Craig Kirkby
@HopefulDespite
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Still blown away, 35 years on, that Father invited me to partner with Him. Grateful pastor, missionary and missional consultant in six countries.
On Mission
Joined January 2023
Two people read the same Bible. One sees reasons to love, the other reasons to hate. One finds unity and equality, the other division and prejudice. One discovers goodwill, the other malice. Two people, one book. Two worldviews. The book is a mirror. The reflection is you.
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Even our best translations are still interpretations of ancient texts, and even the most skilled readers of Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek are separated by millennia from how those languages were spoken. Besides, the people who spoke them natively were, after all, the very ones who
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“But the end is not yet” and “and then the end will come” are two six-word phrases many Christians muddle, which ends up stoking end-times mania instead of cultivating Jesus’ hopeful eschatology. Living at the Edge of Time? cuts through the muddle and helps you navigate
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John 8 is famous for five words: “Go and sin no more.” But all too often, they’re taken as permission to police everyone’s morals—completely missing the heart of God. Jesus said those words AFTER He literally put His body on the line for her. He stepped between a guilty woman
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Jesus did not come to start a new religion. Nor did He come to revive an old one. Even a casual reader of the Gospels is struck by the contrast between Jesus’ compassion toward those labelled “sinners” and His rebuke of the religious gatekeepers, whom He accused of
abetterfuturenow.com
The Message of Jesus transcends religion. Jesus did not come to start a new religion (or revive an old one). In fact, He opposed religion in all its guises. He confronted it directly and explicitly...
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Neither Jesus nor any writer of the New Testament ever advocated for a Christian geopolitical nation. It was only when Rome co-opted the Christian faith in the fourth century that church and state became entwined—a union few would deny was unhealthy and contrary to the Gospel.
abetterfuturenow.com
The Message of Jesus governs how we relate to government. As citizens of a higher domain, we remain grounded in this domain through humility and servanthood, living lives of unimpeachable integrity.
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Jesus transcended the culture wars of His day by refusing to take sides. He didn’t build a “better” conservative movement or a “kinder” progressive one. He refused to play those political games. (For example, Matthew 22:23-33.) He didn’t take sides—but Jesus wasn’t neutral
abetterfuturenow.com
Remember the time Jesus dodged the culture wars of His day, ingeniously serving into the mess without becoming co-opted by any one faction?
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What many people miss is that the separation of church and state is a TWO-way street: it protects the Christian faith from government intrusion and shields government from Christian interference. Remember, it was the latter that plagued Europe and drove the pilgrims to flee the
abetterfuturenow.com
The Message of Jesus governs how we relate to government. As citizens of a higher domain, we remain grounded in this domain through humility and servanthood, living lives of unimpeachable integrity.
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Jesus taught a radical new love-morality, a boundary-smashing love that expanded love beyond self, beyond family, to include our neighbour, the stranger and even the enemy (Matthew 5:43-48). Love, He said, fulfils the moral code where the Mosaic Law failed—a love for God that
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(Paraphrase of 1 Samuel 8) Israel: We need a king. God: You don’t need a king. Israel: We want a king. God: You don’t want a king. Israel: We demand a king! God: You really don’t want a king. Israel: We really, really do—give us a king! God: *Sigh* Fine, you can have a king, but
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When the Gospel is hijacked by politics, something sacred is lost. 👉 We lionize our base and demonize the opposition. 👉 We redraw the boundaries of “neighbour” to exclude “those people”. 👉 We no longer see others as image bearers but as threats to crush. 👉 We confuse the
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Jesus didn’t come to start a new religion, or to revive an old one. He came to end the need for religion altogether. His life and teachings reveal a way of living that transcends religion entirely.
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“When Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He departed….” (John 6:15)
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