guns for jobs
From pistols to rifles, 24 guns were turned over Monday at Bible Center Church. Men and women traded their weapons for a shot at a fresh start: job training.
Literally beating swords into plowshares!
He shall judge between the nations,
and shall decide disputes for many peoples;
and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war anymore.
- Isaiah 2:4
why aren't calvinists pacifists?
Reformed Christians have often been too comfortable with state-sanctioned violence.
Reformed Christians, and American evangelicals generally, have sometimes seemed like zealous warmongers, believing their nation was seamlessly carrying forward the purposes of the kingdom of God.
Why aren’t we praying for peace? Why do we seek destruction of peoples and nations? Why do we rejoice in the damnation of souls?
When God called us to be soldiers, it wasn’t to war against the other – it was to war against the self.
"I have long since learned that being a follower of Jesus Christ means taking up the cross. My Bible tells me that Good Friday comes before Easter. Before the crown we wear, there is the cross that we must bear. Let us bear it! Bear it for truth, bear it for justice, bear it for peace! Let us go out this morning with that determination."
— Martin Luther King Jr
parable of privilege
But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”
- Luke 10:29-37
Privilege is being able look away.
Privilege is having responsibility to respond.