5 results for tag: Michael Hardin

Beyond “Without the Shedding of Blood …” Brad Jersak

  Beyond “Without the Shedding of Blood …” I must say, I am thoroughly enjoying Christian theology in the budding era of a post-retributive Gospel. With the Western rediscovery of the Beautiful News, I’m feeling—dare I say it—positively born again! I am in awe and worship of the Father of Love, the cruciform God enfleshed in Jesus of Nazareth. The symbol of the ‘old rugged cross’ has once again come to represent, for me, God’s essential nature: namely, his self-giving, radically forgiving, co-suffering love. And that’s good news for everyone! On the cross, in the face of human cruelty and bloodlust, God-in-Christ revealed his ...

“Don’t Be Afraid” – Michael Hardin

The gospel begins with these words from the Angels: "Don't be afraid Mary don't be afraid."  The risen Christ, the first words to his disciples, "Don't be afraid there is nothing to fear here." The writer to the epistles to the Hebrews said that "Jesus came to take away the fear of death" and then the writer of first John says that "Perfect love casts out fear." The  word that is used for "casting out" is the same word used for "casting out" demons. God's perfect love casts out all of our fears. The fear of punishment, the fear of hell, the fear that God is somehow out to get us, the fear that somehow were not going to be good enough, ...

Fear Not by Michael Hardin

Download or Read the Article: Fear Not

Fall 2016

Articles: Remembering 9-11: 15 Years Later - page 4 When Towers Fall - page 11 Five Stages of Religious Violence - page 14 Religion That's Lost Its Way - page 16 What's so "Christian" about Christianity? - page 17 "Fear Not" - page 18 Raising Children with Fearless Faith - page 20 The Dogs of Legalism: Can Religion Help with Stress? - page 21 The Therapeutic Massage of Prayer - page 25 George MacDonald's Spiritual Journey (& mine too) - page 26 House of Cards - page 27 Times of Refreshing and Restoration - page 31

What does God without retribution look like? Ask Jesus — by Michael Hardin

Nothing irks some folks more than losing a God who is wrathful, angry, retributive and punishing. This is only because we want so much to believe that God takes sides, and that side is inevitably our side.  So much of Jesus’s teaching subverts this sacrificial way of thinking. One example is the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector found in Luke 18:9-14, where what counts as righteousness is completely and totally turned on its head! If, in fact, as I argued in my last post, that Jesus begins his ministry by asking what God without retribution looks like (Luke 4), and if he acts this way in his ministry, and if he interprets his ...