{"id":12251,"date":"2017-03-09T13:12:41","date_gmt":"2017-03-09T21:12:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dminlgp.com\/?p=12251"},"modified":"2017-03-09T13:12:41","modified_gmt":"2017-03-09T21:12:41","slug":"god-save-us-from-christians-who-are-well-intentioned-but-not-wise-276","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/god-save-us-from-christians-who-are-well-intentioned-but-not-wise-276\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cGod save us from Christians who are well intentioned but not wise\u201d (276)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Michael Jackson - Man In The Mirror (Official Video)\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PivWY9wn5ps?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>This week my younger daughter and I were discussing the behavior of coworkers and how it affects you. I told her that I had to pray and ask God to help me in the way that I respond to them. I was the one reacting and stressing. I wanted them to change, and they weren&#8217;t. \u00a0I realized that it was the person in the mirror that had to make the change first. We all struggle with\u00a0wanting to change people, our family, our coworkers, church members, and even the pastor. We believe our way is better.\u00a0Each generation believes their views and beliefs are unique and they\u00a0will make the world better. The generations before them believed the new generations\u2019 views\u00a0were emotional and illogical, and this is the cycle of world change. Many of those wanting change\u00a0had the same goal, i.e. peace, equality, freedom, choice but their method of achievement is far apart. For example, Martin Jr., a Christian, and Malcolm, a Muslim, both wanted equal rights for Black Americans. Their methods to achieve that desire were different.<\/p>\n<p>Hunter addressed Christians\u2019 views, beliefs, and their methods to change the world. In a few of the essays he addressed the concerns of the Protestant and Catholic, Evangelical and Fundamentalist, and Anabaptist and Christian Lefts. He says \u201cto change the world you need to understand the culture values.\u201d (6) \u201cIf culture were simply a matter of hears and mind then the influence of various minorities would for relatively insignificant.\u201d (21) Heath and Potter in the book Rebel Sell also addressed the difference between the Christian right wing and the left wing.<\/p>\n<p>In one of the essays, Hunter discussed the Anabaptist and Christian lefts and their\u00a0significant differences between them were their views on the involvement of the state in the lives of the people. The Anabaptists were for the separation of State and Church whereas the Christian Lefts wanted the state to make laws for all to follow their Christian beliefs.\u00a0 There has always been a battle\u00a0with the church wanting to be non-regulated by the state, yet they want to regulate the state laws. They forget that God allows us each to make our choices. He does not force us but encourages us to seek him.<\/p>\n<p>It has always been a discussion on how much should the church be involved. Should they talk about politics in the pulpit, should the pastor encourage the congregation to vote for who they vote for, should politicians be invited to speak, and more. Should preachers run for office? I use to say a Christian cannot be President of the United States of America. Why? You cannot serve to masters. You will begin to hate one of them. Former President Carter had challenges that affected his faith. After four years, he aged tremendously. Now that he is out of that position, I believe he\u00a0has\u00a0impacted more lives with his mission work than he ever did as President.<\/p>\n<p>Hunter discusses the war of the church against the world and the world against the Church. He points out that the church\u00a0needs to be the church by preaching the word of God. Jesus said to those who believe in picking up their cross and following him. Jesus concentrated on spreading the word of God and about the kingdom of eternal life. He didn&#8217;t just speak in the synagogues but walking through the communities sharing the good news. He did not spend time protesting, lobbying or running for a political office. He focused on changing the hearts of the people. It\u2019s an individual decision. Greg Gilbert pointed out in his review of the book \u201cthe church should understand its charge in the world to be one of \u2018faithful presence within.\u2019 He defines this as a calling for the church \u2018to bear witness to and to be the embodiment of the coming Kingdom of God.\u2019 \u00a0The point is not to change the world, but to bear witness to the world in word and deed that a better world is coming.\u201d <a href=\"#_ftn1\" name=\"_ftnref1\">[1]<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref1\" name=\"_ftn1\">[1]<\/a> Gregg Gilbert, <em>Book Review: To Change the Word<\/em>, <a href=\"https:\/\/9marks.org\/review\/change-world\/\">https:\/\/9marks.org\/review\/change-world\/<\/a>, accessed 3-8-2017.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This week my younger daughter and I were discussing the behavior of coworkers and how it affects you. I told her that I had to pray and ask God to help me in the way that I respond to them. I was the one reacting and stressing. I wanted them to change, and they weren&#8217;t. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[861],"class_list":["post-12251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-hunter-change-the-world","cohort-lgp7"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12251\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}