Week Off - thoughts on new birth
This is the week of the month that another person of the Yokefellow Prison Ministry team goes into the prison instead of us.
I heard Howard Fineman on the radio one morning this past week. He was saying how a friend of his is in Iraq and how he corresponds with him regularly. His friend says that the Iraq people have lived in a tribal society for 5000 years and not only don't they know what democracy is, they have no desire for it either. He says that if one guy builds a pipeline another guy wants to tear it up.
Hearing this made me think of Jay Winik's book "April 1865". In a TV interview he remarked that one of the amazing things about the end of the American Civil War was that the people actually stopped fighting. In some countries the civil war goes on for generations (consider Ireland).
It made me wonder if the difference might not be related to the fact that the land ownership (setting aside for this discussion the native Americans) in America was just a generation or two old. Howard Fineman's friend says that tribes in Iraq have fought for 5000 years and do not want peace. Are the scars too old? Is that a reason America was able to move forward in peace in 1865?
This then, made me think of John 3:2-4 - no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again. Hmmm. How entrenched are we in our life up to this point? How willing are we to wipe the land of our lives clean and let go of property and ownership and commit an unconditional surrender to God and live in peace? Or do we invite God into our lives and then have a 40 year civil war with Him? Maybe He builds a building in our life and as soon as He's done we tear it down.
Following Jesus is a radical change in a person's life. It means giving up ownership of one's self to a higher cause, an unseen higher power.
During the internal civil war, one may ask, "Where is this peace that Jesus spoke about, that attracted me to him so?" But in a war one side must surrender to have peace.
In Yokefellow small groups, we advance the idea that God exists and He cares about each person. Because He cares about each person we should too. Many people who come to a Yokefellow group are in a civil war inside of themselves. Perhaps they see that they need God or feel that they want to know God. But the old man is so alive and struggling. Anguish is the result. Is this rebellion something they have to live through, or could better teaching help them come through the war to surrender? I don't know. My own surrender has taken years and continues each day.
I heard Howard Fineman on the radio one morning this past week. He was saying how a friend of his is in Iraq and how he corresponds with him regularly. His friend says that the Iraq people have lived in a tribal society for 5000 years and not only don't they know what democracy is, they have no desire for it either. He says that if one guy builds a pipeline another guy wants to tear it up.
Hearing this made me think of Jay Winik's book "April 1865". In a TV interview he remarked that one of the amazing things about the end of the American Civil War was that the people actually stopped fighting. In some countries the civil war goes on for generations (consider Ireland).
It made me wonder if the difference might not be related to the fact that the land ownership (setting aside for this discussion the native Americans) in America was just a generation or two old. Howard Fineman's friend says that tribes in Iraq have fought for 5000 years and do not want peace. Are the scars too old? Is that a reason America was able to move forward in peace in 1865?
This then, made me think of John 3:2-4 - no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again. Hmmm. How entrenched are we in our life up to this point? How willing are we to wipe the land of our lives clean and let go of property and ownership and commit an unconditional surrender to God and live in peace? Or do we invite God into our lives and then have a 40 year civil war with Him? Maybe He builds a building in our life and as soon as He's done we tear it down.
Following Jesus is a radical change in a person's life. It means giving up ownership of one's self to a higher cause, an unseen higher power.
During the internal civil war, one may ask, "Where is this peace that Jesus spoke about, that attracted me to him so?" But in a war one side must surrender to have peace.
In Yokefellow small groups, we advance the idea that God exists and He cares about each person. Because He cares about each person we should too. Many people who come to a Yokefellow group are in a civil war inside of themselves. Perhaps they see that they need God or feel that they want to know God. But the old man is so alive and struggling. Anguish is the result. Is this rebellion something they have to live through, or could better teaching help them come through the war to surrender? I don't know. My own surrender has taken years and continues each day.
posted by Kathy Kolb | 6:22 PM
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