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Adultery, Judgement, Death and Truth

4/13/2012

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The religious leaders thought they had set the perfect trap.  They had found a woman in the ACT of adultery, and brought her to Jesus.  The Jewish law was explicit - the penalty was death (Deut 22:22).  (Although the law called for both parties to be put to death - where was the man who had perpetrated the same?)  But the Roman law was looming in tension to the Jewish law; no death sentences could be carried out by the Jews upon penalty of death from the Roman occupiers.  If Jesus chose to follow the law of Moses, he would be accused by the Romans and likely killed.  He had already stated He had not come to abolish even a portion of the Jewish Law, but to fulfill it.  The religious leaders had failed repeatedly to arrest Him themselves, now they could just let this situation play out and let the Romans take over the dirty work of killing Jesus.

But when confronted, Jesus assumed a submissive posture, going low, bending to the ground.  Then He does the unthinkable; He inverts the situation to make it about the heart of each and every individual.  He asks the crowd a simple question, that only they can answer internally, giving them the green light to kill the woman as their law allows IF they admit the impossible - true perfection - that they have never sinned themselves.  And none can.  In the flash of a moment, He requires them to achieve introspective repentance, acknowledgement of sin, and in that truth, grace prevails.   In fact, it is only in fullness of truth that grace for each is acknowledged honestly as necessary.

After the crowd disperses, in their final conversation, the woman and Jesus reveal much.   Everyone misses the mark, says Jesus:  "Is there no one here to judge you?"   She replies, "No one, Master" using the Greek, kyrie, translated throughout the New Testament as "Lord", a term that denotes that she has completely devoted herself to him, a full confession of faith and belonging.  Acknowledging her statement of faith He replies, "Then I do not judge you either." He says,  "Go your way, but do not sin again."  Grace...surrender...freedom...truth.  He offers no threat, no judgement, and no condemnation.  She has sinned, everyone has sinned, He has intervened, she has believed.  He has forgiven her, and He has asked her to live better.

As believers we must proceed humbly, to serve the broken, out of the knowledge that we too have been broken and still are broken.   Jesus is as available for each person to approach personally, internally, as He is for us who have already appealed to Him.  And we can follow his example to offer opportunities to encourage people to pursue truth and grace - not through statements of judgement - but through gentle and honest examining of their own experience, their own heart:
   
"Is your life where you want it to be?"  

"Are you teaching your kids what love is?"   

"Are you good with your relationship with God?"
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Yucko.

3/9/2012

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At PneuProject, we recently partnered with Chris Baker of Ink 180.  He transforms gang and sex-trafficking tattoos into something beautiful.  We have spent the last couple weeks getting to know him and his ministry work better, and I tell you what, it is GROSS - as in human depravity style YUCK.  Not Chris - Chris is awesome - but why he is in business is straight up nasty.


See a tattoo is not an instantaneous process.  So he sits and works on a beautiful artistic endeavor for hours - on someone's body who has literally been violated, stolen, abused, made to BE worthless.  And they tell him their stories.


And since he is working through the law enforcement in order to provide his services, he talks with a lot of officers and agents, the courts etc, and hears THEIR stories about all the icky, nasty stuff that we all honestly hope is not really a part of American society.  But it is.  It is PROLIFIC.  And it is horrific.  I am so ashamed by what we are allowing - each of us - all of us.  Remember in school hearing about the people in the towns next to the gas chambers, how they insisted they didn't know it was happening?  Well we ARE those people - because it is right here, in our towns, on our watch.


Kids afraid, made to run drugs, beaten until they become part of a gang, kidnapped or sold into sex-slavery.  Tattooed by their 'owners'.  Marked, shot, arrested, scarred, lost, incarcerated...hopeless.  


And Chris allows them the chance to move forward without the sign of their oppressors still inked into their very bodies.  He gives them the simple dignity of choosing, perhaps for the first time in their entire life, what their life might look like...literally.  


If you feel obligated to find out more about what is happening right HERE all around us in comfortable suburbia, come out to Tap House Grill on 3/18 at 7:30.  We will be interviewing Chris & showing some of his work.  He may even bring someone who has chosen to make this transformation to share.



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Sex-trafficking and the Super Bowl

2/2/2012

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C'mon America.  Geesh.

http://theresurgence.com/2012/02/02/sex-trafficking-at-the-super-bowl?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheResurgence+%28The+Resurgence%29&utm_content=FaceBook
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Sexuality & Freedom

1/4/2012

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So lots of flap and fluff about the newest chauvenistic sex advice book for married couples from a misc. pastor.  I am not surprised by the flap but thought the world needed a little slap- in- the- face style clarity on this issue.

So here it is:

Your sex issues are yours.  Nobody else is responsible.  If you want to look at porn, or sleep around, or stare at women/ men in the gym, you don't get to blame your wife or your husband or their hairy back or big rear end.  The problem is you.  You.

Free will is really a bugger.  But it is real.  So please don't put your fail on somebody else's shoulders.  Time to own up, face the music you're playing, stop acting like a petulant child, etc etc.

But here is the good news:  We all fail.  It is a universal constant of humanity.  We all think or act on thoughts that we should not to whatever degree.  Because of us, ourselves, we are less than we had once hoped.  We are less than we are capable of.

And there is Someone who can help, who can genuinely transform the way you think, the way you act, remove this blight that is cancer to your soul from within yourself.  But only if you are willing to admit your inadequacy and turn your eyes and mind and heart to Him.

So stop blaming your spouse, your friends, or your parents for what you are doing today.  
Decide how you want to live.  Heck, it's your life, after all.  You are the only one who can do a thing about it.


Cheerio!
 

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It Never "Just Happens"

7/18/2011

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“I never thought I would be the kind of person that did that,” he said to me. 

No one wakes up and hopes to trash their marriage.  Yet, it happens every day.  And nearly everyone thinks “they could never do anything like that.”  The dark secret of marriage is the frequency of affairs.  And everyone thinks they are immune. 

The most common excuse I have heard?  It just happened.  I have had many things “just happen” in my life.  I have run a red light without knowing it.  I have drunk a pot of decaf coffee on accident.  I once got fifteen minutes into a movie until I realized I was in the wrong theater.  I have never had sex and then asked “how did that happen?” 

Big dumb choices are always preceded by a series of small dumb choices.  Before the affair there is a predictable series of incremental moves that everyone ignores yet everyone acknowledges.  Extra hours at work.  Drinks with co-workers where you two are the last to leave.  The embrace after a big project that lasts a little too long.  Texting, flirting, laughing and lusting.  Then it happens.  And you thought it would never happen to you. 

How can you avoid this avoidable trap?  How can you be more than a statistic?  Three tools to consider.

1)       Always ask, when dealing with members of the opposite sex: Is this the wise thing to do?  Not is this wrong, will I get caught or what is the worst that can happen?  But is this wise?  It might not be wrong for me to have lunch with a female co-worker but it is not wise.  Andy Stanely has written much on the topic.   

2)      Once you start to imagine “what if” you are playing with fire.  Affairs are played out in the mind long before they are played out at the Holiday Inn Express.  Whoever said look but don’t touch is a fool.

3)      Is it worth it?  Are you willing to throw away your spouse, have your kids every other weekend, move into a weird apartment and fight over holiday custody just to get…well you know.  Take the time to thank God for your spouse, your family and make the most of what you have. 

It never just happens.  But it can happen to you.    


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