From Whom All Blessings Flow by Jill Carrattini

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.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
Praise Him all creatures here below.
Praise Him above ye heavenly host.
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

You will eat it for a whole month until you gag and are sick of it. For you have rejected the Lord, who is here among you, and you have whined to him, saying, “Why did we ever leave Egypt?” Numbers 11:20 NLT

And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. 7 Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness. Colossians 2:6-7 NLT

Slice of Infinity Snippets:
In what remains a revealing look at human nature, Moses describes life after Egypt. Rescued Israel was a grumbling people sick of manna, wailing for meat, even longing to go back to the land God had mightily delivered them from. Though their daily bread was actually falling from heaven, they wanted more. In the midst of their discontent, Moses revealed God’s promise for meat, but added the wake up call: “You have rejected the Lord, who is among you” (Numbers 11:20).

To our grumbling prone lips, these words are quite revealing. If being thankful is by nature being aware and appreciative of things beyond ourselves, complaining is refusing to see anything but ourselves. It is refusing to see the one who is among us. Moreover, it is an expression that serves only to affirm our own expectations, whether they are based on faulty visions of reality or not. Certainly the Israelites did not want to go back into captivity, but in their grumbling even slavery began to look inviting. Likewise, the falling bread from heaven ceased to be a remarkable sign of provision from the Father, but remarkably, a sign of monotony and their own dreariness.

Comments:
As we look forward to celebrating Thanksgiving with family and friends, lets really enjoy our time together! Yet, lets also think about our motivations for thankfulness. Here are a few pondering thoughts:
Why do we grumble so much? Why do we concern ourselves so much about our finances and our personal comfort? There are 6 billion people on planet earth and the US is a whopping 300 million. Why are we letting politics split the church? Why are we letting politics/finances keep us from following Jesus? Why, when the culture turns a deaf ear and begins to ignore the church, do we simply turn up the volume? Are we loosing relevance because we have adopted the American idea and we look so much like the the world that people easily see through our religiosity? Do we put our personal comfort before our love for humanity? (I know I do.) How can we focus our animosity on other human beings, regardless of what they do or what they look like when God loved us before we even were?

If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing. Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. 1 Corinthians 13:3-7 (NLT)

Street Culture:
The street culture always pursues and welcomes them, but the doors of the church are open only on Sunday. The church wants them neat and clean, but the streets take them as they are. Leroy Barber, president, Mission Year as quoted in unChristian-Kinnaman/Lyons

Q&A:
On October 28th, I posted the verse from Titus :Remind the believers to submit to the government and its officers. They should be obedient, always ready to do what is good. They must not slander anyone and must avoid quarreling. Instead, they should be gentle and show true humility to everyone. Titus 3:1-2

Shannon asked pointed quesiton about what this will look like when many part of an administration do not match our personal convictions.

One thought I want to convey is that in submitting ourselves to governmental authority, we learn to submit to God's. While men are falible, God is not.

Have a great day in Christ COUGARS!
-Chad

Proper Fear - by Margaret Manning

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.

We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love.

God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world.

Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love. We love each other because he loved us first. 1 John 4:16-19 NLT

All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:18-21 ESV

Slice of Infinity Snippets:
“Afraid of burning? Apply Son-screen.” “How will you spend eternity: Smoking or Non-Smoking?” “Life is Hard. Afterlife is Harder!” “WARNING: Exposure to the Son may prevent burning!”

...the fear of God is quite different from being afraid. Actually, the fear of the Lord is a component of faith; it arises from knowledge of God and from within the context of relationship with God.

I suspect the motivation (in the slogans above), even if unintentional, is to make people afraid of God so that they will turn to God and be spared. But here I believe we confuse God’s judgment with punishment. Often, we want to punish others, or we have misplaced the desire to see others punished for a sense of justice. In contrast, the desire for justice is the desire to see things put right, made right by God. As Jesus prayed, “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” This is a prayer for God’s justice to be done on earth as it is in heaven. Rather than using an apologetic of fear and bidding the world to see all that is fearfully wrong, we are instead exhorted in Scripture to proclaim all that God has set right in Jesus Christ:

Interestingly enough, more than any other command in Scripture, we are commanded to “fear not,” “do not be afraid.” ... So why do we want to use fear to try to persuade others of the good news of the gospel? Does fear have any place in the gospel message? In Jesus’s teaching and message, he reserved his warnings of judgment for those who considered themselves in the “right” with God--those who defined their righteousness by their own merits. Jesus never used fear to convert sinners. Rather, Jesus extended hospitality to those who were on the outside. Indeed, in his message announcing “the kingdom of heaven is at hand; repent and believe the gospel” Jesus extends an invitation, not an ultimatum driven by fear. It is an invitation to enter into the kingdom by following him--his way, his life. In the same way, our Christian apologetic must be invitational, as though God were entreating through us: “We beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”...

Author Scott Bader-Saye comments that fear twists virtue into vice. Fear motivated by a lack of love pursues punishment. When we are detached from love, we preach messages that are built on fear. But those who preach Christ motivated by love, cast out all fear. When motivated by love, we become ambassadors of reconciliation reaching out with faith and not with fear, winning the lost with the hope that God has first loved us.

Comments: A few things stood out to me in today's reading: that we are to implore (beg) others to be reconciled to God and that our apologetic (rational faith sharing) must be invitational. As I pursue REAL relationship with people who do not call Jesus friend, I pray that I am transparent about my fears, pains and losses. I have never been one to journal, nevertheless I want to remember difficult times in my life that I can share. Many of you have known me for a long time. Please do not hesitate to share your memories of difficult times where I was involved. I remember mom's scare with breast cancer, Darrell Meece moving from this world to be with God and my wife's battle with depression during her immense sickness from pregnancy with our daughter. Help me remember pain/suffering in my life so that these times may benefit those whom God entrusts to me; I implore you.

May we all be transparent as we invite our friends to be reconciled to God. We may run into many people today who say they do not believe in God; but I doubt you will meet anyone who says they do not believe in pain.

Faith Quote (shared by Pat): "Do you realize that your imagination of the future, which is almost always dictated by fear of some kind, rarely, if ever, pictures me there with you? The person who lives by fears, especially the projection of those into the future, will not find freedom in my love." God speaking in fictional book "The Shack" by William P. Young

Imago Dei 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.

So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them. Genesis 1:27 ESV

Slice of Infinity Snippets:
Being made in the image of God is not about maintaining a flawless facade, a perfect record, or even a life without scars. All the power of God that raised him from the dead did not erase the scars left by the Roman nails. The marks of suffering were not removed. The resurrected Christ, the perfect image of God, chose to keep the scars of the Cross. It is his image we are being made to reflect. And we are called to come as we are.

What the leprous man recognized in Christ was enough to bring him to his feet in worship. It is this image that continues to erect the heads of the poorest beggars and bow the shoulders of the greatest emperors. It was the image of Christ that made its way into the insecurities of some in my youth group. Though there was "nothing in his appearance that we should desire him," he lived as one touched by another kingdom, obedient to the Father even unto death. In Christ, God supersedes every longing and pain, every sin and scar, with a face that won’t go away. It is this image within us, this image we were made to reflect. Imago Dei is the hopeful commission to become more like the one we follow. It is the cry within us to be who we are: children made in the image of the Most High.

Comments:
I easily believe that God will accept me, 'just as I am'. Nevertheless, when I think of someone who is not living up to my expectations of what people should look/act like, I quickly forget that they also can 'come as they are'. I forget they too, are image bearers. Yes, there comes a time when a person must hear that they need to turn from wickedness and God requires an entire reorientation of our lives. What I have difficulty in doing is encouraging people to go in a Kingdom direction. To be sure, I want to show them who they can turn towards, but I often feel inadequate to do so; or simply do not know how.

I think this is where service can enter in: Service (ministering) humbles us and lifts the head of those we serve.

Also, sharing our own brokenness can be a great help. But I want to move past only being a counselor myself, and point people to the true Counselor.

Perhaps opening up to Christ comes when we see Him lived out. When we know who we are and who He is; and we know that He still loves us.

So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, "Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?" John 4:28-29

The Joy of Living Secretly

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.

Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. Philippians 2:3-4 NLT

Slice of Infinity Snippets:
Dallas Willard, writing about the spiritual discipline of secrecy Jesus espouses in the Sermon on the Mount, says, “[O]ne of the greatest fallacies of our faith, and actually one of the greatest acts of unbelief, is the thought that our spiritual acts and virtues need to be advertised to be known... [S]ecrecy, rightly practiced enables us to place our public relations department entirely in the hands of God... [W]e allow him to decide when our deeds will be known and when our light will be noticed.” When we desire godly secrecy, Willard goes on to suggest that love and humility before God will develop to the point that we’ll not only see our friends, family, and associates in a better light, but we’ll also develop the very Christian virtue of desiring their good above our own.

Comments:
Yesterday, I heard R.C. Sproul say something that I had not thought of before. Voting a tax increase on someone other than yourself is stealing. Hard words, but thought provoking.

May I encourage you to think about putting others as more important than yourself when you go to the polls too. Put away class envy and put others above ourselves. Today we elect a leader. We do not elect a savior; We already have one. God's will cannot be thwarted. Rally behind the one whom God chooses by loving and encouraging them.


Principles for voting by R.C. Sproul

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.

The Apologetic of Now 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.

You see, we don’t go around preaching about ourselves. We preach that Jesus Christ is Lord, and we ourselves are your servants for Jesus’ sake. 2 Corinthians 4:5

Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”
John 13:35

The foundations of law and order have collapsed. What can the righteous do?”
Psalm 11:3

But the Lord is in his holy Temple; the Lord still rules from heaven. He watches everyone closely, examining every person on earth. Psalm 11:4

The need for a coherent and compelling apologetic is reiterated daily. From time to time, it is a need I meet with despair. How do you present the gospel when words are constantly being redefined and the lines between fiction and reality are spoken of interchangeably? ... It is not my ability to communicate or my winsome personality, but the gospel itself that speaks with power, and it is this power that speaks in my life: "For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus's sake" (2 Corinthians 4:5). It is a mindset imperative not only in understanding the Christian story, but the very nature of truth itself. Namely, that which is real, that which exists and has meaning, exists whether we choose to stand beside it or not. Even in the throes of postmodernity, Jesus is Lord and the gospel is powerful. And this we forget when we focus on our ability or inability to answer powerfully the current line of questioning.

C.S. Lewis once asked, "Where, except in the present, can the eternal be met?" In my dismay over the immeasurable need for truth and coherence, in my frustration for lack of words, and despair for not seeming to get through, I fail to live entirely in the present. Whether wishing I had paid more attention in philosophy or hoping to find one more book on effective ministry, I fail to remember that within the hope of the kingdom I want to bring even on an airplane is the person of Christ, present and relevant today...What are we communicating to our neighbors right now?

Comments: I want to be "All-in". A shining example of one who is all-in is Kirk Cameron. Whether you agree with his method in way of the master, or even if you do not think him to be a great actor. We must agree that he is all in for Christ. I remember seeing a news story about how tired and raveged he was after several hours of questioning from an audience. I remember seeing him simply spent and saying something like, "I knew this would be tough, but I didn't realize there would be so many angry people."

Like Kirk, no matter what pressures comes our way, may we, having done all to stand, Stand. Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. 1 Corinthians 15:18

I Would Not Have Known 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.

I did not recognize him as the Messiah, but I have been baptizing with water so that he might be revealed to Israel.” John 1:31

...I wonder how often I do not see the person in front of me--the loved one, the colleague, the friend I sell short as an image bearer of God. John was so taken with what God revealed about Jesus that he realized he had never really known him. This distant cousin, present at family gatherings and near on holidays, was the Lord, the one he had been waiting for all his life. Without questioning God, without doubting Jesus, John immediately reframed his perspective and bowed before the Lamb of God. For the remainder of his days, John gave this testimony of Jesus: "I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. I would not have known him, except that the one who sent me to baptize with water told me... I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God" (John 1:32-34).

How quick are we to adjust our eyes to what God would have us to see in the person beside us? If we are unwilling to let God transform the world before our eyes, there will be people we will never really know, dynamics that will go unnoticed, signs we will miss completely. In the kingdom of God, astonishment should not surprise us.

Contours of Grace

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.

Lost Sheep, Lost Coin, Lost Son
Luke Ch 15

Some of us are so familiar with it (the story of the Prodigal Son) that we might even fail to see the rich contours of grace presented in its narrative. Familiarity with the story assumes its central figure to be a son who leads a wasteful and extravagant life. But a careful reading presents the multi-faceted contours of God's extravagant display of grace towards all wayward sons and daughters.
...it is a prodigal, or wastefully extravagant, grace. The prodigal nature of the father's grace compels him to keep looking for his son--he saw him while he was still a long way off. And despite being disowned by his son, the father feels compassion for him. With wasteful abandon, the father picks up his long garments, exposing his legs and customarily shaming himself, and runs to his son to embrace him and welcome him home. The father orders a grand party for this son who has been found, "who was dead and has begun to live"--brought to life by the rich, grace of God, a prodigal grace, both unexpected and undeserved.
But the prodigal nature of God's grace is also a disruptive grace. God's grace disrupts and sometimes even offends our sense of justice. It seems unjust, for example, that such an extravagant party was thrown for such a reckless, rebellious son. It seems equally unjust that the faithful older brother was not celebrated in the same way as his wayward, younger sibling. Clearly, the prodigal nature of God's grace disrupts us because of how it is given--extravagantly and seemingly wastefully.
...
The final contour of God's grace is perhaps the most obvious point in Jesus's parables. God's grace is a seeking grace. God's grace searches relentlessly until what is lost is found. The prodigal nature of the father's grace compels him to keep looking for his son and to feel nothing but compassion when he finds him. With abandon, the father runs towards the son who was lost and now is found! If this story didn't make the seeking nature of grace obvious enough, Jesus follows it with two other stories about a lost sheep and a lost coin. In both, a relentless search for what is lost ensues until it is found.

If you've lost the wonder of God's grace by over-familiarity to the story, may you rediscover the rich contours of grace--prodigal, disruptive, and relentless in its pursuit of you. If you have never known the richness of God's grace, may that grace find you today!

Comments: Is there some way that you can give unexpected and undeserved grace today? Perhaps something that takes someone off guard because it is so freely given? Seek out this way. For it is the way of Jesus.

When God Was Hungry 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.

"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'

(Matthew 25:41-43)

"There are no ordinary people," said Lewis. "You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations--these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit." - C.S. Lewis memorial oration given at Oxford University Church in 1941

Scripture is replete with reasons to live in perpetual awareness of the image of God around us. Our neighbors--known and unknown--are of the same birthright as we. As the New Testament puts it, we are all God's offspring..
Few of us have had someone physically knock on our door asking for food and water. But all of us have had someone knock on our door...

What would the world be like if we took Jesus at his word? "I was hungry and you gave me something to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink; I was a stranger and you invited me in." What would happen if Christians everywhere treated everyone they came in contact with as if they were treating Christ himself? Lewis gives us an idea: "This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously--no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption.... Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbour is the holiest object presented to your senses."

The great metaphor of a world of souls confronts us daily in literal flesh. And the King is still replying: I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these siblings of mine, you did for me.

Comments: May we endeavor to give dignity to those we come in contact with. May your light shine.

Does the Bible Condone Slavery? by L.T. Jeyachandran

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.

"Do not oppress an alien; you yourselves know how it feels to be aliens, because you were aliens in Egypt.

(Exodus 23:9)

lamentably, it must be admitted that the Church has taken many centuries to live out what Scripture taught long ago, and no doubt we continue to drag our feet. The time delay between the Word of Scripture and its implementation in society is often due to the “holy huddle” mentality prevailing among Christians who are largely unconcerned about issues outside of their immediate periphery. Another reason many Christians continue to remain silent in the face of injustice is the platonic view of the cosmos we have adopted, implying that life in the hereafter is the only issue to be addressed, while we watch the world go by in its destructive way. Both mentalities are sadly misguided.

Those of us who say that we believe the Bible to be the Word of God have to raise our level of awareness and involvement regarding social issues. Having failed to do so, we have let these issues pass into the hands of those who may not be Christians, but are better informed about social injustice and concerned enough to fight wrong practices through legal means. While they have no logical basis to do what they are doing, the real tragedy is that we who do have a basis to address these issues remain largely indifferent. May the Lord of Scripture open our eyes to see that God is interested in the redemption of the whole of creation and not just disembodied souls and spirits!