Thursday, November 29, 2007

Social Justice


Christians seeking social justice have a special responsibility. Much more is required than the bringing of aid to people who are homeless and in need, and contributing to their support. There are real dangers to be faced. It must never be allowed to appear that charity is dispensed to the unfortunate by superior beings... Much greater care must be taken to identify the giver with those whom he comes to serve. A.C. MacInnes

It is very important as we go out into the world and begin the work of Christian service to remember that we do not do it because we have much and they have little, we do it because we recognize in them the same attributes we have in ourselves. The physically homeless remind us that we are aliens here on this earth, that we are heavenly residents spending a little time here in this fallen world (Eph 2:19). When we see the physically poor we are reminded that we are often poor in Spirit and poor in our faith, (Mat 5:3) and that even though we are poor we are rich inheritors of the Kingdom of God (Heb 9:15). The physically hungry remind us that we have a hunger for righteousness, and that every person in this world is hungering for righteousness (Mat 5:6) which comes through Jesus Christ. When we see those who are in deep sorrow because of the dangers of life, or the uncertainty, or the loss of loved ones we are reminded that we all live together in this fallen world, and that we much continue to struggle together as we seek Glory in the end (Gal 1:4).

Jesus reminds us that we will always have the poor with us (John 12:8). He didn’t say this so we wouldn’t feel bad if they were around, or to let us off the hook for taking care of them, in fact the opposite is true. If we will always have toe poor among us, we will always have the rich among us as well. God is a God of balance, not of imbalances. God is a rich and generous God, and because we are created in His image we are to be rich and generous as well. The reason we have the poor among us is so that those who have plenty can act in a “Godly” way in giving all they have to help their brother. It is God’s way of allowing us to act in His nature to balance the imbalances of the world. But.. In the last part of that scripture in John 12:8, He says “you will not always have me”… or will we?


Jesus says to us today…
For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.' "Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.' (Mat 25:35-37)


When we care for those whom God has put before us, we care for Him. When we care for those less fortunate than us, we do not do it because they are somehow lower than we are; we do it because we share with them the same level of fallenness and the same level of salvation. We are all one creation, mankind, made in God’s image, when we help each other out, we must do that in God’s image as well… with all generosity, overflowing, spilling down the sides, in other words, in compassionate abundance….

Monday, November 26, 2007

A New Time Has Come

It has been many years since the church that I attend has shown the community that lives around us that we are more than just a building, but a body of people that is more interested in bringing the word of God to the neighborhood than to just bring in money in to keep the doors open.
This year we held a pumpkin patch not to just raise money but instead, to bring people to the church so that we could get to know them, find out if they have a relationship with God, and to offer our service to them if they need any help. We got to know many wonderful people, and had many Christ based talks, and found a few that are looking for a church home, and we even had a few that came just to see what the heck was going on, I had one person ask me if this was a new church moving in to an old building, I just told them “No, we’re just getting our second wind and now we are ready for round two” and we both had a laugh. I also meet a young man who had recently lost his father, and he had some questions about God and Heaven so we talked and now I see him from time to time and I keep letting him know that if he needs us all he has to do is call. We even had one or two that drove by and give us the FINGER, and all I could do was ask God why that person's heart was so hardened and then I prayed for them, but in all I think that we let the people of the area know that we are alive and we are here for them.
In the end though I think we did what Christ would want us to do, let the people know that there are still people who a willing to show you what Christ has done for them and are willing to share the love of Christ with whom ever has the desirer to drink of the Living Water that is given through knowing Christ.

By:ChristMusic92

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

The Church


The church has magnificent buildings, superb equipment, trained leadership, excellent teaching materials, organizational ability, and yet lacks that one thing that could take all these tools and make them the channel of God's will. In spite of its ever-increasing membership, the church lacks the spirit of God's growing love and understanding that can transform it from an efficient organization into a loving, dynamic fellowship where men and women become vitally alive with faith, love, and hope. ... Thomas M. Steen, "Renewal in the Church"

Jesus said, “Tear this temple down, and in three days I will rebuild it”. Jesus understood clearly what we never seemed to get. The church is not the building, it never was, and it never will be. The Pharisees and Temple Priests were aghast at what Jesus said; it was even used against Him in His trial. They never seemed to get the idea that Jesus was putting forth, that the new sacred space, the new holiest of holies was not the temple anymore, it was Jesus Christ. In Christ was the embodiment of God, there was no need for the Temple or the lost Ark of the Covenant, Jesus was the new Ark of the Covenant, the New Covenant. And when the Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD the Jews were lost, they felt that their sacred space was gone, all because they didn’t believe on Christ.

Many modern Christians are just like those Jews of Jesus’ time. We seem to think the embodiment of Christ is in the building. We build bigger and bigger monuments that we call churches. In spite of all that building the fastest growing elements of the emerging Church these days are house churches. They are actually the only way people can freely worship in China and other countries where Christians are persecuted or Christian practices are illegal. A growing number of people in the U.S. are meeting in small groups in peoples houses for worship. Ministers travel between houses bringing the message, praying, offering Holy Communion and all in the intimate setting of a living room, just like in the New Testament. Any house will do, these folks have none of the trappings of an established church. When the people leave, the room is immediately transformed from a sacred place of worship to a living room ready for family recreation. The house church knows that the real Church lies in the people in the room, not the room itself.
In John 6 verse 28 & 29 the crowds ask Jesus a question: "What must we do to do the works God requires?" Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent." You see Jesus says clearly that the only work required of us is that we believe in Him. This is not the standard English “believe” but a deeper meaning comes from the Greek text – to put your entire faith in, to commit to…. When we do this all the trappings of the church seem to slip away. Our focus is on Christ and not on what we think Christ wants us to do. The Spirit will be evident to us and we will follow His leading and do the work of the Father instead of work we design to hopefully please the Father. It is our intent, as a Church to be that loving and caring dynamic body of believers led by the Holy Spirit. We often quote the scripture that tells us the Church is a body, but we all too often forget to end the scripture with “and Christ is its head”. A body can do nothing unless he head tells it. We must give ourselves to Christ, and when we do we will hear His call and become the Church we are intended to be.

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Alien Society...


The Church is an organism that grows best in an alien society.

C. Stacey Woods

We must remember, as a Church, as a community of believers we are one organism. We are to be, as Christ desires and as Paul tells us, a body with Christ at the head. As a body we do the normal body things, we check for bumps and bruises, scrapes and scratches. We feed our body, we exercise our body and generally take care of it (or not). If we do care for our body it functions at peak performance, ready to run jump and stretch its way into a busy world, never getting winded, never getting tired. But…if we feed our body bad food, if we get lazy and spend all our time on the couch, if we simply neglect our body we will not be ready for the rigors of the world. We will get winded, we won’t be able to keep up, we will fall behind at each step and we put our body in jeopardy of being sent to the hospital for some real care.

Our church is just like our physical bodies. If we feed it well, a diet of prayer scripture fellowship and study, it will perform well. If we fail to feed it these things and instead feast on a diet of secular radio, TV, books, crude jokes, bad attitudes, and stuff that leads us astray, we will fall behind and not be able to do the basic functions of a church (body). You see, our sanctuary, our house of worship is nothing more than a restaurant for the body called the church. We hope it is a fine food restaurant and not just a fast for restaurant. Occasionally someone will wander in that has never been to our establishment and we will feed them with the same thing that is on the menu for us, but we need to be sure we have milk for the young ones and meat for those with real teeth for the Gospel. But the important thing to remember is that this house we come to once, twice or three times a week is only a stopping point for our body. It is a place to be fed, a place to apply some medication to parts of the body that need it, but the real work of this body is done in that alien society that lies right outside the door. The question we must ask ourselves is… Is the society outside the doors alien to us or is the one inside the doors alien to us? Are we more comfortable in the world or the sanctuary? Can we operate better out there in that world than we can in our house of worship? What makes you more nervous, telling someone about a movie you saw last week or a passage of scripture you read this morning? Asking to borrow some spare change from a friend for a soda or asking that friend if you can pray with them? Passing someone by in the hallway that seems distressed or taking the time to listen to them? Where are we most comfortable? The answer to that question will tell you where you are considered an alien… Are you an alien in this world of ours or in your Christian community? You cannot be both.

Saturday, November 3, 2007

Jesus must live in the suburbs because that's where we are building all the churches!!


I was sitting down talking to a friend this morning when the discussion of the church came up. I mentioned that we always seem to be building new churches in the areas where affluent people seem to be settling. Everywhere there is a new housing development in the suburbs there seems to be a new start-up church soon to become a mega-church popping up. What has me absolutely bewildered is the complete abandonment of the churches that are in neighborhoods that we think of as in decay. I am amazed and a little confused at what people think the church is. We seem to be a little too willing to move where the money is and a little more than reluctant to stay where it isn’t. I think that if we were acting like the Church that Christ had in mind in the end of Matthew and beginning of Acts we would be excited at the possibilities in these less than desirable neighborhoods. I see the blessing of the church in the hard hit areas of our cities and rural countryside. It would seem that the design that God had set out for us was to build in these areas where, in the 40’s and 50’s were thriving neighborhoods, so that we would be ready to really be the church when they turn to troubled areas. I mean shouldn’t we be excited that we now have churches scattered throughout the troubled areas of our cities and rural countryside that are paid for? Shouldn’t we be waiting like a real Church for the wave of the “least of these” to come to our doors? Shouldn’t we be standing at the doors waiting to clothe those without clothing? Feed those who are hungry? House those who are homeless? Instead we are acting too much like the world, looking toward the suburbs instead of the timed coming toward our doors from the inner city! Shame on us! Shame on us for turning our back on the great commission! All that comes to mind when I think of this is Matthew 25 where Jesus says this:


"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. "Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.' "Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?' "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.' "Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.' "They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?' "He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.' "Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."

Where will you and your church be when Jesus comes to you?