Hey Hi Hello!
A word of welcome
and
a respectful caution.
We're in for a workout.
What we consider
here this week is
both taxing and hopeful.
The taxing has
no promise of exit.
The hopeful is
as wide open as we are.
That's pretty much a match
for what is and a hope for
what can be for us.
Let's do a little
Soul Huddle
and
figure forth.
Glad we can do it
together.
Thanks
******
Dear All of Us,
Given the Givens
we're getting these days,
we really do need an
All Purpose, All Weather,
All Terrain,
TRANSPORT
to keep going
and
get somewhere
good,
The Common Good,
God Good.
We need a
TRANSPORT
that can adapt for
all sorts of purposes
- problems to possibilities -,
that is a go no matter
how weird/wild the weather,
that can best terrain terrible.
Now, this isn't a pitch for the
2025 GMC HUMMER EV 3x
with 1000 hp @$104, 850 (base)
This is about the
promise and power of
Gospel Living
free and freeing
TRANSPORT
if we get in,
get into gear,
give it a full torque go.
Our road trip through life
right now finds us
in the early stages of
a massive
landscape
and
atmospheric
change and challenge.
It is spiritual, social,
local and planetary.
It traverses terrain tough
and weird/wild weather:
in personal and public purpose,
in morals, values, comportment,
in religious and spiritual experience,
in world order and governance,
in ecological concerns,
in finance and security,
in social justice,
in culture and conduct
- people, purpose, planet
too much
at odds
in turmoil
Rough road and ride
in weird/wild weather.
The way and roadway
that was isn't
and won't ever be again.
We have had the shocks
knocked out from under us.
We are experiencing the results
of vapid, illusionary, bad choices
of purpose point, conveyance
and direction.
We are not going to find our way
back to the good old days
that really weren't all that good,
given where they have landed us.
In the midst of this
seismic social and
planetary shift
we fret over
where it will put us,
and yet,
we pretty much know,
or don't want to know,
it's too likely to be in a
hell hole of peril.
Here in my
beloved USA,
where I try
to navigate life,
The Body Public
is split right
down the middle
philosophically
politically,
purpose-wise,
policy-wise
on means
and direction.
It's like a
Driver's Ed
dual drive car
being steered
hard right, hard left
all at once.
We're in a spin out
and the mud flies.
In other lands
sad many
the variations
of deadly threats
to reaching
The Common Good,
God Good Realized.
We can languish in lament,
just stall out and go dead,
rust out,
in the frightful cold of chaos.
Hitching a ride with
politicians and pundits,
conservatives or liberals,
social scapers/shapers,
subscribing to surface solutions,
will lock our wheels in cement.
A no go.
We die in place.
The old wine-way
has soured
and burst its skins.
The need now for
new wine-ways and
new wine-way skins.
So, let's have one hell of
a loud, messy cry over it
and then get together
and hit the road
in a whole new way.
That
TRANSPORT
is
great good news.
It is
THE
Good News
Gospel Live
The Kingdom of God.
It's more than
rocky road,
all purpose,
weird/wild weather,
terrible terrain,
worthy
and we are too
when we hop in and buckle up
on our way for
the repair, the refurbish of
of all and all about
- Creation -
Creation is beautiful
but
People and Place
have been damaged,
have been wronged,
have wronged,
need redemption.
The man and the plan is Jesus
and
he wants us in on it with him.
Jesus is the energy for the fix.
He speaks it, he lives it,
he shares it.
He rights real
what has been wronged.
He restores the harmony
of the universe and
to our part of it
as much as we allow.
He enlivens the deadened
with his very life.
He loves people and place
to full life.
He brings us into
The Kingdom of God.
"I've come that you
might have life
and have it
to the full."
John 10:10
All the specs
are spelled out
beautifully and
clearly in
The Beatitudes
and the whole
Sermon on the Mount
Mathew 5-7
NOW
here is where
we really need
to shift into low gear.
This is where Gospel Living
gets a grip on
the new wine-way.
It's rough, real rough,
and it will make us
real road ready.
FOR STARTERS
Please be sure
those seatbelts
are on tight.
What's in front of us
is more than certainly
"terrain tough."
It's this.
Regular, old time, traditional,
hip, new age, contemporary,
parish, denominational, mega,
any and all sorts of religion
as we currently have them,
have to go.
In form and function
they have failed us and
impeded the coming of
The Kingdom of God.
We need to have the
courage and clarity
to
face it,
see it,
name it,
change it.
Not easy.
Not nice.
Absolutely necessary.
Yes, lots of good people
go to church.
Some are quite holy.
As a group that
is not the case.
An honest,
applied reading of
The Beatitudes
and
The Sermon
on the Mount
and then a week
tight in at
most anybody's church
doesn't read at all close.
Jesus
and
The Kingdom of God
have been
watered down,
domesticated,
compromised,
commoditized,
adjusted to
preference
and
convenience.
We're not living pure
Gospel Real,
much, much less
living it fully.
There's all sorts of wraps,
trappings, arraignments
and not much of
The Body of Christ
inside
all that religious
covering.
Sure, many churches
do lots of good.
So does The Red Cross.
The pity is there isn't
that much of a
divine difference.
Yes, there is
fire in my fingers
right now.
I pray it will light
a real look at
what is and what
Jesus offers and asks
and
our world so needs.
There's a huge,
deciding difference.
Our world right now
is just plain going to hell
rather than to heaven.
It's road rage
on and off road.
A DIFFERENCE TO MAKE
Find or found a small group
that will have
a real go at being
The Body of Christ,
the embodiment of
real, practical, sweaty sweet
Gospel Living
Community
in
The Kingdom of God
as practically per
The Beatitudes
and
ALL
The Sermon on the Mountain.
Matthew 5-7
It won't be heaven on earth,
but it'll get us there.
It will transform,
TRANSPORT
us so really that others
will want to ride along with us.
"They'll Know
We Are Christians
By Our Love" (1)
"See how they
love one another." (2)
We will rub each other
the wrong and right ways.
We will care for each other
and all about,
some days well and
some days not so well.
No matter the matter,
we stick and stay.
We soak in scripture.
We zoom in prayer.
We open to
Spirit Spark.
Our thinking, values,
comportment,
community sharing,
careers, finances,
earth care,
lifestyles
read:
address, wardrobe,
vacations, leisures,
wheels, indulgences,
pastimes, justice seeking,
will be
greatly changed
as in one heaven of a
GREAT
BIG CHANGE.
They will
more and more
be our
Lived Yes
to
The Good News.
We actually,
believably,
will be
Followers of the Way
The Gathered
The Ecclesia
The Church
Acts 4:32-5:16
shares how this worked
so beautifully well
in the early church
for those "All in"
and didn't work
for a holdout couple.
No politicians,
neither
Fox nor CNN pundits,
NYT or WSJ
can save us.
It may come across as
an off-putting
highway billboard,
but the beautiful,
pure truth is
JESUS SAVES
He is
the way,
the truth
and
the life (3)
for all of us,
for all Creation.
Are we ready for him,
for his energy
and (re)direction?
Our fate
and most definitely
that of planet earth
and all peoples on it
depend on our actual,
radical real
YES
Hey, if you're still here,
and I dearly hope you are,
I also sure as heaven hope
you'll come back next week.
For sure,
this has been a workout.
Even more, I pray,
I really do and will PRAY,
that we're all
"All in"
on this
ALL Purpose, All Terrain,
All Weather
Good News
TRANSPORT
******
(1) Hymn
Peter Scholtes
CCLI 26997
(2) Tertullian
On the early
Christian communities
(3) John 14:6
Thanks for sticking with
all that we faced here.
Everyone is welcome
in this little part of
The Kingdom of God.
This week we were blessed
with visits from
large groups
of new friends
USA
France
Singapore
as very much well
many individuals
and small groups
from all around our
God Good Globe.
WELCOME
NEXT ONLINE POSTING
Tuesday morning/afternoon
East Coast USA time.
March 18, 2025
NEXT EMAIL DELIVERY
Friday
March 21, 2025
LAST FIVE POSTINGS
AVAILABLE
by
scrolling down
beneath
this posting
THANKS
MANY MUCH
for sharing
frankly speaking
with others.
Let's really pray for each other,
pray that we will see clearly,
and make the big changes
that will make
THE BIG CHANGE.
See you next week.
Love to all.
God Bless
John Frank
frankly speaking
spirituality for the street
johnfrankshares.blogspot.com
******
