If you don’t know, maybe you weren’t saved at all.

Somehow we decided that we don’t need to be like Jesus if we’re right. Or that if we’re right, we’re like Jesus. Or that if we’re right, we don’t need to be righteous. We got confused.

Can you say, “I’m putting this bullet through your heart because I love you with the love of Jesus. Because God’s Word commands me to do this.”?

If you seriously think you can, if you ever feel the need to kill someone, call me first and let’s talk about it.

I don’t want to hire a river guide who’s just like me, a nice guy who knows the river as well as I do, who never tells me what to do.

I want a river guide who is wiser than me, who knows the river better than I do, who’s willing to tell me what I should do.

I want to hear about the river, not what I want to hear. Or I could drown.

I would rather be uncomfortable and find the truth, than be comfortable and find nothing.

In a previous article, I hinted about my background in the theater. Sometimes it was hard being a better playwright than actor. Faced with difficult lines, mediocre actors (like me?) are tempted to change them.

“I don’t understand what the line means”… but presumably the playwright does.

“That isn’t something I would have said”… but is it something the character would have said? How well do you know the character yet?

The great actors can perform great plays without changing the lines. Instead, they change their attitudes and understanding, trusting in the author’s intent.

Good advice for followers of Jesus as well.

I worked in a bookkeeping department for about a year. Every week I had to make one large bank deposit. I totaled up the checks, recorded their bank routing numbers on the deposit slip, then totaled them up again.

My first day on the job, the two totals didn’t match. I was angry and frustrated. This isn’t fair, I thought to myself, this is somebody’s fault. Continue reading “Repenting as a bookkeeper”

It means very little to say that we need a new kind of church if we can’t show it to anyone. Otherwise, freedom from tradition becomes an excuse for freedom from obedience. Jesus came to empower us as well as to liberate us. Without his power, we aren’t free from anything. Until the church of Jesus is restored, we are in desperate straits, and desperation is appropriate.

Satan desperately wants to say that God isn’t big enough. He can only redeem certain kinds of people. He can only fix problems with a certain degree of difficulty and no more.

Satan rejoices to see a church where only certain people feel welcome. If its members can handle only one kind of music, he likes that.

Satan enjoys it when Jews or Muslims or Buddhists or agnostics can convince themselves that Jesus isn’t for them. He enjoys it even more when Christians agree with them.

Satan is ecstatic when a church can’t provide healing for emotional or social hurts, and must send its members to experts who aren’t even part of the church.

Becoming defensive if someone questions your spiritual maturity is like becoming defensive if your parents tell you that you haven’t opened all your birthday presents. It’s a good thing, not a bad thing. God has more gifts for you. Open your presents.

Calmness is common among those who are ignorant of impending disaster or approaching victory.

Calmness would be appropriate if there were nothing at stake.

Some Christians have said “faith is not a feeling” too many times. They mock spiritual passion and praise religious niceness.

Though the apostle Paul groaned, and all creation groans, we feel we don’t need to.

Calmness is appropriate for those who are not in love. Passion is appropriate for those who are in love.