"First and literally the beatitudes are Jesus' surprisingly countercultural God-bless-you's to people in God-awful situations."
-Frederick Dale Bruner
We started a series on the Beatitudes a few weeks ago at church. Good stuff. Listen in here.
The moment we look down upon
somebody because they aren't as
disciplined, hard working, upright,
smart, responsible, moral,
God fearing, Bible believing, or
Jesus trusting as we are
because they've made idiotic, stupid, immoral
choices again and again and again—
at that moment we are in fact rich in spirit and
Jesus isn't announcing anything to us
before it's a theology or a system or a doctrine
or a church
or a movement or an institution or a worldview
or a way or a perspective
it's an announcement
We started a series on the Beatitudes a few weeks ago at church. Good stuff. Listen in here.
The moment we look down upon
somebody because they aren't as
disciplined, hard working, upright,
smart, responsible, moral,
God fearing, Bible believing, or
Jesus trusting as we are
because they've made idiotic, stupid, immoral
choices again and again and again—
at that moment we are in fact rich in spirit and
Jesus isn't announcing anything to us
before it's a theology or a system or a doctrine
or a church
or a movement or an institution or a worldview
or a way or a perspective
it's an announcement
[from "Blessed are the poor in Spirit", Rob Bell, 9/13/09]
It seems like as evangelical Christians, we've often taken the paradoxical positions that (1) you can't do anything to earn your salvation but (2) nothing in this world should come without having earned it.
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