Onward toward What
A conversation with a friend. He lives without fear and favor as much as any I have ever known.In response to the post: I AM THAT I AM
I’d say some of it is accurate, and some is a little harsh. I fear you are throwing the baby out with the bathwater. The church has done some powerful things in the past.
Christianity has been momentous for the human race in many positive ways. Much of which came from the culture and spirit and not the organization, “the Church.” But there can be no doubt, in comparison to all other wisdom traditions, Christianity has been the greatest force for good, and it’s not even a little bit close.
Spare the rod, spoil the child. Our harshest criticisms should never be for meaningless things, but that which matters most. Spending time criticizing things of far lesser importance is casting pearls to swine.
Agree that it’s weak, and we love worship services, yet it does have huge impacts on local communities.
This is like saying yeah, I know my race car can't win a race, but it can get me to the grocery store! The miss here is we stopped believeing the race car should race, we fully believe its a grocery car now. This is part of the core misunderstanding and our most notewarthy difference in what we think we should be heading toward.
The church currently does a bad job at supporting what communities did far better when the structures that the church was supposed to support were built in a far more righteous way. In other words, the church now does a shity job supporting the things they shouldn’t focus on because they abandoned the things that they should be focused on, setting up communities for success in those areas automatically. A house is harder to buy in 2026 than the height of the Great Depression… real people with names made real decisions that caused this. The church did nothing and then asks to be patted on the back for helping .01% of the community when they were called to stand in the breach for 100% of the community.
Jesus saved some of his harshest words for Peter when Peter wanted him to stay alive and be a political leader. “Get behind me Satan.”
Peter was told this because it was supposed to be him who led; it was supposed to be us. The core message of the gospel is “you do it.” Peter was making the same mistake we are making today, “do it god!” God has been saying as clearly as possible for thousands of years that it is up to us. Had Abraham asked god to spare the city for one righteous man, God would have.
When we try to force God to do it, as Peter did, we are again offering the temptation Satan did for god to break the natural order for a display of power, “throw yourself off the temple.” Get behind ME Satan.
When we do this, we are putting God to the test. There aren’t any other hands and feet. It’s just us. If we don’t do it, it does not get done. can’t slice it any other way. The Sanhedrin in the time of Jesus was far more aligned to gods mission and purpose than the church today. (Cold are colder, hot are hotter). The church loves God AFTER the prince of the age. This is all Satan ever wanted. It’s his perfect scenario, and it’s playing out right in front of us.
In response to the post: I am possible - That is possible - We are possible
I think about Thy kingdom come as bringing as much of the fruit of the spirit as possible. Love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, self-control. It will look different between a surgeon, a chiropractor and a reiki healer how we accomplish those goals.
Here lies the miss and our core difference. These two missions can not be reconciled; we can not have both. “Two roads diverged in a wood.”
One is extremely limited, a glorified competition for who can be the nicest.
The other, all-encompassing, to dominate all pillars of society with those same fruits, to release what God says is the process and the goal, freedom, to all people of every nation.
It’s all about who reigns. That is the eternal struggle that is the question we must answer. It is why Lucifer fell. It is why Jesus died. It is what god is doing, and it is why his kingdom is coming.
Show me one consequential person in the Bible who was reasonable. “We should lead like Moses, report like Caleb, love like Ruth, deceive like Rahab, negotiate like Esther, be loyal like Johnathan, fight like Sampson, fuck shit up like Shamgar, pray like Daniel, hold fast like Shadrak, be faithful like Mary, Love like John, and believe like Peter.”
It is indeed out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks. The men of our time speak with such definitive words of weakness because their hearts are weak; their hearts are not surrendered to a lion or a lamb, but a snake. We know this to be true because their every intent and purpose is to further the goal and mission of weakness; their bravest, boldest intentions don’t show anywhere near the battle that is raging.
And the real edges of science don’t really know what they are touching on. Electricity seemed like magic, and they had no idea what to do with it or how to use it, just that it existed. When you push in on things like that, the world changes.
Yes. The courage it takes to push on such things should be woven into every system or structure we support with our efforts, time, and attention. If it isn’t, what are we doing there?
