New Template

It was time for a change. I was thinking of waiting till the one year mark (March), but I just couldn't resist the urge to switch it up. What do you all think? Good, bad?

Radical Christians

Jesus calls Christians to be radicals. I’ve been wrestling with this fact for some time now. His gospel is one of leaving the snuggly-cuddly world of sin and luxury to follow him on a rocky, thorny and self-humiliating path that will lead to complete joy in the end. Sound crazy? That’s what gobs of people in the first century thought, but a handful of guys decided to take Him at His word, and they turned the world upside down.

So what does Jesus require of us? Read the gospels. One of the first things we have to do is be willing to sacrifice our family relationships. If Dad says, "I don’t want you being a Christian", and Jesus says, "Follow me", then we’ll have to give up our good relationship with Dad. This is happening in Muslim families all the time. The son or daughter is born again, and his/her family disowns them.

Then anything that leads us into sin needs to be cut off. Jesus went so far that when he was talking about adultery, he said to poke your eye out if it caused you to sin. Perhaps that was hyperbole, but the point is, this is serious business. If you’ve got to stop playing that video game, stop watching that show or listening to that music – cut if off! It’s better to get to heaven without your secular rock CDs than to go to hell with those tunes in your head.

You also have to be a servant. Jesus, maker and upholder of all things, washed Peter’s feet. This too is a concept that we see in persecuted churches. In the communist jail Richard Wurmbrand reported that some of the prisoners wanted badly to tithe even in jail. Having no money to give, they decided to tithe their food, giving a portion every so often to the weakest among them.
And then you have to be a radical evangelical. Call out from the rooftops was the way they said it back then. This is where we all squirm, but the true believer has got to be a seed-sower too. You’ll probably be called a million different things, but Jesus said we’re blessed when we’re slandered for His name. Many believers who are languishing in communistic jails are there because they can’t keep their mouths shut.

American Christians would probably do really well in China. They don’t talk about their faith (only 2% share it according to Ray Comfort); they don’t do things too differently than the world. They watch the same movies, read the same books and listen to the same music. Any problems here?

Inspiration

Here's an inspiring story for you this morning. Click here

L&L

This is one of my very first posts (March 2006), but in light of our recent discussion on the topic, and the fact that I have many new readers, I thought it worth republishing.

L & LLiberal! Legalist! Perhaps the two most used words of derision by Contemporary Christians. In view of our conversations on Christian unity, this is a vital point to bring up.
These two words account for perhaps the greatest division in the American Christian Church today.

On the one end of the spectrum we have radical liberals, people who are completely out of sync with Biblical principles, and who stretch Christian liberty to gargantuan heights. People who would claim to be Christians and still violently disobey God's precepts for sexuality.

On the other end of the scale, we have the legalists, those people who have Rulebooks bigger than the Bible (really!).In order to get a grip on where Christians should be, I'd like to examine what the Bible has to say about both extremes.

Liberalism ("Christian Liberty"): "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?...Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts." Romans 6:1-2;12 (NASB)

Legalism: "See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ." Colossians 2:8 (NASB)So on the one hand, we are to avoid sinning at will in the name of"Christian liberty", and on the other we are to shun the rules of men.

We are truly saved by grace, but if we are saved by grace, we shouldn'twant to sin