Be honest.
Do you ever get the feeling that Jesus would never choose to hang out in the places we’ve built for him? Do you ever feel like Jesus’ message of radical love, mercy and forgiveness has been drowned out by the voices of judgment, condemnation, and stagnant ritualistic religion? Do you ever get the sense that the church was never meant to be about helping itself, but about helping the world? Do you ever get the nagging feeling that Jesus never intended the church to be comfortable and controlled, but instead an untamable movement that challenges the way things have always been done? Have you ever longed to be a part of a community that isn’t afraid to experience God in new and creative ways? (Yeah, us too.)
10 comments:
Jesus is “widening the net." How appropriate that our next gathering Monday night is at the "Net" (Performance Network).
P.S. I think Emma should get more face time!
Hey Scott,
It was really great meeting you over coffee and becoming inspired to what the greenroom is doing within the creative realm that is A2.
In response to Mark 9: I think the author is trying to tell us that Jesus is unselfish in his love towards others, contrasted with our selfish love towards God. You called it widening the net and that is a perfect word picture. God’s net expands, while our net has a tendency to shrink because of our nature. The disciples had access to Jesus’ love, power, and abilities on a daily basis, but the moment they saw someone else using it to better humanity they wanted to put an end to it.
There are times when I felt jealous when someone else was telling me about the amazing things God was doing in their life, just like the disciples, I wanted God all to myself. However, that is not God. He is not just for me, but for all. I think this transforms my life because I do not want to be a God-hog who solely wants his favor for my own benefit.
This message has huge implications for the greenroom because we can be a movement that brings unity because we celebrate what Jesus is doing throughout the entire creative community of A2. Jesus says, “I tell you the truth, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to Christ will certainly not lose his reward.” Any good being done by Jesus, whether the greenroom had a hand in it or not, should applauded. Jesus teaches his disciples in Mark 9 to expand their nets and become unselfish in their love towards God and others.
Hey Lance! It was great meeting you as well! You have an amazing heart for God and I'm excited to see how God uses your gifts to help the greenroom be the kind of creative movement that helps bring heaven to earth. Thanks for commenting. After my first trip to Ecuador I remember coming home with the sense that God was so much bigger than I ever thought. People who had very little in the way of bible education were being used by God to do miraculous things in that area of the world. It was an amazing experience. It taught me that God is ready and willing to use anyone (even someone like me) to help lead the world back into his loving arms. Thanks for your thoughtful, honest, and sobering words - and may we always be a movement that is unselfish in everything we do. For that looks a lot like Jesus.
...whoever is not against us is for us...
Pretty powerful words, if I really think about it. The world's version is "If they're not FOR us, they're AGAINST us!" But Jesus has once again flipped things upside down. What happens if we apply this concept to religions? Standard thought is of this world, teaching that if they're not FOR us, believing EXACTLY what we believe, then they're AGAINST us...but that's not how Jesus sees it. Some quotes to ponder: "Then We sent Our Messengers following in their footsteps and sent Jesus son of Mary after them, giving him the Gospel. We put compassion and mercy in the hearts of those who followed him." (Qur'an, 57:27).
"However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do you if you do not act on upon them?" or "Hate is never conquered by hate, Hate is only conquered by love." Both from The Buddha.
“The power of God is with you at all times; through the activities of mind, senses, breathing, and emotions; and is constantly doing all the work using you as a mere instrument.” Or this: "Whatever you do, make it an offering to me - the food you eat, the sacrifices you make, the help you give, even your suffering." both from the Bhagavad Gita.
Those are quotes from Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism, respectively. Sound familiar? So the question is, if they teach what Christ taught, they are not against us. And if they're not against us, as Jesus teaches, then they are for us! Maybe Christ's net is A LOT wider than we have ever imagined...
Oh, and follow this link: http://goo.gl/jJwe
to see some of my favorite quotes from this chapter. There's SO much in here! This is why it's important to read and re-read and discuss the Gospels. There's ALWAYS more!!!
wow aral, you got your life jacket on? We're about to head into deep waters.
"..quotes from Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism...if they teach what Christ taught, they are not against us. And if they're not against us, as Jesus teaches, then they are for us! Maybe Christ's net is A LOT wider than we have ever imagined..."
Again, we need to look at the whole of scripture before we pull a specific verse out and somehow make that an essential attribute of the Christian faith. Consider Matthew 12:30...
"He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with me scatters."
Are Muslims, Mormoms, Buddhists, Hindus, etc. "with" Jesus? According to His own words, they are not (John 8:24,31-32).
Also, when it comes to other religions, one element stands out; they do not worship the same God when they do not recognize Jesus Christ as the only way to Him and as Lord and Savior. There is no wiggle room there. We either submit and have faith in Him alone or we do not. Just because another religion teaches SOME of what Jesus taught does not make them one of us. What did satan do? He twisted scripture. What did the Pharisees do? They twisted scripture. We see that quite a bit today with people who call themselves Christian trying to "widen the net" and unify all religions into one.
Salvation is free to all but only to those who come through Jesus Christ. There is no other way (John 14:6)
I realize this is a more liberal blog trying to reach the unchurched but we cannot soften the message (or twist it) in order to make it appealing to everyone. We should never compromise the truth for the sake of pleasing men.
There are some things in scripture that may be 'hard' to accept but we ought not avoid them simply because they may offend. Instead, we are to proclaiming the truth always in love but w/o compromise.
~ktf~
John
I don't think this blog is liberal...or conservative. In fact, labeling ourselves as either seems to take us far away from our goal of looking like Jesus. There's a blog i read by Richard Beck, Professor and experimental psychologist at Abilene Christian University, which had a post today that is, i think VERY relevant to our discussion here. It's a review of a book called "Evolving in Monkey Town" So, instead of going on a long diatribe here, you can just read the blog Here and let me know what you think. It's all about religious certainty...doubt...and putting a face and a name to "those heathens" on their way to hell.
Thanks Aral for leading us to that article. I've only read about a quarter of it, because, honestly, it brought back memories of a moment that still haunts me to this day. A couple years ago, to prepare for a sermon I was going to do on "the problem of suffering", I visited the holocaust museum in West Bloomfield. As I slowly walked through the dimly lit hallways showing one of the most horrific, despicable, and diabolic times in human history. Millions upon millions of men, women and children being rounded up like cattle and beaten, raped, tortured, gassed, starved, and murdered by those who claimed to be representatives of Christ.
Just typing it now brings a sickness to my stomach.
About 3/4 of the way through I stood in front of a glass container holding a few items that were found in a Nazi Concentration Camp after the Germans had surrendered. Sitting in the glass container, among many other things, was a tattered baby doll that was owned by a little girl who had been stripped of all that she had and rounded up into a gas chamber and brutally murdered - simply because she was born into a Jewish family. At that moment, something terrible went through my mind. My belief system told me that all of these millions of men, women and children were going to spend eternity in the tortures of Hell. For years they had experienced Hell on earth, and now they were going to be in Hell for eternity. Torture to torture, suffering to suffering, agony to agony.
No book or seminary class ever had prepared me for something like this. My legs felt week and I sat down on a bench and began to weep. Thankfully, the whole experienced actually caused me to seek God in a more honest and passionate way.
Read the "Monkey Town" blog post and came away with this...
Human nature has a very difficult time excepting hell. It just doesn't seem fair from our perspective because we associate good with God's favor. If we do good things, live a good life or otherwise appear to be innocent or unfairly treated, God in the end will "balance the scales' and let us into heaven.
That way of thinking simply does not align with scripture. We should be thankful that God doesn't see things the way we do. That he doesn't judge the way we do. We judge according to what we deem as good & bad. God judges according to His standard which is absolutely perfect and righteous.
The entire Bible conveys a couple of key themes woven throughout the story...
Man's biggest problem is sin
God is holy, righteous, just and unchanging. He nor His word 'evolves'.
God desires that all of mankind turn from sin (repent) and put their faith, trust & hope in Jesus Christ whom He sent as the perfect sacrifice to redeem us (save us) from our sins and restore us to a right relationship with Him.
God takes no pleasure in sending anyone to hell but offers salvation freely to all who come to Him through His Son.
Our faith is not what saves us but rather, it acts as the demonstration of His grace, His calling, His drawing us to Him. The righteousness of Christ demonstrated on the Cross is ultimately what saves us.
Those who eventually end up in hell go there as a result of their sins; not simply because they didn't 'know' Jesus.
Those who eventually end up in heaven go there as a result of the Cross and responding to the Gospel in repentance and faith.
Heaven and hell have nothing to do with good & bad according to our standards. Not a single one of us is good in that we can save ourselves or earn our way into heaven. All of us rightly deserve hell. If not for Christ & the Cross, God would be completely just and good for sending every human being to hell the moment they were born due to our sinful nature.
Whether someone is born into this culture, religion or environment is not an excuse as to why God should grant them a 'pass' and let them into heaven. Everyone of us at some point in our lives has the opportunity to receive Christ. God has revealed Himself and His plan of salvation to all mankind; there is no excuse.. No one will stand before Him on judgement day and give an acceptable reason why they rejected Christ as their Lord & Saviour.
~ktf~
John
If we consider ourselves to be Christans, we ought to be following Christ alone. Our faith & trust ought to be in Him alone and our primary purpose in life ought to be sharing the Gospel to everyone we can. We should be living a transformed life demonstrated in faith & good works not as a way to boast in self or earn points but as a response to the Gospel and out of love for a God who loved us enough to suffer the wrath of the Father in our place for our sins.
I don't like labels anymore than the next person but unfortunately, that's how we all are. We all judge, we all label people. In Christianity, there is one Church and one way...all through and centered on Jesus Christ. Without Him, everything else is man-centered, hopeless, empty religion.
If one who considers God's word as the final authority to be a fundamentalist, then I guess I'd be a fundamentalist. I may not understand all of it or even agree with it at times but it is His word; always more than sufficient and never needing to be changed or updated for the culture, the times or in order to fit the latest marketing-study created growth model for a seeker-sensitive, purpose-driven, emergent church movement.
Mark 9:42-49 shows us just how serious God views sin. It's a reminder for us of how holy He is.
As sad and confusing as it is to accept that a seemingly good person who was unfairly treated in this life, or gave so much to others, doing good things will spend eternity in hell simply because they chose the wrong religion or didn't recognize Christ according to the Christian Bible, the truth is, this is the right & just response of a perfect, holy, righetous and long-suffering God.
This ought to cause us to have an even greater passion for the lost and a greater joy knowing that our eternity doesn't have to depend on how good we are but rather, how gracious, merciful and loving God is.
~ktf~
John
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