Glen asked yesterday, "Are you the cause of the recession" (or something like that, not an exact quote...). Then in his last paragraph he wondered if we would learn from our greed. But is that not the whole point of salvation? We CAN'T go beyond our greed without Jesus. We have become, by nature, greedy and selfish, because of Adam's sin. As instinct is passed on, so is this tendency to sin: we would have done exactly what Adam did if we had been there. As a matter of fact, just as I said in a couple posts back, we choose the "knowledge of good and evil" over the "tree of Life" all the time, every day. Even as Christians we fail, every day, because "the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak". That is why we must die to ourselves daily, we must remember and live out the fact that we "have been crucified with Christ", that "it is no longer [we] who live, but Christ lives in [us] and the life that [we] now live in the flesh [we must] live by faith in the Son of God who loves [us] and gave His life for [us]". There is no other way.

And this also leads to his posting regarding radical Christians. What is a radical Christian? Well, first and foremost, what is the dictionary definition of radical?

Etymology

< French radical < Late Latin radicalis (“‘of or pertaining to the root, having roots, radical’”) < Latin radix (“‘root’”); see radix.

1. (botany, not comparable) Of or pertaining to a root (of a plant).
2. Of or pertaining to the intrinsic nature of something.
3. Thoroughgoing.

   The spread of the cancer required radical surgery, and the entire organ was removed.

4. Favouring fundamental change, or change at the root cause of a matter.

   His beliefs are radical.

5. (linguistics, not comparable) Of or pertaining to the root of a word.
6. (chemistry, not comparable) Involving free radicals
7. (slang) Excellent.

   That was a radical jump!

ok, so at first I couldn't figure out how "root" had anything to do with being "radical", since my thoughts on radical differ slightly. I thought it meant out of the ordinary, beyond the norm -- that doesn't sound like "root" or "base" or anything of the sort. Then as I read more, #4 showed me the sense of it: fundamental, or root, CHANGE. CHANGE that affects the root or FOUNDATION of the matter. Ah, now I understand. So, as it pertains to Christianity, it would mean, one who favours changing the foundations of Christianity.... I don't even like the sound of that.... So, I think I must consider it in light of our present understanding of Christianity, and then say it is a RETURNING to a PROPER FOUNDATION of Christianity, which, in our present society, as a matter of fact in most of the ages of the world, IS a radical idea. Few of us have truly lived God's Word the way we should have, in any age.

Which brings me back to the original section, can we learn? I think our society has considered ourselves Christian for such a long time we forget that that has been the reason we have lived in such relative peace (ie lack of persecution, mostly law-abiding citizens) compared to some other countries of the world: our laws and the accepted practices of society followed Biblical principles -- until now. Now we are seeing the result of a society that no longer thinks the Bible is relevant, no longer believes the Bible is true. Even if not everyone actually PRACTICED Christianity "properly", at least the general "peer pressure" tended toward morality, because previous generations had been careful to pass on and uphold a basic faith in the fact that there were absolutes.

So, in answer to both posts, my prayer, daily, for my brothers and sisters around the world, is that we might "humble [ourselves] and pray and seek [His] face and turn from [our] wicked ways", that we might "trust in the Lord with all [our] heart[s], lean not on [our] own understanding, [but] in all [our] ways acknowledge Him," so that He would "guide our paths in righteousness for His Name's sake," and "that the world would know we are Christians by our love", and that "[we] would be one, as [Jesus] and the Father are one".