There is a compelling incentive for Christians to be more than hopeful.  “We know how the drama reaches its crescendo” is the usual response to situations that seem to threaten our existence. We are the last to people to be concerned about losing our lives. To say we are “more than conquerors” is another understatement of the facts, not to mention a poor translation of a single word from the Greek text of Paul’s letter to the Romans (8:37).  Why do I say that? Conquering stands opposite losing, and one cannot conquer anything without losing.  Christian winning, the so-called victorious life, has more to do with a gift than with any conquest. We have no need to wrest anything from anyone. So how does a person experience conquest and not recognize loss? When Paul wrote “But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer” his intention was to make our encounters with adversity all the more functional as evidences of love.  I like to think of a victorious life as less atoning forensics, poking around the sin trails, and more astounding fruitfulness.

Dying gods and falling humans

I said, “You are gods, and all of you are sons of the Most High.  Nevertheless you die like men and fall like any one of the princes.”

Psalms 82:6-7

You keep making me look like a liar because I have boasted in the royal court at Camelot that you are conquerors.  Have you forgotten what makes all of the things arrayed against you negligible and pitiful?

Judges are known to bribe and suborn witnesses.  Sometimes chauffeurs have no cars.  Soldiers take breaks from fighting, killing and saving lives. What might you say if you saw a kayaker sitting on a park benck with oars in his hand? What do you suppose God says when he sees followers of his Son not loving the people around them? What do we suppose God does when we miss any of the golden marks he has so graphically put down in word and deed for us to emulate?

“We are more than conquerors” is not only poor translation, it is misleading, because people expect superconquerors to have exceedingly victorious experiences. It is so easy to blame the one Christ loved for experiencing sword, famine, poverty, and persecution. Their faith, we say, is inadequate faith or is being tested. They have no properly fasted. The simple truth is that we all exceedingly conquer because Christ loved us.

We hyperconquer

Greek hyper – υπέρ – is like Latin/English super, and means above. Hypernikômen – υπερνικωνεν – does not mean that we win every contest, every battle, or that we are always on top of every situation.  If that were true, no Christian would be sick, no believer would ever be disappointed or die.  No decree or declaration can end humanity’s dance with nature and the best of our nurture.  No end to dying is in sight, and no stopping of the lying comes to light.

We prevail without having to say we have beaten sword, famine, poverty, and persecution

When all is said and done believers have no equipment to ensure success that does not include faith.  Despite all the wishing, decreeing and declaring, faith is primarily hoping for something to become real.  All the miracles and wonders do not change the fact that we hope for things we do not have.  Faith facilitates our grasp of what God has promised.  There is the rub: what did God promise you?   Even if God fixed all our problems we all still need to be changed in order to ascend the podium and receive the medal (1 Corinthians 15:51-53). Praying for and accepting the things God wants us to experience and possess does not come easily.

Two things define faith: “…ἐλπιζομένων…”, hoping (Hebrews 11:1) and “…ἔλεγχος…” conviction (Hebrews 11:1)

The experience of the pole position and the winning lane will depend on our growth.  Many believers treat the gift of God as merely a ticket for going to heaven.  The critical inquiry for people making converts runs like this, “Where would you spend eternity if you died tonight?” It should not surprise us that hope is also a saving agent. Along with faith and love, hope is the third enduring virtue.  To think that we do not need hope is Pollyanna  theology because of three unchanging facts. 

One: hope is a spiritual fruit, and can only be accessed by those who have the Spirit of God.  Two: hope is not separable from Christ himself. Three: hope attaches believers to the glory before the world began (eternity past) and the glory to come, of which our life in the Spirit now is a foretaste.  So let us not keep conflating Christ the hope of the lost with Christ the hope of glory. Let us find encouragement from the fact that hope is the resident portion of the glory to which we are heading.  The Holy Spirit and the Sacred Texts are the essence (one essence) of the believer’s hope.

Absent the presumed options, perseverance

We are unwilling subjects of hope.  “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope (20) that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” (Romans 8:20-21, NASB)

For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

Romans 15:4

Yeshua did not lose anything to give salvation to the world. He laid down his life, as planned. His victory guarantees that we can be always conquering exceedingly.

The blood of Christ is the terminology that addresses his sacrificial death.  Death is the means of giving life or liberty: of this gate keeping concept, the Passover is the iconic precedent. There is even a secular version offered in the annual remembrances of the lives lost in the world wars.  In times of severe hardship people are willing to give up something or even someone that is precious and irreplaceable. Human sacrifice had not been outside the options, but bloodshed cannot be avoided because the price of going public with one’s wrongdoing is set by God.  It is at that level that bloodshed becomes operative in reconciling a man to God.

He shall slay the young bull before the Lord; and Aaron’s sons the priests shall offer up the blood and sprinkle the blood around on the altar that is at the doorway of the tent of meeting.

Leviticus 1:5

Perhaps the earliest expression of remission of sin and the necessity of blood can be seen in God’s provision of animal skins to cover the first couple in the Garden of Eden.

“The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.”

Genesis 3:21

Even on the iconic day of atonement where people fasted to afflict themselves, it was blood that provided the atonement.  For all the contamination or impurity that ancient Israelites acquired there was no bloodshed required, just a quarantine until the sunset.  All of the people’s corporate and personal achievements were  gained by the common labours in the field and in the waters, never by bloody sacrifice, grain or drink offerings.

Trivializing the most precious commodity

It is a new twist on atonement for people to “apply” or “plead” the blood of Jesus to bring about changes in their financial situation, to get a job, to ensure personal safety, or personal relationships.  The giving of life is to pay for sins.  Christ’s death had nothing to do with procuring wealth and getting a job.  His death was not for ensuring believers or unbelievers get a good spouse. His death does not enable or guarantee a circle  of good friends. His death means that people can receive full pardon and receive the Holy Spirit.  The sad thing is that instead of asking for things from God people are trying to ensure that they acquire those things from God by means other than believing.  Saying that all things are under the authority of blood is a deadly hijack attempt that loses sight of the most holy and precious gifts. The proof that blood has worked is unhypocritical love towards all people.

Splashing the Lamb’s blood willy nilly

Failing to reach that intersection is the result of unbelief. If faith does not bring us victory over the world we probably have not availed ourselves of the forgiveness of sibs and the gift of the Holy Spirit that follows repentance and eternal life. Splash away and wither like a leafy fig tree

The origins of homelessness

Jesus said to him, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”

Matthew 8:20, NASB

Even though the greatest of all unfolding mysteries has human migration at its core we find the satisfaction of the human race in the experience of home. Home was the place where we can expect to be free in our actions and free from external influences.  Owning a home may be one of the things that is on the minds of those Africans risking their lives on rickety boats for a chance in Europe.  Could they have not been made aware of what Europeans did to Africa over the last five centuries?  Or we could keep asking ad infinitum for the rational answer to why the cost of buying or renting a home suddenly skyrocketed out of reach, or refuse to accept that homelessness is a legitimate choice.

• Nomads have homes
• Christ did not live off the grid
• No person should be homeless

Economy that bridges the gap

Social links that connect and shelter all

Upheavals in the real estate market

What I’ve written I’ve written.  Retractable claws? Toothless Laws and Irresistible Facts.

Pic poc is the perennial and badly tanking American attempt to pick every pocket, especially Black-owned ones.

Tic toc is the newborn and wildly popular Chinese plot to surreptitiously gather video of every second of human activity, especially American pocket picking.

INRI and the Temple Crew (TC)

“Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum”, the Latin inscription on the cross was a voicing of the crime as the Roman governor saw it. Not insurrection.  Not blasphemy. Christ was killed for saying he was his people’s king, and unlike other kings, he conducted no wars of geographic conquest. He fed the hungry, healed the sick, and set captives free. He convincingly exposed the ruling priests, the scribes, the teachers, and the elders as thieves, persons with no interest in helping hungry, sick and enslaved people. They objected to the convicted being seen as a convincing Jewish king. In short, the TC wanted their crime to be obscured. The governor’s “Ο γεγραφα γεγραφα” was too much for them. Pilate was done writing.