Kingdom Ready Blog

We find throughout the New Testament, sections which speak to how followers of Jesus Christ are to behave toward fellow believers or the attitudes which they should have or not have toward fellow disciples.  Here is a list of some of these.  The Christian walk can keep us quite busy.  Of course, these things are all predicated on our love for God.  The phrasing is from the KJV.

When we try to understand just who we are, we inevitably turn to our families and communities. Closely tied to our perception of ourselves is the perception of everyone else, specifically those not in our community. This is what ‘the other’ is. It is the group of people that you define yourself over and against. Generically, for the Christian ‘the other’ is the non-Christian. You could map out the groups along all sort of barriers and lines. The “haves” and the “have-nots”, the Catholic and the Protestants, African-Americans and Caucasians, are all good examples. The problem comes not with the intrinsic differences – but rather the perception of the ‘other’.

The subject of pacifism and whether it is Biblically supported has been a recent topic of discussion here on kingdomready and it is something that many of us have differing opinions about. I have been giving it a great deal of thought recently since many of my compatriots here on the site see pacifism in the positive and I have always viewed it in the negative (being the true view of Scripture that is). But since I respect their opinions and only wish to know and rightly follow the real truth (whether that be how it see it or how my colleagues do makes no difference – truth is truth), I have been researching the subject with an intense focus over the last couple of weeks.

On one of the recent comment threads here on kindomready there has been a lot of discussion about the proper biblical view of war and whether or not a Christian should be involved in it in anyway.  Should Christians be strict pacifists to never bring violence against another person regardless of circumstances?  Or is war and violence sometimes necessary in order to protect ourselves from evil? Here on Veterans Day 2008, perhaps this is an apropos topic to discuss further in its own subject thread.

. . . and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. . . For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.  Matthew 6:12,14,15 (ESV)

From these words spoken by our Lord, we know that we need to be concerned about forgiving others.  Like so many other aspects of the Christian walk, forgiveness can be difficult to nail down since it is something that takes place in the heart and mind of the believer.  I recently read an article* about forgiveness that helped shed some light on this topic.  There were five points listed about what forgiveness is not. Here they are.

My local Jehovah Witnesses recently came by for a follow-up visit to an earlier one (which I wrote about here on the blog – “When the Arians came calling“).  During their most recent visit I was asked: “Other than your disagreement with our view of Jesus being a preexistent angel, what else would prevent you from being a Jehovah Witness?”.  My response was that there were several other views that I did not agree with (e.g. their view of the 144,000, and some others), but it was their prohibition against blood transfusions that I thought was not only wrong, but just plain dangerous and insidious.

Though the video above is humorous, it strikes a convicting chord because it points out our tendency to forget and marginalize God. We fill our lives with so many people, so many events, and so many things that we have no time left over for God. Even for those of us in full time ministry, it is a constant battle to not substitute the work of God for actually spending time with God. Even so, the Scripture is very pointed on how God feels about “competitors.” Please consider the following verses:

I’m not one that is usually surprised by what I find out about the world today.  I know that sadly the lines of morality are getting more blurred and that the black & white of what is right and wrong is often getting repainted with drab coats of grey.  But two things that I encountered in the last few weeks have made me downright troubled about the lack of any kind of a moral compass in today’s society. 

I read an article recently detailing the benefit of using self control to gain mental strength.  You can read the article in the Albany Times union archives entitled, “Grant funds study of self control” from a gentleman named Mark Muraven.  In it an amazing comparison is made to practicing mental restraint in order to gain overall mental strength.  Here is a quote from the article,

“Mark Muraven, a social psychologist, theorizes that self-will is a muscle. Exercise it, and it gets stronger.” 

and 

http://blog.beliefnet.com/godspolitics/2008/08/a-pop-star-pastors-public-fall.html

Some notable excerpts:

In Australia’s prominent churches (including world-famous Hillsong), this passionate, talented, and broken 28-year-old was not just a hero but a superstar. Until he confessed to the lies about his terminal cancer and his addiction to pornography, all of which have come as a painful shock to those closest to him. …

While some might want to write Mike off as another right-wing, power-hungry prideful preacher using Christianity as a vehicle for his own fame with no concern for others unless they can help build their empire, this simply is not true of Mike.