From Of First Importance:

When our depravity meets his divinity it is a beautiful collision.

David Crowder

From the CD liner notes for “A Beautiful Collision”, A Collision (Six Steps Records: 2005)

The soon-to-be-published Jared at the Gospel Driven Church today launched a 5 day series in which he posts his own 95 theses for the American church, 19 per day. Today’s theme was discipleship and here are a few of them:

5. The American Christian takes for granted the convenience of the availability of God’s revelation in the Holy Scriptures. [salguod: I too often resemble this one, which makes #6 & #7 that much more painful to read.]
14. The Christian in the American Christian ought to affirm and embrace the cost of discipleship, but the American in the American Christian hesitates to deny himself because Self is his highest value.
16. … The American Christian’s schedule and routines reflect he believes his days belong to himself and not to God.

Good stuff. If you’re not a regular reader of Jared’s blog, I suspect this series will be a great intro into why you should be.

From Milton Stanley:

… something unique happens when Jesus touches dirt: instead of getting dirty himself, Jesus makes the dirt clean.

Of course, go read the rest. If you aren’t a reader of Milton’s at-one-time-daily blog, you should be. His posts are short and to the point, but almost always makes me think.

Here’s a Thinklings two-fer.
First, go read the incredible story of a man who’s mother was murdered by the next door neighbor’s son. What’s incredible isn’t the murder, it’s the grace offered by the family of the victim.

Yesterday at her funeral, her son offered to pay for the defense of her killer. … He said that he was following Jesus’ teachings: loving his enemies, forgiving others, and doing unto the “least of these” as he would to Jesus. The radio host said, “Jesus is my Lord and Savior too, but all I would want is 5 minutes alone with the guy.” “Yeah,” Mr. Barrios said, “but you’d be doing it to Jesus.”

Wow. There are only a few comments on that post, but the tone shows just how even believers can find grace scandalous and ridiculous to the point of tossing it out. Not possible or even worth considering. Except that when they need it, they’re glad that Jesus offered it.
The harsh responses to the story prompted Jared to share this post on the audacity of grace which he originally wrote in the midst of a particularly hard time in his former congregation, when their popular minister was let go.

Imagine you are one of the early church’s first members. You are sitting in a home with a few other believers, sharing a meal. You pray together. You sing a few Psalms. Someone recites a bit he’s heard of Jesus’ biography. Then someone gets up to read a letter to you from some guy named Paul.
Paul is a guy who used to go by the name Saul. It’s possible he is responsible for the murder of someone you know, perhaps even your parents or one of your children. Now you have to sit and listen to someone read not just words from this guy, but instructions from this guy. Since his conversion from Christ-hating enforcer of the Law to card-carrying Jesus freak, he’s not just one of your fellow Christians. He’s an authority over all Christians recognized by nearly everyone.
It is possible this arrangement would not have sit well with you.

Go read them both, but if you must choose make sure you read the second one.
Grace is what makes Christianity different. It’s what makes us whole. It’s what makes everything OK when it absolutely shouldn’t be OK. It’s exactly what we need and exactly what we could never expect to receive. It’s a ridiculous solution to a tragic and insurmountable problem. When all seemed absolutely lost, grace saved the day. Grace puts all the crazy endings to all action adventure movies to shame, both in it’s efficacy and it’s audaciousness.
We need reminded. We think too much that Christianity is a nice, straight forward religion. It’s not because at its core is a God who took the audacious step of suffering Himself to redeem those who had wounded Him. It’s even more scandalous than the victim’s family paying the legal fees of the murderer. In our trial it’s the prosecutor who dies for the defendant.

Dan Edelen writes on discipling, pointing out that it’s in God’s time, not ours, that He makes things beautiful:

I don’t know how many times I’ve seen a “discipler”—typically loaded down with one agenda after another—run roughshod over a “disciplee.” I’ve lost track of how many people have walked away from the faith or turned irrevocably bitter because a discipler didn’t take the time to ask, “What is God doing in this person’s life?” Asking that question rather than stating, “And now, this is what I will be doing in this person’s life,” would have made a world of difference. …
Anymore, I feel that my role in discipling consists of one thing: to be available for other people. Just to be there. When they struggle with an area of life, rather than me telling them, “Oh, you shouldn’t be struggling,” or “You should be doing this, this, this and this,” instead I’ll be asking , “How can I be there for you to help you become more like Jesus?”
Because when it all comes down to it, God makes disciples. And He makes them by His means, in His time, under His conditions. What He asks of me is that I be available for His use as a tool in other people’s lives. “Here am I, send me” is not just a call to the mission field, but the call of one person to walk alongside another.

Amen. I’ve learned this lesson too, and seen it work. I’ve got nothing much to offer people but my ear, and I’m amazed, when I give that alone, what good it can do in their lives. Amazed.
I need to remember that. I get bogged down in not knowing enough, understanding perfectly and having all the right answers. I don’t need any of that, I just need to be there, listening.
And no, Dan is not from the ICOC. I wouldn’t be surprised if he never heard of us. Just goes to show, we were not alone in our folly.
Also, check out his amazing list of 100 truths he’s learned in 30 years as a disciple. I’m approaching the 2 decade mark so I ought to be able to a list of 60 or so such proverbs. Not even close.

A good reminder from Patrick Mead:

Treat everyone special today. They are having a hard time of it. They are novels that will never be written. Instead, they will be lived out, a 3D play about good and evil, darkness and light.

It always seems that folks have it all together, and I don’t. Take heart – none of us do. We’re just good actors.
Also good to keep in mind when you think that there’s not much for you to do to minister to the people around you. There is, they just hide their needs well. Go love them and see what happens.

Patrick Mead writes:

It would be SO much easier being a Christian if you would just let me control every aspect of my day.

Yep.

Codepoke is doing a series on communion at his blog that’s thought provoking.
The most recent post focused on the Wine as the blood and blood as life. This struck me as I read it today:

We take into our bodies the very life of the Lord Jesus. All the pagan rituals of blood drinking pale and fail before this truth of Christ’s Life poured out for us, on us, and even into us. The Life is in the Blood, and in the Lord’s Supper we join in the communion of His Life.

What if you came out of church one Sunday and found several young people sitting on top of your church sign, smoking and chatting on their cell phones? What would you do? What would you call them?
Patrick Mead calls them family. Check it out.