Original Blessing

A. Unabashed Pacifist:

The homeland can only find security by establishing peace.

B. Unabashed Christian:

Holy One,

I’ve noticed that in the realm of athletics, people seem to have a lot of interest in naming the all time greatest. Jack Nicklaus or Tiger Woods? All time greatest basketball team, football team, baseball team. Well, I know you’re the all-time great God. And not just because you have no real competition. You aren’t even competing; you’re simply completing your creation, if complete is something that’s possible with creation. Being all-time God also means you are God of all time – past, present, and future. Your dominion doesn’t end even then, for you are God beyond all time. We have only the faintest ideas about that, but we imagine it must be wonderful, for you are there in your fullness. For now we can only marvel at your glory in our time and for all time.
Amen

C. Un-quoting Jesus:

“This blueberry chipotle sauce will make your fish taste amazing, Pete.”

[It would, but He never said it.]

D. Blog: Blessings – See before Counting

I heard a preacher say that we Christians need to balance our theology of original sin with a theology of original blessing. Personally, I don’t want a balance between the two. I think the beam needs to tilt heavily to the side of original blessing. That’s the side that’s about God rather than about us. That’s the side that points our religious life to a focus on you rather than on us. That’s the side that takes us out of our self-centeredness so that we can relate well with the Divine.

God provides original blessing. We need first and foremost to acknowledge that. Again and again we need to recognize and give thanks for the blessings that are ours in our lives. Included among them is the blessing of forgiveness for our sin, which doesn’t amount to nearly as much in God’s eyes as it does in the eyes of so many tunnel-visioned religious types. We can’t count blessings if we won’t see them.