Just Continue That Thought...

A thought by Brant Hansen (2015-04-14) from his book, Unoffendable: How Just One Change Can Make All of Life Better (p. 43). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title of the book to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) We are in the middle of a Presidential election and we are hearing a lot about closing our borders to illegal immigrants.   I understand the concerns and even the fears that people have.   One candidate is even talking about building a wall, a high wall around the borders of our country.   But I am so glad that grace has no borders, aren’t you? Brant says, “But grace has no borders. Love breaks through, and— just as Jesus said of the church— the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Yes, the world is broken, and selfishness is our default setting. But that’s all the more reason we get goose bumps when there’s a ray of light, and we can suddenly see the kingdom from here, where things are set right.” He goes on, “Yes, we all deal with crazy peo

A thought by Brant Hansen (2015-04-14) from his book, Unoffendable: How Just One Change Can Make All of Life Better (p. 31). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title of the book to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) He isn’t.   He knows us, he is not shocked by us. John in his book in the New Testament of the Bible tells us, “Jesus didn’t trust them, because he knew human nature. No one needed to tell him what mankind is really like” (John 2: 24– 25 NLT).   He knows what we are like apart from his Spirit living in us.   Brant says, “Jesus isn’t shocked by self-centeredness. Neither is He scandalized by others’ moral behavior. Ever. He knows how we are. He knows how the human heart works.” Then Brant says, “Maybe those who seek to follow Him could take that same approach. Perhaps a big part of being less offendable is seeing the human heart for what it is: Untrustworthy. Unfaithful. Prone to selfishness. Got it. Now we don’t have to be shocked.” But her

A thought by Brant Hansen (2015-04-14) from his book, Unoffendable: How Just One Change Can Make All of Life Better (p. 27). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title of the book to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Here is what Brant says, “God sees things we don’t. He must, because He hasn’t vaporized us yet. He must look at a seriously messed-up world and still see what can be done with it. He sees what it can and will be.” Brant earlier said, “Some people are artists. They just see things better. When they look at something, they see potential outcomes. They see what could be. Like my friend Chris. Chris was elated at his find one time, and he enthusiastically showed it to me. It was a pile of flattened cardboard boxes he’d gotten from a Dumpster. Seriously, he was overjoyed. ‘This is the good stuff, my friend!’ he told me. ‘Look at this!’ The good stuff? I guess it was. Weeks later, he showed me a crèche he’d made, life-size: Mary, Joseph, and Jesus. It w