Anticipating the King

Scott over at Anticipating the King has been posting some good stuff. Check it out at:

www.anticipatingtheking.com

Real Questions

Finally a blog that asks the difficult questions. Check it out and leave a comment.

Questions for the Day

Enjoy.

Can't Buy Me Jesus

We all know advertising is everywhere; we deal with it every day, subliminal messages from every angle trying to pry their way into our lives. We have become accustomed to it in our society; everyone has a product they want to sell.  It does scare me a little to think that Jesus is often one of these products that we sell.  We market Jesus, we advertise Jesus, and to many people He has become just another product that we buy to maintain our image.  There is a fine line between an evangelist and salesman.  As churches we often find ourselves trying to reach people the same way any other money loving company would. We find a target audience to sell Jesus to.  We change the way Jesus looks, making him pretty and likeable so the consumer will want him. We lie about the attributes of God and never bring up important aspects of his character such as his wrath and justice. These characteristics of God are essential to the gospel. However, they are also offensive, and apparently that is not good for business if you know what I mean. Why do we think that we have to be cool or smart to win people to Christ, we do not posses the power to change peoples hearts. I am pretty sure that is all up to God. 

 

Summer is Here

Well, Summer is already well underway. For all the students who went, we got back from our summer trip a few weeks ago and you can check out some of the photos here. 

www.gracechurchyouth.org

Enjoy.

 

Living Our Doctrine

We recently had a discussion in the High School group about the importance of doctrine and making it a visible part of our lives, rather than just knowing what we believe we need our doctrine to soak in to the depths of our hearts. On another blog, What's Wrong With the World, there has been discussion about the gap we often see in people who have strong doctrine but lack the life change that Jesus requires of us; and on the opposite side people who have no doctrine, or very little, but we see them living out the call that Jesus has placed on all our lives to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and comfort the sick. My question is "Why have we separated the two?"Isn't scripture and doctrine the very reason for why we should clothe the naked, feed the hungry, and comfort the sick.

While I don't usually agree with Richard Rohr I do like his quote from Jesus' Plan for a New World, he writes, "The call to the gospel life is not really a call to be moral, law-abiding and good, although many seem to think so. It is, rather, to follow Jesus- who keeps us on the path of letting go and rediscovering, which is very different from just being good."

As Christians being a good person is not our call.  We are called to do good things, even great things, but the call is deeper than just being a moral person.

To fully understand God and the call he has placed on our lives we need to understand both sides of spectrum.  What good is knowledge and understanding of God if it never really impacts your heart. There are plenty of people who can quote scripture and explain doctrine that don't follow or even believe in it. There are also plenty of people who want to save the world but have no reason why they should.  I pray for myself and all believers that as we grow in knowledge of God's word that we will continue to let it shape our lives and make us into the people that God wants us to be.  And in all things let us glorify our God, whether through our understanding of scripture, or through our daily actions.

Heaven on Earth

At Grace Church we have been talking about the characteristics of the Kingdom of Heaven, also referred to as the Kingdom of God, understanding that the Kingdom is not just in the afterlife but it is here and now; we see it everyday.  Jesus even told us to pray for it in the Lord's prayer, "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."  So how can we bring God's Kingdom to people everyday? I once heard a quote that said, "We can't say, Thy Kingdom come unless we're willing to say, My kingdom go".  Becoming part of the Kingdom of God is all about letting go of the control you have in your life and giving it over to God.  The first line of the beatitudes, as written in Luke 6, begins with "Blessed are the poor, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs". The greek word used for poor in this passage is ptochoi, referring to the bottom 10-20% of the peasant class.  Richard Rohr writes that the direct translation of this word is "the very empty ones, those who are crouching". So the kingdom of heaven belongs to those who have nothing left, to the people who let everything go, the very empty ones; it is for the people who do not hold on to things, but for those who are comfortable with being still and letting God fight for them.  Who is in control of our lives?