My Utmost for His Highest 6-27-07

[jesusdigsyou]

God promised Jeremiah that He would deliver him personally- ". . . your life shall be as a prize to you . . ." (Jeremiah 39:18  ). That is all God promises His children. Wherever God sends us, He will guard our lives. Our personal property and possessions are to be a matter of indifference to us, and our hold on these things should be very loose.

Comments

[kiltboiisme]

I, too, think the timing on this is pretty good.

I've just gotten back from Cornerstone, where the main theme seemed to be that of social justice - there were a LOT of speakers and organizations there whose main goal is to help the poor and downtrodden, living a life of simplicity, and above all love, love, love. It is with a heart pondering my place in this and how I can be of help that I come across this entry.

One thing I've learned this week is that, although we are in the age of the megachurch and the Religious Right, there is a TRULY counter-cultural movement happening to balance the scales; a movement comprised of people who are desperately trying to live lives like those of Christ and the apostles of Acts. These people understand that instead of debating about gay rights, we should be fully willing to follow Him and live out the two most important commandments in ways that really make people sit up and take notice and - to coin something you told me a long time ago - make Jesus Himself stand up and cheer.

That got a little long-winded and I apologize for that...but I just wanted to let you know that this is, indeed, some pretty good timing considering what I've been encountering and learning this past week.

-M

[jesusdigsyou]

sounds like you had a good time at cornerstone and they really got your mind perculating :) Social justice is something that both sides of the Christian aisle seem to miss the point. Fundamentalist ignore social justice and opt instead to tell someone about Jesus Christ with the hopes of leading them to Christ. Problem with that is that its kind of hard to tell someone that Jesus is the bread of life if they haven't had a slice of bread in a week. The other side mistaken when they crusade for social justice for the sake of social justice. Social justice is a means to an end. A means that is very important and should get our fullest attention. When you look at the birth of the church, they performed social justice by giving to anyone as he had need. The result of that is people were being added to the faith DAILY. The model that i see in the birth of the church is that good deeds leads to good will and good will leads to good news (the Gospel). If we neglect the good deeds, we have failed the example of the early church. If we neglect the good news, we have also failed the example of the early church. I don't have a problem with the mega church so long as they are mega-obssesed with doing good deeds, to get good will, to share the good news.
A friend of mine in seminary worked with someone who was a homosexual. He understood that Scripture was settled that homosexuality is a sin (and the part we miss the most, homosexuality is settling to live in a state of unhealthy brokenness, rather than becoming complete in Christ). His co-worker fell and got a concuscion. He had to be awaken every few hours to ensure that he didn't slip into a coma. His family disowned him so this friend of mine from seminary spent the night on the floor of this guy's apartment and woke him up every few hours to ensure he was doing o.k. He didn't accept the sin... he accepted the sinner in a way that Jesus would. Has this individual repented of homosexuality and gave his life to Christ? No. But, if my friend wanted to share his faith in Jesus with him, I'm confident he would listen to him in a way that he never would had he condemned him.
chew on it :)