Tag: Jesus
Protected: A 7 Step Discernment Process
An Inmate’s Mission (dispatches from Prison Ministry)
As some of you know, I’m ministering at the Federal Prison: FCI Schuylkill.
1,330 male inmates. Our class has 31.
I gain so many insights from my brothers there. So, it seems a terrible waste not to share some of them here.
We just finished up on lesson on Finding Your Mission.
We talked about what Jesus’ mission was. We talked about our own missions.
Some of them hadn’t thought of the concept and surely didn’t like it apply to them behind bars.
… if you are in prison, it’s really high time you find your mission…
But, that’s true for all of us.
I’m learning right along with them. The pressure is higher to learn lessons to help and heal you when you live behind bars, but the lessons themselves tend to be quite the same.
So far, the ground is fertile and the spiritual thirst is fervent!
The hearts of the those who choose to come on Monday’s is “the good soil”!
(If it was half of this at church the world WOULD be on fire with it!)
MISSION for inmates?
In reading the verse that is essentially Jesus’ mission statement (and also a prophecy from Isaiah) I realized that I have the same mission. It came into sharp focus.
“I’m setting literal captives free with the Good News.”
Jesus came, taught, brought and lived the Good News, died, rose, and then…left.
He didn’t stay where everyone would surely try to force him to be king (or pope, or whatever). Everyone still wanted to be free of the Romans. Except for a few of his students and friends and a few family members, everyone would be missing the point.
The Jews were captives of the Romans. That didn’t change when Jesus was here or after he left.
The Kingdom of God doesn’t free you in that way.
The invitation was (and is) to be free from the captivity of sin and death and the mindsets that keep us imprisoned (or in the case of my brothers…it puts you in an actual prison).
The Good News was and is the hope, the reality, the plan fulfilled: that God came to reconcile us to him, forgive us, and make things right. Little by little we carry it out and remake the world.
Little by little we provide the impact of authentic justice in the world.
It starts, for me, in jail along side my brothers. As these men transform, so will their world and the world, at large.
What a joy it was to tell my brothers that they are truly missionaries with a genuine mission behind the bars!
They are light in a dark place.
No time is wasted.
They are NOT just doing their time; The are making up for wasting it.
Their mission has begun, and no one can stop it. Once you’ve been set free, you are free indeed!
Jesus is our model and so is his mission.
Are you doing time too? Or are you on your mission?
Luke 4:14
Then Jesus returned to Galilee, filled with the Holy Spirit’s power. Reports about him spread quickly through the whole region.
15 He taught regularly in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.
16 When he came to the village of Nazareth, his boyhood home, he went as usual to the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read the Scriptures.
17 The scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where this was written:
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, 19 and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.[f]”
20 He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant, and sat down. All eyes in the synagogue looked at him intently.
21 Then he began to speak to them. “The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!”
If you can help us, we need it. Badly. Monday nights 6-8:30. Let me know!
Jesus: Usually Calming People Down
I was struck by a pattern during my Holy Week meditations and reflections.
Jesus says, “Peace be with you,” a lot.
He brings calm. He comforts the frighted and bewildered.
He says in the most soothing way possible,
“Chill, ya’ll.”
When Jesus scares the stink out of his followers as he walks on the lake to meet them one a dark and storm night, he says,
“Easy now..It’s okay. It’s me!”
When Jesus is about to be arrested by a friend-turned-backstabber, then tried by a rigged court, and brutally tortured and killed, he spends time building up the courage of his followers and giving them condolence.
“I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”
When the disciples are grieving from his death, terrified and meeting behind locked doors, he comes to them, his scarred hands outstretched–offering solace and reassurance.
“Shalom aleikhem!”
It’s no small thing.
Our invitation is to do the same.
In trying circumstance be the voice of peace.
Be the source of calm.
Be a comforter.
And to those who like to over-mention when Jesus angrily overturns the tables at the temple as a way to justify their seething rage, I say, “peace”.
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PART III from Dr. Ben Witherington on the Imago Dei
Thanks for joining me in this series that summarizes Dr Ben Witherington’s lectures on the Imago Dei (at the Welsey Forum 2014, Evangelical Seminary).
The following are snippets of the talk; the things that made the biggest impact on me.
(Scroll to the bottom to read a bio of Witherington and access his books.)
“By loving God you become like God. You become what you admire.”
The Kingdom of God is here now.
my note: (God broke into history and time with Jesus and his mission-and has always done that, to which the Bible attests.)
The Kingdom is also to come.
Kingdom means dominion (a realm). Dominion is a noun. Dominion is our inheritance.
“We live in a foreshadow, not a foretaste of the kingdom.”
my note: (The kingdom will come fully in the “fullness of time” and all will be put to rights-evil vanquished.)
Yom means day in Hebrew.
Yahweh can be translated as “Ancient of Days”
“Jesus is the only human + superhuman.”
Jesus:
• he is fully unique
• he meets the requirement (for sacrifice)
• he is the only God-man
• he is the only one worthy to be a mediator
Jesus imposed self-limitation
(Satan tempted him to abandon that.)
Jesus’ limitations on the “OMNIs”:
• Time
• Space
• Knowledge
(He did have immediate access to God through his intimate relationship with God and that is why he could know secret or hidden things and how he could prophesy.)
• Mortality
• Power
Jesus accepted our natural limitations.
Phil. 2:6-8
Though in the form of God,
he did not think of equality with God
as something to cling to.
Instead, he gave up his divine privileges;
he took the humble position of a slave
and was born as a human being.
When he appeared in human form,
he humbled himself in obedience to God
and died a criminal’s death on a cross.
The big difference? He sinned not.
How Jesus dealt with problems:
1. Using the scriptures
2. With the spirit of God
Thus:
• We have the same resources
• We can imitate Jesus
BIO:
Bible scholar Ben Witherington is Amos Professor of New Testament for Doctoral Studies at Asbury Theological Seminary and on the doctoral faculty at St. Andrews University in Scotland. A graduate of UNC, Chapel Hill, he went on to receive the M.Div. degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. from the University of Durham in England. He is now considered one of the top evangelical scholars in the world, and is an elected member of the prestigious SNTS, a society dedicated to New Testament studies.
Witherington has also taught at Ashland Theological Seminary, Vanderbilt University, Duke Divinity School and Gordon-Conwell. A popular lecturer, Witherington has presented seminars for churches, colleges and biblical meetings not only in the United States but also in England, Estonia, Russia, Europe, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Australia. He has also led tours to Italy, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Jordan, and Egypt.
Witherington has written over forty books, including The Jesus Quest and The Paul Quest, both of which were selected as top biblical studies works by Christianity Today. He also writes for many church and scholarly publications, and is a frequent contributor to the Beliefnet website.
Along with many interviews on radio networks across the country, Witherington has been seen on the History Channel, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, The Discovery Channel, A&E, and the PAX Network.
Click to View the Books by Dr Ben Witherington