Thanks, Dad!

Happy Memorial Day!

Following Truth

There is a difference between searching for truth and accepting predetermined truths. One begins with an honest attempt to discover what is real and the other is an attempt to bolster preconceptions. In religion, truth is defined as adherence to whatever that religion has already decided is the truth. The longer the religion has been in existence, the longer the list of doctrines, tenants and declarations. A new convert is not asked to search for the truth, instead he is told that these are the truths he must accept. Following Jesus is a search for the Truth itself. In Jesus we find truth living and embodied. He is not a list of doctrines to be studied and believed. Jesus is the truth meant to be followed and lived.

Where Do You Live?

There is a common thread which unites all of the women and men of the past. The famous and the infamous, even the obscure and unknown, are united by one thing: they are dead. What they did or didn't do or what they accomplished or didn't accomplish can be debated from now until the end of time. But, they themselves cannot enter into the debate. We sometimes live as though we will be aware of what others say of us. We believe that we will know whether or not we become famous (or infamous). But this kind of living is living for another world. We live in this world. We live in this time. It is to the Father to sort out our "legacy." It is to us to live faithfully in this age.

Unity

"So far as the Evangelical Confessions are concerned we are determined to put an end to existing divisions, which are concerned only with the forms of organization, and to create a single Evangelical Church for the whole Reich…."
-Adolf Hitler, Nuremberg 1934

"Christianity means community through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ. No Christian community is more or less than this. We belong to one another only through and in Jesus Christ." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together, 1938