My daughter discovered this video. It makes me cry every time I watch it.
It isn't that I don't believe in the viability of church... I do. It is important to be part of a Christian community. But as a church what do we focus on? On Him? On drawing others to the cross? On getting out in the community? Or do we focus more on numbers and checking our watch because church is taking up our time. Are we just trying to draw others to a gig with flashy gimmicks. Or are we sitting comfortably in the pue Sunday after Sunday OK with our level of salvation and having no regard for anyone elses'.
A preacher at a local booming church here, setting the entire Northwest on fire for the Lord, has said, "Churches should be hospitals for the spiritually sick." I had never thought of it that way.
So, I watch the above video and I ask myself, 'What if we drove the ambulances and welcomed the decrepit at the door. What if WE as a body of faith-filled believers sought to heal the disease that is spreading through our country.... by getting up, getting out, and realizing it isn't about designer coffee in the lobby or new carpet down the hall. It is about the spiritually deficient souls passing by on the street who need to know Jesus is Love. To be openly welcomed, not condemned - to be genuinely loved, not hated - to come to a place and find relationship, not just bells and whistles. People need healing, not just cute Snoopy band-aids'
I seek to be extreme because all that Jesus and his disciples did was extreme. If to be Christian is to be Christ-like, shouldn't we love like Jesus? Be extreme like Jesus? Turn over the money tables and call for right focus in the house of the Lord like Jesus? Jesus didn't die for a religion or a ritual or designer coffee or new carpet in the hall or for complacent worship.... no, he died for a relationship with you and me and everyone else we can allow the Spirit to use us to reach out and help to heal. He died so we could actively die to ourselves and live with Him projected through us.
Paul says it best:
Yes, these are extreme thoughts, but these are extreme times. I blog, I parent, I teach... I have a responsibility to disciple, to lead, to love, to nurture. May God strengthen us all for our extreme thoughts to become extreme actions.
Blessings dear friends,
It isn't that I don't believe in the viability of church... I do. It is important to be part of a Christian community. But as a church what do we focus on? On Him? On drawing others to the cross? On getting out in the community? Or do we focus more on numbers and checking our watch because church is taking up our time. Are we just trying to draw others to a gig with flashy gimmicks. Or are we sitting comfortably in the pue Sunday after Sunday OK with our level of salvation and having no regard for anyone elses'.
A preacher at a local booming church here, setting the entire Northwest on fire for the Lord, has said, "Churches should be hospitals for the spiritually sick." I had never thought of it that way.
So, I watch the above video and I ask myself, 'What if we drove the ambulances and welcomed the decrepit at the door. What if WE as a body of faith-filled believers sought to heal the disease that is spreading through our country.... by getting up, getting out, and realizing it isn't about designer coffee in the lobby or new carpet down the hall. It is about the spiritually deficient souls passing by on the street who need to know Jesus is Love. To be openly welcomed, not condemned - to be genuinely loved, not hated - to come to a place and find relationship, not just bells and whistles. People need healing, not just cute Snoopy band-aids'
I seek to be extreme because all that Jesus and his disciples did was extreme. If to be Christian is to be Christ-like, shouldn't we love like Jesus? Be extreme like Jesus? Turn over the money tables and call for right focus in the house of the Lord like Jesus? Jesus didn't die for a religion or a ritual or designer coffee or new carpet in the hall or for complacent worship.... no, he died for a relationship with you and me and everyone else we can allow the Spirit to use us to reach out and help to heal. He died so we could actively die to ourselves and live with Him projected through us.
Paul says it best:
For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
- Galatians 2:19-20
Yes, these are extreme thoughts, but these are extreme times. I blog, I parent, I teach... I have a responsibility to disciple, to lead, to love, to nurture. May God strengthen us all for our extreme thoughts to become extreme actions.
Blessings dear friends,
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