tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21212024.post5059707445910142349..comments2024-03-10T10:40:32.319-07:00Comments on Pyromaniacs: The Concrete WayPhil Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00649092052031518426noreply@blogger.comBlogger27125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21212024.post-62680037981909567152010-02-03T07:56:26.527-08:002010-02-03T07:56:26.527-08:00Please guys, do not think me irreverent--I read ev...Please guys, do not think me irreverent--I read every word of the article and it was good--but I just HAVE to know what is on that beautiful breakfast sandwich!Victoriahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01112932411051059792noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21212024.post-29945560544929479772010-01-28T07:29:06.947-08:002010-01-28T07:29:06.947-08:00Thanks you Jesse. Very sound words.Thanks you Jesse. Very sound words.donsandshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03665794015011057098noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21212024.post-57806758399111154212010-01-28T07:26:10.211-08:002010-01-28T07:26:10.211-08:00Don,
There is also a NT example of the church (li...Don,<br /><br />There is also a NT example of the church (like Haiti) responding to a disaster: the famine in Israel. And when Paul raised money from other Christians, it was for "the saints in Jerusalem."<br />And this gets back to the Israel/church distinction. Israel met the needs of the poor (enemy, alien, stranger, slave) in their midst, and transformed their culture. But in the church, the world will know the love of God by how Christians love each other.<br />Do good to all people, but especially to those in the household of faith.Jessehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02006325636921600509noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21212024.post-69772969201857376322010-01-28T04:38:17.615-08:002010-01-28T04:38:17.615-08:00"Christians are to meet the needs of the poor..."Christians are to meet the needs of the poor in the church."<br /><br />Amen. And to do good to all people really. <br />I like how the Church has sent millions of dollars to help Haiti.<br /><br />This is my thinking on the people of God, and I know I may be wrong:<br /><br />I see the People of God from Adam, Noah, Abram, Jacob, and Moses onward as His elect loved ones. Whether Israel, or the Church, and especially when God returns (Rev. 21), God wanted to "tabernacle with His beloved children. Not that all God's children are God's children.<br />There will always be tares within the wheat until the Harvest.<br /><br />And I do think you are correct that israel was established in such a location that this small nation could be a shining light of who the Lord was, the One true God, Yahweh.<br /><br />I always am learning here at Pyro.donsandshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03665794015011057098noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21212024.post-35400391712589697172010-01-27T21:56:57.635-08:002010-01-27T21:56:57.635-08:00Sorry Sam. I posted that last comment under the wr...Sorry Sam. I posted that last comment under the wrong log in.Jessehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02006325636921600509noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21212024.post-13706688143255493182010-01-27T21:55:51.823-08:002010-01-27T21:55:51.823-08:00Sam,
I agree, but only to an extent. I think Israe...Sam,<br />I agree, but only to an extent. I think Israel was called to stay in the land and eradicate poverty from their midst (Deut 15), and by doing so they let their light shine, and the nations of the world would come and be converted (Deut 4, 1 Kings 10, etc.)<br />The church, on the other hand, is the opposite. Israel was to stay and transform the culture, we are to go and preach the Gospel to the world.Israel was to show indiscriminate compassion to the poor in their midst, and Christians are to meet the needs of the poor in the church. <br />The only NT example of the proverbial guy on an off-ramp is in Acts 3, and they refused to give him money (or make him pick up trash first). But just two verses earlier Christians sold all they had and met each others needs.<br />I don't want to undercut the force of Frank's article; we are to show love to all people because God loves all people. But to relate that to Israel's mission is to dilute the uniqueness of the commission given to the church, and to undercut the difference between how Christians should respond to the poor in the church vs. the poor in the world.csun gochttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04980574430894266478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21212024.post-82738191894277583232010-01-27T18:52:54.230-08:002010-01-27T18:52:54.230-08:00Having worked with the down-and-outs before, you n...Having worked with the down-and-outs before, you need to discern whether the sign holder is a "professional" or not. <br /><br />Some will always choose their way outside of society (can you spell "unibomber?"). Others are legitemately down. <br /><br />"Professionals" play on guilt about seeing someone obviously needing help. It's fair to ask questions about how they got where they are and can they do something for themselves? <br /><br />One option is to offer food for some small chore say picking up some litter (right there beside the road) to save their value (image of God and doing unto the Lord). <br /><br />Money is never wise as it may contribute to some substance that the Lord would not approve of.<br /><br />Either way, we need to share the gospel as we do all the above and thank the Lord..."There go I but for the grace of the LORD!"<br /><br />In the Lamb,Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21212024.post-67480339326249447322010-01-27T18:37:24.015-08:002010-01-27T18:37:24.015-08:00I hope I'm not going too far off base with thi...I hope I'm not going too far off base with this question, but would this apply to the guy you see at the off ramp, with the sign saying he's going somewhere or needs money/food. I've always wondered if it's wrong not to help when we feel it would put ourselves at risk from the person we're helping.<br /><br />or is that the modern day equivalent to, "and who is my neighbor?"B Barneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16289914960341648823noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21212024.post-85000976587465463332010-01-27T17:21:27.056-08:002010-01-27T17:21:27.056-08:00“Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice a...“Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel." (Exodus 19: 5-6 ESV)<br /><br />The purpose of our salvation is to be a witness to the nations about God's love shown to us in Messiah. This is in the heart of the Law and is the heart of the Law (before 20th chapter even!). <br /><br />Israel was not treasured to be hidden under a bushel basket but as a witness of God's grace that would be available to all nations ultimately in Messiah (as a City on a Hill).<br /><br />Does it not strike you that strangers were allowed to join Israel through conversion (as well as slaves captured from other nations) and that there are procedures for those conversions within the Law!<br /><br />We need to not make the same mistake about strangers as Israel made! We need to preach the gospel and allow the Lord Holy Spirit to do His converting. <br /><br />This is best shown by loving our neighbor (even the strangers) as we love our selves (again in the heart of the priestly Law (Lev 19) by preaching the gospel to ourselves as well as our neighbor!<br /><br />Thanks Frank!<br /><br />In the Lamb,Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21212024.post-21686976539618060962010-01-27T15:05:37.534-08:002010-01-27T15:05:37.534-08:00Rick --
Mostly I'm preaching to myself, so do...Rick --<br /><br />Mostly I'm preaching to myself, so don't feel like you're the only sinner in the stew.FX Turkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16798420127955373559noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21212024.post-34616304087565524072010-01-27T14:49:27.029-08:002010-01-27T14:49:27.029-08:00This (loving my neighbor) has been one of the hard...This (loving my neighbor) has been one of the hardest things for me to do. I have said in other comments as much. I have asked what it means to love God. I have struggled with it as one of my main failures. But, having read for many years here, and in reading here today, the way is becoming very clear to me. Yes, I am dim witted in this area. But I am growing because of your (Pyromaniacs) efforts. I have been enriched both mentally and spiritually by these admonitions. And, I just want to say thanks.Rick Potterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12525495561013100331noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21212024.post-75202033890476528022010-01-27T13:36:25.062-08:002010-01-27T13:36:25.062-08:00Thanks Frank. That was helpful.Thanks Frank. That was helpful.Jessehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02006325636921600509noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21212024.post-56791486137137780122010-01-27T13:04:29.381-08:002010-01-27T13:04:29.381-08:00Thanks Frank :) You too continue to surprise me. B...Thanks Frank :) You too continue to surprise me. By the way, I live in the Inland Empire in California lot sof shadiness cna happen in those big deserted areas. <br /><br />And that sausage burger is giving me diabetes just by looking at it.frankfusionhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05662401108747483123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21212024.post-566908033642527432010-01-27T12:10:08.113-08:002010-01-27T12:10:08.113-08:00Brad --
Only if you're dying on the side of t...Brad --<br /><br />Only if you're dying on the side of the road on my way home from work. Or they deliver to your house.FX Turkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16798420127955373559noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21212024.post-12516379479334760032010-01-27T12:09:04.373-08:002010-01-27T12:09:04.373-08:00Jesse --
One thing I have to say about Jesus vs. ...Jesse --<br /><br />One thing I have to say about Jesus vs. us is that we are always a little too eager to make everything Jesus said into one of the 5 solas, or at least totally conformed to one of the 5 solas. In this case, the Good Samartian has to then be not about how or whether to love your neighbor (a matter of sanctification, not justification) but twisted to be about how depraved man is and therefore unable to please God.<br /><br />As I am wont to say, "Pheh."<br /><br />The cause of this incident -- if we take Scripture at face value -- is, "a lawyer [who] stood up to put [Jesus] to the test" -- so we are viewing one of the many rounds of "stump the Messiah" which takes place in the 4 Gospels. The cause of the incident is that the lawyer was trying to prove Jesus wasn't all that.<br /><br />Jesus' response to his question pretty much annihilates the lawyer and his question as he cites Moses straight-up, right? And the question is not, “How am I saved by the Law?” The question is, if I can be so bold as to paraphrase a lawyer from 2000 years ago, “Since the law is full of commands of greater and lesser significance, which command is the most significant, Jesus?” That is: in some sense, the lawyer is asking Jesus for a way to interpret the Law by understanding which command(s) are most important and (therefore) which are the least. This is not about how works save us: it is about what the works which the law commands look like.<br /><br />Without getting too far self-distracted off your question, my take on this incident is that it’s a snapshot of the relationship between God and Israel when God takes a moment (again) to explain to Israel what the Law is really about. I mean, it’s not like God hasn’t previously given them Deu 6 and Lev 19; it’s not like God never before said, “I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” (Hos 6:6) The point of the Law is not to show how shart you are or can be: the point of the Law is to show <i>how you belong to God</i>. The literature in the OT most notably related to this is the Wisdom literature like Proverbs – which is literature which assumes God’s covenant and then points out how one should live if the covenant is true. It’s really, really good advice – not crypto-calvinistic systematics which say, “well: do this,” but means “yeah, but you can never do this because of total depravity and your dead heart.”<br /><br />So Jesus says, “Hey: if you love God (he gives a litany of ways, but he could have said “in spirit and in truth” and meant the same thing without quoting the OT), and then you love people because you love God, you have gotten the whole law.”<br /><br />But that’s not good enough for the lawyer – it’s too simple. So he asks the follow-up to justify his question – “yeah, but who is my neighbor?”<br /><br />Listen: when my kids do that to me, we start talking about being teachable, and about listening with a heart open to wisdom rather than personal desires and preferences. But Jesus – because he’s God, and he’s Good – tells a story which, in effect, says, “If even a <i>Samaritan</i> can understand who his neighbor is, surely you <i>who have the law and the temple</i> can understand who your neighbor is.”<br /><br />It’s fine that we say that the Muslim does not worship Jesus and the actual God of Abraham – but when the Muslim understands how to love our neighbor better than we do, it’s time to start over with our systematics with the basics: Love God, Love people. He who does not love his brother (the brother he can see) and says he loves God (one he cannot see) is a liar.<br /><br />Period. End of story.FX Turkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16798420127955373559noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21212024.post-36482528409402016812010-01-27T11:45:13.451-08:002010-01-27T11:45:13.451-08:00Frank, if I agree with you, will you flesh out you...Frank, if I agree with you, will you flesh out your love for me by buying me that sausage burger? I could get after that thing.Brad Williamshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00197301845256854051noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21212024.post-66210143419362221822010-01-27T11:34:18.096-08:002010-01-27T11:34:18.096-08:00Frank,
I agree with what you wrote about the impo...Frank,<br /><br />I agree with what you wrote about the importance of love to both God and neighbor. I wonder though (not in a rhetorical sense, but I am honestly asking)if that was the point of this parable. I have heard it taught that the point of this parable is to show the impossibility of loving your neighbor with all your heart, and that the Samaritan was not a picture of what we should do, but a picture of how we should live IF our goal was to work our way to heaven. In this sense, it is comparable to the "sell all you have and give to the poor" to inherit eternal life kind of response, and Jesus's "go and do likewise" was not meant as an encouragement, but as a way to show how impossible it is to get to heaven except by grace. <br /><br />Have you heard that take on the parable before? What are your thoughts?Jessehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02006325636921600509noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21212024.post-73204982157171340762010-01-27T09:29:32.737-08:002010-01-27T09:29:32.737-08:00Amen, amen, amen, and thank you.Amen, amen, amen, and thank you.Stefan Ewinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05530690016594029847noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21212024.post-43145474699936328622010-01-27T09:28:23.753-08:002010-01-27T09:28:23.753-08:00frank,
i really appreciate this great demonstrati...frank,<br /><br />i really appreciate this great demonstration of how to focus on the love of God without sheepishly ignoring the truth about God.<br /><br />well done!David Ruddhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12572780147564110421noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21212024.post-86873717790915801642010-01-27T09:09:54.131-08:002010-01-27T09:09:54.131-08:00Just as Paul said, the greatest of these is love. ...Just as Paul said, the greatest of these is love. Which of us wants to be a noisy gong? I have to remind myself of this (with a lot of help from my wife) all the time. I have to remember who the enemy is when I refute false teaching or reprove a fellow Christian. Satan is the evil one and we were all at one time or another enemies of God, chasing after the fleshly desires of this world. I pray that we will all act more in love every day so as to follow Jesus' example better. Then we can shine like a light on the hill.<br /><br />Thanks for the reminder.Roberthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13987985549747283669noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21212024.post-81035256997502436602010-01-27T09:08:02.665-08:002010-01-27T09:08:02.665-08:00Dude. Awesomeness.Dude. Awesomeness.Johnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15147021671506048314noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21212024.post-634186102722209482010-01-27T08:49:30.325-08:002010-01-27T08:49:30.325-08:00FusionFrank for the score!FusionFrank for the score!FX Turkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16798420127955373559noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21212024.post-17868235919555664492010-01-27T08:34:50.810-08:002010-01-27T08:34:50.810-08:00I think I hear a little Ronald Nash there, God is ...I think I hear a little Ronald Nash there, God is all his attributes at once. If you saw Stetzer's blog this week, there was issue over Jim Belcher's understanding of missional, that it leads to a social justice gospel of good works and that leads to liberalism and that leads to the dark side (true quote!)But I think this is the heart of what a lot fo these peopel are trying to say. I hope that for those who don't believe the church plays some role in loving the outcast, will heed these words. I know I've been convicted and encouraged in the last few weeks with the situation in Haiti. But as someone once said, jugement begins at home. I live in an area where it is becoming more and more prevalent to see child sex slavery, and people living in tent citites because they've los their homes. I have a sneaky suspicion that it shouldn't take an earthquake to reach out to them.frankfusionhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05662401108747483123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21212024.post-71054424821668499732010-01-27T07:41:15.580-08:002010-01-27T07:41:15.580-08:00Excellent.Excellent.lawrencehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02269079315500219992noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21212024.post-19618970520536608792010-01-27T07:14:23.942-08:002010-01-27T07:14:23.942-08:00I was reading James this morning. You two would g...I was reading James this morning. You two would get along great.Rob Baileyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10893938431904825170noreply@blogger.com