I absolutely love these ideas, especially paying attention to beauty and reducing your needs.
Weekly lessons in theology and public life • Since 2011
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Lesson 2: The Second Commandment
Read MORE: Lesson 2: The Second CommandmentYou shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name. The ancient Israelites took this so seriously that they did not even utter God’s name…
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Lesson 1: The First Commandment
Read MORE: Lesson 1: The First CommandmentI am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me. The command goes on to prohibit making graven images, a command…
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Introduction to the Ten Commandments
Read MORE: Introduction to the Ten CommandmentsAll Christians, all Jews, and even all Muslims agree the Ten Commandments are a basic statement of how to live according to God’s will. The disagreements come with how to codify these into specific laws. For instance, in our time…
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Lesson 10: Loving Your Enemies
Read MORE: Lesson 10: Loving Your EnemiesI regard what follows as one of the best sermons preached in our history. It was delivered on Christmas 1957 at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. King wrote it while in jail for committing nonviolent civil disobedience…
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Lesson 9: For What Are You Willing to Die?
Read MORE: Lesson 9: For What Are You Willing to Die?The question is a good way to end our consideration of Christianity as a peace movement. The fourth of the weapons that Revelation offers might well be the critical one. Christians not only are to unveil the truth, speak God’s…
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Lesson 8: Proclaim God’s Word and Praying
Read MORE: Lesson 8: Proclaim God’s Word and PrayingThe Book of Revelation based the Christian peace movement on the truth of God’s Word. Believers could uncover truth by using God’s Word as a standard, but also by remaining in contact with God through prayer. In previous lessons, I…
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Lesson 7: Unveil Truth
Read MORE: Lesson 7: Unveil TruthStrange as it might seem, I regard the Apostle John’s program in Revelation as the most coherent statement of the Christian peace movement. Although it uses mysterious apocalyptic language; it clearly lays out only four weapons available to believers: 1)…
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Lesson 6: Does Nonviolence Work?
Read MORE: Lesson 6: Does Nonviolence Work?We ended the last lesson suggesting we need a new story if we are to stop the cycle of war begetting war and violence begetting violence. You hear that same call implied when Roman Catholic statements observe, “Whatever good we…
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Lesson 5: What is the Present National Story?
Read MORE: Lesson 5: What is the Present National Story?Abraham Lincoln probably articulates the story by which our nation now understands war in his Second Inaugural Address. It is very much like the one Derek posted earlier in this study. Lincoln called war a mighty scourge that God applies…
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Lesson 4: What Do Christians Expect From Our Churches?
Read MORE: Lesson 4: What Do Christians Expect From Our Churches?Perhaps it is time we recognize the Church is a peace movement. God comes to Father Abraham disgusted at the violence that has damaged his creation. Lamech epitomizes the brutality when he brags to his two wives that he has…
Recent Comments
Fritz a wonderful lesson – and esp. reading has a flow I found encompassing. If only …….. yes we can…
So forgiveness pre-requires understanding the mistakes of the past? here hear re this opposing this me-first, America-first, white-first, male-first approach>…