The Sky is Falling by Jill Carattini

Take approximately 5 minutes to read this shortened version of yesterday's 'A Slice of Infinity'. Post comments to the blog for spiritual collaboration. Please email your prayer requests too.

Parable of Talents

Slice of Infinity Snippets:
Chicken Little is afraid. The sky is falling and she needs to tell the king. She dashes off as fast as she can, running into friends along the way with whom she shares her fear. “The sky is falling!” she yells, and her worried friends join the race to find the king.

The well-known misadventures of Chicken Little and her friends tell a tale of fear and its infectious grasp. ...It seems like we have been hearing it a lot this year...

Focusing on our fears, ever-reacting to our worries, and accepting this culture of fear as a given, not only affects our subsequent reasoning, living, and faithfulness, our fears in fact become us. Our fears tell us how to spend our money, raise our children, vote in an election, and participate in (or isolate ourselves from) society. We become no different than Chicken Little or the slave in Jesus’s parable who withdrew in fear of his master and buried his talent in the sand...

Yet the harsh rebuke of this slave in the parable of the talents makes it clear that safe-living is not an option, nor an ultimate value, in the kingdom of God. So is there a distinctively Christian alternative to the atmosphere of fear that is so pervasive and contagious? The parable of the talent asks us to see the power and control we allow to masquerade as security and so convince ourselves that we are living wisely, even morally upright, when we are really living in fear. These fears move us to withdraw from the very kingdom Jesus calls us to join and join with him in announcing. Instead of moving further up and farther into the kingdom he proclaimed among us, we dig for our souls a place in the outer darkness.

There is indeed an alternative, but it is neither safe nor easy. It involves laying down our fears to follow Christ with faith’s daring; it involves opening our lives to a world that scares us, and rejecting the anxiety of a world convinced the sky is falling. The Christian alternative to a culture of fear is a kingdom of hospitality and abundance, vulnerability and generosity, love and self-sacrifice--the very kingdom Christ shaped with his living and dying, and invites us to do the same.

“Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”

Tiny Beginnins by Alison Thomas

Take approximately 5 minutes to read this shortened version of yesterday's 'A Slice of Infinity'. Post comments to the blog for spiritual collaboration. Please email your prayer requests too.

Here is another illustration Jesus used: “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed planted in a field. Matthew 13:31 NLT

The birds nested in its branches,
and in its shade all the wild animals gave birth.
All the great nations of the world
lived in its shadow. Ezekiel 31:6 NLT

“‘While I was lying in my bed, this is what I dreamed. I saw a large tree in the middle of the earth. 11 The tree grew very tall and strong, reaching high into the heavens for all the world to see. 12 It had fresh green leaves, and it was loaded with fruit for all to eat. Wild animals lived in its shade, and birds nested in its branches. All the world was fed from this tree. Daniel 4:10-12 NLT

Slice of Infinity Snippets:
Since Jesus and his disciples were familiar with those mighty images, the deliberate irony in the parable of the mustard seed was clear. The kingdom of heaven would grow from its tiny beginnings to a great tree that would ultimately provide shelter, protection, and benefit to the entire world. As Craig Keener notes, "The parable is intended to accent both the qualities of growth and contrast. Like the mustard seed, the kingdom's humble beginnings and unpretentious character offer no visible indication of its future growth and glory, but just as there is continuity between the tiny mustard seed and the resulting 'tree,' so there is continuity from the seemingly inconsequential beginnings in Jesus' ministry and the future glory of God's consummating reign. Thus even though the beginnings of God's kingdom as manifested in Jesus may appear unimpressive, it is casually dismissed at one's own peril."

How marvelously the parable of the mustard seed highlights the past, present, and future magnificence of the kingdom in which God reigns. Though the presence of the King among us may at times feel threatened and slight, his is a kingdom with an explosive promise: it is not the one who plants or waters; it is God who makes things grow. Even now God is working to that end of future glory, calling us to see the great tree in the seedling, growing all things in his time--even those with the tiniest of beginnings.

Comments: This week I know you received my letter/website forward. As you search to share this, I want to ask you to be diligent in prayer for God's will. It is his Kingdom we want to bring, not our own.

Here is one way I have approached sending this letter out:

Thanks Ryan, you have always been very open to dialogue and that is something I really admire about you. You have a keen mind and you are gentle towards your fellow man.

I don’t know if you already received the letter. I’m assuming you have not. There is an attached web address that the letter asks you to follow. When I first saw the video on this website, I wanted everyone to see it and I didn’t care about the consequences. Therefore, I sent it out to many people on my email list. Looking back, I wish I had not been so hasty and had asked permission first, as I have done with you. Adam is one whom I think got the original without any prior soliciting.

If I may, I would like to expound first on my reason for asking permission. There is a cultural perception of Christians that I am trying hard to overcome. The perception goes a lot like this: Christians are: judgmental, too political and anti-choice, anti-gay and anti-just about everything. Put it this way, if I know my neighbor is a Christian, it is likely because I know he votes pro-life or at least republican and that he goes to church on Sunday. It is unlikely that I know he is a Christian because I know he cares about me and my life circumstances. I don’t know he cares because he does not demonstrate that he cares and therefore is actually demonstrating that he really only cares about himself. Likely, with Adam and with many others whom I hastily sent the letter/website to, I have played right into this cultural perception that much of the church has earned so well.

So, I ask permission to speak into your life about the topic of abortion because I do not want to be that guy. I wish the video were edited to remove any mention of politics and we could simply look at what abortion is. Unfortunately, this is not the case. However, I still feel that the rest of the video is powerful and moving.

Thanks for letting me get all this out. I look forward to talking to you more.

Have a great Monday everyone. Keep praying for the upcoming elections here in the United States that His Kingdom come and His well be done. Consider joining the windfarm prayer initiative on November 3rd (9pm mountain time) and consider downloading the 'daily audio bible' podcast. This would be another connection for us as we grow together.

All for Jesus the Christ
I am Chad Livingston

Time and Transformation by Jill Carattini

Take approximately 5 minutes to read this shortened version of yesterday's 'A Slice of Infinity'. Post comments to the blog for spiritual collaboration. Please email your prayer requests too.

This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! 2 Corinthians 5:17 (New Living Translation)

Slice of Infinity Snippets:
To the one who has been united with Christ, the daily indwelling of God is a gift. Within our experience of time, the message of the gospel is all the more transformational, Christ is our moral influence daily, and through the Holy Spirit we are being further transformed into his image. But this kind of transformation is neither the dramatic change we often hope for, nor the steady linear progression we might expect. Like Paul himself, we find ourselves doing the things we don’t want to do, falling back into mindsets that need to be renewed, imitating a broken world more than we imitate Christ. Transformation at these times seems far less like Lazarus rising from the grave and more like a would-be butterfly refusing to come out of its cocoon.

But even here, Christ is surely near, the eternal urging us to see the potential in this very moment. Whether we make our bed in the depths, whether we fall repeatedly or seem to be moving backward, God is both near and at work. In the experience of time before us is the radical promise of transformation and the gift of looking glory full in the face. By the power of the Spirit, God takes the most wretched of creatures and changes him into the likeness of Christ, the most beautiful creature. Whether time is flying or standing still, for the worst of us,..., this is indeed good news.

Comments:
One way to experience God in your life is through service to others. May we start / continue to make space for unbelievers in our lives. This is as easy as saying hi or dropping someone a note and as difficult as inviting them over to your home.