To the Family, Friends and Followers of Restoring Grace:
Through some very meaningful dialogue and careful
introspection, I have decided that some of the approach and venues of Restoring
Grace need to be refocused and retuned.
There is an old and yet important saying, “stop doing what no longer
serves you well”. My friends, I find myself in that very place.
For years now, I have attempted to maintain a “moderate”
position. My goal was to find a way to
have Restoring Grace be accessible to anyone and everyone-a place for shared
information-that can help people grow and flourish wherever they may be on
their spiritual path. To achieve that
goal, I filtered out and watered-down things that needed to be said-harsh
realities that need to be dealt with-hoping that by landing soft with them-my
audience could come to grips with them.
My grand experiment failed-and I am willing to admit-time to set the crooked
paths straight.
Jesus taught that it was the “not hot, not cold-but
lukewarm commitment and speech” he despised and went as far as to say-he would
spit that out. Pretty strong words-an
active rejection of the efforts of a person that will not take their place and
stand in it. We all have value and a
mission in the great picture of Tikkun Olam (Repairing the World) and the only
question remaining is if you (and I) are willing to put in the effort to personally
change-grow-push through and work at-becoming all that God has designed us to
be. I am not concerned with helping you
feel good about not doing anything significant in your spiritual life. There are plenty of websites available for you
to accomplish that…
I believe strongly and passionately in the person, plan
and life of Jesus-the Messiah of the Jewish People and the Hope for the
Christian Faith Tradition. I believe
that his teachings and life are key to us all understanding how we can repair
such a broken world and by teaching and training people to live out the lessons
of Jesus-Peace on Earth can be attained.
I also believe that much of the current teaching about Jesus is just pure
“for profit”-being word-smithed and dumbed down to appease an audience that
long ago gave up on the world being changed and are simply awaiting for the
whole thing to burn to the ground-and here we are…
People are enjoying their five minutes of Facebook
fame-we have blustering speech, endless rhetoric, meaningless conversations and
debate and childish name-calling, none of which is affecting any meaningful healing
or change in this world. Enough noise people-we
need a return to the message of Jesus that begins its focus with all of us
acting and living as he commands-not commanding others to live how we act.
Restoring Grace will still be hosting the blogtalkradio
platform with the many diverse programs and offerings that you have been listening
to. However, I unapologetically support
all those that have led, spoken and been involved in Restoring Grace’s
programming. We are tackling tough subjects and sometimes things need to be
said.
The Jewish content and emphasis contained on Restoring
Grace will also continue-hoping that we can be a place where we teach the
importance of understanding the challenges, the effort and beauty of the
spiritual parents of the Christian Faith Tradition. The negative remarks placed on any of our social
media platforms will be immediately deleted.
Everyone talks about change. And that is all I hear is talk. Change is a
fun topic until the focus of change turns on us. To carry out the words and message of
Jesus-to be “Light” to the world-to usher in hope-to be the caretakers and
concerned for the disenfranchised-the poor-the needy-the homeless-the
minorities greatly oppressed by a machine of our own creating-is our duty
before God.
Christianity is in crisis-pushing religion over
relationship-talk over touch-belief over practice-thinking the right things
about God is a good start-but living as Jesus taught is better. Until no one lacks food, water, medicine, until
people of all races, creeds and colors can safely walk down a street-when were you
are born no longer decides whether you live or whether you die-we have work to
do.
I am asking you to listen, join and participate with
Restoring Grace to help build a livable and sustainable Christian Faith
Tradition that stops talking about hope and starts delivering on its promise. By building up the Christian Faith Tradition-I
mean building each other up-working hard to become the people Jesus called us
to be-to encourage, love and lead each other for the benefit of others, not
ourselves. Let us learn together.
David Fournier
Senior Instructor at Restoring Grace
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