Compared to the Kingdom of God and your part in it, does anything else you’re doing really matter? What should you do now? Should you turn off your computer? Weep? Repent? Click on a different link? Get a drink? We all have answers and goals. But most of the time, we’re answering the wrong questions, and reaching the wrong goals, like a Roman father in Pompeii who finishes remodeling the family room just before Mt. Vesuvius buries it in ashes. When we don’t know God’s will, we have to fill in the gaps with our own will and ideas. Or we can’t live. The alternative is to know God’s will.
Month: November 2004
Christ has gone this way before us.
“Christ has gone this way before us; and His beloved apostles likewise, and we His servants are not above our Lord.”
– Adrian Corneliss, Martyrs Mirror, p. 526
Really small youth rallies
Michael Spencer has good ideas. In his article, Subcultural Spirituality or “I know he’s a Christian because I saw it on his bumper sticker.”, he warns against replacing personal disciplines with church campaigns.
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We will preach the truth in seven or eight years.
“…We are not willing to be imprisoned and in fear and tribulation with you, but in about seven or eight years I will promulgate the truth aright and make great gain by it.”
– a religious teacher in Louvain, AD 1550, speaking to Anabaptists imprisoned for their faith, Martyrs Mirror, p. 497
Now, pretend you’re a heathen.
Try this experiment: read the Bible as if you were an outsider. Pretend that these scriptures belong to a now-extinct sect that many admire but nobody follows. Imagine that someone loaned them to you and that you have no claim of understanding or even believing them. For once, don’t assume that you have the right to be encouraged by every encouraging word within their covers.
Continue reading “Now, pretend you’re a heathen.”
The power of His Spirit is not weakening.
“Oh yes, the power of His Spirit is not weakening in me.”
– Govert, Martyrs Mirror, p. 495
Christianity that will only ease your conscience.
“Do not be satisfied with as much Christianity as will only ease your conscience.”
– J. B. Stoney
About Michael
Maybe you want to know something about the creator of this website. When I began it, I was middle-aged, single, a writer and search engine marketer, caregiver for my elderly grandmother (1911-2006). I got married in 2005, moved back to Texas in 2006, and had a son in 2007. I’m fifth-generation Methodist, descendant of circuit riding preachers in West Virginia, though my family left the Methodist church when I was 17. Since then, I’ve been part of churches with labels such as: Southern Baptist, Nazarene, charismatic, apostolic, Anabaptist, Assembly of God, Church of Christ, and (shudder!) Presbyterian. Hypocrite is another label that has been applied to me. Some aspects of my life I would rather not talk about. But I’d rather be inconsistent with my beliefs than to stop believing them.
I never had a joy that did not perish.
“I never had a joy that did not perish, as I now have.”
– Anneken, Martyrs Mirror, p. 494-495
Coming to God as an outsider
The Bible is most often read like a greeting card, whose only purpose is to warm the heart regardless of whether or not its sentiments apply to you. We bend the meaning of the Scripture to fit our own experience. When the Bible describes how God’s people must live, instead of asking, “Am I one of God’s people? Is that how I live?” we declare, “Since I am one of God’s people, that is how I live.” That we may not be part of God’s people is not considered a possibility.
Continue reading “Coming to God as an outsider”