As we recognize that Christ is all – even outside our own box of biases, giftings and sensibilities – we begin to experience the fulness of Christ.
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Sufficient Grace, Part III
May 23, 2012
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As I learn to adjust to the reality of diminished capacity, I’m seeing God prompt people who I’ve invested my life into and mentored in the Lord. Others are now step forward – without me asking – to fill the voids. This, to me, has been the most precious affirmation of God’s grace,
Read more Peeking Through the Cracks
May 10, 2012
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Seek grace, find courage, embrace joy and venture forth!
Read more “Us” and “Them”
May 9, 2012
12 Comments
The real Body of Christ is an inclusive “us” – you and me. It is not a divisive “us” verses “them”. Rather, we find grace as we submit one to another by esteeming each other in our differences.
Read more The Fierceness of God
April 21, 2012
12 Comments
The Apostle Paul wasn’t persecuted and eventually killed for loving Jesus, but because that love made him confront and do things that upended the cultural, religious, economic and civil systems of his day. Some popular Christian authors insist today, however, that believers must refrain from such engagement.
Read more Sufficient Grace, Part II
April 19, 2012
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Recent tests indicate that my medical condition may be fatal. However, I’m still alive, I’m loved and God is still sovereign!
Read more Inside Out
April 17, 2012
4 Comments
Inside out is like a seed. All that the seed can be is contained inside, but the beauty is not displayed until what is hidden appears. (Another devotional from my wife, Marianne.)
Read more Twitter and Facebook
March 27, 2012
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I love writing this blog, but I also like the more dynamic and interactive environment of Twitter and Facebook. Here’s your invite to also connect with me there.
Read more Holy Ghost Church in the County Jail
March 26, 2012
3 Comments
I don’t want to shake up anyone’s theology, but the Holy Spirit was grooving to some powerful, spontaneous rappin’ that was going on!
Read more Outside the Box
March 20, 2012
3 Comments
Yes, Christ can be found in the box. But He does His best work, I’ve found, apart from and outside the box.
Read more Getting to Simple
March 7, 2012
12 Comments
This morning, I met with a man who loves the Lord but has had re-occurring bouts with drug addiction. He was carrying lots of guilt and shame from things in his past, and was confused because he couldn’t shake the weight of those sins.
Read more Does Jesus Want You to Vote?
March 5, 2012
15 Comments
I may be a citizen of the Kingdom of God, but the precinct where God has me live and vote is here in Virginia.
Read moreGod’s Pleasure
March 4, 2012
4 Comments
Early Virginia mornings with a cup of freshly brewed Columbian coffee is proof enough that God still smiles over His creation.
Read more Acceptance with Joy
March 3, 2012
7 Comments
My wife, Marianne, wrote this. Where I am vision and logic, she is feeling and heart. The Lord speaks to us in very different ways, and we have learned to passionately value those differences. Anyway, I think this was for both of us, and maybe it will speak to you too.
Read more Becoming Our Past
February 26, 2012
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Often, longstanding hurts, disappointments and emotional wounds are like old, familiar friends. We let them become so engrained into our sense of identity that they begin to define us.
Read moreBeyond Evangelical? – A Follow Up
February 24, 2012
3 Comments
Two days after I posted my series “Beyond Evangelical?”, Milt Rodriguez – who I took to task in that series – wrote his own blog which helps close the gap, so to speak, that I was addressing. Here’s some follow-up thoughts.
Read more Beyond Evangelical? (Part 3)
February 22, 2012
15 Comments
A challenge to my “Beyond Evangelical” brethren: If you are not called to something, don’t discredit those who are. Trying to say we must be like you is narcissism – a key characteristic of post-modernity – at its worst. In essence, it’s trying to impose on others a Jesus created in your own image.
Read more Beyond Evangelical? (Part 2)
February 21, 2012
3 Comments
What Frank Viola and other “Beyond Evangelical” proponents seem to miss is this: A truly authentic Jesus will be expressed through us to all aspects of life, culture, and history – both relationally and propositionally. And sometimes, what Jesus has to propositionally say to society may offend, even though we may not be acting offensively.
Read more Beyond Evangelical? (Part 1)
February 20, 2012
12 Comments
The spirit of this age – at least in the West – is post-modernity, which views reality as subjective and truth (if it even exists) as individual and relative. Post-modernity is not all bad, but neither is it Christ!
Read more A Multilingual Jesus
January 16, 2012
2 Comments
God speaks to some subjectively, and to others objectively, and each often forgets that Jesus is multilingual.
Read more Room at the Inn
December 24, 2011
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This Christmas, the question yet remains: Is there still no room at the inn? Take a chance. Embrace the Joseph’s and Mary’s of our age.
Read more Redemption
December 21, 2011
3 Comments
If Jesus doesn’t work for the worst of us, then He works for none of us.
Read more I Am Content
December 15, 2011
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A poem of sorts to express my gratitude to the Lord and my love to my wife, Marianne.
Read more About Justice
December 8, 2011
5 Comments
Jesus comforted the afflicted, and afflicted the comfortable.
Read more Grace, Mercy and Love
November 23, 2011
3 Comments
Too often, we forget that there is a context to grace, mercy and love.
Read more The Road to Grace
November 21, 2011
11 Comments
For the religious, the road to grace is the toughest journey they’ll ever face. But slowly, I’m finally starting to find it.
Read more Ordained to Fail
November 16, 2011
17 Comments
Those who take on the mantle of “Pastor” are operating within a framework, and on assumptions and traditions, that God never ordained.
Read more A Hollow Gospel
November 14, 2011
34 Comments
Broken lives and real people are inconvenient and demand more than your hollow gospel and podium-oriented focus can give. But praise God, you have great meetings!
Read more Silence = Death
October 21, 2011
0 Comments
To those who have been violated, and to those who know, may God give you the grace to find the voice they took from you.
Read more I Saw Satan Fall
October 20, 2011
1 Comment
Confession, forgiveness and repentance have become forgotten ordinances that we have twisted into ineffective spiritual abstractions. As a result, most churches have lost the ability to meaningfully administer those graces today.
Read more Starve the Beast
October 17, 2011
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People are cutting back as they see how their tithes and offerings are typically misused by churches. It seems that folks are fed up with all the money grubbing for ego-buildings, staff who are increasingly detached from real ministry, and life-sucking programs that don’t really advance the Kingdom of God.
Read more Limousine Liberals
October 5, 2011
4 Comments
One afternoon a liberal congressman – well known for supporting expensive budget busting government programs to “help” the poor – was riding in his limousine when he saw two men along the roadside eating grass. Disturbed, he ordered his driver to stop so he could investigate….
Read moreJesus, the Living Word
October 1, 2011
3 Comments
If we deny that God speaks and acts today in vibrant, direct and personal ways, and if we try to box Him in by claiming that He only speaks through Scripture, then how are we different from Muslims?
Read more Interview with God
September 30, 2011
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A friend posted this on Facebook, and it’s so very true…
Read moreJim Wright
Church sower, mentor, teacher, foe of tyrants, friend of the dispossessed, Christian, thinker, author, attorney, entrepreneur, pilot and so-so bass fisherman.According to the internet tracking service Networked Blogs, Crossroad Junction is among the top 100 blogs worldwide on "Christianity", among the top 100 on "faith", and also among the top 100 blogs on "culture".
As a friend said on Facebook, "I don't write things people need to know. I share things. If people care, they comment." I invite you to care.
I have nothing to sell, and nothing to peddle (not even myself!), but I love to hear from folks. You can contact me at Fulcrum Ministries.
Let’s Connect
- The Mythology of Tithing
- A Hollow Gospel
- Participatory Church
- Rethinking Missions
- Sufficient Grace
- Modern Day Pauls?
- Ordained to Fail
- Beyond Evangelical? (Part 3)
- Pimping the Gospel
- Does Jesus Want You to Vote?
- God in a Box
- Sufficient Grace, Part III
- Fathers and Teachers
- Peeking Through the Cracks
- “Us” and “Them”
- Is There Not a Cause?
- Millennials and Old Farts
- The Fierceness of God
- Sufficient Grace, Part II
- Inside Out
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- Constantine: Greetings from the suffering Athens, Greece. I...
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- Ockert van der Westhuysen: I am curious about the 'legalism', which I don't q...
- Rob Kampen: Too often (always?) our view of who God really is,...
- Jim Wright: Esther, the points in my blog go "beyond" (no pun ...
- Esther: Hi! I haven't commented here before, but this pos...
- Barbara Alsip: This is good, Jesus wants us to be one absolutely,...
- Eli: brilliant, great challenge and encouragement. i ho...
- Janet Maxim: To look for Christ in others, rather than analyzin...
