These Beatitude Attitudes are so contrary to the conventions of our culture that anyone who possesses them will be branded a freak. Rife with paradox, Jesus’ way catches us off guard. He suggests, for instance, that the wealthy are poor and the poor are wealthy. Winners lose while losers end up winning. Conventional wisdom suggests …
Attitudes To Be
The “Beatitude Attitudes,” are so critical that Jesus spends the rest of his Sermon unpacking them. Possessing and practicing these Christ-like qualities propagates every good life quality God intend for us. One can hardly imagine a more succinct description of a Jesus-shaped life. Let’s imagine these eight attitudes as portals through which we enter, enjoy, …
A Revolutionary Social Agenda
Jesus likeness is not something you tack onto the outside. His is an inside job. His way of transforming us into his likeness is from the inside out. The white-knuckle approach to Christianity only leads to frustration and failure. We can only hope to live out the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount in …
A Christianity That Looks Like Christ
I warn you that the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), which is a condensation of some of the primary ethical teaching of Jesus, maybe above all his other discourses preserved for us in the New Testament, challenges our presuppositions about living the Christian life and calls us into the outlandish lifestyle of the Jesus …
TO DANCE OR TO DIRGE? (Wisdom’s Many Children) Part 2
In Part 1 we talked about how it takes more than one person, one church, one political party, or one culture to represent true wisdom, and how an over-identification with one over another is not only unwise but immature. Jesus said it reminded him of spoiled children whining about not getting their way. “To what, …
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