Church Street

Church neighboring daily life.

Forming Rick Shafer Forming Rick Shafer

Which team?

Every time the Olympics come around, we see athletes from one country competing for another. Core identities surface in surprising ways.

Lately, I have been reading Jesus’ parable of the sheep and the goats (Matthew 25). People arrive together before the King, bearing one of many national flags. But soon, they are individually reorganized into one of two teams: sheep or goats. The sheep have already been with Jesus, caring for the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, and the prisoner. They will continue on with Jesus. The goats ⏤ GOATs ⏤ never saw themselves as part of that team. And never will for all eternity.

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Forming Rick Shafer Forming Rick Shafer

The First Way

We aren’t Left or Right. Christianity is a third way.” This statement is meant to help believers see the problems of over-identifying with worldly political tribes. The third way isn’t Moderate either. It’s a distinct, called-out, set-apart identity that finds its home in God’s kingdom, under Christ’s authority. This is what the word ‘holy’ means.

The idea of a third way can be improved. It’s really the first way. It’s the way we were originally created to live. Yes, humanity has wandered far, far afield. But Jesus has come to call us back. Repentance is a return. He made a way, and he is the way. The first way.

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It would be just like him

The God of the Bible looks like Jesus, the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being. It would be just like him to go to the cross.

It would be just like him to go to the cross. The God of the Bible is a gathering God. A difference-crossing God. A forgiving, cleansing, and reconciling God. A friend-making God. A healing, restoring, and sanctifying God. The God of the Bible looks like Jesus, the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being. (Heb. 1:3)

I and the Father are one. (John 10:30)

Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. (John 14:9)

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1)

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