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Sin is recast as any number of things—freedom, human rights, reproductive justice, “the way things are,” nature, science, “boys will be boys”—anything but sin.
it all has an effect on our moral and spiritual reasoning or, to be more precise, lack of reasoning.
“sociocultural phenomena can spread through, and leap between, populations more like outbreaks of measles or chicken pox than through a process of rational choice.”19
human behavior clusters in both space and time even in the absence of coercion and rationale.”20
“Bad company corrupts good character.”25
We become like the relationships we cultivate and the culture to which we belong.
In earlier times, it was God who could define goodness, righteousness and beauty. Today, those answers lie within us. Our feelings give meaning to our private lives but also [to] our social and political processes. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, the customer is always right, the voter knows best, if it feels good do it, and think for yourself: these are some of the main humanist credos.29
three lusts of the world:
They warn us to keep our eyes open because, in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life are not only tolerated—they are celebrated.
The church was marked by five distinctive features,
“God so loved [the people of] the world that he gave his one and only Son”;50 our fight is not against them but for them.
Post-Christian culture is an attempt to move beyond the Christian vision while still retaining much of its scaffolding. It’s a reaction against Christianity—the West’s rebellious teenager moment. We’re the stereotypical adolescent, kicking against our parents’ authority and railing against all their flaws while still living in their house and eating all their food.
Post-Christian culture attempts to retain the solace of faith, whilst gutting it of the costs, commitments, and restraints that the gospel places upon the individual will. Post-Christianity intuitively yearns for the justice and shalom of the kingdom, whilst defending the reign of the individual will.3
we want the kingdom without the King.4
The West inherited from Christianity incredibly high standards for human rights, but without Christ’s presence and power, it’s increasingly devoid of the necessary resources to achieve its moral goals. The result is a culture that can rarely live up to its own standards. And without any means of atonement, as well as an increasing hostility toward the idea of forgiveness, once you sin (as defined by the new morality), you’re a pariah.
colonize
colonized
hard power is coercion by brute force.
soft power is a different beast. It’s “the ability to shape the preferences of others” and “the ability to attract.”
In what ways have I been assimilated into the host culture? Where have I drifted from my identity and inheritance?
all three pieces together.
“beautiful resistance”
“live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God
we’re not just against evil; we’re for good.
14
as “temples of the Holy Spirit”19—the locus point of our relationship to God himself.
“the joy of conviction in a culture of compromise.”
Rule of Life is simply a schedule and set of practices and relational rhythms that organize our lives around Jesus’s invitation to abide in the vine.
creative minority,
Every Child Oregon,
Foster Parents’ Night Out,
What if the church were to come back to her call as a community radiant with the love of God?
Part 3 step sheet
truth embodied in self-sacrificial love.
as long as we deny the reality of demonic evil, we will demonize people—the very people we are called to love and serve.
everything is about self-fulfillment, not self-denial. The idea of saying no to your self to say yes to Jesus sounds, well, crazy.
we’re to deny our self, not ourselves.
As a result, they have been set free from the domination of want.
To say yes to Jesus is to say no to living by my own definition of good and evil, to spending my time and money however I want, to the hyperindividualism, antiauthoritarianism, and full-tilt hedonistic pursuit of our day. It’s a thousand tiny deaths that all lead up to one massive life. It’s not a futile grasping for control, but the freedom of yielding to Love. It’s saying to Jesus, Whatever, wherever, whenever, I’m yours.
The Way of the Heart
