The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.
Negativity of reform
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.
I heard my baby’s heartbeat.
I heard my baby’s heartbeat last week, for the first time. Exciting. Eerie. Humbling.
What Satan wants to say
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.
Open your presents
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.
The case against calmness
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.
American civil religion
Have you heard of something called American civil religion? It says that if you don’t do anything real bad, or if your good deeds outweigh your bad deeds, you go to heaven. We’re all familiar with its teachings, yet no church officially teaches them. Yet if you deny its teachings, people look at you funny, as if you’re being uncharitable or heretical. Continue reading “American civil religion”
The rock is falling.
A young Anabaptist named Javan Lapp wrote a poem Tame the Rock! You should read it.
He’s probably thinking of this Scripture:
“While you were watching, a rock was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them… But the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth” (Daniel 2:34-35)
And I’m thinking of this Scripture:
“He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed” (Matthew 21:44).
And I want God to break me to pieces.
The case against Sunday School
The Sunday School was created to educate children who had no spiritual instruction at home.
I suppose that’s why we send our children to Sunday School today?
Going to New Ulm
My mother just called me, tearfully.
She told me that this morning in St. Louis, Missouri, my grandmother passed away.
You can read about her life in my book Pathway: A Family History and view pictures of her at Elva Online.
She will rest in New Ulm, Texas, where Christoph Ashorn settled more than 150 years ago. She was his oldest living descendant. She always talked about getting back to Texas someday.