Why Not?

A. Unabashed Pacifist:

War, war, go away. Come again? Never!

B. Unabashed Christian:

Holy One,

The irony of it strikes me: humans can commit bad, stupid, pointless, even utterly evil acts, but you can’t. Can you?
Amen

C. Un-quoting Jesus:

“Was it as good for you as it was for me?”

[The first un-clue that led Brown to the DaVinci Code, but Jesus didn’t say it.]

D. Blog: What If Christians Believed?

What if Christians truly believed Jesus lives?
- We would be energetic in helping bring about the dominion of God.
- Allegiance to country would be secondary.
- We would not participate in preparing and fighting wars.
- We would look upon people of other religions as brothers and sisters.
- We would not abuse the environment.

What if Christians truly believed death is not the end?
- We would not be co-opted by death-dealing ways of government and economy.
- We would not waste our lives on addictions and trivial pursuits.
- We would not chase after monetary gain, nor lionize those who have great amounts of money or fame.

What if Christians really believed Jesus lives?
- We would not make so big a deal of His death.
- We would have exuberant and ongoing celebration of His resurrection.
- We would be much more diligent in identifying His presence in our midst.
- We would put the Bible in its proper, historical perspective, His living presence being of more continuing importance.
- We would see that Jesus has been present and active all along in the intervening years of human history, not waiting to reappear in some fantasy end of history.
- We would not waste our time on idle speculation about “end times.”
- We would see the importance Jesus places on the dominion of God coming on Earth.
- Earthly governments would be held to account for breaking peace and justice, would reduce claims of “sovereignty.”
- We would have much greater enthusiasm for our faith in Jesus.
- We would devote our lives to Jesus, not to lesser entities and activities.
- We would be diligent in trying to know what Jesus wants of us – through prayer, scripture (especially the gospels) study, and conversation with others.
- Our lives would have a great sense of purpose and power.
- Our joy would overflow.
- We would know our worth as children of God, never to be separated from the love of God.
- We would love one another and fear no one.