Essays for King Jesus

When my wife and I got married and moved into an apartment complex in Sacramento, CA, my neighbors began to give me an education.  Several years after this education began, I was reading the Bible and read the story Jesus told in Matthew 25 about the king and the servants who were given talents.  It struck me how much I am like these servants and how I also have decisions to make regarding my talents.Growing up, I never worried about my father coming home from work.  Now I work with boys whose parents never came back to pick them up from daycare.I took for granted that family gatherings are a fun time with my cousins until I talked with my neighbor and discovered that she won’t go to a family gathering for fear her uncle would try to harm her. I didn’t know I had a safety net around me until my neighbor was evicted because her child was taken away by Child Protective Services, and she no longer had child support to pay for her apartment.  Right now, I have dozens of people I could call, and they would send me $1,000 with almost no questions asked, if I had a legitimate need.I grew up enjoying acapella 4-part harmony singing.  I come from a musically inclined family and singing came almost naturally for me.  Now I go visit elderly friends with a group to sing and they can’t believe how we “sing like angels”. When my neighbor’s car wouldn’t start, I pulled jumper cables out of my trunk and helped them out.  How did I learn that? I’m not really sure. I think I was born knowing how to do that. My neighbor asked me, “Why do you work so hard?  You don’t have to. That’s what the government is for.”  But I know a secret. Work not only provides income, it also changes how I feel emotionally, physically, and in some ways spiritually.  But I only know that because I was taught to work hard.One of the first questions many Anabaptist people ask me is, “Is it safe to live where you live?”  I have learned that safety is of the Lord. But it surely helps that I don’t do drugs or sleep around or drink or wander aimlessly at 3:00 AM.  Those are personal decisions I make, but they are greatly influenced by my Anabaptist heritage. When my wife and I were going out on our first date, no one had to take my wife aside and make sure she had pepper spray in case she needed it.  It had never occurred to either of us that assaults are not unusual on first dates. Sometimes when I travel to speak or go to a conference, I stay at a complete stranger’s house.  I might even arrive after they are in bed. But they trust me because of my family or someone I know or their pastor.  That is not normal!My neighbors would line up down the sidewalk for my wife’s homemade cookies.  One of our neighbors said, “When you start a bakery, I will come every day for a cinnamon roll!”  Why does Rosanna know how to bake like that? She was taught by her mother. Recently there was a knock on our door.  When I opened it, there was a neighbor with a jacket.  She wondered if Miss Rosanna would be able to sew extra patches on it since Rosanna sews her own clothes.One of my Muslim neighbors is afraid something bad happened to her son because he went under a tree after dark.  All the Muslims in my neighborhood know that demons are in the trees after dark. And so, she lives in fear. I am so thankful I don’t have to fear superstitions! Several years ago, my phone rang.  It was Life Matters, a ministry that works with people in apartments.  We work with them in doing our kid’s club. The person on the other end asked if I knew how to garden.  Well, I don’t really have a green thumb, but I know what a garden looks like and my parents had a garden.  That is enough. The person says, “You and Rosanna seem like that kind of people.” So, now we are in charge of a community garden for anyone in Logan Park Apartments where we...

In his essay "Schism is Heresy", Frank Reed exhorts the church of Jesus Christ to be unified as a body, not falling prey to the many divisions of the world. In clear and simple language, he shares principle truths from Scripture regarding how the body of believers should view unity. "Principles transcend policies. If we are led by the same Spirit, we will walk the path together. If we allow personal preferences to divide us, we are not part of the body of Christ. "

Loving your enemies can be hard. Many people do not understand how it is possible to love even when being attacked. Even though it is hard, Jesus gives his followers the answers for this subject. Marlin Sommers wrote this blog about a conversation that he had with his college students, and he discusses the reasons that followers of Jesus should love their enemies.Essay originally published 07/2020. Audio narration just released.Subscribe to receive new essays by email!

Many Anabaptists have been more scared of education than money. Brian Martin calls us to examine that assumption and approach both with fear and trembling (and wisdom and courage). We must not forget the biblical call to wisdom and knowledge and the avenues of service that can be opened by study.

It is not always easy to invest your time into another person. However, as Keeshon Wasington expressed in his life’s story, he is very grateful and thankful to God that someone took the time for him. Are we willing to let God use us to help those in need? To read more of Keeshon’s writing, check out his blog at: https://urbanitemusingskw.wordpress.com/ Essay originally published 12/2020. Audio narration just released.Subscribe to receive new essays by email!

Is an investment a gamble? Does it matter? In this essay, Marlin Sommers seeks to clearly differentiate between gambling and investing, to call us to a positive moral ethos for investing, and to give some tools for how to think about borderline cases.Stephen Russell’s episodes on Usury and DistributismHow Should We Then Money?Usury and the Historic ChurchMarlin’s two-part essay on Business as StewardshipBusiness People among God’s “Servant-Managers”Entrepreneurs as Servant-Managers

Life is not always easy, but having kind friends that are ready and willing to help and be there for you always makes those rough bumps easier. Keeshon continues writing his experiences in getting beat up, forgiving those guys and ultimately giving his life to Jesus. To read more of Keeshon’s writing, check out his blog at: https://urbanitemusingskw.wordpress.com/ Essay originally published 12/2020. Audio narration just released.Subscribe to receive new essays by email!

“We know we should sing, but what kind of song is most appropriate in public worship?”  James S. Martin helps us think about five main questions that have plagued discussions about congregational singing over the centuries. He does not attempt to build theological bulwarks around a particular singing style. “If the musicians among us drink deeply and work with integrity and discipline, new songs will arise in wonderful offerings of sound and sense”

A little kindness will go a long way. Doing good to others is always worth it. Keeshon Washington experienced the receiving side of this as he continues telling us his story in his four-part series. To read more of Keeshon’s writing, check out his blog at: https://urbanitemusingskw.wordpress.com/.Essay originally published 12/2020. Audio narration just released.Subscribe to receive new essays by email!

Confusion around assurance of salvation often stems from inadequate understandings of faith and works. Milo Zehr explains how people who want to emphasize either the importance of good works or the unimportance of good works often make overstatements that fail to take all scripture into account. Milo contrasts these inadequate views with scriptural teaching.

Keeshon Washington takes us on his journey from being a little boy going to Vacation Bible School to his years as being a teacher himself. To read more of Keeshon’s writing, check out his blog at: https://urbanitemusingskw.wordpress.com/.Essay originally published 11/2020. Audio narration just released.Subscribe to receive new essays by email!

Paul’s letter to the Ephesians calls believers to submit to each other, to love each other, and to treat each other as members of the same body. The letter then takes these commands for all believers and specifically applies self-giving love to husbands and reverent submission to wives. How are we to understand this? Do wives not need to love their husbands? Do husbands not need to submit to their wives? Marlin Sommers explores biblical submission in order to apply a robustly Christian understanding of submission to this text on marriage. 

Are you guilty of doing nothing? Has the Way become so easy that you find yourself with one foot in the world and one in the church? Today, we are making history. Men will know by our fruits. Will we be known as “good men who did nothing” or as “good men who turned the world upside-down”?Essay originally published 08/2020. Audio narration just released.Subscribe to receive new essays by email!

How can we have a joyful, confident relationship with God amidst suffering and the threats of shame, guilt, and condemnation? In this essay, based on Romans 8:12-39, Milo Zehr calls us to see the foundational reality that God has called us and that we are made His children by the Spirit, and joint-heirs with Jesus, even as we share the suffering of Jesus. Throughout this life, suffering continues; but God makes it part of His process of glorifying us. While full redemption lies ahead, we are now in Christ. We now walk in the Spirit as God’s children. We can live in freedom from the devil and in joyful belonging to God.

You may feel like since you are not a manager/leader, this is not for you. However, we are ALL managers in some way. We each are responsible for what God gave us. Marlin Sommers delves into some of the areas in our lives that we need to steward well as children of God.Essay originally published 01/2020. Audio narration just released.Subscribe to receive new essays by email!

“What is Jesus’ sacrificial kingdom? Foundationally, our king established his reign through his sacrifice. Crucially, his sacrifice shows us how to live and relate to others. Finally, the whole of life is to be devoted to God as an offering. … Allegiance is directed to Jesus. But it is helpful to remind ourselves that allegiance means fidelity to his ways and to the nature of his rule, and it means a life offered in worship.”Essay originally published 01/2020. Audio narration just released.Subscribe to receive new essays by email!

Matt. 6:24 says: “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.Chester Weaver digs into this subject on serving two masters and why it is not possible to serve God and this world.Essay originally published 02/2020. Audio narration just released.Subscribe to receive new essays by email!

What is spiritual creativity, and how should we apply it to our lives? In this episode we interview Reagan Schrock about his essay “Cultivating Spiritual Creativity in God’s Kingdom” which we published in August of 2022. The essay we discuss: https://anabaptistperspectives.org/essays/cultivating-creativity-in-gods-kingdom/All our essays: https://anabaptistperspectives.org/essays/

We don't have special priests because all believers are called to be priests. David Derstine notes that “one of the most important keys to finding truth is finding and following the golden thread of personal responsibility and service to God... To fully become his children, we must share in the load of the royal priesthood and become his loyal and grateful servant.”

God's Word has many treasures buried deep within, but too often we may feel unsure of how to go about discovering them. Frank Reed has written down some pointers that help him mine for this everlasting gold. Essay originally published 05/2020. Audio narration just released.Subscribe to receive new essays by email!