Best decision ever #1: submitting to Jesus as my Savior and Lord.
One reason I do not blog more is the prevalence of great blogs which already say (often better than I could express it) many of the things I think about. I have Fr. Dwight Longenecker's blog in my side panel (Standing On My Head); I try to stay in touch with most things he writes. One recent entry can be found here, and I commend it quite whole-heartedly.
The issue of homosexuality is proving to be a watershed which divides orthodox Christianity from a falsehood whose full consequences are known only to God. The "world" (and those who buy into the thinking of the Spirit of the Age) can produce any number of reasons why there needs to be openness and even support for those who choose to practice this disorder. There is a reason, though, for heeding the consistent witness of the Church. This article in Christianity Today makes the case simply and clearly. There is a right way to understand the Great Tradition and the authority it holds for those who follow the Jesus presented to us by the Apostolic Witness of the New Testament.
What would happen if all who claim to be Christians in this country were as passionate about Jesus as many are about politics, patriotism or even pennies at the pump?
Great words from Fr. Hans Urs von Balthalsar about Jesus meeting us where we are, yet moving us to the fullness of salvation....
....Christ became both things [the way and the goal] for us simultaneously. For his vitality consists in this: that he always stands at the level of the person he is educating and yet always is to be found as well at [as!] the final goal of his education. He walks along with the disciples toward Emmaus; but as they walk they discover that he is already reposing in the assurance of the goal. He is the Way, yet also the Truth, and, for that very reason, the Life.
Something strange is happening – there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. God has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear.
He has gone to search for our first parent, as for a lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, he has gone to free from sorrow the captives Adam and Eve, he who is both God and the son of Eve. The Lord approached them bearing the cross, the weapon that had won him the victory. At the sight of him Adam, the first man he had created, struck his breast in terror and cried out to everyone: “My Lord be with you all.” Christ answered him: “and with your spirit.” He took him by the hand and raised him up, saying : “Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.”
I am your God, who for your sake have become your son. Out of love for you and for your descendants I now by my own authority command all who are held in bondage to come forth , all who are in darkness to be enlightened, all who are sleeping to arise. I order you, O sleeper, to awake. I did not create you to be held a prisoner in hell. Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead. Rise up, work of my hands, you who were created in my image. Rise, let us leave this place, for you are in me and I am in you; together we form only one person and we cannot be separated.
For your sake I, your God, became your son; I, the Lord, took the form of a slave; I, whose home is above the heavens, descended to the earth and beneath the earth. For your sake, for the sake of man, I became like a man without help, free among the dead. For the sake of you, who left a garden, I was betrayed to the Jews in a garden, and I was crucified in a garden.
See on my face the spittle I received in order to restore to you the life I once breathed into you. See there the marks of the blows I received in order to refashion your warped nature in my image. On my back see the marks of scourging I endured to remove the burden of sin that weighs upon your back. See my hands, nailed firmly to a tree, for you who once wickedly stretched out your hand to a tree.
I slept on the cross and a sword pierced my side for you who slept in paradise and brought forth Eve from your side. My side has healed the pain in yours. My sleep will rouse you from your sleep in hell. The sword that pierced me has sheathed the sword that was turned against you.
Rise, let us leave this place. The enemy led you out of the earthly paradise. I will not restore you to that paradise, but I will enthrone you in heaven. I forbade you the tree that was only a symbol of life, but see, I who am life itself am now one with you. I appointed cherubim to guard you as slaves are guarded, but now I make them worship you as God. The throne formed by cherubim awaits you, its bearers swift and eager. The bridal chamber is adorned, the banquet is ready, the eternal dwelling places are prepared, the treasure houses of all good things lie open. The kingdom of heaven has been prepared for you from all eternity.
I'm always haunted by the people's response at Jesus' trial. Yes, "crucify him" indicts all of us. Who killed Jesus? You and I did. It was my sins that sent him to the cross.
As Jesus stood before Pilate, the people who for hundreds of years had been God’s people cried, “Crucify him!”
“Shall I crucify your king?” Pilate asked.
“We have no king but Caesar,” the chief priests answered (Jn. 19:15,16).
The Jewish leaders choosing Caesar over Jesus is all too much like some "Christians" today who seem far more concerned with America and its politics than being salt and light in the kingdom of God. God’s people today dare not turn their allegiance to “Caesar” for the sake of national status. We cannot give Jesus first place and at the same time give in to the compromising demands of our secular and pagan society. Neither national security nor personal security can be the first concern of the person who is committed to the One who said if anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it (Lu 9:23–24).
As the sign over the cross said, Jesus is the King.... and he asks for our total allegiance.
