Stumbling About for Truth

“What I’m noticing is when we stop preaching Christianity as a religion…and we start inviting people to be followers Jesus and present Jesus and His way as part of this beautiful story of the Kingdom of God, a lot of our Christians who have left are drawn back.” -Brian McLaren on the way Post Modern Christians are responding to the church.

I found this quote on Rick Thompson's blog (http://roadwetravel.blogspot.com/) . I thought it was worth repeating here: True, grace-filled Christianity does not gloat in the face of disagreement. The result of grace is a love that points out truth but never points down. You know you have the gospel when you have reached a point in your life when you can passionately love people who you do not agree with. Think about that quote for awhile and put your own relationship with God, your family and the people of your church family in the context of it. What needs to change?

My daughter and I have had some issues come between us lately. That got me to thinking how many times God and I have had issues come between Him and I. We have had many. And of course, the issues in this relationship are not a two way street. When it comes to my daughter and I, we're both at fault. When it comes to God and I, I am at fault. It's amazing how He uses my relationship with my daughter to show me how He feels when I grieve Him. It never fails. I always find myself thinking: "This is how God must feel when I rebel against Him." He also uses my relationship with my daughter when it comes to who she is and the good things she does. When I look at her and things are going good and think about how beautiful and talented she is, I think: "This is how God must feel about me when He looks upon me." He, after all, chose me to be His child when I didn't want much at all to do with Him. Why would he do that except that He loves me? It's hard for me ...

I was listening to a friend earlier today talking about how the church tends to not want to deal with those that aren’t like them - those that might not have enough money to dress the same as church folks do, or if they don’t have all their ducks in a row personally - maybe they are addicted to something - maybe they’re addicted to many somethings. Or maybe they’re not the right color - or maybe we just don’t understand them because they come from a different background or culture. No matter the reason, many times we just keep those people at arms length. The gist of his comments were that if we are going to do that, then we have forgotten from whence we came. We have forgotten that we were dirty before God. That we were unacceptable before God. That we were rebellious against God. That we had no business coming before a God Who is perfect expecting anything. Heck, even as Christians, we’re still sinful and unacceptable but for the fact that Jesus took brunt of punishment for our sin. ...

I have responded a few times to a couple of Bruce Tomaso's posts over at the Dallas Morning News' blog. Each time he has chastised me for not allowing for others' beliefs - not being "tolerant" of those who don't agree with me. Those who don't believe like I do. I haven't responded to him yet and probably won't. He seems to be a pretty cynical creature from reading his snide remarks when he posts something or replies to those he doesn't agree with. Considering that I am a pretty stubborn cynic myself who isn't likely to have his mind changed by someone whom I already disagree with, it's not worth my time and effort to debate him about his intolerance towards me (and those he disagrees with). Still, I find it personally necessary to remind him of one verse in the book of John: John 14:6 This statement does not support diversity of beliefs nor does it depend upon anyone agreeing or disagreeing with it. As a business associate of mine like...

I was reading a blog the other night discussing why there are so many myths about mega-churches. The responses seem to be saying it's jealousy amongst the small church crowd. I thought the whole discussion was an exercise in futility no matter the real answer. The problem with church isn't about size. It's about relevance to our "post-post-modern-I-don't-give-a-!@#%-about-church" world. How is it that we seemingly have a church on every corner in this country, but a recent study, according to a friend of mine, shows that within the next X number of years (I don't remember the amount) less than 20% of us will be in church? The reason? I have found that some in the church try to blame the lost for not wanting to come to church - or when that doesn't work, they claim the old "church people are just sinners saved by grace so don't blame us" argument. Whatever makes you feel good I suppose. But I am more interested in reality. The real answer ...

I recently saw the following headline for a story on Mother Teresa and her doubts about God's existance: Did Mother Teresa Believe in God? Essentially, Mother Teresa didn't feel God's presence the last 50 or so years of her life and came close to questioning His very existance. The story is essentially a PR piece for a new book about Mother Teresa. The headline to this story is a commentary on the unbelieving society we all inhabit. The headline supposes that those of us who believe do so without question or struggle. How silly that assumption is - especially coming from a jaded and cynical world - a world that struggles to make sense of every bit of information it comes by. This story (and others on this subject) also seems to "dance on her grave" at finding out that she may have had doubts. Nothing like finding out that those we have mounted on a high moral pedestal are really just human after all and that they are fallen like the rest of us. We celebrate the fa...