Faith Venture

The gospel of welcome. What does it mean? It means the good news is good news for everybody. It’s a blanket, all-inclusive invitation. There isn’t anyone to whom it doesn’t apply. You don’t have to qualify for the gospel. You don’t have to get cleaned up first. There isn’t a particular sin that will make someone shut the door on you. If you’ve been rejected elsewhere, you won’t be rejected here.

This is today’s essay on The Catch by John Fischer. I probably sang some of his songs way back in the late 60s and early 70s when I learned some early Jesus movement music—mostly from my experience teaching in a Catholic school. Those were honest songs about finding a relationship with Jesus.

We hear so much gospel of unwelcome in mass media and social media. Leave that behind. Practice The Gospel of Welcome. Don’t divide humans into us and sinners. God decided, Jesus decided, welcome all who will come. There are no sinners v non-sinners. All are sinners.

I visited with my cardiologist the other day. They checked a number of aspects of my heart’s health. Then they sent a thorough report that came through my app. Excellent results. It’s nice when you can go to a doctor and chat about vacations to Iceland rather than your imminent demise.

The experience caused me to wonder about my latest heart check up from my spiritual cardiologist—Jesus.

There has not been an app update from the kingdom of God about the status of my heart. However, nudges come to me when I sit in quiet and pay attention. Sometimes the nudges are more like getting hit by a 2×4 piece of wood. 

Rather than open my app, I need to open my spiritual eyes and awareness listening to what God is telling me—either reproof or excellent checkup. And I can adjust my way accordingly.

I maintain heart health through diet and exercise and stillness (meditation). I maintain my spiritual heart health through study, meditation, prayer, service, worship. Notice a blend of stillness and action. Kind of like that old Motown Marvin Gaye and Kim Weston hit—It Takes Two. Let your meditations and prayers form the foundation of your active life.

Yesterday I wrote about a prayer class and how I had to overcome the predisposition to learn about prayer instead of learning and practicing prayer.

Similarly, I led a class on the Spiritual Disciplines. Many wanted to learn what the disciplines were. Few would incorporate the disciplines intentionally into their lives.

I think that most of the ten people in the class could name five different spiritual disciplines (practices) a month after the class. 

I think most had not incorporated one new practice intentionally into their life.

An amusing anecdote. One person later told me that the pastor had assigned a book for the staff to read and discuss. Celebration of Discipline by Richard J. Foster. This sounds familiar, the person thought. Oh, it was that class I took with Gary. At least the lesson returned.

If you choose to read that book, and I hope you will, make it a goal to incorporate at least one new practice into your daily life. Don’t let the book go to waste by just reading through and putting it on the shelf. (One of my daily disciplines is reading, thinking, and then writing these short posts, for example.)

Another of my disciplines is fitness and nutrition. I’ve recently been reading “a positive corner of the internet” Pump Daily by Arnold Schwarzenegger. Interesting–I may have only seen one of his movies (Kindergarten Cop?) and I most likely would not have voted for him for governor were I a California citizen, but his evangelism for positivity and health for everyone is worth copying. God knows, literally, that we need more positivity on the internet these days.