UNSTUCK / week 4 / Tuesday Study

Watch the fourth video at RightNow Media. No homework for this session.

Quotes from Mark Batterson

When all of the rules and regulations, all of the traditions and institutions, all of the liturgies and methodologies are peeled back, what’s left is the Great Commandment. It is Christianity in its purest form.

So here’s a simple thought: If we’re going to be great at anything, let’s be great at the Great Commandment. Let’s not settle for good. Good isn’t good enough. Let’s be great at loving God: heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Christianity was never meant to be a noun. When we turn it into a noun, it becomes a turnoff. Christianity was always intended to be a verb. We’ve got to act on God ideas. We’ve got to obey the promptings of the Holy Spirit. We’ve got to seize opportunities to serve. Talk is cheap, and we have cheapened the gospel long enough.

As I stood there [in the Roman catacombs], I couldn’t help but wonder if our generation has conveniently forgotten how inconvenient it can be to follow in the footsteps of Christ. I couldn’t help but wonder if we have diluted the truths of Christianity and settled for superficialities. I couldn’t help but wonder if we have accepted a form of Christianity that is more educated but less powerful, more civilized but less compassionate, more acceptable but less authentic than that which our spiritual ancestors practiced. . . . Almost like the Roman effect of building things on top of things,

I wonder if the accumulated layers of Christian traditions and institutions have unintentionally obscured what lies beneath.

United Nations health and food organizations calculate that 25,000 people throughout the developing world die every day, every day, from starvation and malnutrition. Are you okay with this? There are 120,000 children up for adoption at any given time in the United States, and millions more children worldwide are without a family. Are you okay with this? A child dies from drinking contaminated drinking water every twenty-one seconds. Are you okay with this? That question can be and must be asked of all suffering and every injustice. Are you okay with this?

Notes on following Jesus Could I consider . . . ?