Learning how to love like Jesus

“Who is my neighbor?” That’s what the religious scholar asked Jesus in Luke 10:29.  What follows is a fascinating study in human nature. Last time, I talked about “Loving our Samaritans.” This is a continuation on that theme. In Luke 9, we saw that the Samaritans had rejected Jesus, and His disciples wanted Him to call fire down on them like Elijah did. After all, these are “wicked people” (see Luke 9:54). I already mentioned the generations of prejudicial hatred between the Jews and the Samaritans. The Jews thought they were morally superior to the Samaritans; the Samaritans resented this and hated the Jews.

Loving our Samaritans

Jesus loves the people we hate. He also loves the people who hate us. As you probably can tell, I think that the neo-Marxist ideologies of the radical left are evil and cancerous. But I don’t feel that way at all about the people who embrace these ideologies.  I actually have a soft spot in my heart for them. Growing up, one of my best friends was a tree-hugging, card-carrying Marxist activist. I think everyone should have “Samaritan” friends.

A Recipe for Cultural Suicide

As a supplement to my post, “Waking up from Wokeness,” I want to share a very interesting American Thought Leaders video interview with Peter Boghossian, Assistant Professor at Portland State University, a lifelong liberal and atheist who shares our concern about the current cultural landscape. (See my post, “Conservatives and Liberals Unite!“)

Waking up from ‘Wokeness’

The greatest enemy of the radical neo-Marxist left is reality, which is why it’s so enjoyable to hear people’s stories of how they’ve escaped its insidious brainwashing. I love hearing them almost as much as I love conversion to Christ testimonies. (Actually, it’s a distant second!) To quote Mary Magdalene from “The Chosen,” “I was one way and now I am completely different and the thing that happened in between was Him.”

Believing comes before understanding

I’m always struck by the naked honesty of the disciple’s account of Jesus’ resurrection. Rather than making some pretentious claim of superior understanding, they confess their unbelief and confusion over the whole matter. In fact, they disclose that initially it was the women who had more faith than they did (see Luke 24:10-11), which would’ve been unthinkable to admit in their culture. This is important for us to understand because faith always comes before understanding.

The Day that changed everything

This Sunday we will celebrate the Day that changed the world forever. It’s the Day that brought our freedom and restored us to our original identity. In John’s account, we see Jesus talking about what He’s about to do, giving Himself to God as a sacrifice for us, to glorify His Father and accomplish His eternal purposes. Here’s what happens next.

Lift up Your heads, O You Gates!

We started to look at Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem last time  (“Enemies inside the Gate“), what He meant by victory, and just who is our real enemy. Jesus also said the following in Luke’s account of His entry into Jerusalem, just days before His betrayal and crucifixion, which is instructive to us:

Enemies Inside the Gate

“Enemy at the Gates” was a movie starring Jude Law and Ed Harris about a Russian and a German sniper playing a game of cat-and-mouse during the Battle of Stalingrad during World War II. “Enemies inside the gate” is the epic story about the batttle that’s warring inside of us right now.

On the week before Jesus was to be betrayed and crucified, the following event took place:

Understanding ‘Woke’ Corporate America

How is that we’re now living in a world where Coca-Cola is telling us to “Be less white” and Disney fires one of their most popular stars, Gina Carano, for making some statements they deemed were not politically correct? How did our major corporations become so radically political rather than traditionally focusing on their business? None of this makes any sense, unless you’ve been paying attention, and there are people who’ve been doing just that. Joshua Philipp had an interesting interview with Stephen Soukup, author of “The Dictatorship of Woke Capital: How Political Correctness Captured Big Business.” This post is part of my ongoing look at the growing threat of neo-Marxist socialism infecting our country.

Playing in the park after dark

When people ask me if I believe we’re still under the Law, I’ve adopted Bill Vanderbush’s answer: “Of course! I’m under the Law of the Spirit of Life!“ I’m not trying to be clever, just making an important point. Something changed at the Cross. Yet, we should not be too quick to dismiss the Law, because if we do, we might miss something important to understand.