The first day of Holy week is a celebration of the Messiah: God breaking into the usual. It is a day of palm branches and shouts of pure joy. The euphoria of the moment passed quickly. Jesus had performed countless miracles, yet most did not believe in Him. If God performed miracles today as He did in the past, the result would be the same. People would be amazed and would believe in God for a short time. That faith would be shallow and would disappear the moment something unexpected or frightening occurred. A faith based on miracles is not a mature faith. God performed the greatest “God miracle” of all time in coming to earth as the Man Jesus Christ to die on the cross for our sins (Romans 5:8) so that we could be saved (John 3:16). God does perform miracles—many of them simply go unnoticed or are denied. However, we do not need more miracles. What we need is to believe in the miracle of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.
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Blessed Assurance: jesus is mine!
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. John 3:16-17
The emptiness of the cross and the tomb are twofold visions of assurance. Both proclaim God is more than an absent slum lord. I sit here and focus on the emptiness, and faith springs again in my heart. The terrible sight of Roman cruelty creates in me a confidence, an assurance of my ultimate destiny. An empty tomb gives me hope and a vital assurance.
Violence
What is the cause of violence? For what reason does a person “get into the face of another” and shout and curse and spit vitriol? I think is it simply sin. You see, sin is a riddle, a mystery, a reality that is difficult to define. It is often ignored because there is no personal responsibility if there if it remains a nebulous concept. Often, we try to think of this idea called sin and think of it as wrongdoing or transgression of some standard. But it also includes the failure to do what is correct, prudent, loving. Sin offends people, it is violence and lovelessness pointed and directed toward others. But more than that, it is disrespectful to God.
The concept of sin is very complex, and the terminology associated with is also very complex. And when I try to reconcile all the opinions of what is lawful and what is not, it is easy to be caught up in a definition hell. To make a differentation between peaceful protest and rioters is charged with political condemnation. Simply to say, all lives matter is seen as racist. But in reality, it is not about definitions or even spin or fake news. It is about the expectation of my behavior in relationship to all around me. To repeat the admonition of Jesus, “However you want people to treat you, so treat them, for this is the law and the prophets.” The cause of violence is simply not doing what you expect others to do to you.
He has risen
Tomorrow on Easter, I will not be going to a church building and celebrate with fellow believers. Easter will look very different this year. I feel a little sad and disturbed. Easter is the biggest day of the year for Christians.
I love the big event. Churches around the world pull out all the stops for this special day. They do special music, everyone is dressed up, we usually see the biggest crowds, those who don’t usually attend show up, there may be an egg hunt on the lawn, the preacher will have his sermon refined to a fine point and rehearsed to a place where he could do it without notes. It is a wonderful day in the controlled chaos that is called Easter. All in the hope of a spiritual breakthrough for someone on the edges of the church.
I’m sad that it won’t be happening this year. Or at least not in the way that I’m used to.
Yet then I must take a step back and come to the realization, Church is about more than the big event happening at your building. It’s about the big event that happened 2,000 years ago in Jerusalem when it was discovered that there wasn’t a body in Jesus’ tomb.
This is a time of social distancing and face masks. For some, it is a time which, “the Church has left the building.”
There is a valuable truth to be comprehended here. When the Church is forced not to meet together there comes to us a lesson. That lesson is: the church is not a building, WE ARE THE CHURCH. Church isn’t an event you go to. It’s a people you belong to.
So as you gather around your blue tinged screens, watching a message or two, please remember and set your hearts on the founder. A founder who came out of the grave on the third day.
HE HAS RISEN.
HE HAS RISEN, INDEED.
Rocking the ark
I am human. I have likes and dislikes. I have preferences and predilections. I like historical understandings over hypothetical surmise. I would rather see real people in real situations over contrived and grandiose stories of dubious relevance. I want the real over perception.
I have been accused to stirring up a little dust once and awhile. But sometimes I become dissatisfied with all the plans and programs that live in the dusty edges of the church. They become the more important. The process of church growth seems to leave out the offer of God’s grace. The vital understanding of God is not in the forefront any more. I thirst after the teachings and personal encounters with God and not another emotional pulling at my heart strings by one more repetition of five or six words.
The problem is that everyone of us want to “feel good.” Bless the hearts of preachers and leaders of the church today. They have a weighty calling and ever increasing pressure to “increase the flock.” At issue is the easiest way to get people to come the doors of a church and keep that attendance is cater to the “feel good” motive. Ministers would rather empower with strength than to point out the foibles of a congregation. No one wants their pet sin to be pointed out. Much like the story of the Pastor in a rural farming town as he was shaking every hand as the congregation was going out the back door. One unkempt farmer came up to the Pastor and said, “That was a great message Pastor, it was short and about someone else.”
It is all about programs and studies. If we make the right graph in the monthly board meetings it will be enough to steer the church to success. If we can categorize, pigeon hole, and delegate enough to keep the doors open, then that is good enough. We don’t need spirit filled bible warriors. We don’t need to study to rightly divide the Word of Truth. We just need another subjective well-presented current psychobabble in three points with fill in papers in the bulletin. Don’t ask me to think, just do what is expected and that should be good enough.
Youth and children’s programs are stressed because if kids can be kept happy and entertained, mom and pop are much more likely to stay put. Serious in depth deep dive bible study and sermons about bible doctrine are avoided! Let’s cut down on all that prayer time. The Hymnal is just not relevant anymore. Crank up the canned and amplified music; made up of repeated lyrics set to the world’s latest music. Get toes to tapping and watch visitors come pouring in each Sunday. Then be sure to accentuate the emotional. Touch every psychological button possible with “feel good” sermons and viola! pretty soon a building program will be necessary. If declaring the whole counsel of God while at the same time trying to avoid the flesh is not enough to fill the pews, then let them remain empty! A few grains of wheat should be treasured above a ton of tares!
Glitch and restore
Minor catastrophe today. Someone with a bent toward evil hacked this sight and erased most of the content. Spent most of the day getting most of it back. Lost about a month of posts. I will try and get them back up this week. Pray for me that I don’t explode!
Honesty can be a terrible thing.
When we stop and spend some quality time trying to understand ourselves. What we find most of the time is dishonesty. Not that we go around telling lies, making false promises, little innuendoes, and even go to the point of malicious slander. But what are our popular examples? In the world of politics it is easier to brand someone a “racist”, than to make a intellectual study of their views and try to understand the underlying motives of the person. In our efforts to be relevant, we search social media for anything that would support the politically correct idea of modernism, and post and repost those thoughts, instead of putting your own ideas. Advertisers subtlety ply the airwaves with the “greatest and latest”, and have to be followed by a litany of side effects, usefulness, disclaimers and other explanations of the claims.
I ordered a part for my old truck and they charged me immediately, their site says shipping in 2 or 3 days. No part after a week. Working through the phone tree and leaving 5 messages, I finally received a response that they would be shipping today. Promises not kept.
Taxpayers evade their legal obligations. Religionists are hypocritical. Where is the honesty?
There are exceptions in every category I have mentioned, but dishonesty is so common in our modern society that all of us are tempted to practice it. I read the other day about self-checkout systems at stores and the commentator stated, “if you don’t cheat, you are crazy, the loss is so small they would not miss a few things.” We can well rationalize our conscience, but that is simply dishonesty with ourselves. It is well possible to get to a point at which our dishonesty overwhelms our better nature. The acts of dishonesty can be simple and easy to forget. Never-the-less, when we are honest with ourselves that falseness cannot be ignored.
Honesty with ourselves requires the examination of the why of our lives; the motives of life. We must get to a point where our desire to be honest outweighs any act.
Honesty with ourselves requires the examination of our motives in all things. Honesty with self, will lead to honesty with others, for all men know that the conscious misleading of others has in its nature dishonesty with one’s self. We all know that every lie leaves us with something to confess or to rationalize. Your decision.
Just thinking. ?
Tear down that wall!
I wanted to post this picture to remind myself and anyone in my Blog-sphere, there is so much misconception of the relationship between the Government of the United States and religion. The founding fathers saw the excesses placed in government when the government was inextricably joined to a point there was no difference. Religion was the state and the state was religion. The issue was not the good of the church, it was the possibility of religion being able to control of the state.
You may well think I am splitting hairs here, but in reality, there is a vast difference between religion and the church. The words in our constitution say little about church; it refers to religion. They are not the same.
The church is a body of believers, caring, loving, freedom loving and wanting the best for the country in which it finds itself. Religion is more about standards, rules, boundaries.
Our beloved United States Constitution speaks of Freedom of Religion and NOT Freedom from church. There is a big difference.
If there is any hope for our country, there can not be a WALL between the two. They work together. This picture is trying to say they can’t. Our Country worked as a cooperative community until we reached a point that the church was seen as an enemy not an ally. Church must be the moral compass which points the pathway. The state may well choose another but whichever path they choose the compass still points the way. We don’t need a wall that separates separates we need a compass that always points upwards.
HOPE doesn’t save
I have been overwhelmed by an effort to understand or at least get some insight into the Minor Prophets of the Old Testament. It is amazing the weaving of the web of Hebrew life. I would think the people should all be walking around with neck braces due to the number of times the nation of Judah jerked up and down in a constant cycle of repentance, worship, apathy, excuses, sin and historical calamity.
The answer for the period from the division of the Northern and Southern Kingdoms to the final restoration and the rebuilding of the temple was the rise of Prophet after Prophet. I watch the life of the people, the chosen people, the people elect, the people called to be set apart, fall again and again and again. I hear the voices of anguish and disappointment in the prophets words. They were the only hope for the promised ones.
It was not the hope of traditional worship, ceremonies, sacrifices, great walls, and beautiful temples. They were not saved by their hope. Hope goes away when an onslaught of calamity takes the best and leaves nothing. Hope may well be instructive and may suffice for a moment or two. Never-the-less, the decadence of the nation, the rejection of righteousness, the growth of priestly formalism, caused hope to simply die a cruel and wimpy death.
“I can’t stand your religious meetings.
I’m fed up with your conferences and conventions.
I want nothing to do with your religion projects,
your pretentious slogans and goals.
I’m sick of your fund-raising schemes,
your public relations and image making.
I’ve had all I can take of your noisy ego-music.
When was the last time you sang to me?
Do you know what I want?
I want justice—oceans of it.
I want fairness—rivers of it.
That’s what I want. That’s all I want.
That was AMOS 5:21-25 The message.
What do you think?
Converts or Disciples?
The local congregation of believers I attend has been blessed with celebrations of baptism. Mostly young teenaged youth along with a sprinkle (not meant as a pun) of young adults. I am excited that the church still heralds this outward sign of an inward grace. It should be a characteristic of any spirit-filled church. The beauty and eagerness of these new creatures in Christ brought to mind the Biblical reference in Acts 16:5 “The churches were strengthened in faith and grew daily in number.”
As my strange and non-sequitur mind works, I started to wonder what is more important than converts to the faith. I discovered after a couple of hours of research a phrase that has excited me, “The church is not commanded to make converts, but disciples.” Is the goal of the church, if it is expecting long term growth, to fill the pews with converts or disciples?
One study by the LifeWay Research group compiled data on this question. They broke their results into two groups. Churches that have the most converts or “C” churches and churches that have the most disciples or “D” churches. This study was on churches with less than 250 attendees.
Sorted by church priority, there were no appreciable differences between the convert oriented and disciple-oriented churches in this survey. There were some differences in the order of priority but basically very similar results.
But what stood out to me was the Disciple churches saw evangelism dollars as a higher priority than the Convert churches. And secondly, the priority to provide for additional outside of the church activities was greater in the Convert Churches than the Disciple churches. These two data points are remarkable in that the Churches that are making the greatest number of disciples spend more money on evangelism and less emphasis on outside activities. The third conclusion was the method of pastoral care and communications to the unchurched: In the Disciple Church pastors were seen as communicators with the unchurched and the Convert Church Pastors were seen as evangelizers.
So what am I to make of this wealth of data? Churches that have less than 250 attendees mostly do the same stuff. The exception is in the perception of the pastor as an evangelist for “C” churches or a good communicator for the “D” churches.
Just saying…