Tag: IFTTT

Photo By <a href=“https://unsplash.com/@riccardofissore”>Riccardo Fissore</a>Today, I sat in on a meeting where the main topic of discussion was “racial reconciliation.” We were all pastors and all but one of us were white and male. The lone exception was a black woman. She is someone that I count as a friend and I think the feeling is mutual. Our conversation was started because there was a community worship service that was poorly attended by white congregations. My congregation didn’t attend. I didn’t even share it with my congregation. It just didn’t fit into the calendar or the mission. Nevertheless, this was the reason we began discussing “racial reconciliation.” People were sharing their great wealth of knowledge behind why there is a racial divide here. It was decided, with a great chorus of “Mmhmmms” that there is a “spirit” oppressing our area. It was also decided that we need a prayer program to try to fix the situation. I don’t know if I said more...

Photo by <a href=“https://unsplash.com/@reka”>Korney Violin</a>Two young black men were riding home from football practice in my car. The four us were laughing, cutting up, and making fun of each other. We came up on multiple police cars and officers investing something. These two young men immediately folded their hands in their lap, became quiet, stared straight ahead, and were silent. After we passed the officers there was a moment and then the teasing, laughing, and cutting up began again. My brother and many of my closest friends are police officers. I love police officers. I am grateful for them and the service they provide. We couldn’t live the lives we do without them. But, in that moment it, there was fear, a raw fear that sucked the air out of my car. This fear demanded two young men to immediately become silent upon seeing officers even while being in the car of a white man. We can love and respect and support our police...

Photo by <a href=“https://unsplash.com/@jakemeyer4”>Jacob Meyer</a>The way of Jesus is not easy. One of my favorite quotes is from G.K. Chesterton who said, Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried. To follow Jesus, to be a Christian, is decidedly hard. To follow Jesus demands us to stop focusing on ourselves. If we claim to follow Jesus, then we must become a people who are living after him and living according to “the Way.” A central tenet of the Jesus way is forgiveness. Jesus said, For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. In Colossians 3 Paul echoes what Jesus says, Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has...

Photo by <a href=“https://unsplash.com/@lucistan”>Luca Upper</a>Good morning! I hope that you’re well and that you are experiencing grace and peace. Today I opened Medium to find that The Subversive Journey had cracked 100 followers. Thank you to those of you have been here from the start. I hope that you will continue on with me and that you will continue to share the things here that you find helpful. In light of reaching this little milestone here a couple of posts from the past that are still some of my favorites. Maybe you will like them too: Baseball and Grace (February, 2015) Baseball, Redemption, and a Hospital Room (May, 2009) Thank you again for joining me on my journey! The 100! was originally published in The Subversive Journey on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story. Read the responses to this story on Medium. from The Subversive Journey https://danielmrose.com/the-100-eebcabb02b2f?source=rss—-bbc765b79ec5—4via IFTTT ...

For most of my professional life I have often been told that I’m not approachable. You see, when it comes to things like Meyers-Briggs (ENTJ) or Strength Finders, my profile comes out as, “Jerk.” When I served with a campus ministry I would often have to spend a great deal of time apologizing to the women with whom I worked alongside. It usually wasn’t anything that I particularly did. Yet, there was something there that created tension and caused some sort of break in our relationship. After leaving the campus ministry I continued to work through this area of my life. What God began to reveal to me was that I was not “putting on love.” I am very much truth oriented. My preference is for people to play it straight and give me the facts. I don’t like it when people beat around the bush. I don’t sugar coat anything. In many conversations I would simply drop the truth bomb, “it’s biblical,...

We live in a time when there are congregations designed to meet every desire. Do you like contemporary music? Do you like traditional music? Do you like a young pastor? Do you like an old pastor? Do you like modern architecture or traditional? Do you prefer Sunday centric or mission centric? Do you…do you…do you…? “Church hopping” and “Church shopping” are phrases that are now significant parts of the American Christian experience. Long gone are the days of aligning with a particular doctrinal standard and being a part of that particular congregation. Long gone are the days of being committed to church discipline and the like because, well, you just go down the street. While much of this is owed to the individualism inherent in the Americanization of the church in the United States there is something deeper that I think we have largely lost. Paul, in Colossians 3, challenges followers of Jesus to “put on” certain qualities as a result of their...

Jesus is famous for saying, “The meek shall inherit the earth.” In Colossians 3, Paul says that the follower of Jesus must put on “meekness.” What is it? Many think that meekness is the opposite of being a “matador” as Frank Underwood says, But is that really what meekness means? If Jesus commanded us to be meek, I have hard time thinking that it has much to do with being a doormat. If anyone was not a doormat, it was Jesus. He’s about as strong and tough as it comes. So, while meekness has gotten a bad wrap in our culture, I think it means something else. Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary gives this as the primary definition of meekness: “enduring injury with patience and without resentment.” This sounds like Jesus. This sounds like Paul. Could you imagine being a follower of Jesus and living this way? Choosing to endure injury with patience and without resentment. This takes strength and courage. This demands an extension of grace,...

Over the last few months I have learned that the second greatest sin in my son’s teenage world is to “boost” (here’s the first great sin). There may not be anything worse than to be known as someone who “boosts”. If you’re like me you’re thinking, “I have no idea what those words mean.” To “boost” is to exaggerate your exploits. There are certain guys who boost about their lift or their forty time or the girls they talk to. The thing is, everyone knows the truth so they get called out and branded as a “booster”. It turns out that the Bible talks about boosting. No really. In the Scripture it’s called “humility.” Humility is best understood as a right understanding of yourself. To be humble is to know who you really are before God. Some people have in their mind that humility is the person who walks around saying things like, “I’m such a sinner,” or “I’m the worst of...