A manifesto of hope, freedom, salvation;1 a place where the kingdom of God is made real and alive;2 a deliverance from bondage and oppression;3 the invocation of a life better than the one that is lived;4 the glorious advent of missional Christ-followers making a difference.5
What would the world look like if we brought Christ, the pure and undefiled Savior and Lord, to infect and transform our realities;6 where our thoughts, words, actions, and lifestyle presented Christ?
I dream of a better day when God will deliver us from our consumerism, our love for self, and our drive to distance ourselves from the hurting and needy of society;7 where our ivory towers of religiosity and false piety are replaced by open doors of empathy, compassion, and incarnational truth.8
I dream of the day when the body of Christ would present themselves worthy to the name they follow; where an alternative community, hidden but transforming, would exist to bring freedom to humanity;9 where it is not known for standards and convictions but to be and make disciples of Christ;10 where our purity does not isolate, but draws us to the lost;11 where our faith does not make us unbelievable, but approachable;12 where our love is not a tool with an agenda, but rather a gift given freely and willingly to the world around us.13
For I believe that God is working and moving, even when I don’t understand or even process. For our God is the ONE who cannot be grasped completely, but willingly accepted and wholly submitted to. For God is the ONE who is for us, working on our behalf.
Further Reading:
The Cost Of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The Prophetic Imagination by Walter Brueggemann
Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning
Jesus For President by Shane Claiborne
This faith we profess has the ability to bring back an understanding of history, and a hope for the future. It has the ability to redeem us from our fallenness, and transform us into Christ’s image. ↩
Where the focus is not a heavenly kingdom, but rather on bringing the reality of Christ to the here and now. ↩
Our monolithic structures that serve the gods of oppression and control; it’s such as these that will be broken under the freedom of God in Christ. ↩
God has not just promised a glorious future, but also a redeemed and transformed present condition. ↩
Looking to the needs of the world and humanity, and contextualizing and empathizing with the human condition. ↩
The thought of Christians truly living Christ out, excites me; but the sheer disparity between authentic Christianity and nominal Christianity scares me. ↩
Our Western Christianity keeps us isolated unto ourselves, where we look to fulfill our personal needs. True Christianity forces us to get over ourselves and look to the needs of others. ↩
Religion is purely just that when it forces us to keep to ourselves in our closed environments of holiness. Jesus rightly illustrated a lifestyle of engaging with people where they were at, and coming to their level. ↩
We are the ‘liberators’ that bring true freedom to people, but we do so through a kingdom mindset and understanding. Christ’s kingdom is not of this world, but is a heavenly kingdom that is breaking forth in the world. ↩
We are known for what we stand for, but not for who we stand with. ↩
Sometimes in our purity and ‘set-apart-ness’ we tend to extricate ourselves from the environments we came from; maybe God is asking us to be salt and light in those environments. ↩
Our faith should not make us close-minded, but open-minded about conversation and discussion, where we engage with the world around us. ↩
We sometimes love with an agenda. What would the world think of us, if we loved without an agenda, just because Christ called us to ‘love our neighbor’? ↩
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