God ... More than a "Christian"? - Brad Jersak

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” —Matthew 2:1-2 

I dropped by a Saturday morning garage sale today. It felt a bit creepy to me because one table was stacked high with occult books about Tarot cards, witches’ spells and astrology manuals. But it also reminded me of the Eastern-religion Magi who tracked down the Christ-child, using astrology. They didn’t merely use the star as GPS; somehow their divinations “told them” to look for the “king of the Jews.” We often call them “wise men,” but “magi” is actually the plural form of “magus”—i.e. magician or sorcerer (as in Acts 8:9-24). 

Holy Pagans 

In the Bible, we sometimes have interfaith run-ins with “holy pagans”—people of other faiths who are recognized as knowing God. And not just seekers; some were even priests, like Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro (Exodus 2, 18)—a priest of Midian revered in the Druze religion. Or Melchizedek, to whom Abram offers a tithe and the Epistle to the Hebrews recognizes as a “type” of Christ (Hebrews 2). From Job to Cornelius, we have God-fearing outsiders who nevertheless “had God’s ear.” The biblical tradition of holy pagans includes all those who sought and found God “beyond the box.” To state the obvious, none were Jewish or Christian when they first found God.

CLICK HERE to continue

Dream On With Jesus - Greg Albrecht

I Have a Dream—given by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., on August 28, 1963—is one of the most well known, most studied and most quoted speeches in the history of our nation. In that historic speech Dr. King used the phrase “I have a dream” eight different times as he called for freedom and justice for all people.

Daring to dream can be dangerous—particularly when your dream does not march in lock step with the political and religious establishment. They killed Martin Luther King Jr. because he dared to dream, but they didn’t kill his dream. Throughout history dreamers who challenged government and religion have been viewed as nonconformists at best, sometimes as revolutionaries and even as enemies. Dreamers are often made fun of and persecuted. 

Dreamers are often marginalized and discriminated against. They lose jobs. They have to move away from hostile neighborhoods, cities and sometimes even countries. Dreamers are often beaten, tortured and killed. Jesus’ dream threatened the status quo because he invited the downtrodden to an entirely different kind of kingdom. Jesus was not satisfied with the first century world, nor can we, as his followers, be satisfied with the 21st century world. They killed Jesus but his dream lives on, in and through our lives, and we are not satisfied with the status quo!

CLICK HERE to continue reading

Losing Jesus - Brian Zahnd

Mary had lost Jesus. She couldn’t find him anywhere. Jesus had gone missing. He wasn’t among the friends and relatives who had traveled to Jerusalem for Passover and who were now returning home to Nazareth. Jesus had always been reliable and trustworthy, but now he was inexplicably absent. Concern gave way to panic as Mary and Joseph rushed back to Jerusalem to search for their missing twelve-year-old son.

For three days Mary and Joseph frantically searched Jerusalem. It must have been agony. On the third day they found Jesus in the Temple, sitting with the rabbis immersed in theological conversation. Mary’s anxiety turned to relief and then to irritation. “Why have you treated us this way? Your father and I have been frantic, searching for you everywhere.”

Our sympathies are naturally with Mary. After all, twelve-year-old boys aren’t supposed to disappear for three days without telling anyone. But this isn’t just any adolescent — this is the divine Word in boyhood. Jesus is unapologetic. He doesn’t offer an excuse. What he does say are the first recorded words of Christ:

“Why were you looking for me? Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?”

Mary and Joseph didn’t understand what Jesus meant by this. It wouldn’t be the last time people failed to understand Jesus.

CLICK HERE to read more

Religion That's Lost Its Way: An Impassioned Plea - Lazar Puhalo

This year, now drawing to an end, must surely remind of us of the horrors mankind can visit upon humanity. The disasters we create are worse than the natural disasters that we often fear more. As we carry the tragedies of this year forward into the new year with unresolved wars, incalculable suffering both of refugees and of those unable to flee from the strife and brutality of war zones, it might be well to consider how much of the horror arises from sectarianism and other forms of tribalism. 

While some would like to deny the degree to which the suffering, genocides and savage slaughters are so often religion-based, this reality is ultimately undeniable. Religion which has lost its way and its bases degrades into a system of primitive tribalism and political ideologies. It is tragic that, with all the sectarian and religious-based horror in our world, so many concern themselves with questions of much less significance and with a form of unrealistic, narrow-minded and often brutal moralisms, the meaning of which vanish in the face of the greater tragedies of mankind. Yet, our tribalism leads us to focus on the less significant, the desire to force others to believe and act as our branch of our religion thinks proper, while offering no deeper consideration to the actual, profound tragedies that religious fundamentalism daily creates around the world. 

God Comes Near - Frontpage with Greg Albrecht

Imagine, for a moment, that you are part of a team building a skyscraper. Your team building this "high rise" would need, of course, a great deal of expertise to ensure that a sound foundation would be laid. Considerable expense and work is involved in preparing the foundation of any edifice that eventually soars majestically, hundreds of feet into the air.

Skyscrapers are incredibly heavy, so they must be built on much more durable foundations than smaller buildings. In virtually every case, a skyscraper requires a deep foundation, with pilings, drilled shafts and columns put in place using a pile driver—all reinforced by concrete. 

When God prepared a spiritual building that would last forever, he carefully laid a foundation. The building of course is us, a spiritual temple in which God himself lives, in the person of Jesus. So in preparation for this spiritual building God planned a foundation that no man could lay, for the foundation for this spiritual edifice was (and is) Jesus, God in the flesh (1 Corinthians 3:11; Ephesians 2:20-22). Here are three foundational truths that flow out of the birth of Jesus—three absolutes upon which our faith rests:

CLICK HERE to continue

How "I Am Your Father" Changed Everything - Dan Skillman

Dan and Rachel Skillman

I'm absolutely NOT spoiling the new Star Wars movie. But I'll be doing some heavy damage to your viewing pleasure of the first six if you haven't seen them yet.

If I were to watch the movie "Star Wars: A New Hope," without having seen the other films in the series, it would be understandable if I thought of Darth Vader simply as a villain, the main antagonist to Luke Skywalker, the protagonist. But, watching "The Empire Strikes Back" makes it clear that there's something greater going on. Vader, it turns out, is Luke's father, Anakin Skywalker. Luke still remains the protagonist, but Vader is something more than a simple villain. 

"Return of the Jedi" completely shifts the paradigm. Although Luke is still the most prominent character in this film, it becomes clear that the original Star Wars saga (IV-VI) as a whole is the story not of Luke but of Anakin/Vader. The prequels (I-III) drive this point home ad nauseam, focusing entirely on Anakin and how he became Darth Vader. Watching the entire series I-VI, it is clear that this is the story of the rise, fall, and redemption of Anakin Skywalker. Luke, it turns out, is a role player. 

Now imagine someone, having seen the entire series, going back and watching "A New Hope" and steadfastly refusing to see all of the new meaning available to them, from subtle nuances to massive shifts in perception. Imagine them even insisting that Vader is not Luke's father, and that the black masked villain is little more than the foil to Luke's hero. 

I think that this is the way so very many people read the Bible. Having read to the end, and having discovered that God is exactly like Jesus forgiving His enemies at the cross, they then return to earlier sections steadfastly refusing to see them in the new light. They go as far as to continue to hold to the notion that God condoned and commanded slavery, rape, warfare, genocide and the eternal conscious torment of not only enemies, but of those who through no apparent fault of their own simply did not believe the right theological formulas. 

For those reading about what God is like in the Bible, here's a spoiler: It turns out God is like Jesus. Exactly like Jesus. Now read the rest accordingly.

"God bless us ... Everyone" - George Sarris

Tiny Tim got it right. And Charles Dickens made it clear with the simple addition of a single space in the text.

The last two words of the child’s famous saying could have been written as one word. But then the meaning might have been misunderstood. The little boy could have been asking “everyone” to pronounce a blessing on him and his family –God bless us, everyone!

But that’s not what he was asking. His request was directed to God, asking Him to bless “every one!”

The real message of Christmas is not that God loves only some people – Tiny Tim . . . the Cratchit family . . . even a changed Scrooge.

The message at the heart of Christianity is that God loves each and every person He created.

He loves you. He loves all those you personally know and love. He even loves all those you don’t know personally . . . and may not love.

The Savior of the World

The angel who appeared to the shepherds on that glorious night to announce the birth of the promised Savior said,

I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.

The best-known verse in the Bible tells us that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. And the very next verse explains why Jesus came:

. . . that the world through him might be saved.

Jesus’ disciple John told his readers that Christ is the atoning sacrifice for our sins,

and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

As we celebrate this Christmas, let us rejoice in the knowledge that Jesus Christ came to redeemall mankind!

And let our request be that of Tiny Tim:

God Bless Us . . . Every One!

                       Visit George W. Sarris on Facebook, YouTube, or his Website.