Friday, March 23, 2007

Which way...is the right way?


No-Bible-Thumpers
Originally uploaded by ericblauer.

Behold, My Servant...He will not cry out or raise His voice, nor make His voice heard in the street..-Isaiah 42:1-2

As Christians we are called to follow the way, the truth and the life of Jesus. Holding in tension the call to live out the way of Jesus, just as He lived out the Life of His Father. In doing that we need to also go in the truth of who Jesus is as well. He chose to live a certain way as a man, even though who He was was as God was so much more. He chose to empty himself and come as a servant even though He was Lord of all. That act was an example of biblical meekness.

One of the major problems the jewish leaders had with Jesus was the fact that He didn't fulfill their preconceived ideas (many which were biblical) about what the Messiah would do and how he would do it. They couldn't see Jesus riding on a donkey...they wanted a messiah to come first on the warhorse of the apocalypse. They wanted to skip the first verses of Isaiah 42 and get to the end of the chapter where it says:

"The Lord will go forth like a warrior, He will arouse His zeal like a man of war. He will utter a shout, yes, He will raise a war cry. He will prevail against His enemies. -Isaiah 42:13

The church militant is a reality, she is conquering through love, humility, service and grace in footsteps of the one who rode a colt first.
Then through dying to self she shall be reborn in another age riding on a white horse. Her perceived lowliness shall be transformed into the reality that she is...a conquering white horse of victory. Not a wild untamed stallion but a trained & reined, yet free horse of strength, meekness and glorious beauty.

The gospel must be preached and we must use words if necessary. (St. Francis of Assisi...or sissy, depending on your perspective)

"More arguments are lost by arrogance than are ever lost by poor reasoning...What does that mean in practice? It means not just arguing the truth of the Christian faith, but living that truth every day. It means that instead of lashing out in response to attacks and insults, we bear them patiently and respond with Christ-like grace and love. Instead of going for the jugular in a conversation or debate with a nonbeliever, we listen and answer with respect. Instead of thinking we have all the answers, we are ready to be corrected and to learn. When have we ever needed such an attitude more than we do right now? In the times in which we live, anger and spite are more and more taking the place of rational discussions. If we hope to convince the world that Christ has truth and hope to offer, this is the way we must do it—as Sire says, with "a reliance not on the cleverness . . . of argument but on the power of God to will and to do his good pleasure." -lifted from a Chuck Colson break point article that quoted James Sire's "A little Primer on humble apologetic"

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree with the sissy! ~Matt

Anonymous said...

I don't know if this applies cause I barely read the whole post...but just in regards to the first verse....Jesus also was the dude giving the sermon on the mount and I bet he had to be talking very loud....