🙏️🩲️ Belief Briefs

(47 second read)

In a hectic world, where everything is telling you it is more important than anything else, quiet is a great gift.

BLUF

Quiet is good for the soul.

Reflection

There are two quiet times in the year, possibly three; Thanksgiving morning, New Year’s morning, and sometimes Christmas Day evening. My Favorite is Thanksgiving morning. Hardly anyone is on their way to work; there is very little background road noise, and cooking probably has yet to start. Take the time to be quiet, and luxuriate in it.

When the crush became too much for Jesus, he would withdraw to be by himself. After the Feeding of the 5000 in St. John’s Gospel, he writes, “Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself,” apparently his regular practice.

Not everyone is blessed with a quiet Thanksgiving morning. Those who keep the gas stations open and a bunch of restaurants. Nice is free; over-tipping is appreciated. Be nice to those people.

(75-second read)

My long-suffering wife has advised me not to use the phrases “bullshit” and “pain in the ass” when writing theologically.

BLUF

The unified editorial direction of the Bible is to trust Our Father.

Digging In

• I don’t doubt the New Testament authors got some of Jesus’ actual quotes, but certainly not all (not enough paper), and some of the words attributed to Jesus are likely to be as best as they remembered them. 
• It doesn’t matter; we have what we have. 
• Our faith is not based on the trust we place in the words in the Bible, but on the trust, we put in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 
• The Bible points us to that trust.
• All NT authors had ideas and backgrounds that shaped their writings. Still, we can be sure they all moved in a single editorial direction which St. John captured when he wrote, “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”
• But as to the coarseness of language, euphemisms are all over the Bible, and when writing things down, “polite company” tends to use these euphemisms rather than straight talk jargon.
• I am considering changing “bullshit” to “post-processed bovine feedstock” and “pain in the ass” to “I become uncomfortable when seated.”

(49 second read)

It’s Nothing Personal, It’s Just Business

One of the most repeated lines in The Godfather is, “It’s nothing personal; it’s just business.” And then someone gets their brains blown out. The business of The Church is to love our enemies – it’s nothing personal; it’s just business.

BLUF

Loving our enemies is what makes us part of the beloved Bride of Christ.

Digging In

• It is colossally annoying that we are supposed to love our enemies.
• It is equally irritating that we are also supposed to love those who annoy us (for those who think they have no enemies).
• Scripture never says, “Love our enemies except for those who <insert favorite heinous sin>, because <insert some dubious reason>.
• Jesus says, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” It is a non-optional commandment to love others unto our deaths.
• It is the power of the Holy Spirit that gives us strength in the time of need (when we would rather suggest our enemies do something anatomically impossible)
• Welcome to the Family Business

(45 second read)

The typical (and incorrect) understanding of sin is smokin’ seegars, dinkin’ brown liquor, and dancin’ with fancy women.

BLUF

Sin is trusting that we are god and should be treated as such.

Digging In

• The above definition of sin also is a good definition of being an a***ole.
• The problem begins in the Garden of Eden, where Adam and Eve do the ONE THING they were told not to do.
  • In short, they thought they knew better than God.
  • They thought they could be a better god than God.
  • This is Original Sin.
  • It also describes the human condition.
• Being law abiding doesn’t fix the problem; it only makes us think we don’t HAVE a problem.

The Solution

The only solution to the problem comes from loving God more than ourselves. And loving God means trusting that He will take what we do and make something good.

The word faith in our culture has become a word often used, but little understood, so little understood the word has become meaningless.

BLUF

Whenever you see the word faith in an English translation of the Bible, substitute the word trust.

Digging in

Most people seem to equate faith with belief. Belief is intellectual ascent and requires nothing of the believer. “You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!” James 2:19 St James also tells us, “that faith apart from works is useless? (2:20)

Imagine a conversation with someone who is afraid to fly…

me: Statistics show that flying is safer than driving
fear-of-flying: I believe that
me: Then how about hoping on that plane to Boston?
fear-of-flying: Not gonna' happen

Faith is acting on what you believe. Said another way, Faith trusts what it believes and acts.