Random Thoughts

I got an e-mail recently saying that if they could have anything in the world they would want world peace and an end to poverty. Question is, could we ever get that without wisdom? Even if a huge wand waved across the world and eliminated all poverty how long would that last for? For what is poverty but the result of man’s inhumanity to man through his imperialistic overbearing desire to dominate and be superior to another man as driven by his greed? Same thing with world peace – if you really want world peace, whatever that looks like – you need to have a mind that can fit it and that starts at the communal level before ever reaching the global.

The reality is the very nature of man necessitates that there will never be a time on this planet when there is true world peace until the return of Jesus Christ. We might as well get used to it. What we are called to do is to express this Jesus-rule now by living in peace and fulfilling the call to be peacemakers, but that is not in the hope that one day the world will be at peace this side of the Return. It’s done in obedience to God with the vision of how His rule ushers in peace in our soul before peace outside.

I am not a rebel by nature. I think, like my parents, I am naturally conservative. I accept that. However within that conservatism there is a great deal of fundamentalism in there. That is to say I am comfortable conserving the fundamental tents of faith in Jesus Christ. As a result I seem to find that this marks me out as kind of different to my peer group both in the CoG7 circles and within Christendom at large. I am heavily influenced by American writing and thought, but I’m not obsessed by them. I am heavily influenced by the Reformed strand of thinking at the moment only because it reinforces my drive for Word-based teaching as opposed to consumer teaching or playing to itching ears.

I don’t want to compromise God’s standards anymore and I’m not happy to live a life that accepts mediocrity. I want to be everything God has called me to be starting and ending with humble in the presence of His Holiness. I want to disciple others in this way and get them following Jesus in a radical way likewise. Nothing else will satisfy me other than to satisfy Him.

4 His Name’s Sake
Shalom
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