Read It !

Christopher Wright’s ‘The Mission of God’ . . .

Publisher Description: Most Christians would agree that the Bible provides a basis for mission. But Christopher Wright boldly maintains that mission is bigger than that—there is in fact a missional basis for the Bible! The entire Bible is generated by and is all about God’s mission.

In order to understand the Bible, we need a missional hermeneutic of the Bible, an interpretive perspective that is in tune with this great missional theme. We need to see the “big picture” of God’s mission and how the familiar bits and pieces fit into the grand narrative of Scripture.

Beginning with the Old Testament and the groundwork it lays for understanding who God is, what he has called his people to be and do, and how the nations fit into God’s mission, Wright gives us a new hermeneutical perspective on Scripture. This new perspective provides a solid and expansive basis for holistic mission. Wright emphasizes throughout a holistic mission as the proper shape of Christian mission. God’s mission is to reclaim the world—and that includes the created order—and God’s people have a designated role to play in that mission.

Celtic Christian Orthodoxy

St. Patrick and his peers brought Christianity to the Celts of Ireland around 400 AD, at a time when all Christians were still "Orthodox." Several studies demonstrate direct connections between the Celtic Church and the Eastern Christian monasteries of the Desert Fathers. It would seem that that Celtic Christianity was the local version of what still lives on as Eastern Orthodoxy.

Don't Try to Make It Make Sense

What I believe is so magnificent, so glorious, that it is beyond finite comprehension. To believe that the universe was created by a purposeful, benign Creator is one thing. To believe that this Creator took on human vesture, accepted death and mortality, was tempted, betrayed, broken, and all for love of us, defies reason. It is so wild that it terrifies some Christians who try to dogmatize their fear by lashing out at other Christians, because tidy Christianity with all answers given is easier than one which reaches out to the wild wonder of God's love, a love we don't even have to earn.

- Madeleine L'Engle (who, sadly, died yesterday - age 88)