The PC Guy - Al Lustie
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Jesus and George

Jesus is saying, "Blessed are the peacemakers. . . " and George is yammering, "Whoa! You're sending the wrong signal to the troops!" So goes this policital cartoon from The Denver Post on 12/1/2005.

If Jesus is, as Christians believe, the incarnation of God, and if being a Christian is, as written in Romans 11:9-10, a matter of "confessing that Jesus is Lord and believing that God raised him from the dead," then the tension of the Christian in every generation is intense. Does the believer follow the clear teaching of Jesus, or does the believer follow his cultural instincts? George, in this case, stands for the person who has no questions: cultural instincts WIN, and WIN BIG!

Jesus accepted the consequences of his teachings. He permitted the principalities and powers of his day to arrest him, interrogate him, frame him, torture him and kill him. He did not do so calmly. He prayed with drops of blood sweating from his forehead that this could pass from him. It didn't. He didn't whine. His faith in the God of agape' was so strong that he believed that living by God's agape'-love would have a better result than living by force, cowardice or moral wishy-washiness. That's some faith.

He calls his followers to the same faith. He calls them to trust God and let their lives be sacrificed, their blood be shed, their families destroyed, and their fortunes confiscated. He calls them to believe God will use their agape' will have a better result than ignoring God and using their cultural good sense.

I call that intense tension.

It is tension that the right-wing of the church ignores, and that the left-wing of the church largely pooh-poohs.

What do you think?

| God is Not a Party Member | Civil Speaking |

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