Fear of Man vs. Fear of God

For many years I've dealt with fears that I've only shared with a few people.  These fears are mainly around death, dying, harm, etc.  These fears come from places that are too long to go into in a blog.  However, this morning, with the help of a friend, I was able to overcome that fear and remove the bondage that it had over my life.

When I was very young, I made a vow.  That vow involved me never allowing my family to be harmed or to be put into harms way.  Little did I know that it was that vow, made in innocence, that would perpetuate a paralysis in my life in years to come.  I'm writing this now to share with you my story.  My hope is that if you resonate with this that you will find that you too can break that bondage.

First, like I said above, I made a vow.  A vow that allowed a spirit of fear to overcome me.  That fear was the fear of man.  For a long time I've been fearful of people walking past me that maybe didn't look the same as I do.  I've been afraid to talk to certain people because they are different than me.  I've been afraid to sleep some nights so worried that someone was going to break into our home.  I've been afraid that I would not be able to protect my family.  I've been afraid that I would lose my job.  I've been afraid of what people think of me.  I've been afraid of expressing my ideas.  I've been afraid of death, dying, and that whole situation.  I've been afraid of losing the ones that I love.  I've been afraid of so much.  This morning, I woke up, looked at my son and said enough!

I met with my friend this morning to actually talk about something else that later became part of this fear story, unknowingly.  What I found was that just about every decision I've been making in my life has been based around fear and not faith.  So we started to get to the root of things.  First of all, fear of man is not holy or righteous in any way, shape, or form.  Jesus says in Matthew 10:28, "Don't fear those who kill the body but are not able to kill the soul; rather, fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell."  So my fear of man was keeping me from living a life, as 10:31 says, "worth more than many sparrows." 
You see my fear of life and death comes from a lie that was rooted a long time ago due to circumstances beyond my control.  That fear led me to make a vow.  And that vow was what turned that fear into something bigger than what it really was. 

So this morning, we exposed the root.  We exposed the lie for what it was and I started taking my thoughts captive.  You see, as Proverbs 29:25 says, "The fear of man is a snare...", I walked into a snare.  However the verse goes on to say, "...but the one who trusts the Lord is protected."  Living a life of fear is no life at all.  I have found freedom in knowing that my life will probably not be easy.  And from time to time I'm probably going to run into situations where it might get sticky.  However there is good news!  If someone takes it upon themselves to do harm to me, that is their freedom to do so.  God gave all of us a free will.  The good news is that even if harm falls upon me, God will give me grace just like he did with Stephen in the Book of Acts.

I know this might all sound crazy, but the truth is I'd much rather fear God than man.  And why?  Because as 1 John 4:18 says, "There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment.  So the one who fears has not reached perfection in love."  If God is love, and I am His child, then there is no fear to be had.

God loves me, he loves you, and he wants you to have no fear through faith and trust.  He wants you to know that He loves you, and because of that love, you no longer have to fear.

P.S.:  By the way, just so you know, just because you trust and have faith in God doesn't mean life is going to be awesome.  So know that just because He loves us doesn't mean everything is going to work out the way WE want it to.  However, it will work out the way HE wants it to.  Besides, His will is better for us any way.

Dust from the Rabbi's feet

An ancient Jewish proverb states, "Follow the rabbi, drink in his words, and be covered with the dust of his feet."  Those studying under a Rabbi, or his disciples, would follow him so closely that they would be literally covered in the dust from their sandals. 

I've been a part of a dicussion this week about true discipleship, where the church is missing the mark, and how can we make a course correction.  I think the first thing that needs to be established is, despite how some believe, the "Church" is not broken.  The church is the bride of Christ.  Even when we want to slam her down, beat her up, pick on her, spit on her, and just be down right mean to her; we must remember what Hosea 3:1 says, "The Lord said to me, "Go, show your love to your wife (the church) again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress.  Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods, and love the sacred raisin cakes."  Despite how the people inside the church act, the church is not broken.

Speaking of the people inside the church...these ARE broken people.  Most people don't come to church when they've "got it all figured out".  Most of the people I encounter in church today are those who don't have it all figured out.  They are broken, spiritually dismembered, cast out, kicked off the island, fringe kind of people.  Most of them think they've got it together, but deep down inside they are spiritually poor.  They have no sense of normalcy in their lives.  I'm not just talking about those who on the outside don't look like they have it together, I'm talking about those who don't have it together on the inside either. 

So it leads me to ask this question...what is normal for a broken person?  I say Jesus.  Some of you are probably skeptical, and I'm going to ask that you not write me off just yet.  Some of you are saying that's garbage because I have lots of things in my life that I find fulfillment through and in that don't involve Jesus or Christianity.  First of all, let's let go of the Christianity thing and really talk about Jesus here.  Let's talk about what He really said.  If we look back and really read what He's saying, he's not calling us to a life that is easy by any stretch of the imagination.  In Matthew 4:19 Jesus says, "Come follow me and I'll make you fishers of men."  He's asking his disciples to let go of everything that they view as normal and come follow him.  These guys had it together.  Most of them weren't broken from the outside, but what Jesus knew was that they were broken on the inside. 

In saying "Come follow me" Jesus is asking us to drop what we find normal and follow him.  But what if you don't have normal so to speak?  Or a better question, again, would be "What is normal?"  Is normal dictated by society?  Or is normal dictated by Jesus.  Why is Jesus not our normal?

Here's some other questions to ponder on as well...

*  If we are called to make disciples, why do we not?
* What does it even mean to be a disciple of Jesus?
* Why do we keep on relying on systems of "discipleship" that have never worked and will continue to never work? (By the way, a friend of mine says that these systems are just episodic and unfulfilling.  I would agree.)
*  Why is it that you've been to tons of leadership conferences, teaching conferences, summits, etc. and yet nothing has changed?

1 Thesasalonians 2:8 says this, "so we cared for you. Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well."

Discipleship is not leadership, it's "with me".  It's not a book.  It's not a conference.  It's not Sunday morning church.  It's not Sunday School.  It's not seeing how we can insert the latest and greatest gadget into our service.  True discipleship is following in the footsteps of Christ so closely that you are covered in the dust from his sandals. 

So what's holding us back?  Jesus left the 99 for the 1.  He was all about the 1.  Is it the fear of reaching the 1?  Is it the fear of revealing who you really are to another person?  Why do we wish to speak to the 100 and not the 1.  Is it to be known?  My friend Jim said one time, "Jesus didn't write a book, he invested in the men around him."

So who are you investing in right now?  Who are you discipling?  Because people know the story...they just want us to show them that it's real.

I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

This is a copy of my manuscript from the sermon I preached at the Later Multi-cultural worship Service at St. Luke's UMC on Sunday, July 3rd, 2011. 

We’re beginning a series this month on the church; who and what is the church, how the church should function, and what the Bible says about the church.  Tonight we’re going to start with evangelism.  Now, before we begin I want to address a couple of issues.  First and foremost, evangelism is not a dirty word.  However, like many other words and things in this world, it has been taken completely out of context in our current culture especially when discussing Christianity in America. 

First, I want to tell you what evangelism is not so that you can weed out some of the misconceptions that you may have about what this word actually means. 

Evangelism is not knocking on someone’s door that may or may not have visited your church and asking them if you could visit with them to share with them about why they are sinners and what they should do about it.

Evangelism is not handing out a leaflet that explains salvation and the road to it, only to walk away and expect the person to understand something that they are probably clueless about.

Evangelism is not some preacher pounding the pulpit on your television screen or computer telling you that if you don’t repent today you’re going to burn in hell.

Evangelism is not trying to interject Jesus into every single conversation that you have with someone who is not a professing believer in Christ.

However, we’re about to find out what exactly evangelism really is.  So let’s start where we should always start, with the good news. 

SCRIPTURE:

If you’d turn in your Bible to Matthew 9:35-38 or if you don’t have a copy of the Bible scoot close to someone who does or feel free to read the words on the screen.

So let’s read from the text in Matthew 9.  The text says,

³⁵ Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. ³⁶ When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. ³⁷ Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. ³⁸ Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

CONTENT:

So let me give you some background about what’s going on here in the scripture.  First of all, Jesus has been walking around and healing people, driving out demons, and as verse 35 states, “proclaiming the GOOD NEWS”.  I like that word GOOD NEWS.  Actually did you know that the word Evangelism comes from the Greek word "euangelion” which literally means “I bring a message”.  Later on it is thought to be translated into the words “Good News”.  So here is a true definition of what evangelism really is.  It’s going out and proclaiming the Good News of God’s love and kingdom and bringing healing to people.  Now, does that sound like anything that I mentioned above about the misconceptions of what evangelism really is?  Certainly not!

So moving forward we know that the definition of evangelism is “Going out to spread the good news of God’s love and his kingdom and helping heal people”.  We’re going to talk about how to live that out in our everyday lives here in a minute, but there’s some other stuff we have to talk about first.

Now that we know the definition of what evangelism really is let’s look back at the scripture and see what Jesus was thinking and doing.  It says in verse 36 that he saw the crowds and had compassion on them because they were helpless like sheep without a shepherd.  That word compassion comes from a Greek word which literally means to be moved in the inward parts which indicates a deep feeling in the heart and emotions.  Jesus literally felt burdened for these people.  Why?  Because their religious leaders at the time had abandoned them.

Have you ever felt abandoned by someone that you cared about or thought cared about you?  Maybe it was someone who was your pastor, preacher, or a friend/family member that you knew was a Christian.  It’s a horrible feeling!  These people felt abandoned by their pastor’s, their “church”.  So Jesus see’s this and feels the deepest of compassion for them.  The Pharisee’s who were charged with their protection and given the responsibility to guide them had left them and failed them.  So Jesus felt compassion for them.  You see the Jewish people at the time were looking for their Messiah.  And many had come claiming to be that person, but the Jewish people still had not found what they were looking for.  So here comes Jesus, who we know is the true Messiah and he feels the utmost compassion for them.  Not because they are Jewish and he is Jewish.  Not because they are in the right place at the right time, but because they had been abandoned, marginalized, placed on the fringe.  Jesus comes with that compassion and heals them and presents to them the Good News that we now know as the Gospel message, a message of love, a message of hope, but a challenge to our lives as well.  Jesus is guided by a deep understanding of the real needs of people.

Jesus then goes on to speak to the Disciples in verse 37 and as one of your Pastor’s I speak to you disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.”  Jesus and the disciples are surrounded by so many people who are not only in need of physical help, but also spiritual and emotional help.  There are many people in this world that are in need of help.  Maybe tonight you would consider yourself someone that was is in need of help.  Jesus is trying to communicate to the disciples that those in need of help far outweigh those who are willing to actually provide help.  Ironic that after 2000 years not much has changed.  But church, it can change.  It can change starting tonight if we would decide for ourselves to bring healing to those around us.

In verse 38 Jesus challenges the disciples and I challenge you this evening with this verse as well, “Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”  Tonight we are asking you, the church, disciples of Jesus, to be compassionate for those who need healing and go with the message of Good news and share with others.  But the method of doing this I think is what makes us uncomfortable and where we see the common misconceptions of our day.  Having compassion for people is where this drive to share with others should come from.  We must feel the deep and utmost compassion for those who need healing and not just physical, but spiritual and emotional as well.  However, we cannot just let it end with our feeling of compassion.

Evangelism IS getting close enough to people to see how YOU can bring the healing touch of the Gospel message, God’s love, to their deepest of needs.  Jesus spent most of his time conveying the message of God’s love by spiritually healing people.

Church, many times in the past we have failed in our attempts to bring spiritual healing to those in need.  We have sat back and watched the world, our family, our friends, our neighborhoods and our city deal with seemingly hopeless situations.  But the Good News is that it doesn’t have to be that way.  So tonight’s message is a wake-up call.  Christ has called each of you to bring spiritual healing to those around you, your neighbors, your friends, and to transform the world by making disciples. 

But how do we do this?  It is not by simply knocking on someone’s door and asking them if they’d like to accept Jesus as their savior.  It is not handing them a leaflet that leads them down a literary road to salvation.  It is not by raising your voice and getting angry at them.  It is not painting a pretty picture that life will be a walk in the park if they would just accept Jesus.  It is not by wearing a t-shirt or having a bumper sticker on the back of your car. 

It is through relationships.  Getting to know the people around you.  Listening to their needs.  Taking action on relieving their pains and bringing about spiritual healing to their lives.  Some of you have said, but Pastor Chris, I don’t know how to do that.  That kind of stuff is for preachers.  I’m sorry to burst your bubble, but it’s not.  Jesus challenges us in Matthew 28:18-20, “All Authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.  Go, therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you.”  YOU have been given authority from Jesus to go and bring spiritual healing to those in need.  The challenge is, will you do it.  Let’s quickly look at a video of how one young girl is doing this in her community.

PLAY VIDEO

It’s not difficult to bring about that spiritual healing that people need in their lives.  You can do this by writing someone a caring note, by taking someone out for coffee and just listening, praying with someone in their time of deepest need, listening to them and being present, bringing them to church so that they can hear the Gospel presented to them.  You can also mow your neighbors lawn, pick up their mail for them, you can do anything that shows someone else that God loves them and cares for them.  Jesus wants us to bring about this spiritual healing by sharing God’s love, the Good news, every day with the people around us.  When we meet the needs of those who need healing, then we will see the world being transformed.  When we show compassion to others we will see people wanting to become followers of Christ. 

Tonight is your opportunity to say I’m going to do this.  I’m going to take this challenge and help bring healing to those around me.  Or maybe tonight you’re saying that I need to be healed.  Or maybe tonight you saying I want to know this Jesus that you’re talking about.  If that’s you, if you fit any of those thoughts, then after the service we will be here to pray with you.  Let us help bring spiritual healing to your life, let us pray over you and commission you to take the good news and share it with others, and let us help you start the path to have Jesus come into your life and change forever.

Let us pray.

Summer Reading List....

So, to take a quick break from my "Called to Community Series" I wanted to share with you the four books that I've picked out for my summer reading list.  Maybe you'll want to read one along with me.

May-

"Foolishness to the Greeks" by Lesslie Newbigin

How can biblical authority be a reality for those shaped by the modern world? This book treats the First World as a mission field, offering a unique perspective on the relationship between the gospel and current society by presenting an outsider's view of contemporary Western culture.








June-

"Prophetic Untimeliness:  A Challenge to the Idol of Relevance" by Os Guinness

The buzz among evangelicals today is about relevance and reinvention, about new ways of ''doing church'' through revising, innovating, borrowing, mixing, and experimenting. Yet, says Os Guinness, in our uncritical pursuit of relevance, Christians have actually become irrelevant. By our determined efforts to redefine ourselves in ways that are more in line with the modern world than are faithful to Christ, we have lost not only our identity but our authority and significance. Prophetic Untimeliness addresses this issue by giving practical, constructive solutions for living with integrity in the midst of modern pressures. Guinness explores what it means to be both faithful and relevant, and how to be truly relevant without being trivial or trendy. Readers will be challenged to develop ''resistance thinking,'' an approach inspired by C. S. Lewis that balances the uncomfortable truths of the gospel with the pursuit of relevance. Only by being true to Christ and living with integrity and wisdom will we meet the needs of a world that is hungry for some really good news.

July-

"Resident Aliens:  A Provocative Christian Assessment of Culture and Ministry for People Who Know that Something is Wrong" by Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon

In this bold and visionary book, two leading Christian thinkers explore the "alien" status of Christians in today's world and offer a compelling new vision of how the Christian church can regain its vitality, battle its malaise, reclaim its capacity to nourish souls, and stand firmly against the illusions, pretensions, and eroding values of today's world. Hauerwas and Willimon call for a radical new understanding of the church. By renouncing the emphasis on personal psychological categories, they offer a vision of the church as a colony, a holy nation, a people, a family standing for sharply focused values in a devalued world.




August-

"Nudge:  Awakening Each Other to the God Who's Already There" by Leonard Sweet

Brace yourself. In Nudge, author Leonard Sweet sets out to revolutionize our understanding of evangelism. He defines evangelism as “nudge” – awakening each other to the God who is already there. Sweet’s revolution promises to affect your encounters with others, as well as shaking the very roots of your own faith. So brace yourself.

Once finished I'll try and recap/review the book.  If you'd like to read one of these with me and have discussion, I'm very open to that.  Please email me at soilforthesoul@gmail.com if interested.  Thanks!

The Call to Community: United in Forgiveness or The Untold Story of Judas

Judas...what thoughts are stirred up in your mind when I mention that name?  Deceit, lies, death, and pretty much a heep of other negative words and thoughts.  Yet, at one point in time Judas, the disciple, was part of the fold.  He was trusted by our Savior, by the other 11 disciples, and those who followed Jesus at the time.  He was a part of the inner group of Jesus' best buds. 

Then there seems to be a shift.  It's pretty clear when it takes place.  You know the whole part where Judas turns Jesus over to the authorities.  He sold his Savior and friends out over money.  Yikes...not good.  Okay, we all know this story, but there's a part of the story that might be a little unfamiliar.  In Acts 1:15-26 the disciples are all gathered.  Let's see what's going on there...

¹⁵ In those days Peter stood up among the believers (a group numbering about a hundred and twenty) ¹⁶ and said, “Brothers and sisters,^[a] the Scripture had to be fulfilled in which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through David concerning Judas, who served as guide for those who arrested Jesus. ¹⁷ He was one of our number and shared in our ministry.”
 ¹⁸ (With the payment he received for his wickedness, Judas bought a field; there he fell headlong, his body burst open and all his intestines spilled out. ¹⁹ Everyone in Jerusalem heard about this, so they called that field in their language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.)
 ²⁰ “For,” said Peter, “it is written in the Book of Psalms:
   “‘May his place be deserted;
   let there be no one to dwell in it,’^[b]
   and,
   “‘May another take his place of leadership.’^[c]
 21 Therefore it is necessary to choose one of the men who have been with us the whole time the Lord Jesus was living among us, ²² beginning from John’s baptism to the time when Jesus was taken up from us. For one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection.”
 ²³ So they nominated two men: Joseph called Barsabbas (also known as Justus) and Matthias. ²⁴ Then they prayed, “Lord, you know everyone’s heart. Show us which of these two you have chosen ²⁵ to take over this apostolic ministry, which Judas left to go where he belongs.” ²⁶ Then they cast lots, and the lot fell to Matthias; so he was added to the eleven apostles.

I want to key in here on something that we don't talk much about regarding forgiveness.  Have you ever thought about how much it hurt for the disciples to find out that someone they trusted, Judas, could do such a thing?  It would almost seem impossible to forgive a person for doing such a thing.  Yet in verse 16 Peter stands up with full authority and says that we've come to the conclusion that this was supposed to happen.  Even still it makes one wonder what the disciples felt regarding Judas.  If it were my I'd have a hard time forgiving. 

Yet we know that forgiveness is one of the hardest things for a person to do.  Oftentimes our forgiveness of someone is never heard or felt by the person that has done us wrong, but the act of forgiving is still necessary even if that person never finds out.  What happens when we don't forgive someone for wrong doing?  Our hearts begin to turn dark, bitterness and anger sets in, and we see a side of our humanity sometimes that we never thought existed.  Voicinig it is very important, especially to those who hold us accountable.  But more important is living it out.

I'm sure the disciples voiced their forgiveness of Judas to one another and most importantly to the Father.  But if we look in the last part of these verses, we see them living it out.  They understand that they have to move beyond the Judas incident and move forward with selecting another apostle to join their ranks.  In doing so, they are saying we forgive Judas and we are moving on, reconciling the situation.  This is where Matthias is chosen. 

So my question to you is this, knowing that God has given us the authority to forgive those who have done wrong to us, what's stopping you from doing so?  And secondly, how are you reconciling the situation and moving past it?  I want to add that this is not an easy subject.  It's also not easy forgiving.  However, if we are to live as righteous people of Gods Kingdom we must forgive and reconcile. 

Chris

The Call to Community: United in Prayer

There's a question that I keep asking myself and it has to do with being called to community.  One of the hardest things to come to terms with, even most recently, is regarding my call to ministry.  It seems that every 3 years I experience this question as a storm that lingers in my heart till an answer can be found. 

I've just wrapped up my third year serving at St. Luke's UMC in Indianapolis, IN and so this question has come up.  As we, St. Luke's, experience a transition from our Senior Pastor leaving, to an interim, and then on to another Senior Pastor, this sense of urgency has arisen around the idea of "the call" to ministry in my own personal life.

So I'm asking myself the question, what is your call to ministry look like Chris?  Rather than give you the full argument that has been taking place in my heart and mind, I will sum it all up with one statement...I am called to the greater community.  Meaning, that my call is to the Church of Indianapolis.  This calling is not one that is held down necessarily by a specific doctrine of belief, other than my own personal doctrine.  It's not one that is specifically held down by a denomination, which could be thrown in with the whole doctrine idea.  It's not one that is specific to anything but allegiance to Christ, the scripture, relationship, and serving.

So I would tell you that I serve on staff at St. Luke's UMC, but I feel called to the Church of Indianapolis.  St. Luke's is just one community within that larger community.  So then I started asking myself, what would happen if as pastors and servants of Christ we put down our petty arguements, stopped trying to say that our church is better than yours, and started focusing on the bigger picture?

Paul, an Apostle of Christ, was called specifically to cities or churches in a city, such as the Church of Antioch as one example.  There was only one church in Antioch and it was the Church of Antioch.  I thought I would take a step back to where some of this stuff began and look at the passages in the Book of Acts.  Jesus' ministry on Earth, as it was, was concluding and a new era was about to be ushered in by the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.  But before that there's a passage that I wanted to look at that talks about unity in the body and community.

That passage is Acts 1:12-14...

¹² Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day’s walk^[a] from the city. ¹³ When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. ¹⁴ They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.

I especially like verse 14 where it says, "All these were continually united in prayer,"  What would our communities look like if our Pastors were all united in prayer?  What if we came together and prayed with each other once a week?  How would our communities grow closer to God?

This is why I think we need to make a shift away from our current thinking that we "belong to ______ church", you fill in the blank, and move more to this idea that the "church" is not just one building, but a movement of believers in Christ.  How would things look if we were unified in prayer as the disciples were?
What would your city, town, or community look like if your Pastors were united in prayer?

Chris

"I like or dislike ________________ (insert famous Christian authors name)!"

Holy fire from the gates of Hell!  Seriously, there have been lots of comments and discussions regarding certain Christian authors, their belief's, and where they stand on things in the last few weeks.  If you don't know what I'm talking about, feel free to Google search "Rob Bell" or "John Piper".

I'm not really here to discuss specifically the reactions or my thoughts to this conversation.  Although I am somewhat guilty of asking some of those questions on my Facebook page, I'm here to talk more about where we are as believers in Christ.

¹ Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. ² I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. ³ You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans? ⁴ For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings?
 ⁵ What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. ⁶ I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. ⁷ So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. ⁸ The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor.
1 Corinthians 3:1-8

So the Apostle Paul is speaking to the church in Corinth and if you don't know anything about this church, you should know that they were doing some pretty dirty things.  When I read this passage this is what I glean from it compared to the last few days. Some say "I follow Rob Bell!" Others say, "I follow John Piper!"  Some even say "I follow _____________ (insert your favorite Christian authors name here)!" 

The church in Corinth was participating in hero worship.  It's kinda like when you go to a church and everyone is all about the pastor, but very few are about Jesus.  Hey, and I'm not knocking pastors because I am one.  But when did all become about the men and women leading and not about Jesus?  There's absolutely nothing wrong with reading an inspiring book.  Especially when you feel that it's helping you grow deeper in your relationship with Christ.  The problem is when you turn to those books/authors and worship them as your hero's.  As Paul says, they are only servants. 

Think about it his way...take out a piece of paper and follow the outline below:

1.  Write down the name of the person that led you to Christ.
2.  Write down the name of the person/people that discipled you in your first years as a Christian.
3.  Write down the name of your favorite pastor, author, or someone you look up to in your faith.
4.  Write down the name of someone that you are currently following because you aspire your faith to look like theirs.

Here's how mine goes...

1.  My Mom and Dad
2.  My Sunday School teachers, A.B. Colvin
3.  Gary Hollingsworth, Leonard Sweet, Erwin McManus,
4.  My wife

I bet that many of these people disagree doctrinely, but probably agree on one thing...we all need to have a personal relationship with Christ.

So I ask you, who is Rob Bell?  Who is John Piper?  Who is ____________ (insert name)? 

The bigger question is Who is Jesus and why haven't I talked to Him lately?

Chris

"I've got no problems with Jesus. It's the church that I can't stand."

Have you ever heard someone say this, "I've got no problems with Jesus.  It's the church that I can't stand."?  Truthfully, I've said it myself before.  There's something that has been spreading in our generation (Millenials and Gen Xer's), for some time now.  We look at how the church was when we were growing up and how the adults who filled it acted and we say, "No way!  I'm not doing that again!"  So as we grow up we depart from what we know as "the church".  Some of us have left and never come back.  Some of us wanted to leave, but just didn't have the moxy to do it.  Some of us left, came back, and left again.  Some of us left, came back, and have just continued to beat her to death.  Her meaning the church.  Then there are others who have treated her the way she was presented to be treated.

Jesus says in John 3:29, "The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete."

So we know that the bridegroom is Jesus and the bride is His church.  So let me ask you this, why beat her up?  Why rip her apart?  Why tear her down?  Here's something else I've heard..."I love the church, but I just don't like the people in it."  Guess what, they ARE part of the church too.  Jesus says that we cannot love him and not love the church. 

There are lots of people who love the church, but don't love Jesus too.  That's another topic for another day.  But for today, my question to you is, do you love the church?  The bride belongs to the bridegroom.  So if you are filled with joy when you hear His voice, then love His bride.

Derek Webb sings a song about this that I think you should take a listen to.  Here it is...

The Church by Derek Webb

My prayer is that if you've been loving on Jesus and not on the church that you would start loving on her too.  She needs us to love her.  Even when you think she's not at her best, because that's when she needs us the most.

Chris

New Growth...

Something that I'm incredibly guilty of is not being patient with God.  It's usually when things are going wrong that I forget about all the times He's been there for me when life is going well.  I think a lot of people can identify with that statement.

Serving in full-time ministry does not exclude you from this situation.  In fact, there are oftentimes more instances of having to be patient then in other areas of life.  Serving God, whether it's full-time, part-time, or volunteer is never easy.  The fact is that God calls all of us to serve and love one another.  But more times than not we give up because of that thing I was talking about in the first paragraph...being patient with God. 

Recently I started meeting with a group of local Pastors.  We get together on Wednesday afternoons to praying, share the Word with each other, encourage one another, and duke it out together when it comes to matters of all things spiritual.  One of the guys in the group was sharing with me about a time he was on a safari in South Africa.  It was 4 a.m. and they were walking through the jungle when the guide told them to stop.  The guide said to them, "Look down and tell me what you see."  He looked down and saw animal tracks and...a pile of poop.  The guide then proceed to tell them to look up and look around at all the new growth around them.  He then said, "See all of this new growth.  It came from that pile of poop."

Pslam 37:7 says, "⁷Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes."

Moral of the story...sometimes we gotta live with the piles of poop in our lives, be patient with God, and allow that poop and of course God to develop new growth in us.  So the next time you see a pile of poop in your life or step in it, don't get mad.  Sometimes we gotta have the poop to help us be who God wants us to be.

Chris

P.S.:  The original post title was "Oh Crap!", but I toned it down a bit for everyone.  Just thought you should know.