503 results for tag: blog

Clenched Fists, Limp Wrists or Open Hands – Brad Jersak

How do I wait when God seems to wait? When do I act as God's hands?  How do we wait for God's grace when we are called to be agents of God's grace?  "For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay." (Hab. 2:3) "God sees the truth, but waits." Leo Tolstoy To me, this is a very difficult question, because rather than just asking God for a direct answer, the question itself puts us into a posture or place of waiting... potentially awkward or even painful waiting. But here's a little prayer exercise that may lead you into seeing ...

Q&R: What’s with ‘spiritual warfare’?

Question: I've been thinking about this idea of war. Is there any space for 'war' in God's heart? I think absolutely not. Just peacemaking, and laying life down, and endless mercy and love, etc. But what about spiritual warfare? What about the spiritual battle language so prevalent in the church. Is that not a form of war against...the devil, demons, etc? Is that appropriate. Are they not also God's creatures whom he cannot hate? Will he not forgive them in the end? Or is spiritual warfare just a metaphor to help us make sense of things? If so, I feel like it's really problematic for our war-mongering, us vs. them culture. Can we hold on ...

Being Loved and Served and Passing It On

Friend and Partner Letter October 2021: In 1942 the United States was at war with Japan. Many citizens, and for that matter, our state and federal government, found it hard to distinguish between Japanese-American residents and citizens of the United States and the sovereign nation of Japan, who had launched the infamous surprise attack at Pearl Harbor. Something like 120,000 Japanese Americans were forcibly relocated to internment camps located primarily in the midwestern, southern and western United States. Carole Doi was born as a third generation Japanese-American while her parents were interned in one of the many camps which were ...

“Always in the Care of a Loving God” – Brad Jersak

"We are always in the care of a loving God." Attendees of 12-Step Recovery meetings (AA, NA, SAA, etc.) regularly make a powerful and counterintuitive affirmation—from and for addicts who, given their history of tragic life experiences, might have every reason to disbelieve it. They say:  “We learn that the world is a much safer place than we had ever known before, because we are always in the care of a loving God." Seriously? I generally don’t regard this world as a safe place. Just watch the news tonight (or better, take an extended mental health break from it!). But my sense that life in this world is mainly tragic is, in ...

Counterfeit vs. Genuine Love by Greg Albrecht

Friend and Partner Letter from September 2013: Where is love? Does it fall from skies above? – Lyrics from “Where is Love?” from the stage musical and film “Oliver!” – based on the 1839 novel “Oliver Twist” by Charles Dickens. Ten-year old orphan Oliver Twist sings the haunting refrain “Where is Love?” after being banished to the cellar of a funeral parlor. After enduring most of his early life in a “workhouse,” Oliver is assigned as an apprentice in a funeral home, which turns out to be another slave-like exploitation, where he serves an undertaker. Just before Oliver plaintively sings about the whereabouts of ...

What if God has your back? by Brad Jersak

“What will be will be, but God always has my back.”  A friend of mine said that last night.    Thoughts and feelings burst through my mind and heart like fireworks.        "This feels deeply true to my heart of hearts."      "But is it true? What about affliction?"      "How is this different than denial of suffering?"       "How is this different from platitudes like 'everything always works out'?"   Because it doesn't always work out.Even good people go bankrupt, lose their jobs, their homes. Even good people get sick, ...

Love Thrives in Tough Times by Greg Albrecht

Friend and Partner Letter from August 2015: The popular idea of love, particularly among the young, is of a rapturous, eternal, sun-soaked, care-free day at the beach. Two young people who are head-over-heels “in love” dream of having children and a family, but give little thought to sleepless nights and dirty diapers. Smitten by infatuation, young people can only imagine the future as being picnics in the park and endless passion in their bedroom. It doesn’t take long for two people who are in love to realize that this thing called love encompasses all the days and times and moments of their lives – love shares joy and sorrow. ...

How Far Will God Go? – Greg Albrecht

Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; ...

Q & R: Why the Prophetic Directives to Destroy? — Brad Jersak

  Question:  I just finished reading your new book A More Christlike God and I loved it! I have a question and want to see if you know of any resources that might be helpful.Specifically, my question relates to certain stories in the OT where God seems to give clear prophetic directives about killing every man, woman, child and animal in the city such as in the story of Joshua and Jericho. I understand that sometimes people heard God through their own "lens" and may have attributed actions/words to God that were really a reflection of their own image of God. However, what do you do with passages where there seems to be a clear ...

Q&R with Brad: Why did God put us on earth in the first place?

WHY?LIFE is precious QUESTION: If God's final word for humanity is mercy rather than eternal conscious torment, then that sits better with me. This question remains for me: why would God even put us on earth in the first place, if we are just going to freely choose him anyway? We didn't consent to be put through all of this suffering. God doesn't need more glory. I was always taught that free will was just because God wanted someone to freely choose to love Him, which is a cool idea, but at what cost to us? RESPONSE: I wonder if it’s the same reason we keep having babies. Because despite the suffering humanity both causes ...

Who Are You? by Greg Albrecht

Friends and Partner Letter From July 2014: Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979-1990, was the longest-serving British Prime Minister of the 20th century. While she was in office Mrs. Thatcher visited a home for seniors, the kind of place often referred to as an “old folks’ home.” As she made the rounds shaking hands, she came to one older lady who seemed to be suffering from dementia. She gave no indication that she had any idea that she was shaking hands with the Prime Minister. Mrs. Thatcher asked the woman: “Do you know who I am?” The dear lady replied, “No dear, but if you really want to know ...

On the Grill: An Inquisition of the Sincere – Brad Jersak

    On the Grill: An Inquisition of the Sincere.   Questions. Interviews, investigations, inquisitions. Grilling.   I’ve been on the grill a fair bit over the decades. Questions, so many questions. And I love questions. There is no greater favor you can do a vocational teacher than ask him or her a question.   These include the happy experiences of Q & A sessions where I really knew my material. Others were designed to be positive, yet felt stressful because the stakes involved were high: job interviews, candidacy committees or the closing viva (oral exams) for my post-graduate degree. Some ...

Between Religious Rocks and Life’s Hard Places – Greg Albrecht

  Don’t you just hate it when you are in church, and the preacher finally utters those sweet words of promise—“and in conclusion” —but your idea of a conclusion and his are like ships passing in the night? When you hear the words “and in conclusion,” you heave a sigh of relief and start dreaming about beating the lunch crowd at your favorite restaurant, but the preacher keeps going on and on and on.    Okay, I’ll make this brief (that’s another thing that preachers like me say that drives me crazy because when they do I know it will be anything but brief ).   In the “Introduction” to my ...

Q&R with Brad Jersak – On Abraham’s Attempt to Sacrifice Isaac

"Woah there, big fella!" QUESTION: My husband and I were missionary children, and have been impacted by the perceived “child sacrifice” practices/ideology (boarding school, prioritization of ministry and the unevangelized, etc.) of the mission organization our parents worked with at the time. As adults, we find the story of God asking/demanding Abraham to sacrifice Isaac to prove his loyalty extremely troubling. Your teaching about the love of God being the nature and character of God resonates with me. I thought you might have a way to approach this story. Response: This is certainly an important question, probably best handled ...

Q&R with Brad Jersak – “What will become of the ungodly?”

Question: How do you understand 1 Peter 4:17-18, which reads: 17 The time has come, you see, for judgment to begin at God’s own household. And if it begins with us, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel? 18 And "if the righteous person is scarcely saved, where will the ungodly and the sinner appear? I'm especially wondering about what "the judgment" that begins with the church means, but also what verse 18 could mean for "where will ... the sinner appear." Response: Excellent question! The best way to respond begins with the bigger picture of Peter's purpose for writing this community and what they ...

“I Believe I’m Right” – Grant Corriveau

“It can’t be about having ‘right’ beliefs,” my pastor said. The day our pastor’s mother died our church followed some very strict beliefs. Some would call it ultra-legalism. Others would have identified it as a cult. But then the church doctrines changed radically and he (all of us) were faced with the question, “What about those who apparently died “in error?” “It can’t be about having ‘right’ beliefs.” Suddenly we were confronted with the understanding that our faith in God, our eternal life, and all the most important issues of eternity, could NOT possibly be tied to our often flawed and always incomplete ...

Zacheus Makes Amends – Brad Jersak

Luke 19  Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 And behold, a man called by the name of Zaccheus; he was a chief tax collector and he was rich. 3 Zaccheus was trying to see who Jesus was, and he was unable due to the crowd, because he was short in stature. 4 So he ran on ahead and climbed up a sycamore tree in order to see Him, because He was about to pass through that way. 5 And when Jesus came to the place, He looked up and said to him,“Zaccheus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house.” 6 And he hurried and came down, and received ...

Q&R with Brad – What is the difference between the kingdom of God, eternal life & salvation?

Question: I am trying to understand the difference between the “Kingdom of God”/“Kingdom of Heaven” and “salvation”.  Do you have any thoughts on this?   Response: Great question.  "Kingdom of God/heaven" is the dominant gospel of Jesus in the language of the synoptic gospels. It's a complex phrase in Jesus' teaching, as he sometimes uses it to describe his work in the world of here and now, the transformative work inside of people, and the life of the age to come. Simply put, the kingdom on earth as it is in heaven, the kingdom within you, and the kingdom yet to come.  In John's gospel, ...

Q & R: Christ in a Violent World – Brad Jersak

At CWR/PTM, we've received some excellent feedback re: our response to violence. We really do appreciate this kind of input and our readers' thoughtful questions, especially as we see our readers as partners in our ministry and its mission.  The following are some direct responses to the concerns from one of our readers, as well as a formal response.   The reader (in bold) began: The issue of CWRm left me with some negative feelings about our response with violence based on Jesus' teaching, and your claim that Christendom is on the violent, wrong, side of the Cross. Not very surprising, especially since it's very difficult for believ...

Thoughts in the Night on God’s Grace and Our Response – by Brad Jersak

Jet-lag woke me up again last night, but happily, instead of assaulting me with half-asleep worries or false epiphanies, the night-owl left me with a few follow-up thoughts to my article on Free Will, the Nous and Divine Judgment. For me, at least, they felt like clarifications on ye olde grace vs free will double-bind. Briefly, classic Calvinism creates a double-bind re: the will. If grace is a unilaterally gift given by the will of God to the elect (Calvin's irresistible grace), then human response can seem either pre-determined or unnecessary. This seems wrong to me, since clearly, the Gospel is an authentic invitation calling for a ...