Each day of the e-Summit Dr Read sends an email to all delegates, which includes a Bible message from the handbook ‘Jesus and Justice: Living Right While Righting Wrongs’, published in the Theology and History stream.
DAY SIX MESSAGE
From Jim Read
27 March 2010
Welcome to all who are able to participate in Speak Out today, whether for a few minutes or a full shift. Let Speak Out be a venture in mutual learning. And let it be a safe place to try out new ideas. We need creative thinking, bold thinking, and the trusting environment that is the soil in which good ideas germinate.
Today’s Discussion Facilitators
- Theology and History discussions are being facilitated by Cadet Nyree Bond
- Theory and Principles discussions are being facilitated by Daniel Alarcon
- Promising Practices discussions are being facilitated by Luke Geary
Today’s “Chat Room” Discussions with Presenters
Alan Johnson will be online to discuss advocating for changes in government alcohol policies from 8 am to 10 am New Zealand time. (You will find a converter on the website to tell you the equivalent in your time zone.)
Today’s Scripture: Mark 1:22-34 and Matthew 6:9-15
Part D.3 of “Jesus and Justice” is titled “Releasing the Demons of the Soul.”
Demons are “anti-God forces.” Whether they are fallen angelic creatures or corrupted power structures or deep character flaws, demons are forces that oppose God and the mission of God in the world.
“Jesus and Justice,” p. 27 says, “ Consider another demon on the soul, the anti-god force of refusing to forgive. Refusal to forgive is like a death sentence. It’s a self-imposed state of oppression. In contrast, forgiveness releases people. Forgiveness frees people to deal with the past and find a pathway into the future.
Imagine a world wit hout forgiveness….Now imagine a world where forgiveness could be spread in war zones, gifted to fractured families, injected into dysfunctional workplaces, infused into individuals who are locked in past memories and unable to begin again.”
Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s book about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa is titled No Future without Forgiveness. Dani Shaw’s paper in the Theology and History stream recalls The Salvation Army’s role in the TRC. There other places in the world where The Salvation Army could be an agent of forgiveness today. But the one who facilitates forgiveness needs to know what it is to be forgiven.
Nicholas Wolterstorff has written an important theology of justice in the past couple of years that springs from the observation that because forgiveness is central to the Christian value scheme, justice must be central too. Forgiveness is not needed where injustice has not been done. The Bible says all are in need of forgiveness. Advocates who think they are impeccable need to think again.
The prayer Jesus taught his disciples begins with the plea that God’s will might be done on earth; at its centre is a plea for forgiveness, and at its end is a plea to be protected from the Evil One. These prayers are not disconnected, are they?
Let us begin this day with thanks for the amazing grace of God and the company of forgiving people. And let us pray that the demons of our world will be cast out.
To read all of Dr. Read’s daily devotionals log onto the speakout website
http://speakout.e-summit.org
Today’s “Chat Room” Discussions with Presenters
- 1000 to 1200 Toronto local time on March 26, Dr. Don Posterski will be online for realtime discussion of his presentations on Principles of Justice, Advocacy for Justice, and Strategy for Advocacy.
- 1500 to 1700 Boston local time on March 26, Dr. Roger Green will be online for a realtime discussion of his paper, Why social holiness?
- 0800 to 1000 New Zealand local time on March 27, Alan Johnson will be online for a realtime discussion about the SPPU’s advocacy regarding alcohol policies.
