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Tag: faith
Notes from Dr Batluck-Don’t Grow Weary of Doing Right
The CEO of the Teen Challenge Training Center near Bethel, PA spoke at the recent prisoner graduation (LIFE MINISTRIES) ceremony at FCI Schuylkill. Dr Joseph Batluck.
I wanted to take some time to post the highlights from his talk because they impressed me. It wasn’t just a good message for inmates, but for all of us.
THEME
Galatians 6:7-10
Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.
NOTES:
We will harvest what we sow.
Bad seed reaps bad.
Good seed reaps good.
Don’t grow weary of doing right.
Even in doing right we will grow weary.
The Christian Walk of Faith is like a stool with four legs.
1. Reading the Bible
In it we learn who God is.
2. Prayer
Communication with God.
Don’t pray boring prayers. If your prayers are boring they don’t do any good.
Let the Psalms be your prayers if your prayers have gotten dull.
3. Accountability
Fellow believers build us us and help to make us more like Christ.
We must find someone to be honest with and get encouragement from. Iron sharpens iron.
4. Service
In service to others we become more like Christ. It’s not about us.
The walk of faith moves through three components:
First: CREATION
Re-birth into a new identity and connection to Christ through faith a repentance.
Second: FORMATION
Through discipleship and obedience we are formed within and beomce more like Christ
Third: DIRECTION
God directs our paths and our life. We follow him in faith and allow God to be in charge. We rest in his provision and care for us and he decides where we go.
Don’t grow weary of doing right.
The Religion of Liberation
The Jewish people have a big event, a central story, that encapsulates what the Jewish (and Judeo-Christian) faith is about:
Crossing a sea: Crossing from slavery to LIBERATION
“Let my people go!”
This is the cry of (the Jewish) God, the Living God, through Moses; and it’s really the cry of freedom in every human heart.
So what do we want to be liberated from?
Oppression.
Yes, of course.
…and oppression takes many forms.
But, we tend to also want liberation from authority…and that’s not what God has in mind. That misses the mark and produces precarious results.
In fact, the best liberation we can have is one that happens internally.
Our heart is liberated from sin and death and then we receive peace and life.
This is no marginal quality of our faith tradition. Liberation is found not in fleeing something (or someone) but in returning.
A homecoming. A reception by the Father for the children he loves.
Liberation must always be about fleeing to someone (the One).
…and that someone isn’t just another warden in a different prison, but One who wants our peace to be fully realized.
It’s about community identity and belonging.
Each brings freedom and saves us from ourselves.
Sometimes we suppose liberation means freedom to act autonomously and unilaterally for our own interests.
True liberation is the antithesis of that.
When I consider, in this very moment, what I hope to be liberated from in my own life, it seems to concern being free from believing lies. Lies about myself, others, and any sorts of ignoble things that imprison my future in a jailhouse of smallness.
A confined place that is missing the grandeur of what it means to be a sentient being enjoying the majesty of creation that a benevolent incomprehendable Being has fashioned.