Anonymous asked:

I’ve been thinking a lot about my calling or my purpose, and once—only once— I had this sort of bright-white electric filament feeling when I inquired if it should be what I have done in the past: humane societies and animal shelters. Even though I’m not Catholic, I’ve always liked St. Francis of Assi and concept that we should “protect nature and animals as the stewards of God’s creation and as creations ourselves.” Is this an actual calling or am I being too hopeful and introverted?

Hey, this is a really cool question, so please do not be embarrassed about it at all. I adopted an awesome dog named Rosco from the Humane Society and I love him like family.  I’ve also had a couple adopted cats (I’m one of the rare people who likes both), so I totally get your concern for animals.

When I was in college, I remember a guest speaker on a Sunday saying, “Do you ever see people with pets? Those people are so sad. They spend tons of money on their animals and don’t have any real friends. What’s the point of owning some animal?” He immediately alienated half the congregation.

I completely understand how the pet industry can become idolatry. I know how many millions of dollars go to “pet toys” and dog shows and all the abuse of breeding. It can go overboard

But pets can bring huge joy to their owners and teach a lot about patience, kindness, and responsibility. Pets can be great for certain people with disabilities or military veterans or just lonely people. When my youth group would hang out at my place, my dog would bring them all together in laughter. And owning a pet doesn’t instantly mean you hate people or you’re a hermit or you could “use that money for starving kids in Africa.”

I also believe, to the best of my limited knowledge, that animals do have certain rights and someone should be looking out for them. Blinded chickens with no beaks kept in tiny cages, even if they taste good, just feels inhumane. Again, it could go overboard real quickly (come on PETA) — but it’s a legit calling. You might be accused of loving animals over people, but someone will always try to Jesus-Juke you like that. Let’s leave those fears behind.

Continue reading “Question: Is Caring For Animals a Legitimate Calling?” →

“Jesus was ‘in very nature God.’ He was at the top of the organizational chart of the universe. But he did not consider this to be ‘grounds for grasping’; he gave up the right to have things his own way and became a servant. But even angels are servants, so he went lower: he became a human being. He took on flesh and blood, all our needs and limitations. This is the beauty of the incarnation — God coming down. But even on a human level, some people live as kings and celebrities, so Jesus took another demotion: he ‘humbled himself’ and was born in a stable as the peasant son of a penniless couple. But even that was not low enough. He kept going down by becoming ‘obedient to death.’ His ultimate task wasn’t some glorious achievement. There was nothing glamorous about death. But his demotion didn’t stop there. He went one rung lower: ‘even death on a cross.’”

— John Ortberg

thegentleway asked:

How does one make sense of some of the outlandishly strange laws given to Israelites in the Old Testaments? In other words, what does it mean when someone says that the Bible is authoritative? Does it mean that one must take everything to be literal truth and follow it word for word? If the former is the case then what about passages like: Exodus 21:7, Exodus 35:2, and laws in Leviticus that commands people to kill someone for what seems to be minor technicalities? Any answer will be a of help.

Thanks for the challenge, but first things first: please do NOT under any circumstance pick up rocks to stone someone to death.  Please don’t do that.

But jokes aside, this is actually one of the easier theological questions that always pops up when someone reads their Bible, and it’s totally sensible to ask. 

It revolves around two mini-questions:

1) What is up with these crazy Old Testament commands?

2) How do any of them apply to us Christians today?

Let’s tackle these both, and please allow me the grace to outline some of the finer theology.  Also feel free to skip around.

Continue reading “Question: The Down-Low on The Old Testament Commands” →

The joy of the Lord is not that you are happy when you go to church or when you’re singing hymns or when you’re quoting Bible verses. It is the joy that will come one day when you finally see face-to-face, clear as crystal, that for which you were made. That secret longing that you have carried with you like a wound your whole life long will be met.

… Our quest for joy, our broken, messed-up, obsessive, endless pursuit of joy tells us we were made for the Joy-Bringer.

– John Ortberg

For those who feel their lives are a grave disappointment to God, it requires enormous trust and reckless, raging confidence to accept that the love of Christ knows no shadow or alteration or change. When Jesus said, ‘Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy burdened,’ He assumed we would grow weary, discouraged, and disheartened along the way. These words are a touching testimony to the genuine humanness of Jesus. He had no romantic notion of the cost of discipleship. He knew that following Him was as unsentimental as duty, as demanding as love. He knew that physical pain, the loss of loved ones, failure, loneliness, rejection, abandonment, betrayal would sap our spirits; that the day would come when faith would no longer offer any drive, reassurance, or comfort; that prayer would lack any sense of reality or progress …

What the disciple has not learned is that tangible reassurances, however valuable they may be, cannot create trust, sustain it, or guarantee any certainty of its presence. Jesus calls us to hand over our autonomous self in unshaken confidence. When the craving for reassurances is stifled, trust happens.

— Brennan Manning