Trials

John 16:33 "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."



Somewhere somehow , someway there are alot of Christian beleivers who feel that they are entitled to smooth sailing as deciples of Christ. The notion that the Christian life will signal the beginning of troubles not the end is somehow alien ...for the most part because they are told and " sold " that way. We " choose" Christ so that we can have Eternal Life ...we don't choose Christ so that we can Pick up our Cross and Follow Him. From the Pulpit we hear the will have eternal life ...but do we hear the next few verses the ones that spell out what the rest of the contract says ?

"whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son."



Here is the interesting thing ....there are two Whoever's here one is not condemend and the other is ...and we don't get to choose . God does that ....Our Salvation is totally and utterly dependedent on God and there is nothing we can do to influence His choice.



Our response to that fact should be humility , awe and a sincere desire to do as He asks of us .

If He asks us to Witness we witness , not for gain but because He is Lord, If he asks us to live in poverty we live in Poverty , not because we feel we will be blessed eventually for our sacrifice , but because He comands us to live thus.



Now those are thoughts I have not heard recently from the pulpit ...sometimes I think the success of a sermon should not be measured by the handshakes and back thumpings in the hallway , but by the number of people who walk out angry threatening to never come back again.



for me this is personal , its personal because I have almost sold out to the notion that good things should happen to the people of God. That when we gather to pray over the cancer and heart attacks and the unemployment and need for even larger homes ... it is because we must feel that God has been so busy He has simply overlooked our " need" .
We give thanks in Church , but we give thanks to those things that have profited us .... we give thanks for our prosperity , then ask for more. I need to be more thankfull , I need to spend much more time praising God for what He has done for me than to " worry " God over what I believe he has overlooked in my life.
My Mother in Law ( Saint Becky ) made the comment at breakfast yesterday that Rahab lied...Just a few pages earlier in the Bible we are told that lying is a sin. Yet here is a " Hero " of the Bible who Lied to protect the Hebrews hiding in her house. In this case we Thank God for her Sin ...I am feeling the same way this morning...I feel that much was done wrong in our Church ...by the people who should have been the ones doing right ...Where I looked for leadership and discernment and grace ...I found Sin...I found human beings ...But I know God will use their Sin and I thank Him for everything that has happened and just as he keeps this rock I live on hurtling through space and turning so precisely that I know exactly what time the sun will set tonight. I know He has my Back . We will have trials and troubles ...Praise God for them and the lessons they bring.

Kenn

Fences

There is this fence running through the Christian Faith, probably more than one. While God sees a field of believers , Christians them selves seem very good at building fences in the fields.



My wife will immediately tell me that I am painting with a very broad brush. And I will admit she is probably right.



But I am starting this blog as a commemoration of an ending. You see this week I was asked to leave the Church we have belonged to for the past 5 years or so because I prefer to walk in the left hand side of the field , and our leadership prefers the right. Until recently I really didn't notice the fence. Now I can't ignore it. I have been a Christian since 1996 . During this period I have been blessed by God's presence in a Four Square Church, an Assembly of God, Church of the Nazarene, Presbyterian, Church of Christ and Baptist . Each of these churches looks at the Scriptures differently in some ways and the same in others ...This has provided me with a rich tapestry of belief and faith, an opportunity to study and know a God far more complex and diverse than any one denomination could contain.

I have come to believe this is a " God " thing . The Apostle Paul inspired by God wrote "Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. " If you think about it no two people will ever see the same reflection.. each of us has a slightly different perspective to each of us though similar the reflection is different. I think that God is so beyond our individual thoughts that even the collective perspectives of 8 billion people could not even begin to show us God.

All this to say I believe that God is the author of our belief of Him. God is so vast so incomprehensible that only God can teach us of Himself.

That is not to say there are incorrect views of God... but I do believe that any belief about God that is inspired by God will lead to good fruit ... Recent events that led to our being cashiered out of our home church ..does lead me to question fruit production ...I had been taught that if we felt a fellow believer had sinned against us or caused us to stumble we should go directly to that believer to reconcile the issue ...I was surprised to find out that something that had happened in December of last year was being held against me ...by a leader in our Church, yet this person never came to me ...never once mentioned that they were upset , instead whenever I saw this person I was given a firm handshake , pat on the back and big smile .....it was this person that without any discussion ..told me to leave the church because my belief about Gods Salvation has 5 points and His does not. ...I wish could write more eloquently about how this has made me feel about my former Church and its Leadership. I am bitter , but praying that through Christ my bitterness will be removed... time will tell