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thesaltyspice-deactivated201901

I’ve been seeing a lot of anti-Nazi ones, which is great, but I felt like we needed one to show our support for the Jewish community.

biblicalle

God’s power is not a power that takes. It is a power that gives. God’s power is not a power that rules. It is a power that serves. God’s power is not a power that imposes. It is a power that loves.

Source (via biblicalle)

windsswept

do you ever just think about Jesus living here on earth

i think sometimes we tend to think He just bounced from one miracle to another and everyday was a Bible story but His ministry lasted for three years and the Gospels don’t actually cover that much so

imagine all those ordinary days??

He probably had favorite foods and morning routines and sore dirty feet from walking while sweat ran in His eyes in the hot Judean sun and He got blisters and hiccups and colds and maybe He snored

all the times He laughed till He cried and i bet He had inside jokes with His disciples. imagine having an inside joke with the person who gives you breath to laugh in the first place

and He had human skills He knew how to build a house and cook and wash his clothes and read

passing food at the dinner table and bumping hands with Jesus

talking about silly inconsequential things like the weather

maybe some nights John was sleepy and he leaned against Jesus and could hear His heartbeat

maybe some nights a disciple had insomnia and he climbed out of his bedroll to find Jesus sitting against a rock, looking up at heaven, and they sat and watched the stars together

(the God of the universe looking up through short-sighted eyes at His creation, and the disciple wants so badly to ask what it was like to shape each star, but he looks at those calloused human hands and something in him trembles)

do you ever think that the ordinary days so far outnumbered the miraculous ones that the disciples, sometimes, almost forgot

and then He goes and turns water into wine and feeds five thousand people from a kid’s lunch and brings dead Lazarus walking alive out of the tomb and they just kind of lose their breath

not because they didn’t expect deity to accomplish the impossible but because this God has been living with them

it’s not the miracles that are unthinkable

thoughyourheartisaching

This is so beautiful.

Also, imagine his ordinary days with his family. Imagine Joseph telling him stories and he listening, paying attention. Imagine when Joseph and Mary put child Jesus in bed and could hear his breathing sounds. Or imagine the inside jokes he had with his mother about his father, or with his father about his mother. Imagine the God of the world not only looking at the stars but also watching the majesty of a sunset. Imagine child Jesus running around the house, singing beautiful and cute cultural songs that Mary might’ve taught him. Imagine his joy when he ate his favorite food or taking a bath after a hot day.

Imagine Joseph’s doubt when figuring out that he would have to teach carpentry to God himself. And that Jesus, the Lord, actually took time to listen and learn his old father’s words. Imagine God’s humble attitudes. We usually say that he humbled himself by coming as a human. But it’s only when we actually think about what makes us human, that we get the idea of how big was it. The God of the world taking time and putting effort to learn what we, merely humans, had to teach/say. And he wanted to. He wanted to be near us. And be one of us. When God lowered himself, that’s when He showed us how big He was.

asoutherngaychristian

Chills.

of-aurora

Reblog if you're not homophobic

Every url that reblog’s will be written in a book and shown to my homophobic dad.

gabrielthefool-deactivated20200

I recently ran across a discussion amongst queer and LGBT+ Christians about how to respond to churches finally coming around and being accepting and affirming of same sex relationships and trans people. The prevailing attitude is that these are things to be celebrated, and that as Christians we should always be open to reconciliation. One person said we should look to the parable of the Prodigal Son, and rejoice and embrace our kin.

Something about that just didn’t seem right to me.

A few days later news broke that the Church of England voted to “accept and affirm” transgender people. Then evangelical leader Eugene Peterson said in an interview “I know a lot of people who are gay and lesbian and they seem to have as good a spiritual life as I do” and that, were he pastoring still, he would perform a same sex wedding.

Even setting aside that Peterson waited until he was retired from ministry and no longer writing to say this, and that he later retracted his statement when it became clear it would have financial consequences, I kept coming back to the question of how we should respond to those people and institutions which have a change of heart or a change of position.

Should we, in keeping with the parable of the Prodigal Son, throw open our arms and kiss those who come seeking reconciliation?

I don’t think it quite lines up.

The story has a child leaving, using up his inheritance, and coming back to his family in humility to find himself welcomed and his return celebrated. That’s not what is happening here. The queer Christian community is neither the son who left, nor the father who welcomed him home.

In each proclamation of acceptance, a church or person is saying “The people we kicked out are now welcome to come back. The ones we didn’t want can now come and be one of us. They are welcomed in our church. They can join us.”

But we never left. The church abandoned us.

If the church seeks reconciliation with those it abandoned, it will not find it in grand proclamations of welcome. It will not find it in mere statements of affirmation. The church walked away from us. It does not get to then ask us to come to it. The church left the margins. The church deserted the wilderness. The church left where God dwells. It doesn’t get to ask us to follow it now that it will have us.

No, if the church seeks reconciliation, they must not ask us to rejoin them. They must leave their megachurches, their cathedrals, their parishes. If they want to find healing, they must come to us and ask if they can join us. They must say “We were wrong, please forgive us and welcome us.” They must give up their cishet Jesus, even if they believe he loves us queers, and come to know the queer Jesus that has lived and thrived outside of all that they have done.

The church needs to stop offering welcome and affirmation to those it once excluded, and start asking for welcome from those with whom Jesus dwelt when they turned their back. Only then, only there at the margins, can reconciliation begin.

queertheology

ALL OF THIS! and especially this:

“The church left the margins. The church deserted the wilderness. The church left where God dwells. It doesn’t get to ask us to follow it now that it will have us.

“No, if the church seeks reconciliation, they must not ask us to rejoin them. They must leave their megachurches, their cathedrals, their parishes. If they want to find healing, they must come to us and ask if they can join us.”

livingwithinmyskin-deactivated2

This is the heart of the paradigm shift which must sweep across Christianity to truly embrace the potential of our increasingly post-Christendom age. For nearly 2000 years the dominant streams of our movement have been the gatekeepers at the center of it all. Now we are being forced to relearn that Christianity is meant to exist in the margins for those at the margins. The church now needs to leave what it has become in order to embody Christ on earth again.

gabrielthefool-deactivated20200

I’m truly honored and excited that this post has taken off and is resonating with people. I was feeling like the only person who thought this way.