Still Reading UnChristian, by David Kinnaman. So good. Two excerpts:

One thing that prevents us from engaging the world is the fact that our connection with outsiders dissipates as we enter the Christian enclave. In our interviews, a twenty-eight-year-old Christian described this lifestyle: “So many Christians are caught up in the Christian subculture and are completely closed off from the world. We go to church on Wednesdays, Sundays, and sometimes on Saturdays. We attend small group on Tuesday night and serve on the Sunday school advisory board, the financial committee, and the welcoming committee. We go to barbecues with our Christian friends and plan group outings. We are closed off from the world. Even if we wanted to reach out to nonChristians, we don’t have the time and we don’t know how. The only way we know how to reach out is to invite people to join in our Christian social circle.” (Kinnaman 130)

Being salt and light demands two things: we practice purity in the midst of a fallen world and yet we live in proximity to this fallen world. If you don’t hold up both truths in tension, you invariably become useless and separated from the world God loves. For example, if you only practice purity apart from proximity to the culture, you inevitably become pietistic, separatist, and conceited. If you live in close proximity to the culture without also living in a holy manner, you become indistinguishable from fallen culture and useless in God’s kingdom. – Mike Metzger (Kinnaman 133)

(article written by Didymus, mainly inspired by chapter 3 of UnChristian)

Love God, love people.

Hate the sin, Love the sinner.

Do we show that unconditional love?

Who do we show it to?

Those who already know it? Those who need it?

How many have we turned away because we have not loved them?

How often do we abandon the person in sin, because of their sin issue? It is good we protect ourselves from the temptations of this world, but we mustn’t forget those who need our love. I guess for me, I am starting to understand Jesus more. His lifestyle, the way he went about doing things.

As important and significant the church is, Jesus did not hang around the posse of Pharisees all that much. He hung around those who needed Love, those who did not know what it is or who people wouldn’t normally love.

Too often do we see those in need and forget them. We automatically put ourselves higher on the totem poll due to not being in that specific sin, we judge them, and leave them be.

It goes back to the Good Samaritan.  In Luke 10, starting at verse 25, we hear of the parable of how the Samaritan helps the man who was robbed, mocked, and ignored. Would you stop? Do you stop? In the halls at school, do you stop?

I feel like I forget these people, I let them be. I let them do there thing, and maybe hope God will show them right path, but I do not get involved. I think there’s a problem with this. What am I afraid of? What’s stopping me? How could something bad come out of it? Do I care?

What’s it going to take for me to show them God’ unconditional Love? Yes, in scenarios like that I am shy, but why? Maybe it isn’t in the halls, maybe that’s too large of a goal right now. What close friends or just friends have you turned away because what they were doing compromised who you were? It is good, VERY GOOD, that we don’t get caught up in the sins they’re dealing with, but we still should at least attempt to be a beacon. If you don’t think being a beacon is possible, then yes, it’s good to turn and run.

The honesty that comes out of people should not harm them. If someone goes to the effort tell you the muck and scum of their life, it’s for good reason. They’re hurting. They’re in need of your help. Yes, they’re junk may not be too pretty, but judging them and casting them away, only makes their situation worse. The unconditional part of unconditional love is not present.

It’s pretty easy to love unconditionally your close friends, why? Because you know you’ll probably get the same back. When you do something and not get it back, such as love unconditionally, that’s when it gets hard. I know I get comfortable in the works of things, I get comfortable in my bubbles and honestly, I forget those outside of it. I need to stay focused on loving others, and listening to others, so I can understand their situation, where they’re coming from.

Back to the beginning phrase. Hate the sin, love the sinner… After the car ride to the nursing home, one of my friends reminded me of something Shane Claiborne pointed out in Irresistible Revolution. He stated, actually one of his friends stated, ok, this is not word for word, but close enough. Jesus did not see the sinner. He saw one of his children. He was not distracted by the profession or the sin that the person did or had. Jesus saw them for who they were. He showed them what they needed. Love. He did not get distracted their worldly doings. What is stopping us from doing the same?

An excerpt from David Kinnaman’s UnChristian, an article by Rick McKinley (a pastor in Imago Dei, Portland):

In trying to communicate the gospel to the masses, the message was eventually reduced to a partial story: humans are sinful and need Jesus in order to go to heaven. This made Christianity lose some of its life because the full description of God’s activity-such as creation, his plans for restoration, his sovereignty-was left out. It was ultimate reduction, “renounce your sins and place your hope in Jesus.” This phrase is not wrong per se. But it is insufficient, particularly as our culture becomes more and more pluralistic. As a result of this mindset, one can easily accept Jesus and Buddha and a form of Wicca and have not the slightest problem with the significant contradictions. By reducing the gospel to a what’s-in-it-for-me message, people feel Jesus exists for their benefit.

The greatest problem with this model of communication is that God does not have to honor it. Just because someone prayed a prayer does not mean they put their faith in Jesus, were regenerated by the Spirit of God, and became a new creation in Christ. It may be a helpful tool for some, but it could be a point of departure and confusion for others.

Sometimes we believe the greatest Christian virtue is leading someone else to Christ. Scripture teaches followers of Christ that they should love their neighbors and make disciples along the way. Making disciples is a long process. Don’t get me wrong, I believe it is important that people make dicisions to follow Jesus- I just believe it needs to happen in a context of love and not be reduced to feed the consumer’s mindset of finding spiritual comfort. The Gospels portray a grand, multifacted picutre of Jesus. I thi9nk we should really interact with this potrait in sharing Christ with others. Read through the Gospels with them and let them encounter the person rather than the formula. I just think that sking someone to commit to a major way of life like following Christ deserves much more respect than simple spiritual formulas.

The sad thing is that when we (Imago Dei Church) go out and love pople in Portland without an agenda of getting a “return” for our time-this is considered revolutionary. I think this should be the norm, and we have so much to learn in doing it better. If we share the gospel and people reject Jesus, do we quit loving them?

(pages 89-90)

I just got back from the new Transformers movie. I wanted to look for something while watching the  movie that could be biblical and relate to a passage from the Bible and found there was one passage that seemed to go along very well with some things in the movie.

Romans 12:2 says “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your  mind…”

Im sure you can find the connection. Every time an Auto-bot or Decepticon would transform I would think about this verse. I noticed how much of a transformation it was when a vehicle that blends in with everything else would suddenly just change into an alien super-robot. In the same way, God says He wants our minds to undergo a transformation. He doesn’t want us to be part of this world, looking like it and acting like it. He wants us to be transformed from our minds being renewed either by His word, by a brother or sister, a conversation, or maybe just anything that can be considered praise-worthy. He wants us to be in the world, but not of it, going through the exact same thing as the world, but looking completly diffrent.

How cool would it be the next time that God showed something neat to you, you were completly transformed into something new. Not physically, but spiritually. Transforming the old worldy way of thinking and changing it to a Spirit guided and Godly way of thinking. It looks like something not only that I want but something that I need. Without it, I could simply just conform to the world.

                        -tyedyetyler

Christianity is a way of seeing all of life and reality through God’s eyes. That is what Christianity is; a worldview, a system, and a way of life.
-Chuck Colson

This is my first post here, and my first time blogging. Although I heard that this isn’t the most popular site, I am excited to see what it has in store, and how God can use this.  Hope all goes well! =D

“We often confuse unconditional love with unconditional approval. God loves us without conditions but does not approve of every human behavior. God doesn’t approve of betrayal, violence, hatred, suspicion, and all other expressions of evil, because they all contradict the love God wants to instill in the human heart. Evil is the absence of God’s love.” -Henri Nouwen, Bread For the Journey, 1996

“All Around you, people will be tiptoeing through life, just to arrive at death safetly. But dear children, do not tiproe. Run, hop, skip, or dance, just don’t tiptoe.”

A quote from Irresistible Revolution, who quoted some guy. Thought it was good. Reminds me of the wisdom of an elderly woman I met at the nursing home last week, “Take time to dance every once in while and have fun!”

I find myself suspended in jello mold,

Stuck in a Jello Mold

unable to disrupt
the confined mobility
of a colloid.

It restrains not only my movements,
but the once involuntary rituals of the body,
are now frustrated with the environment surrounding them.

To escape requires compromise.
A compromise that presents
new colloidal attributes.

The sun shines
Where there is day to be made,
But a shadow emerges
To antagonize the day
To bring out the darkness.

Through the dull, dim, and dastardly darkness
Lies hope for the light
Of a new day,
A day free of plight,
Free of monotonous cycles,
And devastating tragedies.

It is not tomorrow to prepare for,
For today’s creeping shadow
Waits for the spawning of a foothold
To burrow into one’s soul,
Delivering him to the night.