Following Jesus in rejecting empire
Some thoughts about each of the podcast interviews
Revival will always be marked by the Church coming out of Empire. Let me repeat that: Revival will ALWAYS be marked by the Church coming out of Empire; because the heart of revival is the increase of Christ’s government and his shalom (in the words of Isaiah) and the heart of Empire is about the…
(Above image: Smiling Francis, by Mic Carlson available on his website.) I find that suffering and joy are not mutually exclusive. They often come bundled together in the same week, month or year. Sometimes even in the same day. The trick is how to hold both well. How do we acknowledge suffering without letting it…
“Oh what savory satisfaction. What splendid joy. In one instant, all my anger dissipated and all the rot in my soul has been removed!” That’s how I imagined it. What freedom would taste like once the earth was rid of Frederick Johnson, and I had exacted revenge. Once I had exchanged my passive fist with…
When I think of the word pacifist I can’t help picturing myself standing passively by inside the bathroom door, holding a weapon in my fist while I watch my wife get murdered. Passive-fist is all I can hear now when that word is spoken. And I regret, many times a day, my blasted pacifism in…
The summer before my life disintegrated was lovely. There are Knoxville summers where the heat oppresses a person like a tyrant, but not that summer. Not the summer of 1997. Highs barely reached to 80 and the humidity must’ve pushed its way around us and into Georgia. I remember being happy, but only as though…