The False Heaven of a Successful Ministry
Amen.
“Um” and “Like” and Being Heard
This is sound advice. Something I have, um, like, tried to work on.
Help! I Struggle With My Pastor’s Preaching
Perhaps, I should pass this among our congregation.
Must I Join a Church to be a Christian?
Phenomenal answer to this question.
Five Reasons It Is So Painful for a Pastor to Lose a Church Member
It really is painful.
I need this dog:
You’ve likely heard it said that Christians are hypocrites. It’s such a common thing to hear that I’ve got a neat little joke that gets a laugh about every time. If someone objects to coming to church because it is “full of hypocrites”, I usually tell them, “Don’t worry, we’ve got room for one more.” This little quip isn’t original with me. But I’ve used it because it is an effective way of saying we are all hypocrites in some way. Yet, there is a way in which a Christian is a different kind of hypocrite from an unbeliever.
We define a hypocrite as someone who is different in public than they are in private. If you pretend to be a loving and kind person but inwardly you loath the sight of other humans, then you are a hypocrite. A people pleaser just like the Pharisees. When who you are outwardly doesn’t reflect who you are inwardly then you are being a hypocrite.
Consider, though, a believer who is engaging in angry gossip. Who is this man, really? He is one who has been redeemed. He has been given a new heart with new desires along with a new identity. He is truly a new self. This new self is not given to angry gossip and slander. Such things belong to the old self. So, yes he is being a hypocrite, but not in the way an unbeliever might imagine. It’s not as if he is really and angry gossip—that this is his identity—and his kindness and graciousness on other occasions are all a sham. No, in reality his hypocrisy goes in another direction. He is being outwardly someone that he is not inwardly; namely, an angry gossip.
In the Scripture we are motivated to be who we are in reality. The problem with those who’ve actually been born again is not that we just pretend like we’ve been made new but inwardly we are still dead men’s bones. The problem is that we are being hypocrites by living like we haven’t been changed. We are living according to the old man. We are putting on those old smelly clothes instead of walking in the newness of life that has been purchased for us. That is much different from the man who actually hasn’t been born again but he walks around pretending like he has. This man really does have an angry and slanderous heart but he likes people to think he doesn’t. That’s a hypocrite too but in a much different way.
My reason for pointing this out is to encourage believers to know our identity in Christ and to live in who we have been. For us to stop being a hypocrite is to be authentic to who Christ has made us to be. Your authenticity is not to make peace with sin and rebellion. Your authentic self is one whose identity is wholly shaped by Christ. Be who you really are means be holy.
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‘50 Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die’ 10+ Years of God’s Work
It’s always neat to see how God works through little things to accomplish great things.
When a Christian Feels Dry: A Simple Practice
This is true.
10 ways You Might Be Disrespecting Your Husband
I always feel a bit weird sharing posts like this one as I’m a husband, but I think there is stuff for us husbands to learn—and I also have many female readers. I pray this is helpful to marriages.
10 Pointers for Preaching a Touchy Issue
All of these are good but I find the second one to be vital.
Does Carrying Signs Really Save Babies?
I appreciate this brothers work.
My respect for Albert Mohler as a leader increased greatly after watching this:
Awhile back I was engaged in a bit of channel surfing and stopped on an episode of Piers Morgan interviewing some evangelical. The conversation, as it is prone to do, went to the topic of gay marriage. Morgan informed the evangelical that Christians really ought to update their Bible’s to fit the cultural change. Of course, any God-honoring believer knows that mere man doesn’t have the authority to “update the Bible”, but for those who so desire to set themselves up as deity, here are a few suggestions.
Key to the gospel of America is this notion that Jesus never rejected anybody. We all know that such a loving Savior accepts everyone as they are now and forever. No need to change. No call to die. All he really asks is that you love yourself and you don’t become one of those dumb Pharisees who is so worried about rules and holiness and inconvenient things like that.
The Bible as it is currently written flies in the face of such a tolerant and inclusive message. And we can be certain that the real Jesus is just like us and values the things that we value. He would never risk rejecting someone or losing out on a potential worshipper, so we know in reality that he too bows to the gospel of Americana. In order to protect the Bible from embarrassment I propose a few changes.
In John 7:53-8:11 we read the story of the woman who is caught in adultery. What a beautiful passage for us. We see that Jesus does not condemn this woman though all the Pharisees do, what with their obsession for holiness and all. They have the audacity to have a doctrine of sin—and we all know this is the problem and not their rampant hypocrisy. The passage is tremendous except for a little piece in verse 11 where Jesus tells the woman, “go, and from now on sin no more”. I propose we strike this from our Bible’s as it applies this woman needs to change.
Matthew 10:32-33 is obviously a later addition to the text. We know that the real Jesus would never deny anyone. He wouldn’t be so vain as to think that someone must worship Him and swear allegiance to Him in order to be accepted. We all know that Jesus isn’t so shallow. It’d be best to strike the verse altogether but if we must keep it I propose we change it to, “but whoever denies me before men, I will still never deny them before my Father in heaven because I’m cool like that, and 2 Timothy 2:13.”
Matthew 7:21-23 will prove to be a terrible stumbling block to the American. It seems to imply that our stands for social justice, our desire to be the hands and feet of Jesus, our loving our neighbors, our feeding people, and all of the mighty works we’ve done in the name of Jesus could still somehow cause us to fall short. Not to mention that Jesus here puts upon himself the prerogative of condemning people to hell. We know such a gentle Savior would never do this. Even if he were (oh, perish the thought) given the power and authority to do such a terrible thing we know that he’d never actually exercise this divine right. After all is it not evident that even though these people “never knew Him” they still were trying their best to be good people. This passage has got to go.
I’m beginning to realize that we’ve got so much more work to do than I previously thought. At first, I thought maybe we’d only need to scrub a few verses. But my goodness, it is so difficult to read through the New Testament and find the real Jesus. What we find in the Gospels is a Jesus who takes a stand on issues, he even has the audacity to believe He is the only way to heaven. We know that the real Jesus never would have taught such a thing—his whole ministry was built on love. It was built on the here and now, he wasn’t foolish and backwards enough to believe in an after-life. And we know the real Jesus wouldn’t have been arrogant enough to make Himself the zenith of biblical revelation. Or the deciding factor upon ones eternity. But it is so difficult to find this real Jesus in the Bible.
Thankfully, once we finish our scrub of the New Testament our Bible readings will be much shorter. Once we get rid of all that archaic stuff I’m confident there won’t be much left of your Bible.
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Photo source: here
Hopefully the astute reader is able to see that my tongue is planted firmly in my cheek here.