True Regret
I recently put up my latest webzine home page piece, it's here if you want to get right to it.
But I wanted to add a parenthetical remark about it that I didn't quite get into it, but, right now, it just wouldn't quite fit into any place. That is what is great about blogging, I can add addendums to stuff from here up-the-wazoo.
Good advice for anyone doing serious writing is "know your audience." In doing The Catholicist Nation I have always thought carefully about who exactly I'm writing to. At one level I'm writing to anyone who just plain wants to see what's meaningfully true, as I address in the piece. This may be why some of my stuff may be a bit broad in context, but in this sense I just want to share Christ with anyone who'll pay a bit of attention.
At another level I have two distinct types of individuals I want to reach. The college student and the church pastor.
The college student is someone who is freshly entering a world where he or she is expected to discover the things that will bring the most profound meaning for their life, whether that is more personal or it encompasses a more wide-ranging sphere. I also presume that by engaging in higher education these individuals will acquire the wherewithal to have more of an impact on those around them. Wouldn't it be great if they had an authentic, empowering relationship with Christ as they do that?
The church pastor also has a significant leadership role. Really, really signficant. The very first chapter of Peter Scazzero's book The Emotionally Healthy Church is titled, "As Go the Leaders, So Goes the Church." A pastor works very hard to tend to the spiritual lives of his congregants, as well as their emotional, physical, and any-other-al aspects. Most religious people in this world do virtually everything they do based on the things directly told them by their spiritual leaders.
In light of this, a major goal of my webzine is simply to point out the contemporary ways those who name the name of Jesus derail their affirmation by signing contracts with a World that is outside the realm where Jesus invites us to dwell. They do this in very concrete ways, the chief among them is forming incorporated entities bound to the World's dictates and paying for the "privilege" by becoming liable for taxes they wouldn't otherwise owe.
It is this fact that grieves me most when I look out at an impotent church, and one which I think should bring the most true regret.
This is the idea I wanted to add parenthetically to my webzine piece. In that piece--and throughout my website--I really try to get at the horrors of what the World does, its rank deceit and its murderous activity with an emphasis on the fact that sent out as Cain to do all of it from millenia past, it can't help but do those things.
I do this not to rally people to get up and change it but to get out of it altogether. In a very real sense I'm saying, "Look at the horrors of what is really going on with this entity you've obligated yourself to! Aren't you tired of it?"
In other words,
Where is the authentic regret from people who say they are followers of Christ but continue to be willfully aligned with Cain?
As I state in the piece, when will the realization of what they are doing be so pronounced that they would get out of that body of death?
I don't know. Maybe some are. I'd like to think that when they do, that will be the time when Jesus said we'd worship Him in Spirit and in Truth. I look forward to that day with great eagerness.
Some thoughts I share with a college student is here. Some thoughts I share with a church pastor is here.
And again, my webzine's home page piece for March-April 2007 is here.
But I wanted to add a parenthetical remark about it that I didn't quite get into it, but, right now, it just wouldn't quite fit into any place. That is what is great about blogging, I can add addendums to stuff from here up-the-wazoo.
Good advice for anyone doing serious writing is "know your audience." In doing The Catholicist Nation I have always thought carefully about who exactly I'm writing to. At one level I'm writing to anyone who just plain wants to see what's meaningfully true, as I address in the piece. This may be why some of my stuff may be a bit broad in context, but in this sense I just want to share Christ with anyone who'll pay a bit of attention.
At another level I have two distinct types of individuals I want to reach. The college student and the church pastor.
The college student is someone who is freshly entering a world where he or she is expected to discover the things that will bring the most profound meaning for their life, whether that is more personal or it encompasses a more wide-ranging sphere. I also presume that by engaging in higher education these individuals will acquire the wherewithal to have more of an impact on those around them. Wouldn't it be great if they had an authentic, empowering relationship with Christ as they do that?
The church pastor also has a significant leadership role. Really, really signficant. The very first chapter of Peter Scazzero's book The Emotionally Healthy Church is titled, "As Go the Leaders, So Goes the Church." A pastor works very hard to tend to the spiritual lives of his congregants, as well as their emotional, physical, and any-other-al aspects. Most religious people in this world do virtually everything they do based on the things directly told them by their spiritual leaders.
In light of this, a major goal of my webzine is simply to point out the contemporary ways those who name the name of Jesus derail their affirmation by signing contracts with a World that is outside the realm where Jesus invites us to dwell. They do this in very concrete ways, the chief among them is forming incorporated entities bound to the World's dictates and paying for the "privilege" by becoming liable for taxes they wouldn't otherwise owe.
It is this fact that grieves me most when I look out at an impotent church, and one which I think should bring the most true regret.
This is the idea I wanted to add parenthetically to my webzine piece. In that piece--and throughout my website--I really try to get at the horrors of what the World does, its rank deceit and its murderous activity with an emphasis on the fact that sent out as Cain to do all of it from millenia past, it can't help but do those things.
I do this not to rally people to get up and change it but to get out of it altogether. In a very real sense I'm saying, "Look at the horrors of what is really going on with this entity you've obligated yourself to! Aren't you tired of it?"
In other words,
Where is the authentic regret from people who say they are followers of Christ but continue to be willfully aligned with Cain?
As I state in the piece, when will the realization of what they are doing be so pronounced that they would get out of that body of death?
I don't know. Maybe some are. I'd like to think that when they do, that will be the time when Jesus said we'd worship Him in Spirit and in Truth. I look forward to that day with great eagerness.
Some thoughts I share with a college student is here. Some thoughts I share with a church pastor is here.
And again, my webzine's home page piece for March-April 2007 is here.
Comments
Post a Comment