Okay, we celebrated his birth. Now let's think about his death and resurrection.

This is the first of two videos exploring the death and resurrection of that man whose birth we celebrated last month.

The Fisherman's Hook

Guest post by Jon Agard

Do you have drive? There is no guideline for how to become successful. If you are not successful you will not be happy. You have to push yourself so you do not become stagnant. Where in a liberal rich family do you see a family that has adopted an African child? Money talks. Everybody wants instant gratification, like a hit from a cigarette.

Enjoy the company of others. Enjoy a good book. Be willing to sacrifice. Pain killers? The best pain killer is your own ability to denounce pain, to see the light. My tunnel is not going to be that long. When you accept Jesus Christ into your heart, you will be fulfilled. Do not submit to evil. Believe in yourself and close your mind to the Devil's temptations. What are the Devil's temptations for me? Pussy, money, weed, alcohol, cigarettes, and greed.

Grand Canyon University disinvites Jesus

The Babylon Bee reports,

PHOENIX, AZ—Private Christian school Grand Canyon University has disinvited Jesus Christ from its campus in order to preserve the school's mission of unity after uncovering controversial comments made by the Jewish Messiah that might cause division among students.

Material mentioning Jesus' teachings has been banned, and anyone with Jesus in his heart was asked to vacate the campus immediately.

"We support a lot of the nice things that Jesus says," school administrators wrote in a statement. "He's all about Judeo-Christian values, and that's great. We love that. But here on campus, we want to provide an environment that's free from controversy and divisiveness, and frankly, Jesus said a lot of stuff that's likely to tear us apart."

Administrators pointed to instances like the time Jesus said He was the only way to God, the time He claimed He and the Father are "One," and the time He said that He came not to bring peace on earth, but "a sword."

"These statements simply aren't in line with our values of unity and not ever offending anyone," the statement concluded.

"The Virgin Birth proclaims the union of human flesh and the divine; God is breaking the barriers between the divine and the human."

Walter Russell Mead discusses the Virgin Birth of Jesus.

People have to make their own decisions about what to believe based on the evidence that already exists. I would only observe that if you believe (as I do) that God made the universe and everything in it, and if you believe that he upholds the universe and cares passionately about the well-being of each individual person on earth, then to reject the Virgin Birth as a physical impossibility seems a little forced. Swallowing camels and choking on gnats, as Jesus might put it. But that’s me: this is exactly the kind of question that everyone needs to face on his or her own.

...Mary wasn’t a single mother raising her child alone; her betrothed married her in the usual way and accepted the child as his. The early church wasn’t facing a sea of rumors about Mary’s prenuptial behavior, and if it had been there are more convincing ways of scotching rumors than proclaiming a miraculous virgin birth. Saying that she and Joseph had been secretly married a few months earlier than the official date of the wedding, accelerating the wedding, or claiming that the baby was premature would have been much easier approaches than claiming a unique divine miracle. If sweeping aside inconvenient facts about Jesus’ birth was the goal, the story about a virgin birth was the worst method ever. It’s like a student saying that her term paper is late is because she was swallowed by a whale for three days and couldn’t get wireless reception for her laptop from inside its belly.

...No, the story wasn’t concocted to squelch ugly rumors. The story caused the ugly rumors to circulate in the first place. The early church’s insistence on proclaiming the unique nature of Jesus’ birth more or less forced skeptics to suspect Mary’s virtue. The Church proclaimed a stark improbability as undeniable fact, and that naturally led people to ask the questions they still ask today and to develop alternative explanations for something that they well understood was, absent divine intervention, a biological impossibility.

Some see the idea of the Virgin Birth as part of a wider Christian discomfort with human sexuality. Believing that the baby Jesus didn’t get started in the usual way, in this view, is the result of wanting to keep the holy separated from the sexual. Self-consciously “enlightened” people who find it comforting to suppose that other people are much stupider than in fact they often find this view a comforting one. Those silly Christians and their absurd sexual hang-ups!
No doubt there are and always have been people whose attachment to the doctrine is rooted in feelings of anxiety or guilt about sexuality, but historically the idea of the Virgin Birth hasn’t been seen this way. In fact, the opposite is the case. The Virgin Birth doesn’t separate the holy realm of divine things from the “unworthy” world of flesh and blood human beings with their messy lives. The Virgin Birth proclaims the union of human flesh and the divine; God is breaking the barriers between the divine and the human.

So if the idea of the Virgin Birth isn’t a uniquely lame attempt to cover up Mary’s indiscretions or the manifestation of a sick Christian attitude about sex, what is it trying to tell us? The Virgin Birth has always been connected with two other ideas: one about Jesus as being both God and man, and one about Mary as an individual and more broadly about the place of women in the world.

In the first place, they were making a statement about Jesus. By making the outrageous and inherently doubtful claim that Jesus’ mother was a virgin, the gospels are stressing that this particular baby was unique. He wasn’t like all the other babies; he had a special relationship with God from the start.
At various points during his life, Jesus would talk about this unique relationship and later theologians would make it a centerpiece of their reflection on the meaning of Jesus’ life and career. But the gospels go out of their way from the beginning to make the assertion that Jesus was not just another baby in just another manger. Jesus isn’t important just because he had a special message, the gospels are telling us. He is important because he is a special person.

One of the most common mistakes people make about the role of Jesus in Christianity is to think that, for Christians, the most important thing about Jesus is his role as a teacher. Moses was the lawgiver of the ancient Hebrews; Confucius taught the ancient Chinese how to live; the Buddha taught his disciples how to walk a path toward enlightenment; Muhammad through revelation and example showed his followers how to submit to God’s will. Non-Christians often think that Christians think of Jesus along similar lines: as the Great Teacher who pointed out the True Way.
For Christians, Jesus’ role as a teacher — significant and inspiring as his teachings may be — is the least important thing about him. Not to denigrate an important vocation, but moral teachers are anything but rare. Humanity has many inspiring teachers and prophets. As a species, we have a talent for giving good advice and at our best, the advice that we give is very good indeed. Love your neighbor as yourself. Put God first. Duty before pleasure. Don’t use people as things. Judge by realities, not superficial appearances. Be generous and merciful to the weak and the poor. Act like a parent to orphans. Treat strangers well. Don’t steal. Don’t lie. Honor your parents.

...The gospel writers believed that Jesus came here on another mission. He didn’t come here to be one more cosmic wise man telling us the right thing to do. He came here to do something about the real problem our species faces: our failure to take up the good advice we so readily dish out. He came to deal with the gap that opens up between a God who demands moral excellence and a human race that is simply incapable of living right.

...Christianity is much more than a group of people trying to fulfill the teaching of a revered founder; it is a community of people gathered around a world-changing hero. Jesus did not fulfill his mission by giving the Sermon on the Mount; he fulfilled it by dying on the cross and by rising from the dead.

...The figure of the Virgin Mary marks a turning point for humanity as a whole, but also for the role of women in the world. She is the Second Eve, the one who said “yes” to God when he asked her to be the mother of his son. When God really needed help, the Bible teaches, he went to a woman, not to a man. And the woman said “yes,” and out of her faith and obedience came the salvation of the world.

...it’s enough to understand that when Christians say that Jesus was born of a virgin, there are two main points they are making: that Jesus is the son of God, connected to the author of the universe in a unique and special way with a mission that is fundamentally different from that of all the prophets and teachers who came before, and that the free choice of a strong and faithful woman opened the door to salvation for the whole human race. Jesus is unique, and women are free and equal in God’s sight: that is what we should take away from this story.

...God didn’t send Jesus into the world because he was satisfied with the status quo. God sent him here because things needed to change — and right at the top of the list of the things God wanted to change was the position of women. The change didn’t happen overnight, and even today we haven’t seen the full consequences of giving half the world its rightful due, but from the day that Mary answered Gabriel a new force has been at work in the world, and what we see today is the blossoming of a tree that was planted a very long time ago.

Read more here.

Tim Kaine's gubernatorial edict in 2008 prevented police chaplains from praying "In Jesus name."

In 2008 The Christian Newswire reported

Five Chaplains Lose Jobs for Praying 'In Jesus' Name'...Virginia Governor Tim Kaine Urged to Stop Persecuting Christians
Contact: Chaplain Gordon James Klingenschmitt, 719-360-5132 cell, chaplaingate@yahoo.com

RICHMOND, Virginia, Sept. 25 /Christian Newswire/ -- Virginia Governor Tim Kaine is defending why his administration forced the sudden resignation of five Virginia State Police Chaplains because they prayed publicly "in Jesus' name." Police Superintendent Col. W. Steven Flaherty single-handedly created then enforced a strict "non-sectarian" prayer policy at all public gatherings, censoring and excluding Christian prayers, then accepted the resignation of five chaplains who refused to deny Jesus or violate their conscience by watering down their prayers.

House Republican Leader Morgan Griffith and Delegate Charles W. Carrico, (R-Grayson) both issued public statements defending the chaplains, questioning Governor Kaine's role in terminating the chaplains, and vowing to introduce legislation protecting police chaplains' right to pray according to their own conscience.

Defending Flaherty's persecution of Christian Chaplains, Governor Kaine pretended he himself was being persecuted, saying through his spokesman: "It is disappointing that Del. Griffith would make such a political attack on Gov. Kaine about his faith."

Former Navy Chaplain Gordon James Klingenschmitt, who was also fired in 2007 for praying "in Jesus name" in uniform (but won the victory in the U.S. Congress for other military chaplains), weighed in:

"Governor Kaine campaigned like a Christian to get our votes. But now, instead of governing like a Christian, or respecting his own chaplains' First Amendment rights, his administration forced the resignation of five police chaplains, simply because they prayed publicly 'in Jesus' name.' These five chaplains lost their jobs for honoring Christ. They're heroes of the faith, because they refused to deny Jesus when ordered to by the Kaine administration. If they contact me, they will be honored through my web-site: www.PrayInJesusName.org. And now Governor Kaine pretends he's the martyr, because we question why his administration forced them to resign for praying to Jesus? He's still got a job, they don't. Governor Kaine isn't the martyr, he's the persecutor."

Citizens are urged to call Governor Kaine's office at 804-786-2211, to insist the chaplains be reinstated and the policy reversed, and also email him through his web-site:
http://www.governor.virginia.gov/AboutTheGovernor/contactGovernor.cfm

Chaplain Klingenschmitt is available for interviews at 719-360-5132 cell or chaplaingate@yahoo.com

h/t Derrick Wilburn

It's me!

The Risen Christ carries the marks of his human life. Suffering is never the last word. Life triumphs over death.

"I don't like guys who let themselves get nailed to a cross"

S. Wood reports at the Free Wood Post,

Most of us already knew that Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump was already a narcissistic egomaniac, but what he recently said at a town hall event in Iowa may have officially crossed the line.

While speaking to a crowd in Cedar Falls, Iowa, Trump was again boasting how he is going to magically, without any policy ideas, “make America great again.” In the past he’s said that things under his leadership would be the “best ever” and somehow “save” America from the brink of whatever he thinks is wrong, but while ranting and raving about himself, he seems to have compared himself to Jesus. Not only that, he insinuated that he’s actually better than Jesus.

“You know what I’m gonna do? I’m gonna make America great again. You know how I’m gonna do it? I’m gonna get the best people, only the greatest. I’m gonna save our country. I’m gonna save this nation like nothings been saved before. I’m gonna save this nation like Jesus saved Christians. Except, I’ll be able to save you without some silly cross. I don’t like guys who let themselves get nailed to a cross. Real saviors don’t need crosses, they need know-how. And know-how is what you’ll get with President Trump.”

When I read this post, I was actually believing Trump said these things. Can't you just hear him? Then I realized it is a satirical blog. One that I will add to my blogroll right now!

"I didn't understand what I was part of"

This woman is on a mission. Her mission is for more Muslims to know what is in the Qur'an. "It's about hating and killing those who disagree with Islam. It is about conquering. Your husband has the right to beat you, if you don't obey him."

Then she read the Bible. She learned about Jesus. About love.

Rampant environmental destruction by fellow preaching a Sermon on the Mount

The Roman Departments of Environmental Protection and Homeland Security have taken action today against a fellow named Jesus, who was preaching a Sermon on the Mount. Get all the details here.

Comparison is the thief of joy

Scott Sauls writes,

the impulse to compare and compete does not always come from arrogance.

Sometimes it comes from a frightened, lonely, shame-filled place where the only instinct is survival—like minnows swimming among sharks.

Read more here.

Defending the root of our freedom

Dr. Ben Carson posted this Easter message on his Facebook page:

As Easter approaches, let us remember the role that Jesus Christ and God play in our lives. Let us also remember that Jews, Christians and Muslims all believe in God, and while there are ideological differences in who Jesus was, we should find peace in the fact that we are all God’s children. Jesus is my role model, and he preached love, he preached acceptance. He also was a man of values and principles, and he ended up being crucified for it. But, he rose again to advocate godly principles of loving our fellow man, caring about our neighbors, developing our God-given talents to the utmost so that we become valuable to the people around us, and maintaining high ideals that govern our lives. We must make certain that people of all types of faith are respected by one another. Let us remember that the First Amendment to the United States Constitution is one of the basic pillars of our system of governance and a founding principle of our nation, as it protects religious freedom. It is critical that we allow Americans to practice their religious ways, while also ensuring that no one’s beliefs infringe upon those of others.

Throughout the globe we must serve as champions of freedom of religion. As people across the world are persecuted by religious fanatics who perform hateful acts of ignorance, we Americans have a duty to denounce these acts of persecution. By standing up to such intolerance, we are defending the root of our freedom. I enjoy the following quote from the second Chronicles 7:14, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray, and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sins and will heal their land.”

A publication called the Iowa Statesman had this to say about Carson's message:

Rather than the feel-good statement he likely envisioned he was sending out, Dr. Carson has instead stepped on a political landmine. The comment received thousands of likes and shares, but also received thousands of comments. In Iowa, grassroots Christian conservatives — a key caucus demographic he has attempted to attract — rebuked the statement in droves.

Carson has already had to “clarify” comments deemed critical of the Second Amendment. Expect another “clarification” soon.

I don't see a thing wrong with Carson's statement. Do you?

As forceful as He was gentle

Remember Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ?
Mark Steyn notes how wrong the Washington Post got it in its review:

The headline on the Washington Post review summed it up: "'Passion' Is A Gory Take On A Gentle Teacher's Violent End". Somebody's confusing their Gospel with Godspell. A few days before the "violent end", the gentle teacher had been hurling tables around in the temple. And, even if you overlook the rough stuff, rhetorically Christ was as forceful as He was gentle.

That's the real argument over The Passion Of The Christ. It's not between Christians and Jews, but between believing Christians and the broader post-Christian culture, a term that covers a large swathe from the media to your average Anglican vicar. Some in this post-Christian culture don't believe anything, some are riddled with doubts, but even the ones with only a vague residual memory of the fluffier Sunday School stories are agreed that there's little harm in a Jesus figure who's a "gentle teacher". In this world, if Jesus came back today he'd most likely be a gay Anglican bishop in a committed relationship driving around in an environmentally-friendly car with an "Arms Are For Hugging" sticker on the way to an interfaith dialogue with a Wiccan and a couple of Wahhabi imams. If that's your boy, Mel Gibson's movie is not for you.

Indeed, although Mel is Catholic, his Passion became a hit thanks to evangelical Protestants – those who believe the Bible is the literal truth and not a "useful narrative" culminating in what the Bishop of Durham called a "conjuring trick with bones". Instead of Jesus the wimp, Mel gives us Jesus the Redeemer. He died for our sins – ie, the "violent end" is the critical bit, not just an unfortunate misunderstanding cruelly cutting short a promising career in gentle teaching. The followers of Wimp Jesus seem to believe He died to license our sins – Jesus loves us for who we are so whatever's your bag is cool with Him.

...The picture opens in the Garden of Gethsemane with Christ's arrest, in the midst of which a servant of the high priest gets his ear lopped off and, in the melee, is quietly healed by Jesus. (This is from Luke; the other three gospels have the lopping but not the healing.) For Gibson, this is the point: Christ had power over His captors but didn't use it, and His sacrifice is our salvation. To that end, the director's come up with a structure that folds flashbacks of Jesus' life into the two hours of scourging and crucifixion, presumably to remind us that it's through the "violent end" that the "gentle teaching" becomes universal truth.

After pointing out what he believes are the film's shortcomings, Steyn concludes with:

Mel Gibson was driven by his own passion to make a movie that speaks to millions of people. And, as I always say, if it's not the Jesus movie you'd have made, then go make your own. Back in 2004, I saw it on a Monday-night full house – a rare event in itself – and the crowd was rapt and eerily hushed, except for the occasional sob. It's true that, if you don't believe that Christ's death on the cross is the central event in His time on earth, then Mel's telling won't convince you and the film will look, as it did to Christopher Hitchens, like an S&M flayfest. One can regard this as a criticism of Gibson. On the other hand, all manner of movies – Star Wars, X-Men – leave you cold if you're not already a devotee. For millions of people, Mel Gibson shows them their Jesus and their salvation. Happy Easter.

More here.

A woman who feels and expresses her love for God so beautifully

Ann Voskamp writes about her recent trip to Iraq, via Israel. At the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem,

When I run my hands across the carved wood of the doors, the surrendered wood, you can feel the engraving of time and hopes and fears, how they make their way into the crevices, run into the lowest places.

Turns out that when God comes to this sod, visits this planet, He doesn’t come the expected way: God doesn’t enter our lives through the most esteemed place — but through the most accessible place….

...when you bend low through that door and you kneel down and touch the place where the Maker of the Heavens delivered Himself into earth, where the Creator of the Cosmos birthed Himself as a creature…

...You’re crushed by unfathomable grace.

God is with us.

God was one of us.

God walked this sod, pressed His holy heel into the earth, let His divinity fill a container of skin and filled His lungs with all our atmosphere of ache.

We aren’t alone in this mess. Us on this pale blue dot of a planet in the vast blackness of the cosmos — we are the visited planet. He came. He sees. He knows. We are not alone. God is with us.

...This busted-up, warring world will taste resurrection, not because of people stepping up in front of news cameras or spotlights or spout their soundbites — but because of people who step down into the shadows to be the light of Christ.

This bleeding, broken planet will taste healing not because more of us tried to climb ladders to be seen — but more of us went lower and saw the face of Christ in those who are too often unseen.

In the sanctuary Ann comes into contact with a woman mopping the floors of the church:

And here is this exquisite woman with her bent back and humble mop in the place where God first touched this sod, first let his loud cry mingle with humanity.

And I’m a kneeled mess and can’t stop weeping, my shoulders moving with the breaking of my heart over the beauty and rightness of her lowly offering right where He Himself came low and offered Himself.

The woman leans her mop up against a pew.

She steps in close toward me. And she cups my face in her wrinkled, warm hands.

And she gently kisses my one wet cheek — and on my other wet cheek.

There’s hope in our hells when we become like Jesus to each other.

I don’t understand the thickness of the foreign words she murmurs over me, but I know how this communion makes me feel, and she holds me up as my repentance breaks right open and falls like rain.

She’s like my Mary who kisses the unlikely with this fragrance of His love —

anointing me for my own going lower and dying.

Read more and see Ann's photos here.

Shake off the snake. Let go of the lie.

Ann Voskamp's message to us Christians today is

Shake off the snake. Let go of the lie.

Read the whole thing here.

Is Obama a Christian?

Matt Walsh asks,

Do you know who the media DIDN’T asked about Obama’s religion while Obama was running for president? Obama. And now they’re quizzing the governor of Wisconsin about it? Insane.

...You never win, no matter what, under any circumstance, when the liberal media set out to trap you. It doesn’t matter what you say or how you say it.

What would have been the appropriate way to respond? Walsh suggests:

Do I think Obama is a Christian? Do I look like his biographer? Why not ask me his shoe size next? Maybe his preferred Sleep Number setting? Truly, sir, this line of questioning is the dumbest thing I’ve encountered since the last time I encountered a reporter from the Washington Post. Why in the name of all that is holy are you quizzing me about the president’s religion? Why don’t you quiz him? Oh, that’s right, you’re a groveling coward and a pathetic excuse for a journalist. You forget that you’re job is to get to the truth and enlighten the people, not to seek out Republicans for cheap gotcha moments. You, sir, are a fraud, a disgrace, and an embarrassment to what’s left of your dying profession. This president has prosecuted, spied on, and stifled the media, yet you still carry his water like a spineless vassal. Why don’t you shine his shoes while you’re at it? You should be questioning authority, not shielding it from scrutiny, you shameless hack. I will not legitimize you by answering this question. Instead, I will pray that the Holy Spirit sees fit to endow you with even a shred of integrity and courage, so that you might one day decide to do something that in some way resembles journalism. Until then, please leave my presence before I become physically ill. Thank you, sir, good night.

As everyone has heard, Obama came of age in Jeremiah Wright’s church, learning that white people are bad and God hates America. He was indoctrinated into a heresy called Black Liberation Theology, which teaches, among other things, that Jesus was a black man who came to free the black race, and that whites can earn salvation through paying reparations to black people.

Now I don’t mean to turn this into a homily, but it is interesting to note that Jesus said “by their fruits you will know them.” So far all this talk about how we shouldn’t “judge” others, it seems that Christ is specifically telling us to make judgments about a person based on what they do. How else could we come to know a man by his actions? The insinuation here is that sometimes a person might say one thing but do another, and Jesus wants us to look at what they do and make judgments accordingly. That doesn’t mean we’re omnipotent; it just means we shouldn’t go around like blind idiots (my word, not His) believing everything everyone says, no matter how they actually conduct themselves.

What about Obama's consistent support for abortion throughout his career? Walsh writes,

We know that Obama is either lying about his belief in Christ (my guess) or he honestly believes that Christ blesses abortion and wants to see more of His children ripped to shreds and tossed in medical waste dumpsters. Obama hasn’t just done every conceivable thing in his power to bring about that end, he has done so while invoking the name of God. What sort of Christianity is this? And I hate to think what sort of Christians we are, that so many of us think it impolite to loudly say: “If you believe in a Jesus who celebrates the slaughter of babies, you do not believe in Jesus.”

While many of us try to equivocate and make excuses for men like Obama, it was Jesus who spoke out in terms that, nowadays, would lead to Him being scolded and disowned by many Christians. Christ Himself, who loved children and made it clear that the smallest among us should always be welcomed and protected, said:

If anyone causes harm to these little ones, it would be better for him to have a millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.

Did you catch that? Can we all take a moment to let that one sink in (no pun intended)? You would be better off dead than harming a child. It would be wiser to literally drown in the ocean than do anything that would bring harm, whether physical or spiritual, to a child. That’s God talking. Do we think He was joking? Exaggerating? Just blowing off steam? Does he need to calm down and be reasonable, as pro-lifers are constantly told when they make statements not nearly as strident and damning?

No. This was a direct statement. A command. A promise. When you bring harm to the innocent, you commit a sin so terrible that physical death would be preferable. That’s how much Jesus loves children. He loves them far more deeply and eternally than you love even your own kids. So how could anyone try to turn that Jesus, this Jesus, the Jesus, into a God who blesses abortion? And how could they commit such a heresy and still expect to be considered a Christian in any substantive way?

Walsh would ask Obama:

if I were in a position where I could pose a question to the commander in chief, I’d ask this:

Mr. President, do you believe that Jesus Christ condones, endorses, blesses, loves, or otherwise supports a woman’s right to choose abortion?

Read more here.

Coming face to face with our enemy

What is the point of Lent? That's Ann Voskamp's topic today. Are you having trouble deciding what to give up for Lent? Or, have you just decided to give up Lent? What is Lent? Ann tells us:

It’s the preparing the heart for Easter. Like going with Jesus into the wilderness for forty days, that we might come face to ugly face with our enemy. Our sacrificing that we might become more like Christ in His sacrifice.”

...It is an irrefutable law: One needs to be dispossessed of all the possessions that possess us — before one can be possessed of God.

...I turn towards our Lenten wreath, this path we mark for 40 Days with a moving forward of a symbol of the cross, a moving forward of the candle.

Forty days, I am reflecting on my cross, my sins.

My lent has me hard after the light…

Looking hard for release from this messy body of death.

And there is Jesus.

Jesus with a crown of thorns. Jesus bent low, God carrying my rotting mess, Grace doing what I cannot do, and I cannot ascend to God but He will descend to me.

...A failing lent? It is a good Lent because this lament of our sin — is exactly what prepares us for Resurrection Joy found in our Savior.

Lent gives us this gift: the deeper we know the pit of our messiness & sin, the deeper we’ll drink from the draughts of His joy.

Grief is what cultivates the soil for the seeds of joy.

Go here to read Ann's thoughtful piece, and see the accompanying photos.

Christians and depression

Ann Voskamp writes:

Jesus came for the sick, not for the smug.

The Jesus I know never preached some Health Prosperity Gospel, some pseudo-good news that if you just pray well, sing well, worship well, live well and deposit all that into some Divine ATM — you get to take home a mind and body that are well. That’s not how the complex beauty of life unfolds.

That’s the grace touch of Jesus: The dark is not your fault, the dark is not the heavy night that weighs the worth of your soul, the dark is not about blame.

The dark is about bravely being a canvas for light — about courageously letting your dark be a canvas for sparks of God glory, a backdrop for ambers of mercy in the midst of your fire.

I wanted them to say it all together, like one Body, for us to say it all together to each other because there is not even one of us who hasn’t lost something, who doesn’t fear something, who doesn’t ache with something. I wanted us to turn to the hurting, to each other, and promise it till we’re hoarse:

We won’t give you some cliche – but something to cling to — and that will mean our hands.

We won’t give you some platitudes — but someplace for your pain — and that will mean our time.

We won’t give you some excuses — but we’ll be some example — and that will mean bending down and washing your wounds. Wounds that we don’t understand, wounds that keep festering, that don’t heal, that down right stink — wounds that can never make us turn away.

Because we are the Body of the Wounded Healer and we are the people who believe the impossible — that wounds can be openings to the beauty in us.

No Shame.
No Fear.
No Hiding.
Always safe for the suffering here.

You can be different and you can struggle and you can wrestle and you can hurt and we will be here. Because a fallen world keeps falling apart and even though we the Body can’t make things turn out — we can turn up. Just keep turning up, showing up, looking up.

Please read more here.

Caught in the idolatry of smugness

Ann Voskamp writes:

This is what Jesus always does: He unsettles the comfortable critics, the smug judgers, the pious and proud — and He comforts the unsettled sinners, the unwanted strugglers, the undone stragglers.

The Grace that grows the Tree to cover sins —-
is the Grace that grows a soul toward obedience.

Please read more here.

Where He was born and died?

At least one world leader speaks up for Christianity. David Cameron recalls his recent experience visiting Jerusalem and Bethlehem "where Jesus was born and died." Whoops, you forgot something Mr. Prime Minister. You forgot what Easter is celebrating: the resurrection of Jesus. It's okay, we forgive you!

God's love for us

Ann Voskamp writes today of the weightlessness of God's grace.

Jesus takes the infinite pain of all of this — because of His infinite love for all of us.

Jesus takes the weight of the Body, Jesus takes the things said and done, the things we wish could take back.

Jesus takes the weight of the regrets of things left undone, the things never done that we wish had been done, the things that weigh heaviest of all.

Jesus takes it all — Jesus takes the infinite pain of all of this — because of His infinite love for all of us.