If They Are Worth Thinking, They Are Worth Jotting Down.

 

 

From Random Thoughts by  Edward Phillips -  More at Goodreads

The world needs non-violent witnesses of Jesus to walk unarmed, vulnerable, and faithfully bold, trembling, but walking on among the clamoring, posturing, outbursts of angry violence and ignorant hate to stand for love, justice, and peace.

These shall neither relent nor retaliate.

They shall neither defend nor disperse.

They shall not excuse nor accuse.

That shall bear witness.

For some it will be in public places and for others, spaces like this.

All sides will accuse them of being on the wrong side but there is only one side and few stand on its ground.

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Never discount the capacity of people to completely misunderstand what you are saying or your capacity to be completely misunderstood.

"Also some Epicurean and Stoic philosophers debated with [Paul]. Some said, “What does this babbler want to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign divinities.” (This was because he was telling the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.) " - Acts 17:18 

 

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Sometimes, we fantasize about a hero's death while shunning the call to live humbly under the pain of ridicule or insult.

 

 

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Here is how to turn a room full of admiring supporters into a mob wanting to stone you: Tell them what you really mean, reinterpret their religious narrative so that the marginalized are the real heroes, and underscore God's concern for the oppressed. Challenge their racial biases and sense of privilege. Confront them with history and facts. Seek to open their minds and hearts. That should do it. It worked for Jesus.

 

And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went out through all the surrounding country. And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.

 

And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,

 

'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

because he has anointed me

to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives

and recovering of sight to the blind,

to set at liberty those who are oppressed,

to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

 

'And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."

 

And all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth. And they said, 'Is not this Joseph's son?' And he said to them,  "Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘“Physician, heal yourself.” What we have heard you did at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.'''

 

And he said, 'Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown. But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land, and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.

 

When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff. But passing through their midst, he went away.'-Luke 4:14-30 (ESV)

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"The great thing with unhappy times is to take them bit by bit, hour by hour, like an illness. It is seldom the present, the exact present, that is unbearable." -C. S. Lewis

 

I think he might be on to something. Can I take the present, as it is, and bear it? Obviously, with God's help, I can. The evidence of that is that I am still alive, still optimistic, still making some difference.

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"Do not desire crosses, unless you have borne well those laid on you; it is an abuse to long after martyrdom while unable to bear an insult patiently." - Francis de Sales