Friday, August 31, 2007

Go and do something!

a Jesus thought...
The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. (John 14:26)

a Godly thought...
Postmodern culture yearns for corporate worship that is EPIC, that is Experiential, Participatory, Image-driven, and Communal. (Leonard Sweet, p103 Frost & Hirsch)

a leading thought...
Instead of just wringing their hands about the evil in the world, good leaders seek to redress it and make a difference. (p49 Harris)

a Dave thought...
It is now over 30 hours since I saw the Jammed, the movie I referred to in yesterdays blog, and the disturbing images continue to remain with me. This is a good thing as it may mean that if I am actually disturbed enough I may, like Wesley Harris says above, seek to redress the evil in the world and make a difference.
It was 1887 when William Booth was returning to London very late one bitterly cold night, that he too was shocked after seeing how many were sleeping on the banks of the Thames and under bridges. His response was to tell Bramwell with the order, 'Go and do something!' The result is now hundreds of homeless shelters around the world.
So what can we do? I'm still working that out but what I do know is that if we are exposed to injustices up close in our faces so they continue to annoy and disturb us, we may just go and do something.

Just a thought.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

When we salvos think about leading God's just in the Army we are tempted to make make justice into another program of the Army. All our efforts are of course noble yet, stranglely it tends to be`an effort to keep justice external. It tends to make "justice into a program that we do, rather than something we become as a people. I believe, as much as our programs are needed, it is only in the "physical connection of restoring people's lives among us, speaking truth, showing love, and tangibly ministry aid to real people, that real justice can take root in and through our lives.

With Holy Discontent said...

Anon above makes a good point in that we need to speak truth, show love, and offer aid to real people. But I cannot stand by when I see injustice. To combat injustice we need to DO something. It is what is expected of us as followers of Christ, both as individuals and as the Army of God. We need to be fired up with an indignation that leads us to action. It looks like Jammed will assist us.

BCA

Anonymous said...

Justice should not be something we "do" when we see injustice, but who we are. Justice in God's eyes is about a horizonatal transformative reconciliation that brings people into a healed restored relationship with one another as a result of the concurrent healed relationship we share with God. If we read the accounts of justice in Ez.18:5-9. Isa. 58:3-7. Amos 5:21-24. Mic.3, this kind of righteousness, both vertical and horrisontal, is at the core of what just is for the Hebrew mind.We must engage in practices of horisontal reconcilation and care for one another, ie pursing "right"oussness in our relationships. Let us pursue righteousness as a way of life.