That’s where I was about a year and a half ago. I was still going to Church every Sunday, and I was involved in a youth group, but I wasn’t praying as much. Life slowly became less about loving God and loving the people around me, and more about what I wanted. Sin, and one form of sin in particular, started to make its way back into my life.
What’s the “Jesus way” of dealing with brokenness, sin, and pain? Jesus’ answer to sin and pain is to love the person in front of Him.
I read not just to be entertained, but to grow - to learn from the admirable characteristics of heroines, to avoid the mistakes of villains.
Heaven is where souls live in endless union with God, loving and praising Him and praying for souls not yet in heaven.
The biggest lesson that Jesus is trying to teach here is that loving anything more than God, including money, will make it extremely difficult to enter Heaven. That said, we can’t ignore that Jesus specifically called out and focused on a love of money on many different occasions.
Look for Tommy Openshaw on a Saturday night, and you’ll find him under stadium lights, kicking for Vanderbilt’s football team. Check again on Sunday, however, and you’ll find him at Benton Chapel, joining Vanderbilt’s Catholic community for Mass.
The ironic thing about half-truths is that, most of the time, they aren’t really true at all. They represent something that, if left alone, might appear to be true. Usually though, if you dig in a bit, you find that there’s a lot more assuming happening than truth telling.
Romero is a perfect example of the inextricable link between orthodoxy and the call to resist injustices of the world; his life (and eventual death) proves that you don’t have to choose between one or the other. No one can look at his example and say it is too radical for Christians to seek justice for social issues.
Even the Bible admits sin is fun. The Book of Hebrews talks about enjoying “the fleeting pleasures of sin” (Hebrews 11:25). Of course, the key word in that passage is “fleeting.” Sin presents itself as enjoyable, fulfilling, and exactly what we need. But the fun doesn’t last.
