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“Jesus has got to be a complete embarrassment to you.”

A thought by Brant Hansen (2015-04-14) from his book, Unoffendable: How Just One Change Can Make All of Life Better (p. 159). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title of the book to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Now that thought is not the complete thought.   No, it is a grabber.   Of course some will just read it and react to it but not go to the blog like you did and really see what Brant said. So what is the complete thought?   Brand said, “If you call yourself a Christian, and you want things to be fair, and you want God’s rewards given out only to the deserving and the upstanding and the religious, well, honestly, Jesus has got to be a complete embarrassment to you.”    He continues, “In fact, to so many upstanding Christians, He is. He has always been offensive, and remains offensive, to those who seek to achieve ‘righteousness’ through what they do. Always.” He earlier says, “The kingdom is not ‘balanced,’ it doesn’t operate via our ‘common sen

“Since anger has value, giving it up requires a sacrifice.”

A thought by Brant Hansen (2015-04-14) from his book, Unoffendable: How Just One Change Can Make All of Life Better (p. 141). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title of the book to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Brant says, “Our anger is valuable to us. That’s why we want to hold it, to savor it. It means something. It means we’ve been wronged, we’re in the right, and we’re the victims in an unfair exchange. We want to even out the scales, and one way to do it, at least psychologically, is to stay offended.” He goes on, “There’s a story in Luke, where an apparently ‘good,’ religious, and rich young man approaches Jesus, wondering what he must do to inherit eternal life. Ultimately, Jesus places a demand on him— sell everything and give to the poor— and we’re told the young man heard that and walked away, sad.   I think for many of us who live in this society that is so riven with anger, even addicted to it, Jesus is giving us a similar demand: ‘Give up your a

“Worry and anger often go hand in hand.”

A thought by Brant Hansen (2015-04-14) from his book, Unoffendable: How Just One Change Can Make All of Life Better (p. 103). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title of the book to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Now the problem with that thought by itself is that people accept it as the way it should be and not stop and really see what is the right thing to do. My purpose is to get people to stop and see there is a problem with both anger and worry. Brant continues, “They’re both about feeling threatened, and they both represent, ultimately, a lack of trust. But there’s a flipside, and it’s good news: we get to see all over again how freeing it really is to trust God.” He goes on, “My anger isn’t a sign of trust; it’s the very opposite. I’m worried someone’s going to get away with something, like God’s not noticing and it’s all up to me. This kind of anger is perfectly human, of course, and perfectly natural, and just as perfectly destructive as any other