We Christians are people-helpers. It’s in the Spirit-loaded software at new birth. Problem is, we often insist on preserving the right to be selective about the recipients of our aid, as though there’s some substantive difference between one kind of human and another. The earliest Christians discovered this tendency in themselves and made the …
How Jesus Feeds the Hungry (Part 2 of 2)
In Part 1 I introduced some thoughts, based on the familiar story of Jesus’ feeding of the 5000, about what I consider to be his typical way of feeding hungry people. The disciples wanted him to “send them away!” but fortunately he had a better idea, which I believe was more than unique to …
How Jesus Feeds the Hungry (Part 1 of 2)
Besides the resurrection, I bet you don’t know which of Jesus’ miracles made it into all four gospels! OK, my title gave it away, but would you have guessed it if I had called it “Jewish Boy Loses His Lunch” or “Give All You Got and Get More Than You Had” or something of …
Social Justice = Social Gospel?
A certain radio talk show host made the audacious plea to his audience to leave their church if it used such profane watchwords such as, “social justice.” "I beg you, look for the words 'social justice' or 'economic justice' on your church Web site. If you find it, run as fast as you can. …
Way(s) to God?
There’s a difference between different ways to get to God and the different ways God uses to get to us. Since God has many ways to manifest himself to humans––none of which are on equal par with Jesus, who is The Way––we should learn how to affirm those manifestations wherever we find them and build …
