Zondervan Inspire

Reckless Self-Giving

Jesus gave moral teachings that encouraged his followers to become the type of people who naturally care for the good of others because he wanted them to be united as a family. The life of heaven focuses on the good of others. It picks up the spoon not to fill its own belly but to offer a bite to the other starving stomachs in the room. This is the best life possible because it is the very type of life that is going on within God. The Father gives us his Son. The Son gives us his life. The Spirit gives us understanding of all that is true and praiseworthy. This reckless self-giving is the activity of heaven. Jesus said that all God wishes for you and me — all he encourages us to do and be, the entirety of our moral obligation — is summed up in this kind of reckless self-giving toward God and others.

From Seven: The Deadly Sins and the Beatitudes

by Jeff Cook

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God Is Womb-Like

Throughout the Bible, God is described as compassionate. In Hebrew, the original language of the Scriptures, it's the word "raham." It's also the word for "womb." So, "God is compassionate" is "God is womb-like." This is a feminine image for God.

God is in essence beyond male and female ... God Transcends and yet includes what we know as male and female (see Genesis 1:27). So a man is created in the image of God and a woman is created in the image of God. There is a masculine dimension to God and there is a feminine dimension to God.

From NOOMA® She—021 Rob Bell

by Flannel

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countercultural

One of the most exciting of the Sabbath laws was applied every seven years. Just like the Hebrew people were suppose to refrain from working every seventh day so that their land, animals, and servants could rest, every seventh year, the Hebrew people had a celebration called the jubilee, during which they would take the whole year off from work. During this one-year break, all the food that continued to grow in their fields was free for the taking for families who were struggling to get by (Exodus 23:10-11). And any debt that folks had incurred during the past six years was erased.

These laws ensured that those in society who were intent on getting ahead had to take a break so that the gap between the rich and the poor would be kept to a minimum. It is almost impossible for us to grasp how wildly countercultural (and difficult) this economic practice really was. God's idea for this peculiar people was that there be "no poor people among you" (Deuteronomy 15:4-5).

From Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals

by Shane Claiborne

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