Jonathots Daily Blog
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1. Don’t honk your horn in traffic
2. Arrive at a meeting with an idea
3. Send a note the same time each week to a friend
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Jonathots Daily Blog
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The producers of jonathots would humbly request a yearly subscription donation of $10 for this inspirational opportunity
Jonathots Daily Blog
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When I looked at the parable again, it just made me laugh.
Jesus often had a dry sense of humor–and in this particular story, he refers to the society in which we live as “the lump.”
Could it be personified any better? Just a big pile of dough, laying there with no prospect of becoming anything in particular, susceptible to being manipulated.
Even though we are tempted to become part of the dough, Jesus suggested we become the leaven–the yeast–the ingredient that quietly slips inside the lump, ends up affecting it by expanding it and making it into bread.
It is the reasonable expectation of all people who are followers of Jesus–thus Jesonian: to contribute to the world around them by adding their yeast into the mix to produce the bread of life.
The problem is that many Christians, instead of using emotional leavening in their outreach, end up with spiritual “littering. ”
This spiritual “littering” occurs in three distinct ways:
1. A generic God.
Yes, in an attempt to become all things to all men, we talk about God instead of Jesus. It seems safer. It appears to be less offensive.
But since Jesus did not come to start a religion and is not in competition with those who did, the way to gain emotional ground with others–to leaven the lump of their lives–is to share the compassion, the heart, the tolerance and the mind of Jesus.
God is an idea. Jesus is a feeling.
2. We also spiritually litter offering an invitation to come to our church.
May I give you a clue? The people who are inclined to go to church at this point are already there.
So the next step for creating a spiritual awakening in this country will not be church attendance. It may lead to that eventually, but to leaven the lump–to put your yeast of emotion into people’s lives–you have to participate in social interaction where they live.
The Internet, dinner invitations, parties, or even going to a movie with a friend is much more effective than the spiritual littering of inviting them to your congregation.
3. And the final step of spiritual littering is feeling the need to make a stand on social issues or moral questions so as to separate our “sheepishness” from those who are more “goat-like.”
We achieve nothing with this.
Whether we are vigilant or vindictive in our assertions makes no difference because we are still accused of being judgmental.
The emotional leavening that Jesus wants us to bring to life is good cheer.
Rather than looking at the tribulation of the world and having a disagreement with it, he tells us to leave the world to him and instead, pursue a life of good cheer.
It’s just a fact–people like to be around happy people.
This does not mean we are free of difficulty, but it means we come into trial in good cheer, survive it, and come out the other end also cheered by the good.
We have too much spiritual littering going on in our society today which renders the Gospel weak because it is at the mercy of people’s perception of the church.
Jesus said the world is a lump.
Put your emotional leavening into it, and let the yeast expand the experience of those around you.
Share Jesus, eat with them … and be of good cheer.
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Jonathots Daily Blog
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You have an idea
I have one, too
Why not get together?
Life has other plans
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After an appearance earlier this year in Surprise, Arizona, Janet and I were blessed to receive a “surprise” ourselves. Click on the beautiful Arizona picture above to share it with us!
Click here to get info on the “Gospel According to Common Sense” Tour
Please contact Jonathan’s agent, Jackie Barnett, at (615) 481-1474, for information about scheduling SpiriTed in 2014.
Click here to listen to Spirited music
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It seemed like a good idea. It almost always does. When anyone at any time is looking for a way to create or generate a Utopian situation, the main idea that comes to the forefront is to try to make everyone just like us.
God was no exception. In His original “garden plan” of uniting with mankind, He created an ideal environment with ideal circumstances so that ideally, man and God could co-exist practically as equals.
Always remember–the perfection of God is not discovered in His lack of errors, but rather, in His willingness to evolve to better efforts. Once God realized that human beings don’t make good gods, a process was set in motion to get them to understand how to come closer to heavenly conclusions, even if it was just “Ten Commandments at a time.”
They didn’t do so well with that either. Free-will creatures are rarely enticed to righteous decisions by being told what to do.
So one day God just threw away the old covenant–tossed it like a really bad worksheet of a math problem that failed to grant resolution. He came up with a new covenant.
What is a covenant? In its simplest form, it’s just an agreement. But little do we mortals realize that agreement is the grease, fuel and energy of the universe. Without it, we manufacture friction, which keeps things in constant danger of explosion. So what is the new covenant–the new agreement, if you will?
1. Humans can’t be God—so therefore it’s foolish to ask them to be godly. To impose religiosity on them makes them more obnoxious than omnipresent.
2. So God became a human. Yes, Jesus of Nazareth lived a completely human life, speckled with problems, discoveries, pursuit of wisdom, foibles and failures which had to be renovated by resurrection.
3. To teach humans to work with humans. My conclusion after traveling for many years is that most of us would like to have God as our co-pilot–and the rest of the people on the earth stuck in baggage. It doesn’t work that way. My quality is certainly evaluated by how well I play with others.
4. To create humanity–a little bit of heaven on earth. What is humanity?
a. We are not alone.
b. We are not better
c. So get to working together.
This is the New Covenant.
Tonight I go to a tiny church in Sunnyvale, Texas, that has dubbed itself New Covenant.
I am very impressed with their name–especially if they have come to the precious realization that humans can’t be God, so God became human, to teach humans to work with humans, to create humanity–a little bit of heaven on earth.
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*****
Please contact Jonathan’s agent, Jackie Barnett, at (615) 481-1474, for information about personal appearances or scheduling an event
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1. Don’t be afraid. God really IS love.
2. So therefore, God uses young and old alike. He picked a teenage chick and an old dame to birth two children of promise.
3. Your partner will come around. Don’t expect people to understand the seed that’s been planted inside your soul. If they love you, they’ll find you–and end up listening to an angel of their better natures.
4. Outsiders are critical. That’s why we call them “outsiders.” People who are frightened of change are either overly curious, jealous or prejudiced. It’s not that you can’t please everybody. If you’re trying to please people, you won’t end up with anybody.
5. It never happens the way you think. Everyone would love to birth their idea to great applause, notoriety and success. Yet every great idea has to spend its time stuck out in a barn somewhere.
6. Be prepared to travel. When your new idea of blessing and what you’ve birthed through your talent and faith is not immediately received by the hometown folks and is even attacked, you might want to slide on your shoes and see how you will fare in another locale. Remember, God never told you that what’s in your heart will be received by those who are closest to your heart. God just told you it’s important.
7. Leave a little bit of your own personality imbedded in the miracle. Sometimes we think that Mary was just a birthing chamber for Jesus. But she was his mother. So even though he had his Father’s soul and wit, the young Nazarene had his mother’s humor and determination.
If you believe that Mary of Nazareth was a one-hit wonder which will never be duplicated again, you will probably be willing to sit back and watch our generation flounder without the needed infusion of renewal, renovation and revival.
But if you realize that she was just a young girl who was willing to let the Spirit touch her in a unique way and then see it through instead of giving up, you can take a little bit of her spirit with you every day.
Yes, I have a little bit of Jesus in me–because of Mary. So on this beautiful day, when we celebrate the birthing of the Prince of Peace, let’s remember that his mother made it all possible.
So have yourself … a Mary Christmas.
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One spoiled rotten boy
In a desperate attempt to annoy
Took his dastardly grown-up toy
And acted out his lethal ploy
Intent to kill off all our joy.
Seven days after Theater Nine. People trying to understand why.
Yet if our frustrated little boy from Colorado had come to us with a paint brush, we might have told him that “art is for pussies.”
If he had shown up with a hammer, we would have suggested that he go build something, and that we would decide if he was worthy of future constructions.
What if he had shown up with a song? The suggestion would have been made for him to audition for American Idol and hope for the best.
What if the little boy had arrived with just an idea? We more adult types would have smiled, patted him on the shoulder and offered a dubious “good luck.”
He could have completed his education. We would have handed him an application and told him to get in line.
And if our young, confused lad had brought along his dream, we would have felt the need to provide him with a big dose of reality.
But because he showed up with a gun, we have given him the entire twenty-four hour news cycle. What is the message?
It is because the infernal battle between conservatives and liberalsin this country squares us off into camps that possess jargon and slogans, but no real, practical way to make the American dream
English: Percent of self-identified conservatives in the United States, broken down by state, according to Gallup, August 2010. http://www.gallup.com/poll/141677/Wyoming-Mississippi-Utah-Rank-Conservative-States.aspx#2. 49% and above 45%-48% 41%-44% 37%-40% 33%-36% 32% and under (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
wake up to personal success. The conservatives will tell you that all you need is a job, a family, a home and a faith. The liberals will postulate that human beings require opportunity, respect, equality and freedom. Here’s the truth: when our principles of purpose cease to produce better and happier human beings, they need to be revised, no matter how many times our forefathers may have endorsed them.
How about a true insight into our country? And it isn’t found by becoming a conservative or a liberal, but rather, by amalgamating all the better choices and forging them into the steel of a great American.
Here’s what somebody should have told the brat from Colorado:
“Welcome to America. You have the opportunity to get a job as long as you’re willing to use your ingenuity to work your way up. If you respect people and grant them equality, you might just get the blessing of having your own family. If you keep using your integrity, after a while you can buy a home–even though truthfully, you actually can make a home anywhere you decide to settle. You have the freedom to express your faith and convictions as long as you allow others unbridled liberty to live out their choices. There is no lifetime guarantee. There is just the guarantee that you have this lifetime. Please join us.”
That’s what someone should have told him. Instead, he was cast on a sea of division between conservatives and liberals that eventually caused him to decide that violence was the better way to gain notice instead of patiently being creative.
Seven days later, what have we learned? What do we know?
I will tell you what I perceive. Until the conservatives and liberals get off their high horse and we join together as people, to discourage violence and give great honor and place to creativity, we will continue to bury victims–many of them our children.
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A voice writing in the wilderness
Jonathots Daily Blog 