What We Have is What We Really Want

Apparently I wasn't clear in my previous post - based on the messages I've received. So here's another go at it.

Many Christians are decrying the decadence of American culture and complaining about the government and its value system. I get it. I get it, OK? But if we want to be concerned for our nation and culture, our priority must be the renewal of the church. We look too much like the world. We're too at home in it. As a Christ-follower, I shy away from judging others and tend toward inviting sinners (like me) to experience the joy I have in Christ.

People abandon the church because, frankly, they've been sold a bill of goods; a bunch of crap, like the prosperity teaching, mixed messages of new age, prosperity, Buddism, and self-help psychobabble, mixed with entertainment, mixed with nothing-but-grace-so-do-anything-you-feel-like that just plain doesn't compare with Jesus Christ.  

The worst part is that non-believers and weak believers alike think that being a Christ-follower is just another system of belief that worships the same god (small "g") as everyone else, so it doesn't matter what or who you worship, just as long as you feel good about yourself.

Now, the government we have merely reflects and echoes the customs embraced by the people in a given generation. Troubling as it is, I have to say the government is exactly what we want it to be or it wouldn't be there. Change in culture doesn't come from the top down, but from the bottom up. The change we need to work on is primarily renewal in the church.  

Here's why. As the church becomes the fellowship of citizens of heaven who manifest what it means to be the household of Christ, and when the church walks according to the power of the Holy Spirit, then the people of God shine as light in the world. When people see that light, they WILL give glory to God.  

Let's remember who we are, who the foundation is, who the cornerstone is, who the head of our building is, and who the Lord of the church is.  

Carry on.

Following Christ. Really.

OK, I gotta speak up. Christ-followers cannot be the people who take pride in themselves on not being around gay, transgender, Muslim, Hindu and whoever, when their own churches are convulsing with sin, including pornography.
We betray the Gospel by if we stumble all over ourselves to denounce secular leftists but stay silent about half-truths from the pulpit and prosperity gospel heretics among us. Those who chase the rich, famous, and powerful are chasing after false idols and their snappy self-help sayings. How's that big book deal, Pr. Super Apostle? Comfy in your mansion? How's your jet flying these days? That stuff is temporary and you've become too "at home" in the world. Our citizenship is in Heaven (Philippians 3:20) and we should be living a transformed life (Romans 12:2). Our security doesn't rest in stuff (or a constitution), but in Christ Jesus.
Seeing Christ in the faces of the poor means we're seeing Christ himself (check Matthew 25:31-46). Are we willing to disown ourselves and our stuff and identify with our Christian brothers and sisters that are homeless, poor, hungry, thirsty? Those with addictions? Those who are same-sex attracted and who are wondering what it means to live among others that do not condemn, but love and want to help ALL who sin (1 Corinthians 6:9-11)?
Carry on.

Divided Against Itself

Just a thought: Division commonly ends in desolation. If we divide from one another, we become easy prey to a common enemy; much more if we bite and devour one another - we will consume each other. 

In Matthew 12, the Pharisees declared that Jesus was casting out demons (and healing others) by the work of "Beelzebub." Jesus stated (and proved) that he was the Son of God with his work.  At this point in the text, Jesus was so far from being in league with the devil that other were openly hostile and at enmity with him.  

The world sits in darkness in the devil's possession. Yet the design of Jesus' coming, the Gospel, was and is to spoil the devil's house, which as a strong man, he kept the world.  The devil will not set his sights on destroying himself, but on taking God's children with him to his own coming destruction by Christ's return. He knows he cannot defeat God. Instead, Satan will rule where and what he can. If Satan were to fall in line with Christ, then how could he stand? What would he have to rule? He would lose his control and cease to be in rebellion to the one true God.  

Christ, by his grace, has broken Satan's rule, and Christ spoiled the devil's house and will spoil it more and more.  

Carry on.

Back to Blogging!

It feels good to be back blogging again.

If you've never been here before, feel free to poke around - some good stuff from the past is archived, and I'm looking forward to developing some well-placed thought here in the future!

So, to kick off:

Just a thought:

If following God is a blessing, then for Jeremiah it was a curse. Nothing, nothing, went right for him. Wouldn't it be interesting if our current prosperity preachers had a talk with Jeremiah today? Would Jeremiah believe their were talking about the same God? Would Jeremiah have a crisis of faith and think he missed his calling? Would Jeremiah have become so embittered toward Yahweh that he would have denied his faith and become a follower of the God of the prosperity gospel?

Carry on.