Note: Good news and a challenge.
We exceeded our goal for my birthday fundraiser for Chains of Grace. We do not have all the promised hard donations (checks) as yet, but we reached $1230 on a Victory Goal of $1200. I will let you know the final amount when all the checks arrive.
Now, for the challenge. We are now at $9575 cash and pledges toward a $20000 Debt Retirement Challenge. With the full amount we can retire the debt on one of our houses enabling us to keep our fees affordable for parolees, many of whom emerge from prison without, well, much of anything more than a criminal record.
You can help by sending a check for any amount to:
Chains of Grace
PO Box 1344
Midlothian, TX 76065
Or
Go to our website, www.chainsofgrace.org. You will find a Donate button or two. Just hit the Donate button and enter your information. Please be sure to let me know you intend your gift for Debt Retirement.
Thanks.
Now, commercial over, let us turn to our subject.
Yesterday we discussed how Christianity takes on the nature of the Christ, who is, after all, its founder. The Current Crisis in our culture (American and global) seems to me to grow from our overall ignorance of the Work and, so, the Person of the Christ. We major now on the Work of the Christ.
Jesus acts, as we cited Dale Moody’s writing, as Prophet, Priest and Potentate. He is the Prophet of Israel. His prophetic mission (every prophet has a particular, some would say peculiar mission) is self announced, He appears to “seek and save that which is lost” cf. Luke 19:10) by which He means those who are lost, not just in one place, time, ethnicity or nation, but in all places and times.
We also hold Jesus is the Priest. He demonstrates the mystery of God in worship, service and sacrifice. None of these three actions are terribly popular in today’s world. Worship takes time, effort and humility. Service costs so much we mostly stop there and, well, sacrifice, now really, if service costs too much, who will go on to sacrifice?
Finally, we recognize Jesus as the Potentate over all earthly elites. Jesus champions the Have-Nots as He admonishes the Haves. We learn not to compare Jesus to earthly “kings” or those wannabe kings who seem to pop up pretty often.
So, Jesus is a tough sell these days, most definitely for forgetful generations or for those with limited attention spans. Perhaps this is why preachers do not talk about Jesus much any ore. Popular politician dropped God from their speech some time ago. Now they refer to the “will of the people,” or to “the American people who deserve better.”
In this series, which I assure you will be quite long, we seek to help Christians (and those who are not) recover some insight into the Work and Person of Jesus, the Christ. Come along with us in our bight-size vignettes.
See you tomorrow.