value of religion
i'm trying to wrap my head around this. . . .
"in a pluralistic world, a religion is valued based on the benefits it brings to its nonadherents."
have i always thought that, but it was never said in such that way? i don't know.
such an interesting thought. it takes me back to my foundations of christian thought class. dr sloan showing how God blesses both believers and unbelievers. it also reminds me of God's promise to Abe "I will bless you, and make you a blessing to the world." (yeah, i paraphrased.)
daggum, we are so inwardly focused! i believe that to some degree that God is not blessing us because we do not ask. but i also believe that we've been asking for a while now, courtesy of Jabez, Joel, and a host of others, that we MUST start blessing the rest of the world.
i cannot get past this. we suck. we are so focused on our inward eternal salvation, that we have forgotten the meaning of salvation as it relates to the here and now. while Christ comes to save us for eternity, he also wants to save us for today. save us from lying, gossiping, being unloving towards others. and save others from the effects of those actions.
He also came to save the poor, but not just for eternity, but for the here and now. getting to heaven is great, but i believe He is just as much concerned with his creation right now! that isn't limited to just the poor, but to anyone is sick. physically, emotionally, spiritually. He longs for us to be in a right relationship to Him, so that we don't continue to live like we do, hurt ourselves. because we are his creation. does this make sense???
we are his creation. made in His likeness. i love what C.S. Lewis says, "We do not have a spirit. We are spirit. We have a body." God doesn't want His creation to be damaged. and thats ALL creation. that means not raping the environment for resources.(thats another topic) so when He saves us, in a sense, he is saving us from ourselves. from living in a cycle that just hurts. it empowers us to bless others in a way that we couldn't have without Him.
we cannot, CANNOT, divorce eternal salvation, from the here and now salvation. they are linked.
this is long. be good to one another. look at Christ. peace
"in a pluralistic world, a religion is valued based on the benefits it brings to its nonadherents."
have i always thought that, but it was never said in such that way? i don't know.
such an interesting thought. it takes me back to my foundations of christian thought class. dr sloan showing how God blesses both believers and unbelievers. it also reminds me of God's promise to Abe "I will bless you, and make you a blessing to the world." (yeah, i paraphrased.)
daggum, we are so inwardly focused! i believe that to some degree that God is not blessing us because we do not ask. but i also believe that we've been asking for a while now, courtesy of Jabez, Joel, and a host of others, that we MUST start blessing the rest of the world.
i cannot get past this. we suck. we are so focused on our inward eternal salvation, that we have forgotten the meaning of salvation as it relates to the here and now. while Christ comes to save us for eternity, he also wants to save us for today. save us from lying, gossiping, being unloving towards others. and save others from the effects of those actions.
He also came to save the poor, but not just for eternity, but for the here and now. getting to heaven is great, but i believe He is just as much concerned with his creation right now! that isn't limited to just the poor, but to anyone is sick. physically, emotionally, spiritually. He longs for us to be in a right relationship to Him, so that we don't continue to live like we do, hurt ourselves. because we are his creation. does this make sense???
we are his creation. made in His likeness. i love what C.S. Lewis says, "We do not have a spirit. We are spirit. We have a body." God doesn't want His creation to be damaged. and thats ALL creation. that means not raping the environment for resources.(thats another topic) so when He saves us, in a sense, he is saving us from ourselves. from living in a cycle that just hurts. it empowers us to bless others in a way that we couldn't have without Him.
we cannot, CANNOT, divorce eternal salvation, from the here and now salvation. they are linked.
this is long. be good to one another. look at Christ. peace
posted by marcelliott at 4:43 PM
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