All in Christ + Culture
There is a bad kind of bigger - you know, where the waste line gets bigger or the expenses get bigger.
Then, there is the good kind of bigger.
This quote gets me every time. I know, I know - it’s the trifecta of Christian quotes, Tolkien, Lewis, or Keller. A book I’m currently reading with our Precept Team quoted Lewis. The author, Ken Boa, uses it to set up a chapter entitled Dependence on God.
Prepare yourself for the blender. The Lord has been so good. He has poured out so much grace. I wanted to share those things with you, but it is going to be like putting several different ingredients in a blender. I pray that the Spirit turns it on and mixes them up for you as He has done for me this week. Four Years Later- Ferguson. One year later - Charlottesville and the change that the Gospel of Jesus Christ brings. Jesus Changes Everything!
Everywhere you turn, it seems like darkness is enveloping the light. Consider what has been happening within the church of America throughout these crazy, hazy days of summer.
The mere mention of the word conjures up emotion. Visceral News media and political pundit driven emotion. Rather than a binary choice - choose one option or the other., for or against - it is more of a spectrum, a sliding scale. Sadly, many Christians are confused, thinking it is only one or the other. While confused, they're also adamant-whatever side I'm on, the other side is evil. Weird, right? Adamant in their confusion. If someone wants to find out more information, they could turn on the news or search the interwebs - the adamant confusion then turns into a frenzy of shock and awe opinion, talking heads and either fear based commentary or guilt based commentary. Adamant confusion turns belligerent.
There must be a more excellent way. There is an opportunity for us to listen and engage.
Over the next few posts, I'll be sharing some of the content from a sermon I recently preached at Sojourn Chattanooga on Acts 10 & 11. Grace For Every Race was a tough sermon.
There is no continent exempt from the permeating history of racism and discrimination. Over the centuries discrimination has looked differently, some say that it no longer exists. We can all agree that the parasitic sin of discrimination is still at work.
Last week was a blast!
Our Precept Ministries campus in Chattanooga, Tennessee had several different things going on throughout the week.
I also had the opportunity to connect with over 10,000 Precept Bible Study Leaders throughout the United States! It's crazy.
“It is difficult to tell where your anxiety disorder ends and where the actual news begins.”
I read that quote in the New York Times in a piece entitled America’s New Anxiety Disorder What do you think about it? What is the relationship between anxiety and facts? In other words, the author seems to be saying that it is hard to tell where the “What ifs?” end and where the facts, the truth about a situation begins. Take it even further – the individual is so wrapped up in the what might happen, the constant what-if scenarios, that the stress levels and blood pressure rise to a point that you’re not able to step back and ask, “What is true in this situation?” The individual then gets others around them, and you’ve got a firestorm on social media. Add to it 24/7 news coverage and it is no wonder why America’s anxiety.
