Whoever defines your past …
Owns your future.
If Christians today started giving how the New Testament says we should give …
To what the New Testament says we should give …
Its doubtful that what we call “church” today would survive.
Yes indeed:
Repressive “progressives” love free speech …
As long as it’s their speech.
To find simple church:
In humility, go where you least expect it …
Among whom the least is expected.
People don’t care how much you know …
Until they know how much you care.
If you can’t keep it real …
It’s not really “church”.
The New Legalism insists …
That we all must obey its rule that there are no rules.
Faith without faithfulness …
Is a lie.
Should we be surprised to find that those who promote a trans-Biblical hermeneutic …
Almost always promote a trans-Constitutional jurisprudence?
I’ve yet to see God turn His face …
From those who love and trust Him.
Seldom will evil fess up to its own culpability …
Which is why it is unrealistic to expect closure from an evildoer on an injustice they caused.
Instead, find closure by fully expressing to the Lord the hurts and wrongs your heart still carries …
Then forgive and release your need for justice to Him.
Not to excuse the evil or those who did it …
But to acknowledge the wrong, find freedom and move on.
Honor in God’s Kingdom comes not from fame, fortune or followers …
But being faithful.
Church in the New Testament …
Had nothing to do with sitting in pews.
Paul of Tarsus:
Lashed, left for dead, shipwrecked, jailed, scorned, abandoned, tried, beheaded.
I guess he never heard about “Your Best Life Now.”
I may have an ability or perspective that you lack.
But I have yet to meet anyone – and I mean anyone – who does not also exceed me in some aspect of their own abilities and perspectives.
Likewise, no church, ministry or movement will be healthy if it pulls into itself or thinks itself beyond everyone else.
This is true also with our different sub-cultures, theological “tribes”, and the often unexamined presumptions and sensibilities of our own community of like-minded friends.
Unity in diversity through humility, not uniformity through hierarchy, is God’s intent among those who love Him and heed His Word.
Although we all love the “glory stories”, we also need to tell of our failures …
Because it’s our failures which often teach the most.
The narrow gate is wide enough for each who travels through …
But not enough to also carry all their baggage too.
True grace doesn’t save us from conviction and repentance …
But loves us enough to take us there.
It’s hard to share Christ together …
When we aren’t sharing life together.
“Religion” today …
Means all the stuff in the Bible we don’t wanna heed.
Any utopian ideology, agenda or movement always starts with lofty ideals that ignore human nature and God’s sovereignty.
As its zealots inevitability fail to create their perfect society and transform human nature, however, frustration sets in and they begin to rationalize coercive means to achieve their goals …
Which is why they always end up, if left unchecked, creating tyranny instead.
Christianity in Western cultures has lost sight of God’s fierceness …
Wanting instead only His comfort and affirmation.
By defining God’s attributes by our own standards, however …
We’ve lost the ability to be effective salt and light to not just to individuals but to whole societies and nations.
I routinely ask men I mentored in the jail, who give their lives to the Lord there, why it’s so hard for them to become part of a church when they get out.
I then follow up by asking whether, after being released, they were ever invited into someone’s home for a meal and fellowship from any church they visited.
The answer? Never.
I’ve asked this hundreds of times, not just of men trying to put their lives back together after jail, but also of others living in the woods or in homeless shelters.
The answer is always the same.
In twenty years, I’ve seen no exceptions.
We all love arms-length “ministries” and “programs” that make us feel good about helping “those people”, so long as it’s not too close and personal.
I guess most “churches” are look-alike religious social clubs for cookie-cutter “believers” rather than real Christian communities.
How tragic.
In the meantime, our house remains a place of hospitality, friendship and fellowship …
And our lives continue to be enriched beyond measure because of it.
Is God using you to build His ekklesia …
Or are you using God to build your church?
Grace and repentance?
Authentic faith embraces both as inseparable.
