fought intellectually with doubt instead of fighting morally with rebellion.
(Source: thehandmaid.wordpress.com, via michaelfunderburk)
I dunno, I think it’s sad to see people define themselves by a theological position. I am who I am in relation to others, in relationship. Not in some neo-greecian paradigm craparoo that seperates precious people. There is no me in a vacuum. I’m not a platonic form.
(Source: ferretical, via apologeticsnstuff)
Community is an outward and visible sign of an inward and invisible grace, the flowing of personal identity and integrity into the world of relationships.
In the mighty and powerful name of Jesus, I commission you, for the work of the Gospel, as a minister of Jesus Christ, to live in your world as an ambassador of the Kingdom. I commission you in the work of healing, and serving, and loving, and reconciliation. You are an emissary of justice, and your work from now on is to put things right, to call those things that are not as they will be. I pray that the God of hope would fill you with peace that passes all understanding. I pray that you will be drawn into community, so rich, so deep, so diverse, that you will disagree and fight and remain in fellowship together anyway. I pray that you will bring casseroles, and prayer, and laughter, and tears, to one another. I pray that you would have your toes stepped on, your feelings hurt, and that you would forgive. I pray that you would be given the gift of realising you were wrong about some things. I pray that you would be quick to seek forgiveness when you are the transgressor. I pray for messy living rooms, for late nights, for dirty dishes littering your counters, and I pray for a faithful handful of friends and family to call when the darkness presses in close to you. I pray that you would be quick to show up at the right time for another person.
(via azspot)
Unless we believe and see Jesus in the appearance of bread on the altar, we will not be able to see him in the distressing disguise of the poor.
(Source: myheartisyearningforyou, via tenthousandangels)
Christianity in its true sense puts an end to the state. It was so understood from its very beginning, and for that Christ was crucified.
(Source: piranhaheart, via happinessweareallinittogether)
God is not on the side of Dutch-speaking people versus those who do not speak Dutch; on that he is even-handed. God is not on the side of football players versus those who do not play football; on that, too, he is even-handed. But the poor are different. It is against his will that there be a society in which some are poor; in his perfected Kingdom, there will be none at all. It is even more against his will that there be a society in which some are poor while others are rich. When that happens, then he is on the side of the poor, for it is they, he says, who are being wronged. He is not on the side of the rich, and he is not even-handed.
(via azspot)
This is what people should mean when they use the words community church…
(Source: icanread)
I would create the universe again just to hear you say that you love Me.
(Source: nonjeneregrette, via happinessweareallinittogether)
If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the solider is proved, and to be steady on all the battlefield besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.
(Source: joshuadylan, via apologeticsnstuff)
(Source: godsfingerprints, via spiritualinspiration)
Happiness is the only good. The place to be happy is here. The time to be happy is now. The way to be happy is to make others so.
(Source: nathanielstuart)
The kingdom of God does not begin with our protest movements. It is a revolution that precedes every other, just as it precedes everything that exists.
(Source: pushcomestolove, via mshedden)
It goes too far to say that one cannot be rich and be a disciple of Jesus, but what never appears in the Gospels are well-to-do followers of Jesus who are simultaneously generous in almsgiving and in divesting themselves of surplus wealth for the sake of those in need.
(Source: hargaden)
The key to evaluating any individual church or nation in terms of its use of material possessions (personally, collectively or institutionally) is how well it takes care of the poor and powerless in its midst, that is, its cultural equivalents to the fatherless, widow and alien. This theme pervades the Law, the historical books, wisdom and poetry, and the prophetic literature. People always take priority over prosperity. Those in positions of power have no increased privilege, only increased responsibility.
(Source: hargaden)
