1956 SWORDS INTO PLOWSHARES [versus the 2^nd amendment?]

Found it interesting to see the politics play out over the sad murder/suicide of the Kansas City chief’s football player.

Both the left and the right were out in force- using their standard lines.

Bob Costas used his coverage of a game- during halftime- to speak about gun control.

That raised the ire of the right- and they were out too- you know- the usual rhetoric.

I guess the most honest view came from Joe Namath.

He was on Piers Morgan [CNN].

Morgan asked him about Costas’ comments.

Joe said even though he was partial to the gun control side- yet he felt Costas shouldn’t have used the game in a political way.

I mentioned I saw the Lincoln movie the other day.

It really was a good history lesson on how congress works.

They spent most of the movie simply playing out the political machinations of congress and the president- and how making the right moves can accomplish the goal.

Slavery was forbidden under the 13^th amendment to the constitution.

The second amendment talks about gun rights.

I own a few guns- am not a liberal- or an NRA type of guy.

But I find it strange how believers seem to associate guns with patriotism and freedom.

Of course weapons have been used in the past to obtain freedom- and it's in mans nature to resort to violence in order to protect what he thinks is valuable.

But there actually is a biblical goal- the scripture speaks about God’s ultimate goal for weapons.

It does- I never knew that?

Yes- the bible speaks about a future day when there will be no more weapons of war.

The prophet Isaiah says ‘they will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks- they will learn war no more’.

Now- to my friends on the right- no- I’m not against our 2^nd amendment rights.

To my friends on the left- well- yeah- guns don’t kill people- but people do.

But- the end goal for the believer- for the kingdom- is no more weapons.

Okay- I guess a few more examples from my homeless buddies will do here.

I have been mentioning the guys the last few weeks- we have been working together on a halfway house- and I have been sort of playing the mediator role with some of the guys.

In ‘ministry’ there exists a sort of competitive spirit.

The same type of thing you see in sports.

My friend David who started the halfway house has noticed that some of our mutual pastor friends are not so happy about it.

I have been teaching the guys about the nature of ‘church’ and Gods kingdom- insights I have gleaned over the years.

And my friend David is seeing it- the competitive thing- and he realizes that people are more willing to help other ministries if they have some type of name recognition fixed to it.

A few pastors/churches are willing to help my buddy- but they want him to incorporate as part of their church.

The other day David asked if I wanted to actually use my ‘ministry’ as the name- the incorporation- for the halfway house [he wants to establish many of them].

I have been helping the most I guess- out of all the other ministries.

I told David I really did not want too- I actually incorporated years ago- but eventually dropped the status.

There was no need for it.

I never took offerings- or financial support at all [since around 1994?]

So I told David I had no need- or desire- to have the thing under my name.

But he saw that seemed to be a big thing with some of the other pastors we work with.

In my talk the other day with the group [called NeWay].

I spoke about the kingdom of God in the parables of Jesus.

Often times we overlook the simple teachings of Christ when thinking ‘church starting’.

Now- there are many theological reasons pastors do this- too many to cover right here.

But- in the parables of Jesus we see a principle- a kingdom principle about seeds.

Jesus teaches his men that the kingdom of God is like spreading seeds.

You throw some here- some there- and you have no control over which ones take and the others that don’t.

Jesus says ‘after he plants- he sleeps- and wakes- and the seed grows- he knows not how’.

I like that- we are just seed sowers.

Now- Jesus did not just teach this- he also modeled it in the actual ‘ministry’ he was building with his men.

They were going from town to town- preaching the good news- healing the sick- feeding the poor.

They were not ‘setting up ministries’ in the way we think.

They were simply communicating the truth of God- in whatever format they were in at the time- and doing kingdom works.

Eventually some in those towns became followers- others did not [some seeds took- some did not].

Notice- there was no big appeal for lots of money- sure- they did receive offerings from some- but the appeal to start some huge 501 c3 thing was nonexistent.

So- the point I was making was we- ministers- Christians in general- we should not focus most of our time on simply raising money for all types of ‘worthy’ causes.

No- we are here to basically model the ministry of Christ.

Yeah- could it be that simple?

Sure.

Jesus said ‘let your light so shine before men- that they may see YOUR GOOD DEEDS- and glorify you father in heaven’.

See?

Our ‘light’ is not the showcasing of our gifts or our talents.

We often see modern ministry thru that lens.

‘wow- did you hear him speak’ type of thing.

Actually that’s not the light.

The light Jesus spoke about was the actual good deeds of charity.

The actual lived out love we have for one another.

‘greater love has no man than this- that he would lay down his life for his friends’.

Yeah- the kingdom seems to always rub against our own ideas.

Yeah- there's coming a day where there will be no more weapons.

Only love.

That’s not just a Lennon song.

It’s gospel.

www.corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com

Note- Do me a favor, those who read/like the posts- re-post them on other sites as well as the site you read them on. Thanks- John. Don’t forget to scroll down on the timeline [Facebook] - I have posted lots.