The world needs people who love their enemies like Christ.

If you read the news or watch TV, you cannot escape the rise of extremism in the world. There are Islamic extremists, Hindu extremists, and even atheist extremists. Violence and hatred often mark the presence of extremism, but what if it was faced by something even stronger —love?

Maybe we need to see the rise of Christian extremists who use love to change the dark places. The world needs to be overrun with Christians who are driven, shaped, and compelled by Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:43–45: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven” (NIV).

Christian extremists are those whose hearts are so filled with the love of Jesus that they supernaturally love their enemies. The apostle Paul describes this extreme love in Ephesians 3:16–21, saying:

“I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen” (NIV).

America and the world need Christian extremists who love so beautifully ...

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How God used the great church destroyer Saul to become the great multiethnic church planter.

The last words of someone are important, especially if that someone is the eternal Son, the second person of the triune God. Before Jesus ascended to heaven so he could function as his people’s great high priest, he commissioned and commanded his twelve Jewish disciples to be his “witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8). These early Jewish believers disobeyed Jesus and his Great Commission by staying in Jerusalem among Jews. They had a bad case of ethnocentrism, believing that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was only for the Jews because God had given them the Law and circumcision as a badge of God’s covenant. They forgot that as Jews they existed to be a light to the Gentiles.

But Jesus would not let them disrupt his mission to reach the Gentiles, fulfilling his promises to Abraham. (See Genesis 12:1–3; Galatians 3:7–9; Romans 15:8; Ephesians 2:1). And, in order to force the homogenous church in Jerusalem to scatter on mission to reach the Gentiles, God allowed persecution to free the early Jewish church from the sin of ethnocentrism.

God used Saul and other enemies of the Church to free it from the sin of not reaching the Gentiles and move it toward becoming multiethnic:

“And Saul approved of his execution. And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him. But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison” (Acts 8:1–3, ESV).

God is calling local ...

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Every ending is a new beginning.

Last week I wrote a blog about getting the most out of life and maximizing our productivity for God’s specific calling on each of our lives. In the post, I shared my own understanding of what God is calling me to in this season including following him, loving my family well, pastoring the people of Transformation Church, and completing my doctorate.

Unfortunately, I have also come to a point where writing this blog twice a week is no longer the best use of the resources of time and mental energy that God has given me. I will continue to write occasionally and post clips from sermons at my personal website, DerwinLGray.com and invite you to join me there.

I am very thankful to Christianity Today and editor Mark Galli for encouraging an important discussion of multiethnic churches and for their continued commitment to reflect Christ in our world through this website and magazine.

Thank you for joining me on this journey. I hope you were encouraged and challenged by the posts I have written over the past nine months and will continue the conversation by reading my new book, The High-Definition Leader: Building Multiethnic Churches in a Multiethnic World, available September 15.

Marinate on that.

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(United States Ninth Circuit) - Affirmed. Finding the defendant’s new argument was not waived, the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the defendants in an action brought under the Truth in Lending Act was affirmed.

(United States Ninth Circuit) - Affirmed in part, vacated in part. Finding the area where Tribe members received traffic citations was within the boundaries of the reservation, the panel held that San Bernardino County did not have jurisdiction to enforce California regulatory traffic laws within that area.

(United States Ninth Circuit) - Affirmed. The panel held that even if Plaintiff’s obesity were an impairment under the ADA, or he suffered from a disabling knee condition, he could not show a causal relationship between these impairments and his termination. Summary judgement in favor of the defendant affirmed.

Bongo Boy Records' The Corridors Delivers Music To A Powerful Video Series To Make People Aware Of The Need To Improve The Child’s Medical Environment In Taiwan.

Acoustic & Lighting Systems And Arcadia Tech Are Now Representing The Company’s Products In These Key Territories.

Xia Xia Zhang, Classical Violinist Performs Her Seven Minute,forty-two Second Long Version Of The Franck Violin Sonata By Cesar Franck. It Is One Of His Best-known Compositions, And Is Considered One

Donation centers are popping up across Colorado.

Thanks to a recent spike in temperatures, Colorado's snowpack has melted unusually quickly in recent weeks, potentially leading to an earlier-than-usual depletion of the water from the snowpack.

Jim Frey, who managed the Kansas City Royals to the 1980 AL pennant and the Chicago Cubs to within one win of the 1984 World Series, has died. He was 88.

The fire never left Josepha Eyre’s belly. She was a woman of endurance.

Rings Around Saturn Debuts At #3 With Halliday Named As #3 “Top Artist”

The Prolific Singer-Songwriter Says The Song Is “For All The Women Who Boldly And Bravely Speak Their Truth”

The Country Singer From Pittsburgh, PA Has Released The First Single From Her Forthcoming Full Length, Set For Late 2019 Release On MTS Records.

Texas-Based Zack Walther Band Corrals Americana/Roots Music Extravaganza On New CD, The Westerner, Releasing October 25

Facets Of Folk Hit #1 On The Folk Alliance International Folk DJ Charts And Is Now On The List For Consideration For The Grammy® For Best Folk Album

Lynch Welcomed Steel Guitar Hall Of Famers Chubby Howard, Joe Wright, Lyn Owsley, Billy Robinson And Russ Hicks To Keepin’ It Country Farm In Ohio.

On the 17th day of our lockdown, I sat on an empty barstool at my 3-year-old, all-day fine-dining eatery, which had essentially been converted to a fast food, to-go joint.  It was a bitter cold, miserable, snowy spring night, and I said to myself, “the hell with it." (Actually, I used stronger words, but can't use them in a family newspaper.)

Now is the time for the governor to reign in unelected officials, take back his order, re-work it, and immediately begin to restore freedom and responsibility to Colorado businesses to save our state.

You can reduce water use not by forgoing the recommended eight daily glasses of water, showering less often, or draining the fishbowl but by cutting back on grass, the turf kind, that is.

The Board of Regents had to appeal the ruling in the lawsuit. To not do so would cede the authority not only of this board, but all future boards, to be able to select the best president of CU.

Canadian Musician Ed Roman Is Raising Funds For Dyslexia Through Amazon Prime Video Sales And Rentals Of His Award-winning Animated Music Video, “Red Omen.”

Facets Of Folk Hit #1 On The Folk Alliance International Folk DJ Charts And Is Now On The List For Consideration For The Grammy® For Best Folk Album

#62ndGrammyAwards #GrammyAwards #GrammyNominations #MelissaB

(US 4th Circuit) - No. 19-1888

Live Nation and AEG Presents will offer refunds to ticketholders whose events have been canceled due to coronavirus.

The 2020 Summer Concert Series at Hudson Gardens & Event Center is amid the growing list of coronavirus-caused cancellations.

Hudson Gardens has hosted concerts every summer since 1999.

Capitol Hill bar Sancho's Broken Arrow has received a notice from the city requiring it to be vacated immediately and remain empty until the city's stay-at-home order is lifted.

The first time I smoked a cigarette, I was 14 years old. By the time I was an adult, I was smoking two packs a day. I tried the nicotine patch, gum, and even Chantix, the pharmaceutical drug, to quit smoking cigarettes. None of these worked. I’m embarrassed to say that I even tried hypnosis. It wasn’t until I tried vaping as an adult that I was able to find a solution and quit smoking those dreadful cigarettes. Vaping was so effective, I quit smoking cigarettes in one weekend after 20 years of addictive cigarette smoking. I’m one of the 350,000 Coloradans and one of approximate 13 million responsible adults in America who have used vaping products to quit smoking more harmful cigarettes.

As RTD scatters the homeless, many are likely to crowd into the few areas where they are still allowed during the lockdown, possibly exacerbating this public health crisis.

Sixty years ago, a young president urged us to ask what we could do for our country. We have not heard that challenge since. But now our health and economic threats require us to renew that challenge and recover the ideal of service.

In the midst of the constant up-and-down of coronavirus news, both from science and the markets, it’s easy to lose sight of the scariest scenario of them all: the one where there’s no magic bullet. In this entirely plausible situation, there would be no effective Covid-19 vaccine or transformative therapy; the combination of testing and contact tracing wouldn’t successfully suppress the outbreak; and herd immunity would come, if at all, only after millions of deaths around the world.

How strong is our economy if it can’t absorb shocks? If growth comes at a great expense to future generations? And where is the scorecard that tells us how we are actually doing?

Apparently when you’re rich and powerful “you can do anything… grab them by the (ahem)” and get away with it.  Guess Trump was right about that.

The decision to wear a mask in public is becoming a political statement — a moment to pick sides in a brewing culture war over containing the coronavirus.

A unanimous Supreme Court on Thursday threw out the convictions of two political insiders involved in the “Bridgegate” scandal that ultimately derailed the 2016 presidential bid of then-New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. The justices found evidence of deception, corruption and abuse of power in the scheme, but said “not every corrupt act by state or local officials is a federal crime.”

The Justice Department on Thursday said it is dropping the criminal case against President Donald Trump's first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, abandoning a prosecution that became a rallying cry for the president and his supporters in attacking the FBI's Trump-Russia investigation.

Local government orders mandating residents wear masks have become a political flash point in Colorado’s ongoing coronavirus pandemic response.

(United States Third Circuit) - Held that the federal Rehabilitation Act generally requires that individuals with disabilities be permitted to be accompanied by their service animals. The plaintiffs in this case were the parents of an elementary school student with epilepsy who wanted to be accompanied at school by her service dog. On a question of first impression in the federal courts of appeals, the Third Circuit concluded that such requests for reasonable accommodation are per se reasonable in the ordinary course. The panel held that the district court's contrary jury instructions constituted reversible error.

(United States Third Circuit) - Affirmed the dismissal of a lawsuit brought by investors of a bankrupt company who claimed they were entitled to dividend payments. The investors, who purchased their shares with notice of the bankruptcy, claimed that the company and several of its officers were liable for failing to pay them a dividend they were owed. Rejecting their arguments, the Third Circuit held that the investors were bound by the reorganization plan, including its releases of liability.

(United States Third Circuit) - Reinstated a False Claims Act lawsuit alleging fraud in connection with the sale of pharmaceutical drugs to nursing homes. The defendant company, which owns and operates institutional pharmacies, argued for dismissal of the qui tam action on the ground that the allegation was already known to the public, and the district court agreed. Reversing and remanding, the Third Circuit held that the relator's allegation had not previously been publicly disclosed.

(United States Third Circuit) - Denied a petition for review of a Pennsylvania state regulators' decision to grant a Clean Water Act certification to a natural gas pipeline project. An environmental organization raised various procedural and substantive arguments against the environmental regulators' issuance of a water quality certification. On judicial review, the Third Circuit held that the environmentalists' challenge failed on the merits. Prior to reaching the merits, the panel discussed in detail questions regarding its jurisdiction under the Natural Gas Act.

(United States Third Circuit) - Affirmed the dismissal of a disabled tenant's lawsuit under the Fair Housing Amendments Act. The tenant, who needs ready access to her rolling walker, brought suit when the building managers refused to allow her to leave it in the building's lobby. Unpersuaded by her arguments, the Third Circuit concluded she did not plausibly plead that her preferred accommodation of leaving the walker in the lobby was necessary, given that she was offered four other ways to store and access her walker.

(United States Third Circuit) - Held that the bankruptcy court correctly disallowed a claim brought by the debtor's former employee. A former television station employee argued that the station, whose owner was now in bankruptcy, was liable for unlawful racial discrimination. Affirming summary judgment against his claim, the Third Circuit concluded that he failed to raise a triable issue and, further, that it was too late for him to challenge the bankruptcy court’s jurisdiction to hear his discrimination claim, since he never objected to this during bankruptcy proceedings.

(United States Third Circuit) - Held that it was not an abuse of discretion to deny a fee petition in its entirety when the amount requested was outrageously excessive. The Third Circuit formally endorsed the view that where a fee-shifting statute provides a court discretion to award attorney fees, such discretion includes the ability to deny a fee request altogether when, under the circumstances, the amount requested is outrageously excessive. The panel thus affirmed the denial of a fee award to a prevailing plaintiff in an insurance bad faith case.

(United States Third Circuit) - Affirmed the dismissal of a lawsuit brought by investors of a bankrupt company who claimed they were entitled to dividend payments. The investors, who purchased their shares with notice of the bankruptcy, claimed that the company and several of its officers were liable for failing to pay them a dividend they were owed. Rejecting their arguments, the Third Circuit held that the investors were bound by the reorganization plan, including its releases of liability.

(United States Third Circuit) - Held that the bankruptcy court correctly disallowed a claim brought by the debtor's former employee. A former television station employee argued that the station, whose owner was now in bankruptcy, was liable for unlawful racial discrimination. Affirming summary judgment against his claim, the Third Circuit concluded that he failed to raise a triable issue and, further, that it was too late for him to challenge the bankruptcy court’s jurisdiction to hear his discrimination claim, since he never objected to this during bankruptcy proceedings.