Moving on to Mark 2 verse 23 to 28 and the tricky question of whether we obey the biblical law to the absolute letter or whether by sometimes doing that we can perhaps miss out on the heart of the law and the foundational message of 'Love God, Love people' message that Jesus spoke. to continue on to 'Jesus has a death wish?' click here
well technically 'friend of vandals' as it was his friends who broke open the roof so they could get their paralysed buddy to Jesus but see what i take from this story that can be found in Mark 2.1-13
'you will be known by the Love you have for each other.' [Jesus Christ, john 13.35] that's almost very completely different from 'you will be known by the lack of love you show to each other' it blows my mind that this concept has been abused all over the world in many different ways by people quoting scripture '[or at the very least chanting 'the bible says' in response to any criticism] to justify things, [...]
Alone with a Jihadist: A biblical response to holy war [by Aaron D. Taylor] This was the second book i have reviewed for the Speakeasy group i belong to and it took me by surprise in two main areas: [1] the title is 'Alone with a Jihadist' and so i kind of figured the book would be about this guy who was interviewing this other guy who was a jihadist for the entire book. but [...]
Colossians 3 verse 13 reads, 'Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.' i am not convinced that 'forgive and forget' is a biblical concept altho many people quote it as if it is... for me the idea that God has forgiven my sin and then developed some kind of universal amnesia is a lot less exciting than the picture [...]
Philippians 2 verse 14 to 16 says, 'Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky 16 as you hold firmly to the word of life. And then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain.' [...]
Ephesians 4.15 says, 'Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.' Ah, i get it now! When i read 'Share without pretending' i had no idea what this was going to be about, but the verse link cleared it up. We are talking about speaking the truth in Love. And i would add in Proverbs 27.6 for [...]
i read these two powerful blog posts while i was eating breakfast before work today and really felt the need to pass them on [the third blog post where the author shares two of the negative responses from so-called christians i just don't even want to post a link to - you can find it - because i just get so crazily annoyed that people can think of themselves as Christ-following Bible-reading people and still [...]
Proverbs 17 verse 1 says, 'Better a dry crust with peace and quiet, than a house full of feasting, with strife.' i'm hoping there is a feasting with no strife option, but in the meantime i think i will reach for the dry crust. to Answer without Arguing feels like it belongs hand in hand with Speak without Accusing. and perhaps if person 1 speaks without accusing, then person 2 will be more inclined to [...]
Proverbs 21 verse 25 and 26 read, 'The craving of a sluggard will be the death of him, because his hands refuse to work. All day long he craves for more, but the righteous give without sparing.' Okay, so my hand is up again, but this time i think it's a good thing. Giving generously is a way in which we can show Love well. In fact when I read the words "without sparing" the [...]