On Christian Love

I am studying for finals and will not have time to write much over the next few days. So, I thought I would post a few things I find around the blogosphere. De(Bill) over at the Thinklings posted an excellent piece here on Christian love (and the lack thereof). He begins by posing this question:

Why are Christians hated so deeply ... by other Christians?

An excerpt:

I have read far too many posts and articles that can be summed up like this: “I’m a Christian but I’m really, really embarassed to be associated with all those hateful, ignorant, hypocritical Christians out there”.

Well, I’m not. I’m done being embarassed. I’m not ashamed of my brothers and sisters. God will take care of us, will correct us, and will make us perfect in the end. If you think about it, one of the things about Jesus that is just so . . . well, so breathtakingly awesome is that He was never embarassed of the weird people in His society. If He has saved someone, He isn’t embarassed of them. He doesn’t mind being associated with them. Because He knows that one day they will truly see Him, and will be like Him, because they will see Him as He is. And they will, one day, be glorified - a creature, redeemed by God and made perfect, before whom (as C.S. Lewis writes) we would sink in awe and might even be tempted to worship.

Jesus has plans for His bride. He plans on making her beautiful. You will not see me pointing at her and telling her she’s ugly. One day the angels will stand in awe.

In the meantime, may we do a better job at working out our salvation with fear and trembling, in walking more wisely toward those who are outside, in never being the cause of an unbeliever’s blasphemy before God, and in loving each other as Christ promised we would. And may God discipline us (starting with me) like crazy as we journey on this road. He will make us perfect - He promised it. And He is stubborn and zealous and determined and all-powerful, so I know he will do it!

Mandi reminds everyone in the comments section of this post: "love is not a feeling, it is a choice." Therefore, we truly must choose to love onen another as Jesus commanded us in John 13:34:

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.

Finals

I have finals coming up next week. I also have to write a 15 page paper for my political theory class. I have to choose two themes that we have covered since the last paper. I have chosen to write about about race, and will include material from Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, June Jordan and several articles about the Holocaust. The second theme I have chosen is the economy. I am going to focus on the shift from the laissez-faire ideology of classical liberalism to modern welfare state liberalism and modern conservatism (in its many flavors). For that section, I am using material from Woodrow Wilson, FDR, Regan and a few others.

Luckily, one of my professors gave us a "free pass" on the final. So, that is one less thing I have to worry about. However, I do have a biology final on Monday, a comprehensive (oh yay!) final in my corrections class on Tuesday, and a final in my computer course next Thursday.

After this is over, I only have to finish some Spanish stuff online and then I should be ready to graduate. Hopefully, I can apply for graduation this summer.

Goodbye and Hello

You can get just so much from a good thing
You can linger too long in your dreams
Say goodbye to the oldies but goodies
'Cause the good old days weren't always good
And tomorrow ain't as bad as it seems- Billy Joel

Today is my 30th birthday. To say that I have been depressed about leaving my twenties behind would be an understatement. Yet, as I started to reflect on my twenties, I realized that I had made a big mess out of most of my twenties. So, I suppose I can look at turning 30 in one of two ways: I can either be totally devastated and feel like the world is coming to an end, or I can look at it as a new beginning. I choose the latter. Besides, my friend Doug says that thirty is the new twenty. :)

He Is Risen!

He Is Risen Indeed!

Good Friday Lectionary Reading

GOOD FRIDAY LECTIONARY:
Isaiah 52:13-53:12

[13] See, my servant shall prosper; he shall be exalted and lifted up,
and shall be very high. [14] Just as there were many who were
astonished
at him--so marred was his appearance, beyond human semblance, and his
form beyond that of mortals--[15] so he shall startle many nations;
kings shall shut their mouths because of him; for that which had not
been told them they shall see, and that which they had not heard they
shall contemplate.

[1] Who has believed what we have heard? And to whom has the arm of the
LORD been revealed? [2] For he grew up before him like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we
should look at him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire
him. [3] He was despised and rejected by others; a man of suffering
and acquainted with infirmity; and as one from whom others hide their
faces he was despised, and we held him of no account.

[4] Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet
we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. [5] But
he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we
are healed. [6] All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned
to our own way, and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

[7] He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his
mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that
before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. [8] By a
perversion of justice he was taken away. Who could have imagined his
future? For he was cut off from the land of the living, stricken for
the transgression of my people. [9] They made his grave with the
wicked and his tomb with the rich, although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.

[10] Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him with pain. When
you make his life an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring, and
shall prolong his days; through him the will of the LORD shall prosper.
[11] Out of his anguish he shall see light; he shall find satisfaction
through his knowledge. The righteous one, my servant, shall make many
righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. [12] Therefore I will
allot him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil
with the strong; because he poured out himself to death, and was
numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and
made intercession for the transgressors.

Prayer Request

Please pray for my coworker's husband, Woody. He had a heart attack yesterday and is in intensive care. They are unable to stabilize him so that he can be moved to another hospital for a heart catheterization.