THIS DANGEROUS GOSPEL

What scenes of upheaval followed these first Christians! The Book of Acts is full of them. There are at least twenty tumultuous accounts recorded. Town after town experienced rioting. Their streets and buildings were full of angry people demanding that these Christians, ‘who have turned the world upside down’ (Acts 17:6), be driven out, as they were threatening to destroy their unrighteous businesses. We see soldiers carrying a man because of the violent mob trying to kill him, while others are thrown into jail. One is stoned to death while he kneels and prays to God. And why? … This new religion tears people out of his [Satan’s] clutches because it cleanses them of their sins. Such a religion is contagious.” 

 From:  “Foundation of Faith” (Ed. By H D Nimz/
 Unity Press/Flint, MI/3-18/”Fear of the Gospel”/
 Arthur Booth-Clibborn, pp 8-9).

When Jesus launched his ministry, Luke reports that “Jesus came to Nazareth where he had been brought up; and went to the synagogue, as was his custom. When invited to share the leadership that day, Jesus announced:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach
   good news to the poor.
  He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
   and recovering of sight to the blind,
   to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
   to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”
       (Luke 4:18-19 RSV)

Jesus spent three years in his ministry before he was captured, questioned, and crucified. He had to be taken out of circulation because he took his “God-calling” seriously—i.e., personally: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me…”  Personally rejecting the comfortable religious formula’s then in vogue, he took his message  (his anointing) seriously by making it an issue resulting in good news to the impoverished, sight for those without vision, and freedom from the slavery of oppression and vulnerability.

The Ministry of Jesus is more than a story from yesterday; it narrates an encounter with of a personal call from a Living God that becomes two-sides of the same coin. On one side is the personal discovery of a personal walk with a living God as revealed in Jesus Christ. On the other side of the coin, we find ourselves personally challenging social forces that BIND, BLIND, and CONFINE people to serving such powers as ultimately destroy us individually and/or socially.

Truthfully; it is pretty tough to live as a Christian in life's dark room without turning on the light to see. It begins as a personal, individua experience, but it quickly becomes a social experience involving others. At least that is how I see it ... walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com