Kingdom Ready

Philosopher, scientist, and Christian apologist Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) observed that “all of man’s miseries come from him not being able to sit still in a quiet room alone.”

Give a dog a bone to chew on and a warm fireplace to curl up beside, and it’ll be perfectly content. Give a cat a scratching post and a sunny windowsill, and it’ll be perfectly at peace. But give a man everything he could ever want, and he will eventually grow restless.

I have been on a 36 year quest to find the right the path which would give me a greater spiritual awareness and closeness to my Creator. I have found it to be a rocky road at times. On this journey I have finally come to know God in a greater way than I ever thought possible. I have also found that the hard things in life can be good for us, because they help us, by Faith, turn to our Creator and seek his help and guidance. GOD LIKES THAT, yes he likes when we depend on him. It was always that way we just didn’t know it. After all he did create us, wouldn’t you think he has all the answers. WHY NOT ASK? Please read the following Article, in it you may find something that can help you, as it did for me.

I just finished watching Constantine’s Sword by James Carroll. It was not what I expected from a seminarian and ex-Catholic priest. I expected more of a documentary explaining theology behind the peace movements. Carroll, during his priesthood, while a chaplain at Boston University, was a big part of the Christian anti-war movement. What the move actually is was very different. Part of my expectations were based on a lecture I saw that Carroll gave during the Religion & Violence Conference given last February at Trinity Church in Wall St. New York City. In that lecture he gave a fantastic analysis of the American civil religion and violence, heavily based on biblical themes though in no way actually backed by it. I got a story about primarily about anti-Semitism throughout the Christian ages. On its way through that story was the interaction with state-backed religion, and a smart bit of theology about it. The stories were incredibly moving. One of the most moving images was seeing the erection of a Cross directly outside the walls of Auschwitz by the then Pope. It is unfathomable to me that the institution of the church could be so insensitive. I highly recommend this film for all to see.

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.

Last night, I watched this sermon by Shane Claiborne of the Simple Way, an intentional community in the “bad lands” of north Philadelphia. He shares his incredible story of how God has led him throughout his life to learn what it means to take Jesus’ words seriously and really follow him. He was born in east Tennessee and was raised as a Methodist. He went to a “get saved” meeting each year and got born again, again and again. Then he went to Eastern in Pennsylvania and found himself reading an article about homeless people who were being evicted from an abandoned Catholic church. He and 100 others got involved by moving into the church with the homeless and suffering with them while sharing the love of Messiah. I won’t give too much away, because it is a beautiful story. He also interned with Mother Theresa in Calcutta and has done some incredible things in Philadelphia since then.

Click here to listen to No Resolution – No Peaceas delivered by Lennox Abrigo, Apr 28th 2008, Atlanta Georgia. Commentary by John Obelenus

Lennox’s thesis is that personal relationships are destroyed by fear and immorality, and built up by peace and family. Society is based upon personal relationships, therefore it is necessary for the benefit of us all that our personal relationships are “working”.

He notes the accepting air of society around our initial human ungodly and sinful state. This only enhances people’s ability to sustain their injustice and replacement of moral values to the detriment of order and chaos.

Here is something very powerful that impressed itself upon me recently.

I found this prayer by Kaj Munk in the book The Irresistable Revolution by Shane Claiborne. Whether or not you agree with the contents or even think the book is a worthwhile read, I think everybody needs to see and/or hear this.

Kaj Munk was a Danish Lutheran pastor who was vehemently against both the regimes of Hitler and Mussolini and was eventually martyred during World War 2. This is a prayer or his.

I was reading through the book of Mark the other day, and I could not help but notice a pattern.  Several times when Jesus talks about his crucifixion the surrounding context is about power.

Recently, in speaking with people, and endeavoring to share the gospel, I have noticed quite a few folks have brought up a similar opinion. The general view that they seem to believe can be summarized like this: “Religion causes division among people. In fact all wars are rooted in religion or religious differences. Therefore religion is not a good thing.” What these individuals seemed to really be saying, in essence, was “I’m not interested in religion, and in particular, I’m not interested in Jesus or the gospel.”