A few weeks ago I watched this video. And I have to admit that was slightly concerned over the video. Why would these people willingly help people who would continue in their sin? It seemed like they were enabling the girls who lived there, and as a Christian shouldn’t I be against enabling people to sin? In the midst of thinking this thought a story from the Bible came to mind. The story is found in Luke chapter 17 verses 11 to 19. In this story Jesus heals 10 lepers but only one turns back to praise Jesus because he was actually healed. Now this passage would have little impact on our understanding if Jesus just healed everyone he came in contact with, but that doesn’t appear to be the case. In addition we see in John 5:19 that Jesus only did what he saw the Father doing. So it leaves us to reckon that God, the Father, knew what would happen as well as Jesus, the Son of God. If one or both knew what would happen and still healed these men than they would have healed them knowing they wouldn’t respond correctly. What strikes me is that Jesus healed them anyways, regardless of their response to him. His healing was given without requirements, and so should our service. We should serve those around us without any requirements placed on our service. Now I am not one of those who is in favor of never telling someone why we serve them. I think we should be open about our service for Christ. We should share that we are doing it because we are called to love like Christ but then leave it at that. We share that we are serving because of Christ and leave it to them when they are ready to hear more. Although we should always allow the Spirit to move and if the Spirit tells us to speak we should speak. We certainly should never serve someone with a requirement that they follow Christ, for this would be contrary to the Gospel, the Gospel is not forceful upon others. The Gospel respects the freewill of the person, although there are consequences for rejection.
What do you think about service to others without requirements? What do you think about these people helping out a brothel? Any other thoughts?
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3 weeks ago
I find that I’m not a very creative person, but I wish I was. I wish I had creativity sparked within me every once and a while. Occasionally it comes out but I’m not sure where it comes from and I’m unsure how to hold on to it for any significant amount of time. Creativity within humanity is often spoken of as one of the distinguishers of the Image of God. Of all of creation only humans are creative. A given bird species will not depart from its standard song, it does not create but reproduces. So creativity is down there deep inside of us all. But some have the ability to hold onto it for significant periods of time. How do they do it? What do you do to spark creativity inside you? Do you consider yourself creative? Any thoughts on how to form this inside yourself or others, primarily me?
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1 month ago
So I haven’t posted much in a while and I blame it all on the fact that I haven’t been doing much thinking lately. Lately I’ve spent a lot of time playing video games and doing the opposite of thinking. I used most of my summer to shut off my brain instead of thinking. I am by no means advocating this, simply stating the truth. Truth be told I would advocate the opposite of what I did this summer; if that was a little to twisty for you that means I advocate thinking. It is something I think we should all value. We should desire to understand more and be able to think things through. Well school has started up again so that requires my brain be turned on. This past week in Old Testament class I came to a conclusion. I don’t delight in God’s law all that often and that concerns me. Psalm 1:2 stats “but he delights himself in the law of the Lord, and on His law he meditates day and night.” This man is called “Blessed” in the previous verse and that is a good thing to be called if you ask me. So I have been reflecting on this the past few days. When we delight in something we devote time to it and we think about it a lot, hence why he meditates on it day and night. Frankly I don’t take much delight in God’s law right now, at least my actions say otherwise. I genuinely enjoy reading the Bible but I have “lost that loving feeling” towards it so to speak. I have had that delight for it before and it disappeared at some point, and I’m not sure where it went. But I am going to find it. This is something I am dedicated to. I am all in on God and his word, the Bible. Don’t know how but I am going to do it. I certainly know where to start. And that is by reading it and putting it first before TV, video games, and other things.
As I have thought about this for myself I wondered where my friends and others are at with this. If you are a Christian do you find yourself delighting in God’s word? If you are not a Christian have you ever read the Bible? If so what did you think of it? If you haven’t would you consider it? That is all for now.
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1 month ago