Ever just blog-surf? I'll click on most of the links in my lefthand sidebar, and if I see a link from that blog to another previously un-visited blog, I'll get a little adventurous and check that one out. Then another, and another, and so on, and so on... Just got connected that way (thru GatorBites, I think) to Robert's blog - Dead Man Blogging - and read through a really long theological breakdown of Matthew 5:13-16. I've been teaching on the Sermon on the Mount in our Sunday morning LifeBASICS time ("Discourse on the Hill" is Willard's title), so I was interested to see what kinds of things he was pulling from these three chapters.

Other than what I'd call steretypical generalizations, I appreciate that he's caught on to the need for obedience in our lives, as it is shown from the overflow of hearts really sold out to Christ. Jesus spends this time talking about what the kingdom looks like and what kingdom citizens are about - and the obedience He's calling for is much more about being holy people than being people who are trying to be holy. I don't agree with Robert's comments on the "intentionality" of relationships - but it's hard to argue with the thought that my keeping a close relationship with someone who's not a citizen of the kingdom has the tendency over time to lead to compromise on my part.

It also appears that he's a little more on the "serious" side of things than I am (as is 99.9% of the homo sapien population of this planet, no doubt). One statement describes a committed christian as being serious, not foolish. I don't think "foolish" is necessarily the opposite of "serious." But that's probably just me and my tendency to pick up semantics. I'd rather say that we need to take life seriously and not haphazardly; or this might be a place to use the word intentional, rather than solely under the heading of relationship. Someone can be serious and still be foolish though - so maybe there's a place for frolicking a little un-seriously, diving into the mystery of stuff without grabbing onto foolishness.

I don't normally point out blogs here in this space. I'm not plugging his blog (though I'll probably add it to the list of rascals on the left), but rather pointing out that God is revealing stuff like this all over the place. Cool, huh?
- posted by Rick @ 14:30