Rev. Erudite Redneck, B.S., B.S., M.A., M.Div.

Question of the day:

What does it mean to become a disciple of Jesus?

I'd say that at the very, very least, it means to pray for peace, and work for peace, and to start with oneself.

I am quick to go to rhetorical war with those with whom I disagree. That's a form of violence. I'm working on that. Lifetime habits don't change quickly -- but that's why repentence is a lifetime deal, not a one-shot thing.

So, what're YOU doing to promote peace?
 

Oh, and just in case Bird or Dr. ER sees this, believe it or not, I actually am trying to find better wasys to express frustration than by yelling. :-)
 

ER asked, "So, what're YOU doing to promote peace?"

I take my three different psychotropic drugs every day, keep my leathal weapons under lock and key, and try not to get into conversations with psuedo-neo-cons or their camp followers.
 

I've been trying that last thing myself lately, with varying degrees of success.
 

Too deep a question to answer in the typically short blogger response, but here's the Cliff's Notes version:

For me it comes down to the statement my church has adopted: Being, Becoming, Belonging.

Accomplished through greeting, hospitality, evangelism, peer care, pastoral care, mission, study, worship, personal responsibility.

Tangible examples: Feeding the poor; mission work locally and globally to lessen the suffering of others while at the same time introducing God's word and love; projects that use actions and love instead of words and brow-beating, like our Care Critters ministry and our Prayer Shawl ministry.

Personally, I'm planning an auction for April to raise money to support a grassroots housing ministry. I'm also leading a GriefShare support group and will start a second group in a couple of weeks, and help lead DivorceCare support groups.

These are just some of the examples of how my church is putting arms and legs to work to take the Word to the world -- to share that gift of knowing that God sees our pain, knows our sins and loves us anyway.

If you want peace, you have to work for justice. There are many ways of achieving that -- next door or around the world.

I could go on, but that's the introduction.
 

Cool. Then you're in deeper than I am. I'm still new at the notion of the Christian life being more what you *do* **with** Jesus than what you think and believe *about* Jesus.

BTW, what I mean by saying I love that hymn in light of my own travails is that even through the tumult I can still hear His voice -- not that I think He will necessarily deliver me from the tumult!

He calls! The fact that I can still hear Him is cause for rejoicing!

"In our joys and in our sorrows,
days of toil and hours of ease,
still he calls, in cares and pleasures, 'Christian, love me more than these.' "

LORD forgive me when my own voice, as an echo of His, fails to persevere through the tumult of the lives of those around me!
 

I have to remember that the cross extends horizontally into the world as well as vertically into heaven.

And I have to remember that sometimes He calms the storm and sometimes He calms His child.
 

There can be no peace without justice. There can be no justice without fairness. Fairness requires equity under the law.
Equity will not suffer a wrong to be without a remedy.
A remedy for every wrong, now that is a tall order for a world such as ours.