The Great Antithesis

Ephesians 4:27__32

“Be angry, and do not sin do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil.  Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather  let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something  to give him who has need. Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but  what is good for necessary edification,  that it may impart grace to the hearers. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.  Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and  evil speaking be put away from you,  with all malice.  And  be kind to one another, tenderhearted,  forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.”

What is the great antithesis?

In short, it is an attempt to bring healing and restoration to the church by means of articulating areas within The Body of Christ that need to be changed; to address past failures and articulate them into future opportunities for growth, redemption, healing and restoration. One example would be: The Lord has been leading many of us to focus more on confession and repentance as a lifestyle, rather than a onetime occurrence. How might we implement a culture of continual confession and repentance within the church? Or how do we help establish an atmosphere of forgiveness in the church? Do we set up confession booths like the Catholics do? Do we teach more about forgiveness? Do we pray more about it? Or do we simply practice confession and forgiveness more?
So then, the sole purpose of this new spirit of articulation and wrestling with God seeks to invite us to pray together, think together and to ask how we can learn together from our past mistakes and move forward to what God would have us to do in its place. To continue to move from hurting to healing, and to seek to lead others to do so as well; for this is the sum of ministry itself. How best would God have us to conduct ourselves more fully and obediently to His way? I am asking for suggestions on any topic not just forgiveness. I will suggest a topic, and we will spend time on it until we feel like we have a handle on it, or until we decide to move on and maybe return to it later if lead to do so. The very notion of the great antithesis is for me a means of healing. To fully walk away from the pain of past mistakes, those that I have made, and the mistakes of others, and to strive forward to “Faith, Hope and Love”; to be “as wise as serpents and as harmless as doves” as I struggle.

What the great antithesis is not!

This is not an opportunity to complain, or dredge up pain from the past or to name call or to place blame! The tone and direction of this blog MUST always be moving from pain, disappointment and confusion to Faith, Hope and Love. Blogs will start only after we’ve picked ourselves up, and are able to ask not “how did I get here?” But “where do I go from here?”

Guidelines

Always stay within the boundaries of the answer to a particular problem, rather than the problem itself. For example: don’t say “such and such church doesn’t care about the homeless” etc. But instead say, “How can the local church better reach-out to the homeless population within our community?” And then think, pray, and seek God’s will on the subject and post whatever you come up with. As always, “Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.” “Grace to the hearers,” I like the sound of that. I post the guidelines for myself as well as for everyone else involved. Believe me! Invitations to the blog should be limited for the sake of maintaining its intended purpose. So please only invite to join those that you feel are ready to begin on the journey toward redeeming their past and not reliving it.

Will you join me?