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if anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all. what would the world be like if we all followed this as the principle we lived by? can you imagine the difference in the world? everyone living lives where we put everybody but ourselves first. sounds quite utopian doesn't it? no war, no more divorce, no more abuse, no more hatred based on something as silly as someone's skin color, no more economic classes because we wanted to serve those in need, no more self esteem and depression issues because ourself worth comes from what we're doing for others and not how they see us. sounds a lot like heaven doesn't it? |
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current reading:: This Beautiful Mess by Rick McKinley |
| i'm curious to find out what the opinions are out there. please leave a comment. the reason i ask is that i've grown up in the church my entire life, and though i have my dislikes it's harder for me to see things that others see so easily. consider it educating me on what's right in front of me. please please comment, so i dont have to continue to be ignorant to things. thanks |
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current reading:: This Beautiful Mess by Rick McKinley |
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a rich young man comes to Xp to find out if he's done enough to gain eternal life. Xp tells him to simply sell everything he has and follow Him. of course as most of us would do (myself included) the rich young man goes away discouraged. i have read this story many times and i always thought Xp said this as a way to humble the rich man. but i saw it in a different light this morning. verse 21 says that Xp loved him. Xp was trying to humble him but simply share some valuable advice with someone He loved. alot like the rest of the Bible, it's not about keeping us from doing things or making life less fun...it's giving us valuable wisdom to help us. the conversation Xp has with His disciples immediately following this incident is extremely encouraging. Xp says that it is quite hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. the disciples then ask well then can anyone be saved? and Xp says, that man can't but with God anything is possible! we're all flawed, we're all messed up in some way and Xp knows that. but because of God, our flaws, our imperfections, our mistakes can be over looked. now that's some good news. |
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current reading:: This Beautiful Mess by Rick McKinley |
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in this chapter Xp enters Jerusalem. the people of Jerusalem are there waiting for Him. those people laid their cloaks on the ground giving Him the royal treatment. to those people He was entering Jerusalem as a king. i'm sure that some of those people had visions of this new King over throwing the Roman oppressors. and we're no different than those people thousands of years ago. we have our own visions of the kind of king Xp should be. we think He's our friend, our buddy (gotta love Dogma (the movie that is), our lord, our savior, our king, even our homeboy. what's interesting is that Xp is all these things but so much more, but we prefer to compartmentalize who He is. we just want Him a certain way so that it's not an inconvience to our lives. we have to move away from that mindset. Xp doesn't mold to us we should mold to Him. |
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current reading:: This Beautiful Mess by Rick McKinley |
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two things jump out at me... "love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength." "love your neighbor as yourself." its amazing that two simple phrases could so easily state what Xp expects of us. these two phrases apply to every area of our lives. this isn't theology or something that's scholastic and confusing. we should love God and love others. makes me wonder why us humans make following Xp so hard? |
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current reading:: This Beautiful Mess by Rick McKinley |