JR. Forasteros - July 22, 2018
How to Lose
Have you ever won a battle but lost a war? Maybe you got the upper hand in an argument but lost the relationship. Or landed the deal at the expense of a colleague. Or got your way but caused an alienation that’s ongoing to this day. We’re often too short-sighted, and allow the wrong priorities to cloud our judgment. Jacob’s 20-year feud with his uncle Laban shows us the fruit of that kind of conflict. How can we seek God’s grace and affirm the dignity of everyone we meet?
From Series: "The Way, Way Back"
What's Summer without a road trip? We're travelling back to the stories of the Patriarchs - Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph. They lived on the road, and in their travels, they encountered God in strange and unexpected ways. What do we learn about God on the road that we can't learn when we stay in our comfort zones? How might God be calling us to go somewhere new, following after our creator?
More Messages From JR. Forasteros...
Powered by Series Engine
Today’s about Ghost stories. Though they appear in many forms, the quintessential ghost story involves the spirit of a dead person who’s stayed around (usually a haunted house) because they have unfinished business. Maybe they have to deliver a message or ensure proper burial or get revenge. Whatever the case, once their business is complete, they leave into the afterlife.
Unlike our previous two monsters, today we’re not ghosts. Rather, to quote Peter Rollins,
We are the haunted houses. — Peter Rollins
We move through life collecting hurts, wounds and scars, evidence of pain inflicted on us by other people. Some may be slight, exaggerated in our heads – maybe someone who cuts us off or says something cruel or who causes us harm by accident. Others could be huge, life-altering. A spouse who left. An abuser. And there’s a whole range of hurts between.
Whatever their source, however legitimate or not, these people, these hurts don’t just exit our lives.
We carry them around with us, in our heads and in our souls. They haunt us, returning again and again out of the ether to drag us through the past, to relive history, to reopen old wounds.
The problem is we don’t know what these ghosts want. We don’t know how to resolve their business and get them to leave us. We can’t escape their haunting – especially if the person who hurt you is still a part of your life.
