But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
1 Corinthians 15:10 KJV
The Irresistible Revolution
"While the voices of blockbuster movies and pop culture cry out for a life outside the matrix of numb efficiency, Christianity often has offered little to the world, other than the hope that things will be better in heaven."
"Sometimes we speak out to change the world, and other times we speak to try to keep the world from changing us."
"In our culture of "seeker sensitivity" and radical inclusivity, the great temptation is to compromise the cost of discipleship in order to draw a larger crowd. With the most sincere hearts, we do not want to see anyone walk away from Jesus because of the discomfort of his cross, so we clip the claws on the Lion a little, we clean up a bit the bloody Passion we are called to follow."
"We would like to include people like the rich ruler and Ananias and Sapphira, but we would end up with the sort of Christianity that arose after Constantine, in which everyone can be a Christian but no one knows what a Christian is anymore."
"For us, belief is only the beginning. What really matters is how we live, how what we believe gets fleshed out, so we also have a statement of orthopraxis (meaning, "right living, right practices"). And this is where most belief-oriented faith communities fall short. They tell us only what they believe, but they do not tell us how their beliefs affect their lifestyles."
"We live in an age in which people, when they hear the word Christian, are much more likely to think of people who hate gays than people who love outcasts, and that is a dangerous thing."
"The world has seen Christian extremists who will blow up abortion clinics and dance on doctors' graves. We have seen Christian extremists who hold signs that say, "God hates fags." The world has seen Christian extremists who declare war in the name of the Lamb. But where are the Christian extremists for love and grace?"
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Non traditional thoughts about life, the world, and God from a Christian's perspective.
"I am seized with fear that my own will will be given place, and I will thus ruin my usableness for God. It would be easy to follow my feelings...to interfere with the voice of the Lord when He says, 'This is the way, walk ye in it.' "
Elisabeth Elliott
Monday, March 27, 2006
Eugene Petersen and The MessageI read an interesting post on Dustin Bryson's blog this morning concerning The Message. You see, Dustin loves the Message. At first, I had a hard time swallowing this. Since the Message became popular, for the most part I've been staunchly against it. I was wrong. It occured to me today that the majority of folks who are against the Message have a) never read it, and b) treat it as if it's meant to be a literal translation. Neither of those lend credibility to the critics. I was raised in the Bible Belt. Very Southern, very fundamentalist, very conservative. You know the type--folks who claim that if the King James Bible was good enough for Paul then it's good enough for them. These are the people who helped formulate my view of Christianity growing up. Recently (in the last few years), that view is morphing into something completely different. Books like Miller's Blue Like Jazz, Douglas Banister's God on Earth, Rob Bell's Velvet Elvis, and even Petersen's Message have completely revolutionized the way I see Christianity, Jesus, God, and the world. Petersen's take on Scriptures is fresh and invigorating. It offers new insight into the way we do things and understand things. There's nothing wrong with new ideas! The church often seems to encourage staying put and not moving forward. But we should always move and grow! No man has a monopoly on Truth. What was Truth 500 years ago is still Truth today--but it may look a little different in the way it's carried out. There's nothing wrong with that! Bringing new life to old Truth is a gift from God! Look at John the Baptist. Look at Jesus! His sermon on the mount was entirely bringing new life to old truth. Truth is more important than tradition. I have nothing against tradition, but tradition should never take the place of truth. Eugene Petersen understands that. God bless those who aren't afraid of skirting tradition for the truth. Related Tags: Bibles, The Message, Eugene Petersen, Christianity, Truth, Tradition
Posted by Amanda at 3/27/2006 10:59:00 AM
4 Comments
rev-ed posted at 3/30/2006 12:58:00 PM
folks who claim that if the King James Bible was good enough for Paul then it's good enough for them.
I talked to one lady who actually literally believed this. Apparently she thought that Jesus was speaking English, or something like that.
I too enjoy new ways to look at old truths, provided Truth isn't compromised.
Barbara posted at 3/30/2006 01:59:00 PM
I, too, was born and raised in the south, and still live in the south. I was also raised on the KJV of the Bible.
Until I met Bill, the man we buried today, I had never heard of The Message. He was a man who really studied the Bible - many of them. And, he enjoyed researching out the Truth. And, he enjoyed seeing what the Message had to say about a particular scripture. When I see The Message, I'll always remember our friend, Bill, who left this life to early. He would have been 54 on Saturday, April 1st, but God had other plans, and he gave him the best Birthday present yet!
Amanda posted at 3/30/2006 02:48:00 PM
rev-ed, It is so sad that there are people who believe that. Coming from the South, I've ran into my fair share of them.
Barbara--I'm so sorry you had to bury a friend. But you're right, what a birthday!!
Philip Del Ricci posted at 3/30/2006 05:32:00 PM
Interesting BLOG (I really like the title). This post struck a chord with me. I was raised Southern Baptist in Southern Illinois. I can remember personally having a real contempt to non King James translations. It was somewhat eye-opening when I lost that contempt.
By the way - I found your BLOG through BLOGExplosion Battle of the BLOGs. We're fighting right this second. I hope people like your site, but not too much.
;-}
Peace,
P. Del Ricci - Dark Glass