The Birth of Faith

“Some emergent types [want] to recast Jesus as a limp-wrist hippie in a dress with a lot of product in His hair, who drank decaf and made pithy Zen statements about life while shopping for the perfect pair of shoes. In Revelation, Jesus is the prize fighter with the tattoo down His leg, a sword in His hand and the commitment to make someone bleed. That is a guy I can worship. I cannot worship the hippie, diaper, halo Christ because I cannot worship a guy I can beat up.”
-Mark Driscoll, Relevant magazine (January-February 2007)


There is great confusion in the world regarding how to interpret applied love. Often in our society if a person seeks the way of Christ by becoming the least that person is then viewed as weak. In reality it takes great strength to practice love. It takes the kind of strength that costs a person everything but leaves them fabulously wealthy in the end.

Mother Teresa was/is in my opinion one of the greatest Christians the world has ever known. Often when dignitaries and respected persons would ask her to come and speak at various conferences, seminars and media events, she would sneak away during breaks to eat or spend time with the homeless or otherwise marginalized people who inhabited the fringes of these gatherings. It appears that in her position of prominence what she most valued was seeking to include the ostracized. In a world filled with influential and “powerful” individuals whom she had, by the grace of God, been granted access to, she made sure not to lose sight of the true mission.
Surely she used the opportunities that God gave her to advance the cause of feeding the poor and caring for the sick, and in so doing rubbed elbows with members of the elite. In her spiritual heart though beat the pulse of the Christ. It was His blood that infused her parts. It was the clarion call of Christ the victor, the King Jesus that moved her. In her desire to show love to those that would not have been welcome inside the arena of the actual “event” the spirit of God broke through. Just as Jesus spent His time with the nobodies and wasted Himself on those of dubious social standing, Mother Teresa likewise pursued His example.
I wonder if she ever had people around her telling her that she could accomplish far more if she would more diligently pursue the influential. I wonder if Christ ever heard similar things from those who sought to advise Him. I wonder if I have been convinced of something like this. I wonder who would attempt to do the convincing. I wonder why my Jesus said that He came to bring a SWORD. It is important always to remember what this sword looks like.

Consider this statement.
“In boundless love as a Christian and as a man I read through the passage which tells us of how the Lord at last rose in His might and seized the scourge to drive out the Temple brood of vipers and adders. How terrific was His fight for the world against the Jewish poison.”
- Adolf Hitler
What voice of love must the man have been listening to? In what shape was the sword the he envisioned?

Love it seems is elusive. I can find counterfeit versions of it everywhere, brilliant lights on crumbling hills, and tempting tastes of putrid ills. Love though, that great balm that heals and restores, woos and wins, unifies and sets apart; love requires a diligent pursuit of a very unique nature. It requires me to chase that which kills me, and to value that which places me in harms way. Love cost my Lord His life, though in dying for love the war itself was won.
What kind of strength is required for a man to lay down his very life to conform to a principle that remains half theory even in its most basic application? I guess the application of love must be dependent on other independent principles. A principle that states that love will do what it sets out to do when it is accurately applied would help quite a lot I think.

What shall we call this principle? Let’s call it FAITH. I wonder how the physical personification of Faith can be birthed into a world so in need of Love? Oh well I have Christmas presents to go buy so I guess I will close for now. I wonder what I should get my Dad for Christmas this year anyway.