There should be a name for this grief, the grief of watching the faith that raised you trade away its own soul. The grief of watching the church that taught you to love your neighbor, to care for the vulnerable, to seek justice and walk humbly with God, lay it all on...
People are all about using the Bible to make laws until they get to the words of Jesus... "Love your enemies.""The first shall be last.""Lay down your sword.""Set the oppressed free.""You cannot serve God and money.""Sell all your possessions and give the money to the...
Western Christians tend to think of "going to heaven" or "going to hell" as the framework for the Gospel, but the Bible is not about us going somewhere, but the Creator God coming to live with us.
God always answers prayers. Sometimes it's 'yes.' Sometimes the answer is "no." Sometimes it's "you gotta be kidding."
A Baptist preacher told this story to his congregation one Sunday: When God walked into heaven and found everyone there, he decided it was too crowded. He owed it to justice, did he not, to reward those who were faithful? So, he had one of his angels read the ten...
God is with the vulnerable and the poor. God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house. God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war. God is in the debris of wasted opportunities and lives. God is with us, if we are with them.
My answer to a friend: There is no success in ministry, only service and moments of celebration. If you choose to minister, expect to be misunderstood. All of the pain people carry will fall upon your brow, and you shall be the stand-in for every ignorant statement...
God is not a racial, national, or denominational deity. ...So there is no racial discrimination in God's family.
The Church is not to be found at the "center" of a left/right political world. The Church is to be a species of its own kind, confounding left, right, and center, and finding its identity from the "center" of God's life in Christ.
When you live in Culture War Mode there is always a battle to fight, a side to take, and people to fear. When you live in God's Kingdom there's always a stranger to welcome, a neighbor to befriend, and an enemy to love. --from Love Over Fear