Do. Love. Walk.

DELETING THIS BLOG

Wed, 17 Oct 2012 08:52:33 -0400

Hey friends,

I’m deleting this blog.

If you would like to still correspond on here please follow my blog

Gospel of the Kingdom

Thank you! It’s been real, it’s been fun, it’s been real fun!

gospelofthekingdom: Great TED presentation on a 10-month-long...

Sun, 07 Oct 2012 07:55:59 -0400

gospelofthekingdom:

Great TED presentation on a 10-month-long nonviolent protest in the Palestinian village of Budrus by Brazilian filmmaker Julia Bacha where she asks why we only pay attention to violence in the Israel-Palestine conflict — and not to the nonviolent leaders who may one day bring peace.

gospelofthekingdom: Your faith depends on your presuppositions about the Bible. The implications of...

Sun, 07 Oct 2012 05:57:57 -0400

gospelofthekingdom:

Your faith depends on your presuppositions about the Bible. The implications of this realization are all encompassing. Any statement that begins with, “The Bible says …” is actually a statement about what the speaker believes. This is equally true whether you are Rob Bell or John MacArthur. You are all working from the same source material here. The chant of Joel Osteen, waving the Bible above his head and pledging allegiance to the words therein, is ultimately no different from an exegesis of Jesus’ compassion by Shane Claiborne, in that both are rooted in individual interpretations and assumptions about what the Bible is, generated by their prior presuppositions, ideals, experiences and connections. When you argue about Scripture, you are arguing your biases. If Mark Driscoll and Marcus Borg sat down to discuss their differences, underneath all the banter is nothing but two different presuppositions about the Bible. Who is “right” and who is “wrong” is ultimately a question of who has the “correct” interpretation about the bible. But since both parties judge their own interpretations about the Bible by their own presuppositions of the Bible, both are ultimately appealing first and foremost to their own presuppositions.

Dear Church, at some point you must recognize and name your camps and denominations for what they truly are: self-affirming cloisters of people who are happily comfortable with their self-validating presuppositions about Scripture. Your next reformation comes when you abandon your arguments about what the Bible says, and invest your energy into investigating what the Bible is. Stop arguing about how to “apply the Word of God” and start formulating truly informed thoughts about church history, the nature of the canon, and the doctrine of inspiration. Even if there were something concrete about these convictions explicit in the pages of Scripture itself, you would still have to account for your personal belief in those words. You must unearth and examine all these unchecked assumptions. You must delve deep into the matrix of your own assumptions about textual authority. Herein will be the most painful and honest declaration of Christianity yet, for only when you seek to honestly address the beliefs you most desperately cherish can you genuinely declare your faith to be honest—honest to your own heart, mind and soul, and to God.

-James Shelley, Letters to a Future Church

Found this gem at the church in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia! Score!...

Sat, 06 Oct 2012 04:17:25 -0400

Found this gem at the church in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia! Score! #Yoderforthewin (Taken with Instagram)

CAN WE JUST HAVE A HOLY GHOST PARTY RIGHT UP IN HURRRRRRR; MET THE DEADLINE, THANK YOU PAPA!

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 06:15:20 -0400

CAN WE JUST HAVE A HOLY GHOST PARTY RIGHT UP IN HURRRRRRR; MET THE DEADLINE, THANK YOU PAPA!

This is Mike. He’s sassy. Comes with name I suppose....

Sat, 29 Sep 2012 18:59:04 -0400

This is Mike. He’s sassy. Comes with name I suppose. (Taken with Instagram)

gospelofthekingdom: As we look at the world on a global scale, everything is far from okay. There is...

Sat, 29 Sep 2012 12:34:51 -0400

gospelofthekingdom:

As we look at the world on a global scale, everything is far from okay. There is much injustice for the righteous to ache over. Consider the following facts:

Sixteen percent of the world lives on less than one dollar per day. [1]
Forty percent of the world lives on less than two dollars per day. [2]
Eighty percent of the world lives on less than ten dollars per day. [3]
Seventeen thousand children die from hunger every day. [4]
The nations of the world spend three billion dollars per day on defense (56 percent by the United States).[5]

To put it in perspective: Each day, for every child who dies of hunger, the nations of the world spend $176,000 on security (which means defending themselves from one another). One hundred sixty-six thousand dollars per dead child on defense?! Do we really not see the madness and the injustice of this?! But we tell ourselves it’s just the way things have to be. If we don’t build billion-dollar bombers, things will go wrong—as if something has not already gone very, very wrong! So while the nations spend billions every day on their security … the orphans die and the widows weep. The very least the righteous can do is to ache over this and yearn for a better way. Hopefully the righteous can do much more than ache and yearn, but any step toward building a better world begins with a painful acknowledgement that the present arrangement is unacceptable

In the fourth beatitude Jesus blesses those who ache over the pervasive injustice and deep brokenness of our world—Jesus blesses those who refuse to keep looking at the world through the status quo—they ache for something better. Something better is what the kingdom of God brings, and it’s why the disciples of Jesus pray day by day: ”Thy government come, thy policy be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” At the very least the disciples of Jesus formed by the fourth beatitude refuses to let the Beast have their imagination, and they will not perpetuate the satanic lie that “it has to be this way.” No! It does not have to be this way! There is a better way! Jesus shows us that better way! Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for things to be made right, for they shall find immense satisfaction when and where the kingdom of Christ brings saving transformation and redemptive justice into the world. The disciples formed by the fourth beatitude know the difference between the intransient ugliness of injustice and the redeeming beauty of justice, and they long for the beauty of Christ’s justice to save the world.

-Brian Zahnd, Beauty Will Save the World

________________________________________________

[1] Anup Shah, “Poverty Facts and Stats,” Globalissues.org, September 20, 2010, http://www.globalissues.org/article26/poverty-facts-and-stats

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

[4] CNN.com, “UN Chief: Hunger Kills 17,000 Kids Daily,” November 17, 2009, http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/11/17/italy.food.summit/index.html

[5] Anup Shah, “World Military Spending,” GlobalIssues.org, May 2, 2011,
http://www.globalissues.org/article/75/world-military-spending#WorldMilitarySpending

Salvation in ill-fitting blue pants

Fri, 28 Sep 2012 21:29:06 -0400

Salvation in ill-fitting blue pants:

gospelofthekingdom:

The testimony of activist Jeremy John, written for Geez Magazine, who spent six months in prison for civil disobedience while working to close the School of the Americas where he found Christ.

I lived in a state of incredible tension for the next few months. I found the chapel, and I found a Bible. Before prison, I had set out to read the entire Bible, and, depending on what I found, either refute or endorse it. I had gotten to Daniel by the time I was incarcerated. Prison provided plenty of time to continue reading. The Old Testamend didn’t really do it for me. And I really didn’t like the Christians in the camp. I crashed a Bible study by arguing against obedience to the governing authorities.

But something happened when I got to Matthew — something that had never happened in all my love affair with knowledge. I had read Taoism, Buddhism, Confucius, Proudhoun and Malatesta. I had read Wittgenstein, Camus, Sartre and Fanon, but nothing compared to the story of Jesus.

Jesus story cannot be dismissed as yet another action that makes sense from a rational perspective because he chose to die. If Christ’s action could “make sense,” then it would not be a perfect love, it would instead be an everyday selfish act, explained away by self-serving motives and purposes.

I may make a few posts on his testimony, because at the end, there are great thoughts on moving from focusing on structures to people and justice to love.

You can (and should) read more on his blog at glassdimly.com

gospelofthekingdom: Christianity stands or falls with its revolutionary protest against violence,...

Fri, 28 Sep 2012 20:52:06 -0400

gospelofthekingdom:

Christianity stands or falls with its revolutionary protest against violence, arbitrariness, and pride of power, and with its plea for the weak. Christians are doing too little to make these points clear … Christendom adjusts itself far too easily to the worship of power. Christians should give more offense, shock the world far more, than they are doing now.

-Dietrich Bonhoeffer

gospelofthekingdom: Stanley Hauerwas talks about how American...

Fri, 28 Sep 2012 03:26:47 -0400

gospelofthekingdom:

Stanley Hauerwas talks about how American Christians read Romans 13 so as to justify American state power. This clip is from a panel discussion held in March 2007 at Duke University called “Religious Speech in Public Discourse.”

gospelofthekingdom: Consider how the gospel sounded upon its first hearing in the first century. A...

Thu, 27 Sep 2012 13:10:10 -0400

gospelofthekingdom:

Consider how the gospel sounded upon its first hearing in the first century. A Galilean Jew named Jesus was executed by crucifixion for alleged crimes against the state by the Roman government; three days later God raised him from the dead, and he is now the world’s new emperor. That’s the gospel! It’s not an explanation; it’s an announcement. It’s the surprising announcement that a crucified Galilean Jew has risen from the dead and is now the world’s new ruler! It may sound absurd, but it’s certainly not cliche. No matter what else one might say about this gospel, it is certainly an astonishing claim.

But in our day the sense of astonishment is largely absent. We don’t think of the gospel as an absurd claim, though it is! (Which is not to say it isn’t true!) In our modern sophistication and over-familiarity with the gospel, we have removed astonishment from the gospel. We have replaced astonishment with something a bit tamer. We have made the gospel reasonable, sensible, and practical. We explain the gospel in cogent terms like “the plan of salvation” and “spiritual laws” — as if it is simply the most rational thing in the world. The gospel is no longer astonishing; it is now commonsense, logical, and most of all, “useful.” We have no use for astonishment because, well, we have no use for astonishment. Astonishment is not something we can use—it’s not something pragmatic that we can utilize to further our self-concocted and self-oriented agendas. So instead of announcing an astonishing gospel, we find ourselves trying to sell a useful gospel. Evangelism takes on the tone of a multilevel marketing presentation. Some buy it, some don’t, but not many are astonished.

Yet astonishment is the most appropriate initial reaction to the gospel story. To respond to the gospel story (and it is a story, not a set of propositions) with calmly asked utilitarian questions is completely inappropriate—as if one were kicking the tires on a used car. What if the three woman at the tomb on the first Easter had calmly responded to the angel with a series of consumerist questions like this: “What do I do with this?” ”How do I use it?” ”How can I make this practical in my life?” —as if the angel had just presented them a business plan. No! The first response must be astonishment and stunned silence. The gospel properly proclaimed and properly heard is a mystery evoking awe—not a prospectus eliciting calculation. Without astonishment as our initial response, we meet Christianity in a wrong way—or more properly, we meet Christ in a wrong way.

Brian Zahnd, Beauty Will Save the World

Hey friends, I currently need to raise $1,220 in 4 days (October 1st) to stay on the field with The...

Thu, 27 Sep 2012 10:08:00 -0400

Hey friends, I currently need to raise $1,220 in 4 days (October 1st) to stay on the field with The World Race. If you could pray about helping and do so, and/or spread the word, I would be so grateful! Every dollar counts! Thanks friends; and you can donate here if you’re able to do so.

Grace & Peace

gospelofthekingdom: Without equivocation or hesitation I fully and completely admit that I deny...

Wed, 26 Sep 2012 15:00:32 -0400

gospelofthekingdom:

Without equivocation or hesitation I fully and completely admit that I deny the resurrection of Christ. This is something that anyone who knows me could tell you, and I am not afraid to say it publicly, no matter what some people may think… I deny the resurrection of Christ every time I do not serve at the feet of the oppressed, each day that I turn my back on the poor; I deny the resurrection of Christ when I close my ears to the cries of the downtrodden and lend my support to an unjust and corrupt system. However there are moments when I affirm that resurrection, few and far between as they are. I affirm it when I stand up for those who are forced to live on their knees, when I speak for those who have had their tongues torn out, when I cry for those who have no more tears left to shed.

-Peter Rollins

Father Christian de Chergé

Wed, 26 Sep 2012 13:18:46 -0400

gospelofthekingdom:

Christian de Chergé was a French Catholic monk and the Trappist prior of the Tibhirine Monastery in Algeria. With the rise of radical Islam in 1993, Father de Cherge knew that his life was in danger. But instead of leaving Algeria, Father de Chergé chose to say and continue his witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ. On May 24, 1996, Father de Chergé was beheaded by Muslim radicals. Anticipating his death, Father de Chergé had left a testament with his family to be read upon the event of his murder. The testament in part read:

Read More

gospelofthekingdom: “Jesus gave (his followers) a new way of life to live. He gave them a new way...

Wed, 26 Sep 2012 02:35:32 -0400

gospelofthekingdom:

“Jesus gave (his followers) a new way of life to live. He gave them a new way to deal with offenders — by forgiving them. He gave them a new way to deal with violence — by suffering. He gave them a new way to deal with money — by sharing it. He gave them a new way to deal with problems of leadership — by drawing upon the gift of every member, even the most humble. He gave them a new way to deal with a corrupt society — by building a new order, not smashing the old. He gave them a new pattern of relationships between man and woman, parent and child, master and slave, in which was made concrete a radical new vision of what it means to be a human person. He gave them a new attitude toward the state and toward the ‘enemy nation.’”

-John Howard Yoder

Tapestry

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 23:16:20 -0400

Tapestry:

gospelofthekingdom:

A great sermon series by Greg Boyd on what has shaped their church’s beliefs and different traditions throughout historic movements and factions of the Christian faith. It’s a nice overview of church history, and the Q&A’s at the end are rad. I especially enjoyed the Anabaptist thread; and have already posted a link to that. Enjoy!

The kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these. (Taken with...

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 14:25:50 -0400

The kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these. (Taken with Instagram)

As if Tumblr didn't need another Hye Sung Francis conversation

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 10:51:31 -0400

As if Tumblr didn't need another Hye Sung Francis conversation

Francis: Does your mom speak in tongues?
Me: No, I wish!
I wish my mom was a big black woman sometimes.
Francis: HAHAHAHA
Me: Shoot, I wish I was sometimes.
Francis: HAHAHA
who doesnt
furreal

shine as jewels

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 02:34:14 -0400

alexmonacella:

“Diamonds do not dazzle with beauty unless they are cut. When cut, the rays of the sun fall on them and make them shine with wonderful colors. So when we are cut by the cross, we shall shine as jewels in the kingdom of God.”

— Sadhu Sundar Singh

How To (And Not To) Respond to the Current Crisis in the Middle East

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 01:29:24 -0400

How To (And Not To) Respond to the Current Crisis in the Middle East:

gospelofthekingdom:

A great article by Jon Huckins with Red Letter Christians. Please read.

My heart is heavy.

Every day for the past week, every social media outlet has told their version of the current uprising stretching across the Middle East (Egypt, Libya, Yemen) . Whether it’s pictures of Embassy’s burned to the ground, rioting citizens or highly politicized comics, the surge of content has been anything but “feel-good” and hopeful. And that’s because the events and corresponding responses have been anything but “feel-good” and hopeful.

My heart breaks because I know the events that are unfolding do not represent the majority of those who inhabit the Middle East.