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Theological musings, anecdotal reflections, and occasional silliness from the mind of Josh Crain.

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As Jesus Served

January 25, 2012 by Josh Crain Pastoring Tags:

Jesus washing feetThere’s this surprising passage in John 19. But if you’ve followed the Christ story up until this point it’s not really surprising at all.

After all, this is the same Jesus who just a few chapters beforehand had taken it upon himself to wash the feet of his disciples. Imagine — God in flesh; the very one who flung the stars into space, who formed our planet and breathed the breath of life into mankind living and walking among us. The same hands that healed the blind, calmed the storm, raised the dead . . . washing feet.

The Creator serving the creation.

And then this teaching in John 13:14-15 — “Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.”

Simply put: if the God of the universe is willing to wash the feet of his servants, shouldn’t we do the same?

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Save the Internet

January 18, 2012 by Josh Crain Uncategorized

Take Action Against SOPAI just wanted to take a couple of minutes this morning to draw your attention to two bills that are currently coming before congress: the Protect IP Act (PIPA) in the Senate and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House.

These bills would censor the Web and impose harmful regulations on American business. Millions of Internet users and entrepreneurs already oppose SOPA and PIPA. The fallout of passing these bills would likely effect this website and others that you’ve come to rely on for information: Google, Wikipedia, Vimeo, YouTube, Facebook, etc. That’s why I’m joining these and many other websites today who are trying to get the word out about how devastating this legislation could be for the internet as we know it.

The Senate will begin voting on January 24th. Please let them know how you feel. Sign this petition urging Congress to vote NO on PIPA and SOPA before it is too late.

For more information, please watch this short video on what PIPA and SOPA will do:

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The Forgotten Legacy of Dr. King

January 16, 2012 by Josh Crain Theology Tags:/ /

Martin Luther KingOn this Martin Luther King, Jr. day, Dr. Gregory Boyd reminds us of an oft-forgotten facet of his legacy:

King’s message on equality usually gets stressed but his more fundamental call to love indiscriminately and to refuse violence is forgotten.

Boyd’s tweet reminded me to post one of my favorite quotes from Dr. King’s essay, Where Do We Go from Here?:

The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes. … Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.

And as my friend David Calavan points out, if you’ve never read his Letter from a Birmingham Jail, you really owe it to yourself to give it a read.

May the words of Dr. King find lodging in your heart this day.

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Obligatory Tim Tebow Post

January 16, 2012 by Josh Crain Football / God in the News Tags:

Tim TebowSteven Patrick doesn’t particularly care for Tim Tebow. After quoting Matthew 6:5-6 (the passage where Jesus commands us to pray in secret) he writes:

The Bible verse above – quoted in the New International Edition, for ease of comprehension – says it all: Don’t make a show of your religion. There it is, unequivocal, clear as a daylight, and even – if you read the whole chapter – spelled out in great, almost excessive, detail. This is the same Bible that lies at the root of Tebow’s faith, supposedly; the book to which he makes frequent reference.

I’ve been following the Tebow story with a degree of fascination all season, as I’m sure many of you have. Frankly, if you’re a football fan, it’s been difficult to avoid it. Last week Time Magazine argued that Tim Tebow had a more prominent platform for speaking about Christ than any pastor or evangelist.

As one of the most influential believers in the United States, should Christians support Tebow?

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New Website, New Podcast

January 15, 2012 by Josh Crain Site News Tags:/ /

Welcome to the new website. I have a bit more time to write now than I once did, so I’m hoping to utilize that by posting more regularly. Time will tell.

A few things.

First of all, I’ll be linking to more things that I find interesting and making brief comments about them instead of every article being solely what I’m studying or what I’m thinking about. Those posts tend to be faster to write and hopefully they’re interesting reads for some of you.

Also, I’ve got a new podcast on iTunes. I was trying to figure out the best way to allow access to all the teaching I do and have done, and the simplest way was to create a feed that ties it all together. In a few months when we launch the new Carlisle Brethren in Christ Church website and podcast I’ll be sure and link to that as well. But I’ll probably keep this as it will also include teaching I do at retreats and other places, as well as occasional audio I may produce just for the podcast feed.

Finally, I’ve enabled a great way to subscribe to the blog. You can sign up for a weekly digest that will be delivered to your email inbox every Monday afternoon with the articles you may have missed from the week before. You can sign up for that in the sidebar or at this link.

I’m still working out the kinks in the new site, so if something doesn’t work for you please let me know. Also, if you’re using Internet Explorer 6 and something doesn’t work for you, please stop using that browser.

I’m looking forward to interacting with you guy.

Shalom,
Josh Crain
January 2012