As the investigations reveal further details of the accident it looks like that the captains behavio

I am author of the book, "Fallen Pastor: Finding Restoration in a Broken luxury car rental charleston sc World" from Civitas Press. I also contributed an essay to "The Practice of Love: Real Stories of Living Into the Kingdom of God," under my pseudonym Arthur Dimmesdale. By trade, I am a certified athletic trainer.
I am keenly interested in the theme of redemption and seeing luxury car rental charleston sc it play out in the Christian community. I'm also intrigued how tragedy affects Christians and how we view it in relationship with the cross. My theology is somewhere between luxury car rental charleston sc Asahel Nettleton and Bruce Ware.
We watched in horror recently as the cruise ship Costa Concordia crashed upon the rocks in Italy, causing the deaths of many. Horror turned into blame as it was discovered luxury car rental charleston sc that the ship s captain, Francesco Schettino, may have had a large part in the ship s crash. Worse, he may have jumped ship before ensuring the safety of his passengers.
And thus, our morality stays superior to at least one human being on planet earth for another day. We ve judged when we cross the line from saying, That was a terrible act, to saying, What a terrible luxury car rental charleston sc human being. But in reality, and in our hearts, each of us is a hypocrite.
Sure, none of us will probably ever get the chance to pilot a cruise ship and face the moral dilemma. Even if some reading this have been in a situation where they did save lives at some point in their life, it wouldn t give us the right to pass judgment on anyone.
I sat thinking today about a slightly luxury car rental charleston sc different scenario. What if everyone in my church was on the deck of a cruise ship and one of our members fell overboard? I m pretty sure we would do whatever it took to rescue them. We d call the coast guard, lower a life boat, throw them a preserver, or jump overboard ourselves, wouldn t we? Yeah, that s not the same as being the captain of the Costa Concordia, but I think that s a pretty reasonable response.
Another thought we do have people who go overboard in the church every single week. People who abandon ship due to weariness, moral failure, backsliding or other sin. Some are pastors, some are deacons, some are single mothers, some are youth, some are new members. But they leave. They jump overboard. And what is the most common response?
We typically act like Captain Coward. We look the other way. Mental discussion again: Well, that person had issues. And we don t really need to be associated with that sin. God will bring them back if He wants them back.
I get it. The cruise ship captain did something that caused people to die. And the thing I m discussing luxury car rental charleston sc is just about people who are leaving the church luxury car rental charleston sc due to sin. Apples and oranges, right? To a degree.
But when we don t seek to restore people who fail, who leave, who jump overboard, who will? And what do you think typically happens to them? If the captain doesn t take responsibility to right the ship, who will? And if the Christian community doesn t seek out and help her own, they aren t typically going to make it.
Over and over, we hear the statistics of how many unchurched luxury car rental charleston sc there are in our country. It s an alarmingly high percentage. In my experience, a vast number of the unchurched are those who went overboard, luxury car rental charleston sc those whom the church forgot or didn t care to chase after or rescue. Kinda like a captain who forgot what his duties were.
Ray, I have been one of those casualties several times, ignored luxury car rental charleston sc because I made people uncomfortable luxury car rental charleston sc with my depression, addiction, radical deviations from the Christian norm . But I also know I m guilty of feeling God nudge me to help someone else who is hurting, and I didn t because I was busy or didn t want to be bothered, or hoped someone else would intervene.
Here s something my 26-yr-old daughter messaged me today. I m humbled and grateful for it, because she and I have been through hell together her entire life. That makes what she wrote especially sweet, because she describes the God she met through me. I don t know if she wrote this or copied it, but it mirrors what your ve stated here.
If I asked God to get in his car and drive 30 minutes to a random location to come have a drink with me ..just so we could talk ..would he join me at happy hour? If I asked God to step outside ..so I could end a long day with a cigarette luxury car rental charleston sc and a soap box ..would he cancel his prior engagements and come sit next to me on a park bench on a rainy day? I bet he would ..I bet my life he would ..because that s what kind of God I know ..at the end of the day ..I d like to think you taught me one thing, Mama ..judgement is as evil as any other crime the human race can achieve ..and I d like to think that understanding that we are all human would benefit anyone luxury car rental charleston sc ..my best friend would do the same for me ..my true best friend luxury car rental charleston sc ..you re one of my best friends ..I love you.
As the investigations reveal further details of the accident it looks like that the captains behavior and consequent failure cannot be regarded as a one persons fault or a singular event. The captain was part of system where it was known and tolerated that ships again and again took a route that brought them dangerously close to the island. In my humble opinion it is therefor luxury car rental charleston sc to simple to just blame the captain for the catastrophe.
Likewise with the church. It is not mainly the fault of the individual church member to neglect those who go overboard luxury car rental charleston sc but a flaw in the way many churches are set up and run: mainly concerned with their own salvation, busy with subcultural activities and with no real connection or concern for the world, people and culture it is surrounded by.
Jan, excellent observation and addition. The problem luxury car rental charleston sc is one of the culture within the church. Many times I don t think that we realize we act that way. In fact, we think it s normal to treat those who go overboard in that manner. Honestly, many of the behaviors we show in church, which are downright un-Christlike, have been ingrained into us not by any lesson of Scripture, luxury car rental charleston sc but by our tradition. A lot of the way we do things is very similar to the way the Pharisees luxury car rental charleston sc and Scribes the blind guides who thought they were perfectly fine and thought Christ was the fanatic.
I love cruise ships. I also love the church. For the most part cruise ships do a pretty good job of keeping people on board, and they rarely push anybody off on purpose. In churches luxury car rental charleston sc however, I d say it s not uncommon that people with certain kinds of wounds (or just differences) are not only not helped back on board, but they re actively pushed out into the open sea! We need better rescue services available!
Jan, great question. Many go overboard, falling into sin. We should seek two things. First, their restoration leading to repentance. luxury car rental charleston sc But along the way, we have to have an open heart to listen to why they went overboard in the first place. Great observation.
In a world saturated with people shouting at each other, it's rare to find a place where people can engage in conversation with each other. Provoketive Magazine hopes to change that. We're creating a space of rich conversation about life, faith, justice and culture without luxury car rental charleston sc judgment. Our desire is to provoke the reader's imagination through conversation and open up spaces of dialogue, learning, and hope.