Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:07 Welcome to that makes total sense. A podcast dedicated to exploring God's generosity and justice. I'm Alexis resetting the Christian, aiming to ask good questions and encouraging you to do the same. Every one of us is wired by God to live out generosity and justice, but the house sometimes alludes us. That makes total sense is a way for us to get together posture ourselves as learners and challenge one another to practice generosity and justice in a tangible way every day. Welcome back. We are giving the podcast a bit of a facelift as we come up on the one year anniversary. So first I just want to thank you so much for listening. Thank you for subscribing and thank you for sharing the episodes with your friends. I just absolutely love it. That you're here. When we started the podcast about a year ago, it was built in part to serve as an outreach of the financial coaching business that I was running.
Speaker 0 00:01:08 It's been a podcast about faith, finance and everyday life, but you may have noticed that the topics have been evolving a bit over the last year. Last fall. I intentionally removed my name from a list of preferred coaches on a major financial coaching organization's website. I decided to let that take a back seat while I started focusing more on writing and finding and interviewing some of the amazing guests you've already heard on the podcast. I continued to serve the coaching clients that I had, but I could feel pretty strongly that a shift was coming for me away from working with personal finance and more into investigating and studying matters of faith. This whole process led me to apply to seminary for a master of divinity program earlier this year. And thankfully I was accepted and I just finished my first quarter. I have to tell you, I loved it more than I ever dreamed.
Speaker 0 00:02:07 I would. So all of this is to say the podcast is continuing, but it's moving a bit from the original premise of faith, finance and everyday life, more into exploring God's generosity and justice. The new focus feels pretty natural to me, especially considering how the conversation is changing in our cultural climate to focus more on matters of equality and justice topics. Like these have always interested me though, which is why I actually studied social justice and my first master's program about 10 years ago. So now almost a decade later, having the opportunity to study these from a predominantly biblical perspective is fascinating and it feels pretty priceless. So a couple of notes on God's heart toward generosity and justice. First justice is wholly present in the gospel. The story of Christ joining us on earth was, and is for the purpose of redemptive justice to give all of us as humans, as sinners away back to our father.
Speaker 0 00:03:16 Jesus announced his ministry in person in public by reading a key passage from the scroll of Isaiah, Luke four 14 through 21, say this and Jesus returned in the power of the spirit to Galilee and a report about him, went out through all the surrounding country and he taught in their synagogues being glorified by all. And he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up and as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day and he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet, Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written.
Speaker 1 00:03:58 Okay.
Speaker 0 00:03:58 The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim Liberty, to the captives and recovery of sight, to the blind, to set at Liberty. Those who are oppressed to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. Jesus knew his mission. Well, yes, he came to die and to be raised as a sacrifice to secure our eternal salvation, but he also came to live as an example of redemptive justice in the here and now on earth. Being a follower of Jesus means trying our best to do what he did.
Speaker 0 00:04:54 And he had compassion. We should hear empathy combined with action here, for those stricken by poverty, for prisoners, for people who were disabled and disadvantaged and for the oppressed, that's all of us, really each one of us fits into one or more of those categories. We just have to admit it. But when we do, it's much easier for us to be like Jesus and show compassion toward each other. If you've been around church or have been following Jesus for a little while, you're probably at least semi comfortable with the phrase. Everything we have is his. We say it to ourselves as a reminder to be generous. It helps us recognize God's generosity with us that he gives freely and we would be doing well to do the same. That he's a God of abundance, not scarcity. He didn't hold anything back from us. As people made in his image.
Speaker 0 00:05:52 And he calls us to that same kind of generosity, not just of money or time or resources, but generosity with our compliments, our thoughts, emotions, affections, and efforts to make the world a better place to work toward redemptive justice. To agree with the way Jesus taught his disciples to pray that his kingdom would come and his will would be done his kingdom and his will are lived out through our decisions to be generous and lead others toward the redemptive justice we experience in Christ. So here we are. I'm not positioning myself as any kind of expert, but as a fellow, Surgenor trying to live out the calls to action in these two areas. I hope you'll join me as we keep listening and learning together and begin exploring God's generosity and justice. Welcome back to that. Makes total sense. The links for all the resources mentioned in today's episode can be found in the show notes, music and podcast production by Seth B city. Be sure to give us a review on iTunes and subscribe at your favorite podcast listening app, you can also visit us at <inaudible> subtle sense.
