Ebony and Ivory

Aphorism #89

Conscious, intentional virtues
are always accompanied by unconscious, unintentional vices.

Show me who or what you really trust, and I'll give you some hints of who and what you are currently becoming.

For those who value (or think we value) the New Testament as a source of our ideas:

In the New Testament, "faith" means placing what you truly value the most completely into the hands of God and learning through experience over time that, whatever happens, that is by far the best Faith to have.

When we order fast food, we are putting our faith in the person hidden back there in the kitchen.

When we sit down, we are putting our faith in the chair.

Those are minor cases. But in what hands do we place

• ·         the next few hours when our car breaks down in the middle of nowhere at 2:00 in the morning?
• ·         the safety or very lives of our children?
• ·         our financial survival?
• ·         our sense of our own worth?

It is a grave mistake to confuse spiritual sleep-walking with faith in God.

It is a grave mistake to confuse a relatively comfortable period of life with faith in God.

How much "faith" do I put in

• ·         friends and/or family?
• ·         Trump or Bernie?
• ·         my own appearance, health and fitness, strength?
• ·         my ability to get what I want from people?
• ·         "love"
• ·         "myself"

Christ Jesus, when my truest self really does NOT put what matters most to me solely into Your hands, then deliver me from the delusion that mere "believing in Jesus" or mere "being a good person" or mere "helping others" is somehow all that matters to You.

And when something terrible happens and I blame (or even turn away from) the "god" I was "believing in," then remind me that I was practicing a form of idolatry, and invite the Real Me to The Real You - perhaps for the first time.

 * * *

Show me who or what you really trust, and I'll give you some hints as to who and what you are currently becoming.

Confusing "in here" with "out there"

Nothing so destructive is forced from the outside

upon groups of people,
as that which is welcomed freely

by one's own confused and tangled heart.

Interview with Famous Actress

Interviewer: Did you have a male co-star?

Famous Actress: Yes.

Interviewer: Did he mistreat you sexually?

Famous Actress: Yes.

Interviewer: What were his politics?

Famous Actress: Left wing Democrat.

Interviewer: Did you have an agent?

Famous Actress: Yes.

Interviewer: Did he mistreat you sexually?

Famous Actress: Yes.

Interviewer: What were his politics?

Famous Actress: Left wing Democrat.

Interviewer: Did you have a producer?

Famous Actress: Yes.

Interviewer: Did he mistreat you sexually?

Famous Actress: Yes.

Interviewer: What were his politics?

Famous Actress: Left wing Democrat.

Interviewer: Did you have a director?

Famous Actress: Yes.

Interviewer: Did he mistreat you sexually?

Famous Actress: Yes.

Interviewer: What were his politics?

Famous Actress: Left wing Democrat.

Interviewer: Who do you hate the most?

Famous Actress: Right wing Republicans.

The Great Irony in "Social Justice"

Jesus Christ, and His genuine followers throughout history,
have been, by far, the greatest force among all humanity, for
defeating the mistreatment of people based on their
race, ethnicity, gender, age, income, social position, or even religion.

But we must never lose sight of the Great Irony:

The transforming power of truly following Christ
does not generally lie in any direct attack on social ills.
Rather, it lies in its power to deliver each person
from his or her own blindness, soul wounds, prejudices, rebellion and darkness.

Then the disappearance of social ills follows as a matter of course.

Let those who have no interest in Christ waste their energy
on the shell game of which
privilege, victimhood, advantage, disadvantage,
prejudice, disenfranchisement, status or marginalization
is most unfair.

"I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified."
            -I Corinthians 2:2

"Seek first His Kingdom and His Righteousness; everything else will be added to you."
            -Matthew 6:33

Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.
And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
            -Matthew 28:18-20

Being "saved"  means:

Hearing and believing the Good News that

Jesus is available with His kingdom (His way of governing)

and it is now possible for anyone who wishes

to come to Him and trust Him,

and learn His redemptive (rescuing and transforming) presence

in all that we  perceive, experience, feel, know and do.

"Faith" is the genuine confidence that

He is the One who is completely in charge.

Becoming and remaining a disciple (apprentice) to Jesus

is the only sane response to that message.

Are we proclaiming (or hearing) a Gospel

that has a natural tendency to produce disciples (apprentices) to Jesus?

Or do we proclaim (or hear) a Gospel

that merely generates consumers of religious goods and services? -

-A "gospel" of mere forgiveness,

-of merely being "a good person" or "loving yourself,"

-of mere family or group loyalty,

-of mere community service,

-of mere social or political activism,

-of changing America

does not produce disciples.

The Gospel of the Kingdom (summarized by Dallas Willard, with some additions (in red) for greater clarity - and which are faithful to what DW himself taught.)