Forgive them for they know not…

“Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.”  Hebrews 13:17

Having lunch today with my wife at TGI Friday’s, (great salad by the way) I was deeply saddened and angered as I sat by two older women.  One of them was speaking with great authority and let me say venom, spite, disrespect and self-righteous pride, about her church and specifically her Pastor.  I don’t think she could have found many more ways to verbally tear him down.  I’m glad I was almost done with my great salad when she said “I think we are just going to fire him.”

I wanted to walk over and ask, “What church do you attend, so I can know where not to go.”  I had many other thoughts, but had I said them, someone might be writing a blog about me right now.

No one knows the burden of a Pastor but a Pastor and/or his wife.  How can people become so arrogant and unloving?  According to Barna Research, in 2008 there were over 1700 Pastors that left formal ministry every month.

Let me encourage you to take heed to the passage in Hebrews and Paul’s encouragement.  Repent if you have been guilty.  If justifying yourself is at all running through your mind right now  or this blog personally offends you – you need to repent.  Make it your aim to make your Pastor’s labor on your behalf a joy.  Go out of the way to serve him as he serves you.  Love him with the kind of love Jesus died to give you.

Shared life…

Today I played golf for the first time in 1 1/2 years.   I was invited by someone in my church who loves golf and lives on the 6th fairway at Beau Rivage.  My Dad was home, so the three of us hit the links.  It was the most awesome weather; great temperature with a nice breeze.  Now I’m not going to give Tiger Woods a run for his money, so I don’t take things too serious.  But, I ain’t too bad; though I will admit being last today.  A bad day on the course is still a good day.  I think I lost 6 balls and my golf shoes obviously sat too many years in my garage, because on the 5th hole the soles of my shoes literally began to come apart.  By the 8th hole I was playing with one sole.  By the 9th I felt like I was walking in mockasins with no soles.  My back was killing me by the 10th green.  What an awesome day!

Why?  We may not always think about it, but everything that is worth anything is better when shared with people we love.  Think about it.  Just about everything in life is enhanced by the presence of others we can share the experience with.  A funny movie is funnier when you can laugh with someone.  Your favorite restaurant is better when sharing it with a friend.  Golf is even better when you can play with people you care about.  Even if you play badly.

All said, this journey with Jesus is enhanced by the community of intimate friend that I get to walk with.  Love if fuller if we can share it.  I am glad that God has me on the path I find myself.  Church has taken on new meaning and new life for me.  I am breaking free from lifeless religion and institutional spirituality into the beauty of organic church, oneness with Jesus and share community.  Life and life more abundantly. 

Does something in your spirit long for something more, something different that what you are experiencing?  Is there a longing for something deeper in Jesus and others?  Ask yourself, what is keeping you from experiencing it?

Romance…

Listening to this strikes a romantic chord.  I think I need to go out and buy one.

Keep your love alive!

Hearing Voices…

“In high school I was a friend of Herbert Orin Tubbs, a scrappy country boy from Alabama who loved to kill snakes, shoot guns and play basketball.  Herbert, despite what you might imagine from my description, was quite intelligent, and when he graduated was offered a full scholarship to a good private university. Surprisingly Herbert, turned down the scholarship, stayed home and went to a local community college part-time. When I asked him why he turned down the scholarship, he said, “I didn’t feel that tinkle in my nose!” He went on to explain, I won’t say yes to anything unless I feel a tinkle in my nose. I believe its God’s way of talking to me.” Over the next few years that tinkle, apparently, led him to quit college, float between various odd jobs and chase a girl across the country.

We all know someone who speaks with authority about how God or destiny has lead them to make certain decisions. If you are like me, you relish the ring of authority and confidence this brings to a person. But at the same time you are suspicious of such idiosyncratic declarations.”     Dojo @ ReImagine – Experiments In Truth Week 2

I read this the other day and it reminded me of a conversation I had with my brother about hearing God.  I encounter so many people who are Christ followers that say they hear God telling them to do things I know violate His nature and Word.  The problem is they are convienced at they have heard God.  I know at the outset of this post, you might think I am judging what God tells other people or maybe I’m wrong and missing God myself.  I realize this and am willing to take the criticism.  People have to make decisions all the time that are difficult and that affect relationships.  The problem comes when we are not honest with ourselves and make decisions with wrong motives driving us.  Our decisions always have consequences and many times relational ones.  God’s direction is always loving and redemptive even if the decision is a hard one.  Relationships are what God values - it is the core of our faith journey and where our growth happens. The issue here is the necessity to hear God and the dangers of not.  Not hearing God can leave a wake of relational carnage behind us or cause a lot of personal pain with major spiritual detours.

Like the above quoted story, there are people who say they got the tingle.  Now, they may use different words but it’s the same thing.  I’ve heard many people over the years in ministry say “I’m leaving my Church, God has released me or I’m leaving my spouse, God has released me.”  A friend of mine, after hearing one of these comments said to me “You know what released means; It means I can do what I want.”  Now last I checked, we are the church.  I mean the body of Christ’s followers.  How can you leave the body accept be cut off?  When we leave a church we are really leaving relationships.  This is why Jesus used the picture of marriage to symbolize His relationship with the Church and therefore our relationship with each other. Truth be told, most of the time it’s due to hurt or offense.  God wants us to operate in love in our relationships, even when it’s hard.  This is where growth happens.

Here’s the point - We must check whether the tingle (voice) we have is from God or just a feeling that will relieve us or absolve us or excuse us of the responsibility to love one another and bear with one another instead of signing God’s name to our decisions and then saying it’s about the need for a different type of Church.  It’s easy to feel intently about something and call it God’s voice.  The flesh always seeks self -preservation and self-gratification.  The Spirit seeks sacrifice, unity, love, generosity and thinking of others. The more scary thing is when we cannot distinguish between His voice and our fleshly desires.

“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”      Hebrews 4:12

We must be able to divide between the soul and spirit and discern by the Holy Spirit even our own thoughts and intentions hidden in our hearts.

A little advise:

1. Don’t make decisions when you are angry, hurt, or offended with someone.

2. Don’t let hurt dictate your decision making by clouding your ability to hear God.

3. Talk to your pastor. If it’s your Pastor, talk to your Pastor.

4. Seek unbiased, wise counsel before you make decisions.

5. Pray and seek scripture.

6. Make sure it’s your Spirit not your soul that you hear.

7. Love always fulfills the law of Christ.

Risky Buisness…

We have been teaching a series called “Going Deep” over the last few weeks and it has been an awesome experience for me because it has been shaping me as I teach it. 

The thing I have been pondering is how we mostly present Christianity as a belief system instead of a way of life.  Our faith was intended to be a way of life.  God models this for us.  We know 1 John 4:8 says “God is love.”  This is our belief.  But, in Romans 5:8 God Gives us His way of life, “But God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”   We know the bible says God is kind and we believe it but Romans 2:4 says “the kindness of God leads you to repentance.”  Our belief system has to always be fleshed out.  It has to become for us a way of life.

In our series about “Going Deep”,we looked at Acts 2:42-47 where the believer (system) devoted themselves (way of life).  They devoted themselvesto fellowship and breaking of bread which requires a great deal of humility and vulnerability.  Let’s just say this is RISKY BUSINESS.  I shared in our series how we will have fellowship to the degree that we are known.  This means the risk of exposing ourselves, being real.  It questions “If I let people know this about me, what will they think, what will they do?”

That said, I was privileged this week to be invited to lunch by a new friend.  When we settled down to eat he said the reason he wanted to have lunch with me was to expose himself.  He said he wanted to tell me about his life so we could know each other deeper.  WOW!!!  The courage it takes to let it all hang out.  My experience has been, you never know how people will react when you open up to be known.  I am so blessed, both as this persons friend and as a pastor.  I am blessed to go deeper as a friend and like most pastors, we are blessed when people “get it.”  It takes a great deal of faith to live the kind of life, but is is our reward, our inheritance in the saints.

Hang in there with me, I need to catch up the last two weeks of this series here on the blog. (Breaking Bread & Prayer)

Here are the links for the first 3 parts of this series “GOING DEEP.”

Pt. 1 GOING DEEP

Pt. 2 GOING DEEP

Pt.3 GOING DEEP

Going Deep – Pt.3 Fellowship

Fellowship is something that we generally equate to hanging out with other people or doing something together.  In this third week of our series “Going Deep”, we look again at Acts 2:42-47 which says the new believers “devoted themselves to….the fellowship…”.

 

“And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.”  Acts 2:42-47

When we look at this passage as well as other throughout the New Testament we see that what these new disciples of Jesus were experiencing something new.  This was something different.  This was something Deeper!

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life– the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us– that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete. This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”      1 John 1:1-10

John shares his first hand experience of the fellowship we see in the book of Acts. 

First, he says this fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.  He uses the words “Our fellowship”, which is a possessive personal pronoun, indicating fellowship as a distinguishing mark of Christians rather than something just enjoyed by them.  This fellowship set them apart as a unique and new experience to them.  It is unique because it is with the Father and His Son.  This is something they had not experience before now.   Their fellowship was based on that which united them; a relationship with the one who’s blood gave grace to cover their sin and who’s resurrection gave them new life and an experience of the Fathers love.

In Thayer’s Greek Definitions, fellowship is the Greek word “koinonia”, meaning association, community, communion, joint participation, intimacy and (social) intercourse.   This is more than mere religion or religious acts.  This is intimate’ knowing and being known. 

Second, he says our fellowship is in the Light.  If we walk in the Light we will have fellowship with one another.  To walk in the Light means to be expose, open with nothing hidden in darkness.  We spend much of our lives trying to hide certain thing from God and most things from people.  Even those we consider closest to us.  This is why so many Christians substitute Religion for true fellowship.  They put on the appearance of outward spirituality while inside they are closed off, bound and burdened by the things hidden in darkness.  Ephesians 5:13-14 tell us that anything brought into the Light becomes Light because Christ shines on you.  It is amazing the relief we feel when we have no secrets, when we open up and share with someone what we have tried to hide.  Satan can no longer hold it over our head and we step out to find, not condemnation, but rather love and grace.  We fellowship to the degree we are known.

• Who do you know like this?
• Who knows you like this?
• Are you willing to expose yourself, take the risk of being utterly transparent and real with someone?

Going Deep Pt. 1

Last week I started a new teaching series at The Dwelling Place entitled “Going Deep.”  It was prompted by something I posted a few days back where I said “Going Deep is our part, going Big is God’s part.”  As I was reflecting on Acts 2 I noticed something that jerked me back like a dog on a leash.

We have a tendency as church pastors and church planter to give in to the pressure to produce.  Much of our insecurities can be manipulated by the pressure of perceived expectation, that we must make it grow.  Since we are the experts, we must do something to make that thing get bigger.  After all it is the consumers measure for success.  If it’s not succeeding then we are not succeeding.  Let me say to all of you in ministry, “What a load of CRAP!”  Success?  I remember what my Father said to His firstborn, “This is my Son in whom I am well pleased.”  This is it.  I am my Daddy’s son and He loves me.

Moving on.  After finishing a previous series where we looked at what our mission was, I was tempted to work up a mission statement, package it well, capture it in a clever statement and then….jerrrrrk.  I saw it.  

“And they devoted themselves to the Apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers……praising God and having favor with all the people.  And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.”   Acts 2:42,47

The new believers devoted themselves……it produced favor and the Lord added to their number.

Devoted in the Greek means “to be earnest towards.”  It is a compound word for “forward” indicating a direction and movement towards; and to be strong, steadfast or endure.   In the context of verse 42 it means these new believers were moving forward in a stronger and more earnest relationship with Jesus, their leaders (Apostles) and each other.  In other word they were GOING DEEPER in Scripture and teaching of the Apostles, deeper in fellowship, deeper in the practice of faith and deeper in prayer together.

When we enter into this deeper devotion and a missional, incarnational focus on those around us, it will produce favor.  Going deeper in relationship and love with God and people is an attractive thing.  When you find something you really love, don’t you want to tell someone or share it with someone.  “Taste and see that the Lord is good.”  If you don’t want to share the experience of what you have, you might want to check and see if you had it in the first place. 

“Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”      1 John 4:8

God cannot be contained.  When we try to put God in a box and contain Him, it becomes something other than God.  It just becomes religion and not good religion at that.  Life has to have room to grow or you kill it.    “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.”  1 John 4:7

Missional, Incarnational Community…

In the movie Superman Returns, Superman comes to see Lois and explains why he left and came back.  He takes Lois for a flight through the night sky high above the earth.  As they hover, Superman says:

S: What do you hear?

L: Nothing.

S: I hear everything….

S: You wrote “The world does not need a Savior, but every day I hear people crying out for one.”

Isn’t that so true.  If you have the ears and eyes to discern the cry of humanity all around us;  they cry out for a Savior.  From atheist to agnostic to right out vile pagan - While even in the midst of outright denying the existence of God, their lives, their pain, their dreams and life longings cry out for a Savior. 

Instead of self-righteous disdain for the behavior and religious beliefs of others, we should be moved to compassion for a crying humanity in need of a Savior. 

“He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”   Micah 6:8

Who is going to show them the way?

ReThink Church: Pt 3 – What is Community?

In this 3rd week of rethinking church we are looking at The church as a community.  The word community itself tells us something about the church.  It is a common unity.

“And all that believed were together, and had all things common…”     Acts 2:44

Throughout the scriptures we find the community of God’s people who together share their faith and lives in common.  The description God most often gives to this community of believer and followers is family.

“Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the LORD, Israel is my firstborn son,”    Exodus 4:22
“Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?”     Matthew 6:26

Israel was to God as a son and He to them as their Father. The Father provides for His children. From Genesis to Revelation God is a Father to those who receive His Fatherhood through a relationship with His Son, Jesus.

The New Testament uses family as well as a host of familial terms to describe the church. Paul’s use of brother (brethren) is found 130 times in his writings to the church. In Ephesians 2:19 Pail says we are “members of God’s household.” Where else do we find a more common union than in family.

Now let me say 2 things about family because living as family is not always easy, in fact, it is often messy. First, the family is to love one another.In John 13:34-35, Jesus tells us we are to love one another and that this love is what distinguishes us as His. Additionally He tells us that abiding in relationship with Him, His joy would be in us and our joy would be full and complete. (John 15:11-13) Paul tells us this love never fails (1 Corinthians 13:8)  This is not to say we won’t have moments when the flesh gets the best of us or we don’t blow it, but it means with God’s help we work it out through love. Love prevails. Love covers a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8).

How often do believers, members of God’s household bail out on relationship with each other. How often do we give in to self and not work things out according to the way the Father has loved us. The church community should be a model of love.

Secondly, the church community spends time with one another. Acts 2:42-46 is a picture of people loving each other and spending time with each other. The knew each other because they invested in each other beyond the surface religious rituals of the day. The life of Christ stirred a deep desire for community and a willingness to be vulnerable with each other.

How many of you are experiencing this with your church family? Don’t blame it on your church or spiritual leadership, the onus is on you to risk being intimately known in order to be loved. How can this happen when the extent of our risk is when the minister says to turn around and shake the hands of 3 people around you on Sunday? Do you spend time with your church family outside scheduled meetings? It takes more than 1 to 2 hours in our safe non-participatory Sunday Services. You cannot program relationships. It takes personal initiative and vulnerability. It takes time.

Here is a list that describes the Church Community, Does yours look like this?  What are you doing about it?

Loving one another (John 13:34)
Forgiving one another (Ephesians 4:32)
Accepting one another (Romans 15:7)
Bearing with one another (Ephesians 4:2)
Being devoted to one another (Romans 12:10)
Honoring one another above ourselves (Romans 12:10)
Greeting one another (2 Corinthians 13:12)
Being hospitable to one another (1 Peter 4:9)
Being kind and compassionate to one another (Ephesians 4:32)
Sharing with one another (Hebrews 13:16)
Serving one another (Galatians 5:13)
Carrying one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2)
Building up one another (1 Thessalonians 5:11)
Encouraging one another daily (Hebrews 3:13)
Comforting one another (1 Thessalonians 4:18)
Stimulating one another to love and good deeds (Hebrews 10:24)
Instructing one another (Romans 15:14)
Admonishingone another (Colossians 3:16)
Praying for one another (James 5:16)
Confessing your sins to one another (James 5:16)
Being of the same mind toward one another (Romans 12:16)
Submitting to one another (Ephesians5:21)

Is there anything we need to change about how we are living in community as the church family?
What do you need to change?
What keeps our church from modeling this kind of community?
What do you think?

Celebrate Life…

Today is my wife Amy’s birthday.   She hasn’t aged a day since this picture 20 years ago.  My life has been enriched by her every day.  No other woman would put up with me the way she does. 

“He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord.”  Proverbs 18:22

Check out that mullet.  Aren’t you jealous?

We are only afforded so many such events to celebrate in life.  We should anticipate them with joy and celebrate them.  Make the most of your days.

What are you celebrating today?

Why do you love? – an examination of the heart…

Ever since I was little, I’ve always wanted to know how things worked – what makes them tick?  I see this in my middle son, Jonathan, who can’t help asking you a million questions about everything and taking anything electronic and dismantling it to see how it works and if he can build something else out of the all the parts.  In life we intuitively want answers to all our questions.

I find this carries over to pastoring people in that I want to know what makes a person tick.  What are the underlying issues of a person’s life that cause what is seen on the surface.  I like to fix things and part of fixing things is knowing what is underneath and how it works. 

God is really good at fixing things since He is the creator of all things.  He sees the root of everything.  Why don’t we take things back to the manufacturer more often.  God does a much better job of keeping His creation in tip-top shape than we do.  However, we will stubbornly keep trying only to make things worse.  Just break down and do it – take your stuff back to Him so He can fix it and quit pointing fingers and saying, “You broke my stuff on purpose.  I don’t like you anymore!”  OK, sarcasm, but true.

Moment of truth.  We do a great job judging others and figuring out what’s broke in other people’s lives.  But, what about our own?  What makes ME tick?  What are my underlying motives?  Why do I do what I do?  Why do I act loving to others?  Why do I do for others?  What’s underneath?

Check this post out by Pete Wilson called “Desiring to be loved or seeking to love.”  It’s a dose of honesty.  When was the last time you got honest with yourself?

There is no “What’s in it for me” motivation in God’s love for you.  He makes sure He gives you all He has with no strings attached.  Do you love as you have been loved by Jesus?

To love, someone must die…

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this, than someone lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:12-13  (ESV)

There is a high price for love.  You can have it for free but it will cost everything.  You cannot love without paying the full price.

God will allow us to choose to live our lives on a lower level that He has called us, but there is a price to pay.  If we do so we will never really and fully know Him nor experience the fullness of the life promised to us in Him.  There is a higher and GREATER love.  Love of this magnitude can only be received, experienced and given away through death. 

There is no greater love than when we die to self, lay ourselves down for someone else.  God wants us to walk in a greater love.  Greater love is received when someone else had to die in order for us to receive it.  Jesus laid down His life to break the barrier that would keep us from receiving the Father’s love.  It was the ultimate expression of love. 

“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet still sinners, Christ died for us.”  Romans 5:8  (NASB)

Jesus broke the barrier of our sin with the laying down of His life.  It doesn’t get any greater than that.

In order for us to have Greater Love, we must die, laying ourselves down for people.  We must die to being right about people or things or we will defend our rights and find an excuse to not love.  We must put away personal justice or we will punish people and seek to justify ourselves in the eyes of others, when Jesus said He was just and the justifier of all.  We must overlook faults or we will keep records of wrong suffered and not love.  Ouch.  Ouch.  If we die to self, we can release GREATER LOVE.  If we don’t, we will love self and then others when convenient.

Are you dying to give GREATER LOVE?

Why not?

Love on my mind…

My heart is weighing heavy on me this morning as I pray for some friend.  My meditation today was on two passages of scripture.

“…whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”  John 15:5 (ESV)

“Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  Love never fails…”  1 Corinthians 13:7-8 (ESV)

I am concerned about the church and her love walk.  Much of our church activity is based on (if we get honest with ourselves) self-love.  It has more to do with what “I” want and what is in it for “me”.  People love, but with conditions.  They serve, til it’s something they don’t want to do or as long as they have control of what they are doing or others do what they want.  People love as long as they are getting something they want in return.

Before you get bothered about me expecting too much from young or new believers, please understand.  The concerns I have are about those who call themselves mature disciples.  These are leaders and people who have walked with Jesus a long time.  Remember, Jesus had problems with religious people.

Now, in John 15 there are several things Paul said we should be abiding in and one of those was love.  I John 4:8 tell us that “God is love.”  So if we are abiding in Him and in love we should be bearing fruit – the fruit of love.  This is not the kind of love that we see even on the world’s best day.  It’s a love on a much higher level.  God is our standard for love.  This love is so hard that we cannot do it without God’s help.  If we don’t abide in Him, we cannot love.  If we don’t love, we are not abiding in Him.

We have all been abandoned by what we thought was love with people.  This is why love was meant to be first received from God and then given away.  If we look for the love of people to satisfy us before finding our security in God’s love first, we will be left wanting and hurting or become unstable and abusive in our relationships.

How should we love? 

Love bears all things.  The Greek translation for “bear” means to roof over or cover in silence, to endure patiently.  I doesn’t mean you can maul people to death or act like a bear. It also doesn’t mean developing a callous heart but rather a covering of grace.  No matter what comes against you love still remains.  It covers over any situation with love and does so with no expectation for self without saying anything or justifying yourself. 

Love believes all things.  This does not mean that we believe everything we hear about people or situations.  But, it means believing the best about people and situations.  Our love is not dependant on what we know about people or thing but rather on God himself.  Because He is love, we believe all things about Him and therefore respond in love to all things.  If we truly know God we have no choice but to always respond in love to people.  See what I mean by this being impossible without Him.  It’s a higher love.

Love hopes all things.  Hope here means to expect and trust with confidence and pleasure.  This is not an expectation from people but from God as it relates to people and things.  It means we love with an expectation and trust in God that all things are going to be according to His will and purpose.  The hope is in Him so we are to freely give all our love to people even when they are not doing what we think they ought to do.  Dependency on Jesus frees us to fully love.

Love endures all things.  This means love is behind and under all things.  It suffers all things.  God’s love can handle anything.  It has no limits.

Love never fails.  Every where our love fails, it was not God’s love.  We fail to love when we are not abiding in Him.  We fail to love when we seek something for ourselves.

“God is most glorified when we are most satisfied in Him.”  John Piper

If we are satisfied in God, if He is all I need in every situation then He will be glorified in and through me and my life.  If I seek satisfaction in any other thing than Him alone, then I will glorify myself. 

So, How’s your love walk?

Yoda on Small Groups…

This is like a commercial between my series post on “So you don’t want to go to church anymore.”  I love this video about the value of small groups and it reminds me of my brother Scott, who is, yes, a Star Wars Freak!  Much love Scott.

So enjoy!

So You Don’t Want To Go To Church… Pt.1

What is the Church?

The Church is not a Where but a Who.

“And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” Matthew 16:18  (ESV)

“Wherever you go, there you are.”  I tried to google it to no avail in finding out who we can credit this profound Hello Captain Obvious statement of reality.  I’ll take GOD for 1000 Alex.

When I am asked, and they always do, “where do I go to church?”, I direct them to a building with a name on it – The Dwelling Place Community Church.  I have a delima though.  I believe in our effort to direct people to church something gets lost in translation.  When people find our buildings do they really find the church and do they have to find our buildings to find the church and when we find the church, what then?

“You yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a royal priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”  1Peter 2:5 (ESV)

The Church is being built by God, not by itself (us).  Not with human hands.  It is being built with precious material (you).  Like living stones, we are being built by Him together into a spiritual house, the church.  This is not just a spiritual reality but also a literal reality.  This means you can see the church, but where?  That where depends on the who.

So who is the Church?

“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”  1Peter 2:9  (ESV)

A little word study.

Wherever you find the word “church”, it is the Greek word “ekklesia”, which means “called out ones”.

It’s a compound word made of “ek” meaning “out” which denotes origin and motion; and the other “kaleho” meaning called (by word), to hail.  It is interesting that Peter describes this in the above verse.  We are the church, called out from where we once were without Him in darkness and now with Him in His marvelous light.  We are the Church in Him, members of His body.

Therefore, wherever there are those called out, there the church of Jesus is.

Now, the reason I bring this up.  It should raise a lot of questions about our life.  We can no longer deify our buildings and treat them sacred when it is not the church.  That’s Religion.  We have to begin to see all life as spiritual and not just what happens on Sunday in our institutions.  This means that when I gather with anyone, church is happening.  Think about that one for a while.  It might change what you are doing.  This should also change our perspective on worship, fellowship and discipleship.  Many sing songs on Sunday and call it worship, they attend and call it fellowship and listen to a sermon and call it discipleship.  But is it?  And is this church?  Oh, and maybe we will take better care of one another better than we take care of our buildings. oops.

Before you give into the possible growing anxiety of you entrenched ecclesiology, stop and breathe. 

There are 77 times in 76 verses of the New Testament that the word church is used in the KJV and 74 in 73 in the ESV. I’d say take a fresh look at the church and see if it messes with our present theology and more so how we do what we do when we do it.  If that’s a bit much, just read through Acts.  There are 18 verses that give a goo overall picture of the church.

If all else fails check back here.  We are going to camp out here for a while.  Come back and read an most of all LEAVE YOUR COMMENTS.  If you’ve never commented here before, jump in, take the plunge.