When we give thanks …
We become more than ourselves and our circumstances.
Category: Simple Faith
Law reveals …
But grace enables.
When Satan worries more about your plans for the day than you do his …
Jesus smiles.
Don’t give up!
Demolition often precedes renovation.
Tired of the “institution” and looking instead for the simplicity of relational participatory church …
But your friends aren’t interested?
Consider opening your life, your home and your kitchen table to the lost, the unseen, the ignored, the marginalized, and the lonely.
After all, if your respectable friends aren’t interested in your hospitality, who does Jesus say to invite instead? The poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame …
Along with those living besides highways and hedges. Luke 14:12-24
If you know none, then get out of your comfort zones!
So go to the kinds of places Jesus went and reach out to the kinds of people with whom he hung …
Not through a “program” but with authentic friendship.
There is no true church, real faith, sacrificial love or advance of God’s Kingdom without hospitality – especially to those considered the least among us …
Not only by the world, but often by our own top-down, agenda-driven “churches.”
Rather than their impersonal “programs,” which try to help “outsiders” without truly embracing them but treating them as mere objects of “ministry” …
My wife and I have opened our home and table as places of hospitality over the years – offering respect, dignity, and genuine friendship to all who accepted our invitations to come.
As a result, fellowships emerged and lives transformed – including our own.
Hospitality: The missing ingredient.
Simple!
In the Old Testament, false prophets were stoned.
Some things never seem to change.
The crazy stuff said by modern day false prophets shows they’re still stoned.
Seriously, they need to get a grip on reality …
And stop smokin’ that illicit weed.
So you’re structuring and operating a “church” like a business to secure your own position and vocation as the pinnacle leader …
i.e., the “Senior” or “Lead Pastor.”
Where do you even find that in the New Testament?
You don’t.
It’s better to pay the price for truth, than to earn your pay from a lie …
Because in God’s economy, integrity matters.
I vote and promote civic virtue and good government in the community and nation where I live.
That’s because I serve a King who has not surrendered one square inch of His sovereign love and lordship over any part of His creation.
Bottom line:
Moral cynicism and cultural nihilism are not Christian values.
“Worship” in the New Testament means living lives of sacrificial service and reverent obedience …
On God’s behalf.
Today it means a Sunday “service” performed by a hip band and some “Reverend” …
On our behalf.
Let’s return to the simple faith, simple virtue and simple church of Scripture.
When “faith” is reduced to individual subjective beliefs and perceptions …
Truth becomes hate speech and virtue an outrage.
Effective, liberating forgiveness can’t occur unless we fully acknowledge the underlying wrong that plagues us;
How wrong the wrong is; and
What our heart truly feels because of it …
Whether committed by us or against us.
Only when we stop minimizing, rationalizing or excusing the offense …
Can we fully give it to the Lord.
And be free.
Some claim that doubt and angst are a form of “faith.”
But that’s not true …
Because ultimately, that would make faith all about us.
Rather, faith is trust and confidence in the One who knows all, even when we don’t understand.
Getting there might mean struggling with doubt and angst …
But don’t confuse the journey with the destination.
That’s why the new anti-faith definition of faith by “Christian” progressives and other “religious” existentialists …
Leaves them stuck with themselves.
Let’s avoid their dead ends …
And boldly move forward towards true faith, which comes from God Himself.
The measure of spiritual maturity is not perfection …
But how we deal with our imperfection.
Love may be gentle and kind …
But it also speaks truth, resists evil and defends the innocent.
Discipleship:
A vibrant relationship with the Living Word …
In submission to the authority and discipline of His written Word.
If you need to write or read a whole book on how to hear God’s voice, something ain’t right.
Seriously.
Just start communicating and listening …
In whatever ways He created you to communicate and listen.
He’ll take care of the rest.
Want to restore New Testament power, form and function to the Church?
Then stop giving post-Biblical meanings to original New Testament words …
Based on post-Biblical presumptions, traditions and agendas.
Unfortunately, both conservative church traditionalists and “progressive” existential liberals do this …
With equally disastrous results.
Let’s let Scripture once again stand authoritative as God actually intended …
Over all presumptions, traditions and agendas to the contrary.
Today, “church” tries to lead folks into God’s presence.
In the New Testament, folks assembled to express God’s presence already in them – one to another.
Big difference!
