It exists because over the past 4 decades I've noticed that Christians have messed up all the language used to advance the kingdom of God.
Christians have hijacked plain language so as to accommodate there own church growth, emergent, seeker friendly purpose driven mess we now call the visible church.
Does that bug me?
You bet it does.
Why?
Because when our pastor mentioned that the only way to understand the forgiveness Jesus talks about, he said "the only way to do this is to experience that forgiveness."
The moment I heard the word "experience" my radar went up.
And rightfully so.
Modern Christianity has all but ruined that word.
But it's a good word, and it was applicable. Let me explain.
The modern church tries so hard to define things that can not be defined. But it is possible to experience forgiveness. I also know that a good way to experience that is through His Word. Too many, that sounds like it could be part of or one piece of the solution.
We tend too think "yeah , read the Bible but we need to also (fill in the blank)"
It is possible to experience many of the things God speaks of but not in the abstract ways the visible church tries to convey. Anytime we add anything to hearing Gods Word (and that can only be done in the Bible) what we add becomes law thinking.
That is even true for as we consider loving God and loving others.
That is a summary of the Law.
When it comes to the Bible , its not the law that is the problem.
Its the conditions.
The condition of Law , in the Bible, is perfection.
Since no one can achieve that, why do we bind ourselves to it.
Is it not better to be bound by Grace? When we do , only then can true liberty be experienced.
Whether its Gods peace or Gods joy or Gods understanding , we can experience it. Many times these things come at the very time we need it and not before.
I know for a fact that we can indeed experience Gods forgiveness. We struggle with all of these things but I can assure you , as we walk daily with God , when we need His provision , it will be there for us.
Christians are forever telling everyone that they need to experience this or that. They say to me "I need to experience God."
How unfortunate it is , that we constantly miss Gods provision because we pass right over it in our daily lives. Then when we need it most, we wonder where God is.
What we miss is , the answer is in the long , long journey of everyday life.
These answers are in a lifetime of events and circumstances . They are all around us. That does seem to be consistent with human behavior. We excel in missing what we are already in.
The pastor did a good job conveying something that can not be easily conveyed. By his sharing a personal experience he is saying that no one can explain these things but the one faithful with Gods Word will experience all of Gods provision , when it is needed.
After finishing chap 18 , we got into chap 19 and there it begins with discussing divorce.
Here we can again see that the twisting of Gods Word is not something new.
that can be seen in v 7 when those religious leaders asking God to explain why Moses gave the command to give a certificate.
Just one slight problem there.
Moses never commanded that.
Sometimes I feel sorry for those who don't pay attention to words.
These people are easy to spot. There the ones who go along with the Christian flow, they attempt at all cost, to avoid division and they ridicule those who point out slight nuisances such as: Moses didn't command, he permitted.
When you consider, that's just one, of an infinite amount of ways, to be deceived, is it any wonder why we're not to be in constant prayer as we walk the Christian walk.
That is a huge difference , commanding and permitting.
But because pointing that appears to be "judgmental", a majority of Christians just say "it's no big deal."
That even appears judgmental, but observation is not passing judgment.
It's like me saying, "my opinion is.. the sun will come up today."
Have you seen today's churches (hence the term, visible.)
We either over socialize or no socializing at all.
It would take a long time for the light to come on, in people's mind, to clearly see this.
Most folks don't have that time but the slightest consideration of discovering the genesis of the Emergent church would reveal a lot. But most won't consider this because they like where they attend and they see nothing wrong.
I'll end this post with another word Christians have hijacked.
That word is "relationship."
It shows up when the rich young man asks "what am I lacking.?"
The answer to that falls under experiencing God and having a relationship with God.
I struggle in these areas. That's due to plowing my way out of past churches abuse of the words "experience" & "relationship."
The account of the rich young ruler is a good one. Our pastor handled it as best as possible.
My wife and I both know the struggles we have in these areas.
We both approach these in different ways but we are keenly aware that the answer is in the walk. It's years worth of time. It's falling. It's getting up and knocked back down. It's fights, it's making up. It's anger and it's forgiveness. Its conflicts and the settling of conflicts. It's hurt feeling and it's laughing at one another's corny jokes.
As my wife and I get ready to celebrate 31 years of marriage this week, it reminds us that our declaration of love was made 31 years ago.
Now what if, on a weekly basis, for 30 years, my wife and I were constantly told..
"you must experience one another."
"do you have joy with one another "
"u must experience joy with her/him "
Can u imagine if our marriage was handled in a similar way as any visible church? A mindset that even though it acknowledges negative aspects , would prefer that they never show up.
No one wants negative aspects in our lives. But because we have watered down this thing called sin , we have difficulty understanding life as it is. We take that understanding to other concepts of the Bible.
We struggle with difficult passages of the Bible. We apply our version of "fair" to them.
This is a big problem because at some point, we will need to deal with sins ultimate consequences, those being disease and ultimately death.
How can we begin to understand those if we can't even understand what having a relationship means?
Many Christians are not good with things that have already been done. We feel as though we need to be constantly doing something, adding something.
We all know that Jesus did it all
Yet truthfully, that has to be the most difficult of all of God's Truths to comprehend.
People might say," oh, I'm being ridiculous. " as I think of how our marriage might be if handled in a similar way as the visible church.
But they would say that after a summer sermon series entitled" having a relationship with God "
or" how to experience God. "
And this makes sense!?
And we wonder why people leave the church?
These believers say things like "how will people know if we don't tell em how that's done?"
I'm sorry, but if church's would just read all of Gods Word , isn't that enough to encourage the true believer to walk in a right manner.
Isn't that enough to comfort the one going through unimaginable , painful struggles?
Isn't just loving that one , as God says enough?
There are reasons marriage comes to light as we read God's Word in context.
But to date, the visible church has missed it, big time.
It goes without saying, had our marriage be lived in a similar way we are told to experience God, we would not be celebrating 31 years.
Our testimony is perseverance.
Since the visible church can't see "perseverance" more times than not, that's not good enough.
And perseverance turns into persecution many times.
But that truth rarely shows up in one's church life.
And note, the persecution isn't from the outside. It's from the inside, or better said, church family as well as human family.
And we're encouraged to endure all that as we sit week after week in many pews.
We think there's some formula?
Truth is, most formulas are just one believer saying to the other "you need to do this" and the council ends their.
The ending of chapter 19 is a painful reminder of what's missing
It's also a glorious reminder of what's to come, as seen in these verses :
Mat 19:28 — Mat 19:30
Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name's sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.
It doesn't get much better than that. This walk in Christ, on this earth, will be fought with much adversity, peppered with intense joy.
How unfortunate that our culture has managed to even reverse those.
Till next Sunday, God blessings to all
TryReadNit!
The modern church tries so hard to define things that can not be defined. But it is possible to experience forgiveness. I also know that a good way to experience that is through His Word. Too many, that sounds like it could be part of or one piece of the solution.
We tend too think "yeah , read the Bible but we need to also (fill in the blank)"
It is possible to experience many of the things God speaks of but not in the abstract ways the visible church tries to convey. Anytime we add anything to hearing Gods Word (and that can only be done in the Bible) what we add becomes law thinking.
That is even true for as we consider loving God and loving others.
That is a summary of the Law.
When it comes to the Bible , its not the law that is the problem.
Its the conditions.
The condition of Law , in the Bible, is perfection.
Since no one can achieve that, why do we bind ourselves to it.
Is it not better to be bound by Grace? When we do , only then can true liberty be experienced.
Whether its Gods peace or Gods joy or Gods understanding , we can experience it. Many times these things come at the very time we need it and not before.
I know for a fact that we can indeed experience Gods forgiveness. We struggle with all of these things but I can assure you , as we walk daily with God , when we need His provision , it will be there for us.
Christians are forever telling everyone that they need to experience this or that. They say to me "I need to experience God."
How unfortunate it is , that we constantly miss Gods provision because we pass right over it in our daily lives. Then when we need it most, we wonder where God is.
What we miss is , the answer is in the long , long journey of everyday life.
These answers are in a lifetime of events and circumstances . They are all around us. That does seem to be consistent with human behavior. We excel in missing what we are already in.
The pastor did a good job conveying something that can not be easily conveyed. By his sharing a personal experience he is saying that no one can explain these things but the one faithful with Gods Word will experience all of Gods provision , when it is needed.
After finishing chap 18 , we got into chap 19 and there it begins with discussing divorce.
Here we can again see that the twisting of Gods Word is not something new.
that can be seen in v 7 when those religious leaders asking God to explain why Moses gave the command to give a certificate.
Just one slight problem there.
Moses never commanded that.
Sometimes I feel sorry for those who don't pay attention to words.
These people are easy to spot. There the ones who go along with the Christian flow, they attempt at all cost, to avoid division and they ridicule those who point out slight nuisances such as: Moses didn't command, he permitted.
When you consider, that's just one, of an infinite amount of ways, to be deceived, is it any wonder why we're not to be in constant prayer as we walk the Christian walk.
That is a huge difference , commanding and permitting.
But because pointing that appears to be "judgmental", a majority of Christians just say "it's no big deal."
That even appears judgmental, but observation is not passing judgment.
It's like me saying, "my opinion is.. the sun will come up today."
Have you seen today's churches (hence the term, visible.)
We either over socialize or no socializing at all.
It would take a long time for the light to come on, in people's mind, to clearly see this.
Most folks don't have that time but the slightest consideration of discovering the genesis of the Emergent church would reveal a lot. But most won't consider this because they like where they attend and they see nothing wrong.
I'll end this post with another word Christians have hijacked.
That word is "relationship."
It shows up when the rich young man asks "what am I lacking.?"
The answer to that falls under experiencing God and having a relationship with God.
I struggle in these areas. That's due to plowing my way out of past churches abuse of the words "experience" & "relationship."
The account of the rich young ruler is a good one. Our pastor handled it as best as possible.
My wife and I both know the struggles we have in these areas.
We both approach these in different ways but we are keenly aware that the answer is in the walk. It's years worth of time. It's falling. It's getting up and knocked back down. It's fights, it's making up. It's anger and it's forgiveness. Its conflicts and the settling of conflicts. It's hurt feeling and it's laughing at one another's corny jokes.
As my wife and I get ready to celebrate 31 years of marriage this week, it reminds us that our declaration of love was made 31 years ago.
Now what if, on a weekly basis, for 30 years, my wife and I were constantly told..
"you must experience one another."
"do you have joy with one another "
"u must experience joy with her/him "
Can u imagine if our marriage was handled in a similar way as any visible church? A mindset that even though it acknowledges negative aspects , would prefer that they never show up.
No one wants negative aspects in our lives. But because we have watered down this thing called sin , we have difficulty understanding life as it is. We take that understanding to other concepts of the Bible.
We struggle with difficult passages of the Bible. We apply our version of "fair" to them.
This is a big problem because at some point, we will need to deal with sins ultimate consequences, those being disease and ultimately death.
How can we begin to understand those if we can't even understand what having a relationship means?
Many Christians are not good with things that have already been done. We feel as though we need to be constantly doing something, adding something.
We all know that Jesus did it all
Yet truthfully, that has to be the most difficult of all of God's Truths to comprehend.
People might say," oh, I'm being ridiculous. " as I think of how our marriage might be if handled in a similar way as the visible church.
But they would say that after a summer sermon series entitled" having a relationship with God "
or" how to experience God. "
And this makes sense!?
And we wonder why people leave the church?
These believers say things like "how will people know if we don't tell em how that's done?"
I'm sorry, but if church's would just read all of Gods Word , isn't that enough to encourage the true believer to walk in a right manner.
Isn't that enough to comfort the one going through unimaginable , painful struggles?
Isn't just loving that one , as God says enough?
There are reasons marriage comes to light as we read God's Word in context.
But to date, the visible church has missed it, big time.
It goes without saying, had our marriage be lived in a similar way we are told to experience God, we would not be celebrating 31 years.
Our testimony is perseverance.
Since the visible church can't see "perseverance" more times than not, that's not good enough.
And perseverance turns into persecution many times.
But that truth rarely shows up in one's church life.
And note, the persecution isn't from the outside. It's from the inside, or better said, church family as well as human family.
And we're encouraged to endure all that as we sit week after week in many pews.
We think there's some formula?
Truth is, most formulas are just one believer saying to the other "you need to do this" and the council ends their.
The ending of chapter 19 is a painful reminder of what's missing
It's also a glorious reminder of what's to come, as seen in these verses :
Mat 19:28 — Mat 19:30
Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name's sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.
It doesn't get much better than that. This walk in Christ, on this earth, will be fought with much adversity, peppered with intense joy.
How unfortunate that our culture has managed to even reverse those.
Till next Sunday, God blessings to all
TryReadNit!
![Have you been thinking lately , there's something missing? Discernmen...........t.[CLICK IMAGE]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoiNr7OjdutaE1fnZNfulF4VjXIW0Se2t3cO8WivL1l5R6Wbt2LwysTEwiZFMJ0dpXz_y4NKF-u3eG0WEbn9FenoXUIgL88SG5IMWLUyfp7N7J35eUPmE2a2zvy8nq6ZAIJ9eOmXmbNMYn/s376/PicsArt_01-21-05.55.38.jpg)
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