Recent comments by presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann have stirred up the discussion about gay marriage once again. While speaking to a group of high school…
Faith
Explain the two words spoken by Jesus—“Follow me”—in 1000 words or less? Hmmm. Maybe I should just stop right there and let you think this through on your own. My understanding of what it means to follow Him has changed over the years. Perhaps our understanding of “following” is supposed to change over time as our maturity in the Lord grows in response to the leading of the Holy Spirit and the ways we experience Him with others. Because I can’t claim to know everything about following Jesus, the best I can offer is to share some of the things...
How can you know if someone is a follower of Jesus? Answers to this question have split churches, destroyed friendships, and divided seminaries. Some believe that to follow Jesus you must only sign a creed or say a prayer. Others insist that following Jesus requires following a set of rules such as the Ten Commandments or a denominational Code of Conduct. Still others argue that following Jesus is best accomplished in a building at a certain time of week when certain activities take place, while others say that following Jesus means leaving our buildings and going to places where Jesus...
Everyone knows the story of Judas. He was the great betrayer of Christ. For silver, for mere money, he betrayed the Savior. For him, there was no Disney ending. There was suicide. There was no chance to redeem himself. Even at one point, he realized his error. In Matthew 27, it says: “Then when Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he changed his mind and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders, saying, ‘I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.’ They said, ‘What is that to us? See to it yourself.’...
I am a spiritual director. People share their stories with me, and I listen. People tell me things like, “You are the only person who ever listens to me,” and “I do not talk to anyone else about this stuff.” We hunger to know our truest selves and thirst for someone we can trust who will pay attention to us. I listen, looking for the mileposts that open the way to unexplored pathways. I try to ask insightful questions that open doors they have kept tightly closed, or did not even know were there. I was not always a...
The summer staff eats dinner together every night. We talk about the evening program and our days with the groups. There comes a breaking point where laughter erupts and the conversation devolves into mindless rumble. Last week, this laughter evolved into playful criticism towards me. I lead the music for the evening program and I am not ashamed to say I pick songs that are indie. You know, songs from bands that no one has ever heard of or songs originally sung in different languages? The staff complained of hearing the same songs each week, although the youth love the songs that I play and every week sing with a different group. They called me a pseudo-hipster, which infuriated...
It’s really hard for me to believe how wrong everyone else is. What a more pleasant world it would be if everyone just agreed with me, drove the way I wanted them to, fell in line with my set of beliefs. How pleasant that world would be. I am, of course, being facetious. I think. The title of this article is tongue in cheek, I think. And I write it knowing that I’m wrong. About a lot of stuff. I think. Statistics show that most people rarely ever change their minds about a specific issue or firmly held belief. If...
The Beatles once told us that “all you need is love.” And, for many Christians that have experienced the more dogmatic and often-hypocritical parts of the history of the church during the past twenty years, a return to that simple truth is a breath of fresh air. Didn’t Jesus tell us that His most important new command was to “Love one another” (John 13:34)? Don’t all the rules, traditions, form, and structure of the traditional church just get in the way of that? Well, sort of. When those traditions replace Scripture, when those rules supersede our mission, when the form...
As I now understand it, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is that the God of Israel was faithful to the promises that were made to Abraham. As the story of Israel unfolded, additional promises were made to David and to the people of Israel through the prophets. Hopes began to formulate and swirl around how all these promises would come to pass. Various Jewish sects arose with different understandings of how these promises would come and who they would come to. These promises and hopes were fulfilled in the person, work and way of Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah of...
After many years of personally wrestling with questions swirling around violence, war and faith, I have come to believe that following Jesus Christ and serving in the military in any capacity represent categorically incompatible endeavors. All who follow Jesus should leave the military or refuse to enlist, they should cease espousing war as a noble and honorable venture, and they should actively work towards peace and justice by practicing the ways of non-violent active resistance. Normally I would avoid such black and white statements for a variety of reasons but I have become thoroughly convinced of these beliefs for two...
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Jesus Is A BuddhaWhile recently visiting a (Won) Buddhist temple, I heard one practitioner refer to Jesus as a Buddha. I was struck by the generosity of calling… -
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While recently visiting a (Won) Buddhist temple, I heard one practitioner refer to Jesus as a Buddha. I was struck by the generosity of calling…
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