Author: Wick

So…the tracts appearing here are MILD compared to the one I found on our church resource table (Why the yellow race will not take over the world), placed by someone who hopefully meant well but perhaps didn’t read the tract they were leaving behind. But these types of beliefs are stewing behind the veil in many of our congregations. How to approach the topic in a loving way, to those who hold these beliefs as foundational to who they are, and who the bride of Christ is?

Read at your own risk, and know that these are NOT MY beliefs/views. There is a SMALL amount of Biblical Truth in each of these (kinda), but it is taken way out of context and used as a tool of fear. How would YOU respond?

Okay okay, don’t worry…I’m not losin’ any love for John Wesley. But it’s occurred to me lately a major difference between him and myself. Wesley traveled all over the place, preaching, teaching, admonishing, launching ministries, etc. To the point where he even authored many things while riding horseback between events in his life. It is a big difference:

I think the same could be said for *gasp* Jesus also. While there is an incredible amount to gain by paying attention to the life and ministry of both of these men (one more than the other, for obvious reasons), I think we generally overlook the lacking element of being a husband (a decent one, at least, in Wesley’s case) and a father.

Thankfully, I have had some pretty good men in my life. Men who have lived out what it meant to be a good husband and father. Yet still, in Christianity we see Pastors and lay people alike, seeking to reflect the ministry of men like these, as opposed to the heart and Spirit. Plates are full, and we run around trying to make sure every plate continues to spin without crashing; all the while adding a few more here and there.

Would it be more productive to not get married and/or have kids, and be able to devote more of my time and energy to the work of the Church? Yup. For the past 3 years, and the rest of my life, the church I minister among will be forced to recognize I’m a father and a husband. My church does a great job of embracing that role in me, and giving me freedoms to do it well, even if I don’t always seem to.

As Christians, and especially as those in ministry (I know our jobs are extremely taxing sometimes, but I also know we have certain freedoms that assist us in achieving “balance” that some secular employees seriously envy.) we need to be husbands and fathers who practice an example of Kingdom work through being spouses and parents. Not by discovering a united “manhood” with other men, and adding another plate called “manliness:discovering and being”. But by letting a few of the plates crash, or be spun by others, so that we can spend time and resources on our families and marriages.

We’ve been trained that the work of the Kingdom is “saving souls”. When we reduce the ministry to that, then yes….it becomes easy to sacrifice family time for trying to convince one more sinner to repent. But when I view my family and my marriage as a crucial part of my ministry…as one who says with Christ, “follow me”…then I must set marital and familial health as high goals.

I don’t say all of this as someone who has figured it out, by any means. I’m simply giving myself a lecture prior to a busy October, and allowing others to hear it; in hopes that maybe someone else needed to hear these words also. 🙂

“The “kingdom of God,” then, represents the infinite task of making good on Elohim’s “good,” of repeating his “good” from day to day, which means letting God’s rule obtain.”

“The Sabbath is to be a day of recreation, of re-creation, of continually renewing the ongoing work of creation, of mending the broken and healing the sick, of straightening the crooked and making the lame to walk, of inscribing Elohim’s “good” on the bodies and the minds of those whose lives he touched.”

“To be pure of heart is to be released from sin, which means to break the shackles of sin, quite the way a crippled man is healed and thereafter able to move about freely. These shackles are self-imposed, and God releases us from them. So when Jesus taught “your sins are released,” he meant, you are made healthy again, no longer crippled or impaired.” – Caputo

Perhaps we’ve made too much economy in the realm of forgiveness. Two words used in the New Testament for forgiveness – “charizomai” and “aphiemi“. Neither are economic words. Jesus didn’t go around balancing the Kingdom’s budget of offenses. He went around healing and bringing new life, and releasing prisoners.

But then again, we do see Jesus teaching us how to pray – “forgive our debts, as we forgive our debtors”. Which in Matthew appears to be simply that, although the word used can be a metaphor for sin – the version in Luke clarifies the question by actually using the word for sin…revealing that Jesus was indeed speaking a language the people could understand. Which word did Christ actually use in the Lord’s prayer?

Perhaps the mixed message is on purpose. The Kingdom of God is about being released from this debt, AND from this debt-mentality. Both in a financial and property-based sense, and the keeping track of offenses sense – as we see later in Jesus’ dialogue about how often one should forgive their brother.

May we live our lives as people who are free from debts, allowing us to relate to others free from any indebtedness to us. In every way possible. And to live that, knowing God has brought/is bringing release and healing to creation through those created in His image living from such freedoms…