I Might Be a Futurist…

Can anyone tell me what a futurist is by the way? How do you get that job? How does that become your vocation? I don’t exactly know why I am posting about this vocation but I think it is just because I like using and writing the word ‘futurist’.

I know there are some futurists that are hired by businesses and even churches to guess future trends in society. I think this is rather funny by the way, at least I think the hiring process must be. Do they look at past predictions you made to help them decide if you are employable or not? And not to be blasphemous, but is being a futurist a spiritual gift or does this just count as prophecy?!

I should become a futurist. In fact, I am going to start right now. This post will end… now!

Repent and Believe (or Let Go of Your Agenda)

I have been reading some of N.T. Wright’s The Challenge of Jesus and also What Saint Paul Really Said and I must say, I am quite amazed and challenged all at the same time. Wright provides in his books clear, readable scholarship intertwined with a faith that is heavily pastoral in nature. In his book on the historical Jesus, Wright argues that the phrase ‘Repent and Believe’ , which Jesus used all so often with his listeners, was not as much a call to ethical and religious behavior as it was to an abandonment of personal, social, and political agendas. Jesus was calling Israel to be the true salt and light to the world and now was the time for this to happen.

For me, this was like a breath of fresh air. For so long I have wanted a scholar to pin-point Jesus’ Jewish roots as well as paint him as a leader of a new sort of community. E.P. Sanders’ books helped me see Jesus’ true Jewishness but failed to display a Jesus that I thought was real. Wright has filled in some of these gaps for me and I am grateful for that. If you get the chance, read some N.T. Wright. Beware, he will poke and prod where you might not feel comfortable but in the end, his writing helps those who are tryinf to follow God in the way of Christ. Take Care Guys…

P.S. Josh, I owe you a post on Murphy’s third way between immanence and intervention, it is coming soon I promise!