There's so much pain and sorrow from my past, I have trouble struggling with it.
I cannot over come it, I cannot let go of the hurt from my dad. I cannot overcome my selfishness, my social immaturity, fear of confrontation, my foolishness.
The more I look at these flaws, the more I sink. Like Peter who took his eyes off of Christ, I sink into an ocean of depression and pain.
The thing I need to do is to leave my past hurts, mistakes and failures behind, look forward to Christ and press on. That is life.
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Love like a hurricane
God is love. Not like the emotion we think love to be. But a hurricane.
Wrecking the wicked and unrighteous for the sake of protecting the weak and oppressed.
But in the eye of the storm, there is peace and quietness.
In Christ we rest, while the whirlwind rages on.
Wrecking the wicked and unrighteous for the sake of protecting the weak and oppressed.
But in the eye of the storm, there is peace and quietness.
In Christ we rest, while the whirlwind rages on.
Bandwagon Christianity
When we stop focusing on Christ our Lord, all sorts of confusion and chaos will happen among his people.
In recent years, people have created many bandwagons in Evangelical Christianity.
Not that these things are bad, but too easily the pendulum can swing too far in an effort to be seeker friendly, that we lose wisdom and discernment in seeking God's will.
Just ask people who are involved, how many people involved in the above bandwagons have done it out of a conviction from communion with the Holy Spirit and Scripture? How many people have done it just because it is the latest trend?
I believe we need to ask ourselves these questions as well and work on our relationship with God through prayer and reading the scripture before hopping onto one of these wagons.
The ironic thing is some people who are involved in advertising one of these strategies say there is no silver bullet. But at the same time will criticize others for not leading/administrating a church in the same way. This is shameful and sad when human methods and strategies become huge idols.
What we need is not to come up with ways to contextualize anything. especially not the Gospel and our faith. We need godly character, to grow in wisdom and our relationship with our Lord, or else contextualization, being seeker friendly and all that stuff will be used to excuse our weakness and inability to stand firm in the torrents of the present age. We need to be first and foremost Biblical and letting faith be our assurance of things hoped for and evidence of things unseen.
Whatever happened to our Lord who did not submit to culture and told us that the world will hate us? What happened to pursuing Biblical wisdom in presenting the truth, pursuing holiness, and loving each other in deeds and good works in ways the world has never seen before? What happened to church discipline and a conviction of sin, repentance, and teaching of the truth by the Holy Spirit? What happened to the old faithful men and women like Tozer, Ravenhill, Newton, Elliot, Wilkerson, who by the power of God did not submit to the trends of this world but reflected God's Kingdom to the world by their very lives?
We need to reflect on our motivation and examine the lives we live. We need to seek our Lord.
In recent years, people have created many bandwagons in Evangelical Christianity.
- Contextualization of the Gospel with culture
- Breaking down of Biblical truths into dialogues and reason
- Emerging Church
- Missional Church
Not that these things are bad, but too easily the pendulum can swing too far in an effort to be seeker friendly, that we lose wisdom and discernment in seeking God's will.
Just ask people who are involved, how many people involved in the above bandwagons have done it out of a conviction from communion with the Holy Spirit and Scripture? How many people have done it just because it is the latest trend?
I believe we need to ask ourselves these questions as well and work on our relationship with God through prayer and reading the scripture before hopping onto one of these wagons.
The ironic thing is some people who are involved in advertising one of these strategies say there is no silver bullet. But at the same time will criticize others for not leading/administrating a church in the same way. This is shameful and sad when human methods and strategies become huge idols.
What we need is not to come up with ways to contextualize anything. especially not the Gospel and our faith. We need godly character, to grow in wisdom and our relationship with our Lord, or else contextualization, being seeker friendly and all that stuff will be used to excuse our weakness and inability to stand firm in the torrents of the present age. We need to be first and foremost Biblical and letting faith be our assurance of things hoped for and evidence of things unseen.
Whatever happened to our Lord who did not submit to culture and told us that the world will hate us? What happened to pursuing Biblical wisdom in presenting the truth, pursuing holiness, and loving each other in deeds and good works in ways the world has never seen before? What happened to church discipline and a conviction of sin, repentance, and teaching of the truth by the Holy Spirit? What happened to the old faithful men and women like Tozer, Ravenhill, Newton, Elliot, Wilkerson, who by the power of God did not submit to the trends of this world but reflected God's Kingdom to the world by their very lives?
We need to reflect on our motivation and examine the lives we live. We need to seek our Lord.
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