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Posts Tagged ‘church’

Looking Back….But Moving Forward

Posted in christian living, tagged , , , , , on January 6, 2015| 15 Comments »

It is a good thing to take a look back sometimes. Looking back can bring encouragement, but it can also bring remorse and guilt.

When looking back, we need to remember the past is forgiven and over. We can learn from the past, we can see where we’ve been and how far we’ve come, but we need to leave it there.

For my wife and me, looking back certainly shows us how much has changed. For many years, we were feeling something was wrong with us and our ‘church’ life. We had an inner stirring that there was more than attending a weekly service, listening to a few others doing all the talking.

We read about the first century church and many verses about everyone having a voice, everyone being a necessary part of the church. We read how Jesus is the head of the church and how each of us are equal parts he is using to build his Church.

We became so frustrated seeing such a difference in the modern-day church from what we felt church was to be, that we felt it best to move on. We are now outside the four walls; we are now being Church rather than going to church.

Looking back, there have been many changes in thoughts, interpretations and beliefs. Even though we aren’t in a church, we feel we are learning to depend more on our Father for guidance and truth. We are ready to show God’s love to everyone we come across during our day.

We no longer ask people where they go to church, we no longer worry about what denomination they belong to, or if they go to church at all. We want God to live through us daily and love people, without thought or concern of who they are or what they believe.

During this time, we’ve had more fellowship with other believers than we ever had attending a weekly service. Whether it involves meeting for coffee or dinner, or just sitting and talking, we learn more about people and are encouraged hearing how God is working in their lives.

Obviously, moving forward is the main goal. As Philippians 3:13, 14 says, ‘brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus’ (NASB)

Looking back 2

Looking back can be a real encouragement to us when we look at it in regard to what God has done and where he has brought us. It we look at the past negatively, or with shame and guilt, then we need to forget it and realize that our past is done and forgiven. We need to move forward following the voice and leading of the Holy Spirit which is within us.

 

Synchroblog Bloggers looking back and looking forward this month:

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Christian Leadership

Posted in christian living, tagged , , , on November 4, 2014| 6 Comments »

Matthew 23:8-12

 

We hear so much about leadership in the church. Some people seem to be natural-born leaders, while others strive to get into leadership positions. A lot of people seem to be interested in power and fame, and being in charge.

I’m really not sure why the emphasis on leadership. If we look at what Jesus said about leaders, I’m not sure as many people would be as interested.

The way Jesus described leaders seems quite different from what a lot of people think. Leaders are to be servants, they are to put others first. They are to live as examples.servant-leader

Leaders are to be loving and not power-hungry. Usually, leadership comes with years of experience and gaining godly wisdom.

Leaders are not elevated above the other believers. We are all equal parts of the body. We are all under the headship of Jesus, not other humans.

Leadership should not be a power trip, but a natural way of life by loving others. Those we consider to be leaders will allow godly wisdom to naturally flow out and be an encouragement and help to those who are not as far along the path as others.

Leadership is not an office or position, but a servant attitude to help guide brothers and sisters along in their walk with God.

We don’t need to seek out an office or title of leadership. Leaders in the body of Christ will show themselves naturally through love, example and servant spirit. From time to time, each of us will be a leader in our walk. As we live each day being a living part of the Church, there will be others who look to us for encouragement, help and guidance. It is then that the love and servant spirit will show up and be a help to a brothers or sister in need.

 

A couple good articles on true leadership can be found at the following links:

http://house2housemagazine.com/2013/11/12/christ-is-our-leader-by-jon-zens/​

http://house2housemagazine.com/2013/11/11/leadership-in-organic-churches-by-milt-rodriquez/

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Season of New Growth

Posted in christian living, tagged , , , , , on September 11, 2014| 5 Comments »

Over the years of our Christian lives, my wife and I have gone through many times of new growth. It is a normal process to grow, bloom, become dormant, and then have new growth again.

If we never had new growth, our Christian life would eventually wither and die. It is not wrong to re-think and question and have times of new interpretations and new inspirations.

We grew up in the traditional church and have many good and happy memories over the years of being involved. We were taught many things over the years, most of which we never questioned. We accepted what we were taught and considered it to be the truth. As time went by, we began to let some of the questions we had in the back of our minds come forward. Some things we had always accepted just didn’t make sense.

We’ve found that so many times in church, people just take what they are told and don’t question it. Most people feel questioning is a lack of faith or a lack of trust in the pastor. After all, didn’t the pastor go to college and get all the training necessary to understand the Bible? Doesn’t the pastor have the inside track on hearing from God?

We began questioning why one person has the right to have the authority to tell everyone else what God is saying. We read that we are the temple of the Holy Spirit and we have no need of anyone else to teach us. There were so many different views and interpretations. There were so many denominations that seemed to cause division among Christians. Yet we read we were to be one as Jesus and the Father are one. We read that everyone should have a word, a song, a praise, yet we sat in a service week after week just looking at the back of someone’s head, never getting to talk or discuss or have true fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ.

All of this brought us to our most recent time of dormancy and questions, which actually lasted over several years. Of course time is not something that God worries about, since a day with Him is like a thousand years. So when I say we were going through this dormant, questioning stage for nine or ten years, it was not a big thing.

Having grown up in the typical, modern day church, we had come to a place where we really questioned some of the doctrines and ways of ‘doing church’. Some things just didn’t make sense anymore, others seemed different from what we read of the believers in the New Testament.

Over the years, we continued to attend a few different churches thinking the answer was in finding the right church. After several years of that process and still having the same feelings, we realized that there was something more than finding a church.

After some time, we both started meeting people who were having the same thoughts, the same questions, and the same uneasiness. We met people at a local cafe and started talking, hearing them mention the same concerns we were going through. Many books and various websites started coming to our attention, and each were from people who were going through, or had gone through the same things we were going through.

It was amazing to us how we felt a time of new growth beginning. We are finding people who were going through the same things, and we are starting to find answers to some of our questions. We no longer feel alone, and we no longer feel guilty for the questions and feelings we are experiencing.

For us, it’s a time of new growth in the knowledge and understanding of grace. The grace we have in Christ, the freedom we have because of his grace. We no longer worry about the man-made denominations, doctrines and ways of ‘doing church’. We are free from the guilt of sin because of his grace. We are now learning to ‘be the church’, realizing we are one with Christ, and it is his spirit that lives and loves through us.

Article originally published on Faithful Bloggers ( http://www.faithfulbloggers.com/faithful-bloggers-new-growth.pdf ) on June 18, 2014.

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What’s Wrong with Saying “I Don’t Know”?

Posted in christian living, tagged , , , , , , , on August 27, 2014| 6 Comments »

To those of us who have grown up in ‘church’, have you ever felt that you needed to know all the answers?

When a non-believer questions your faith, or asks something about the bible, do you feel you have to know the answer and be able to explain it to them?

I know I have always felt that way. Although the more I think about it, and the more I run into people who have all sorts of questions, I have come to realize that I don’t have all the answers.

Even my wife and I talk and have questions we can’t answer. We’ve come to realize that God is too big for us to have Him all figured out. If we don’t have all the answers for ourselves, how could we have all the answers for everyone else?

Basically, questioning is not wrong. I think we’ve been taught that we shouldn’t question the pastor, the bible, our faith, even God, but God isn’t afraid of our questions. What is wrong with us saying ‘I don’t know’?

Do not know

Admitting that you don’t know does not mean you aren’t a good ‘christian’. Admitting that you don’t know doesn’t mean your faith is shallow or we don’t believe God.

If we knew everything, what kind of a God would we be serving anyway? The Spirit will be teaching us during our entire life here on earth, and we still won’t begin to know it all.

While Jesus was on earth, he basically told stories and parables. A lot of the time, he did not give a direct answer. He usually asked another question rather than give a direct, set answer. I suppose if he gave a direct answer, we would have made it a basic doctrine by now anyway.

Don’t be afraid to question. That is the best way to learn. God is perfectly capable of guiding us to the truth in His timing.

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The Two Shall Become One

Posted in christian living, tagged , , , , , on August 6, 2014| 7 Comments »

Marriage is an institution that’s been around since the very beginning.

Adam and Eve were married, although not in the traditional way we think of marriage. God joined them together and they became one. No ceremony, no pastor, no license.

Marriage was given as a representation of what God intended for His Church….humans becoming one with God.

Yes, God is not out there somewhere. He is right here, right now. When we accept His gift of grace through Christ, we become one with Him.

Just like the couples who unite in marriage become one, the Church, which means the people, become one with God. We aren’t talking about a building, but those who unite with God through faith in Christ. The true Church is not a building made by hands, but those of us who have had the old sin nature crucified with Christ. We have been raised up with Him as new creatures, and are now one with Him.

God isn’t up in heaven sitting on a big throne looking down on us. No, He is right here within us through the Spirit.

Jesus prayed to the Father in John 17 asking that we might be one just as He and the Father are one. Through the work Jesus did on the cross, we have become the temple of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of Christ lives within us and we have become one with God.

That doesn’t mean we are God, but His Spirit is within us. The Kingdom of God is within us.

We should focus each day on the fact the God is within us. We don’t have to go somewhere and hope He shows up. We don’t have to wait until we die to be with Him. He loves us and lives within us each and every day. We are living in the kingdom right now, daily in His presence.

In this world, it is by faith that we live the spiritual life, but when this earthly life is done, we will see naturally what is already taking place in the spirit.

Thank God for marriage and the joy we have in this world. Even better than that is the wonderful marriage between the Lamb of God and us, the Church, united as one.

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What is Church?

Posted in christian living, Community, Ekklesia, tagged , , , , on July 18, 2014| 17 Comments »

My wife and I have for years ‘gone to church’ Sunday after Sunday. We sat in a pre-planned service, being entertained, listening to one person tell us what God was saying, and looking at the back of the head of the person sitting quietly in front of us.

Each week we sat there, not having the opportunity to say what was on our minds, no chance to talk and get to know our brothers and sisters sitting all around us. We were told we were having good fellowship and teaching, learning more about God each week.

Truthfully, we were getting so tired of this religious social club environment. We were not getting anything out of this experience, and we certainly were not putting anything into it…..other than our money when the offering basket went past. We have become tired of the religious enterprise with its pre-planned services, the CEO and board of directors, along with the gimmicks and programs designed to ‘bring the people in’, especially when we were told to go out into the world. We were feeling a lot like what our friend Kenn Bruner said in one of his postings… people “who are tired of a predictable and ‘business as usual’ mundane and mediocre existence as a Christian; those tired of sitting in a church pew Sunday after Sunday in their “comfortable and safe” place, bored to tears”.

What we are finding is that true community is believers living their daily lives with one another by caring, loving, assisting, encouraging, and building one another up. This is what is known as the true Church. It is fellow believers living daily for Christ, not a once a week trip to a building and sitting there for an hour. As Ken Eastburn said in one of his postings… “Organic house churches are different than Bible studies or small groups as to fellowship and caring for one another. Meeting together once a week to study and discuss the bible is fine, but an authentic family of God is different. It goes deeper. Coming prepared to meet the needs of others, even when it is inconvenient, demonstrates the love of Christ”.

We are followers of Christ, going about our normal daily business, living with Christ as our head….not a pastor. We live as one with Christ, letting his life and love touch others each and every day. We assemble with our brothers and sisters in Christ any day, anywhere. Sunday is not the Lord’s day, every day is the day the Lord has made. God’s house is not a building where we gather with people who believe similar to the way we believe. God’s house is us, His people, those of us who have accepted His grace. We are called to love God and love our neighbor as ourselves, not just those who believe like we do.

It has been good for my wife and me to stop being part of the Sunday morning crowd at the building of our choosing. It has us looking to God more, listening for His voice and allowing the Spirit to teach us rather than one man. It has us loving and accepting people as they are, not just those who believe like us. The Church is meant to be a community, living, loving and caring for one another each and every day. Although we have not yet found what we are looking for, we are trusting God to lead us and bring us into a community of believers he has for us. As Dan Notti said in one of his postings… “Believe God for it. Authentic community is God’s intention for believers. He has made the provision for it through the work of his Son and the power of the Holy Spirit, and He has the patience and love to stand with us as we experiment with living into it. Can we believe him for that”?

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What You Do Does (and Doesn’t) Matter

Posted in christian living, tagged , , , , , on April 29, 2014| 2 Comments »

I grew up in the church being taught that what you do, good works and good deeds, are very important. I’ve never questioned that teaching…until recently.

I began to wonder why works are stressed so much by the church. If we are living by grace, why do we need to worry about what we do?

Of course, after thinking about it and reasoning a while, I’ve come to some different conclusions.

Works, in regard to salvation, are not necessary. No matter what we do or don’t do, it doesn’t change how much God loves us, and it doesn’t have anything to do with our relationship with God.

So many people seem to think the whole Christian experience is based on how much we can do. All this does is put people on higher or lower levels in Christianity than others. Those who do many works sometimes look down on those who don’t do a lot and think lower of them. Those who don’t do a lot look up to those who are constantly busy and wish they could be more like them.

Do we really think people are positioned in God’s kingdom based on how much they do for God? After all, Jesus did all the work. He died so that we could be free and enjoy life in the kingdom.

Jesus wants us to be one with Him and one with each other. We are all equally important members of the body of Christ. When we focus on how many works we do each day, feeling obligated to do as much as we can, we end up being divided in the body of Christ.

In regard to our salvation, works do not make a difference whether we do a million good works or if we don’t do any.

Works make a difference when it comes to showing God’s love to those we meet throughout the day. The bible says to do our good works before men so that they would glorify our Father in heaven.

This type of works happens because of love. The Spirit living within us loves others and does the good works to show that love. There is nothing done out of obligation or rule keeping. When works are done out of necessity, they are basically dead works.

Works done through love by the power of God within us brings glory to the Father and shows His love to those around us.

Works will happen because we love the Father and because the Spirit dwells within us. If our works only come out of obligation or due to rule keeping, we might as well stop right now. If we do good works to earn our salvation, or make us feel like we are doing our part, we should stop and question our motives.

Jesus did all that was necessary and required for us to have a relationship with the Father. We can’t earn it or pay God back for it. We can accept the free gift of grace and enjoy living as one with God. Then let Him love others as His does the good works through us.

As with any part of our walk with God, it is because of love that we do anything. We are to be available anytime, anywhere for the Spirit to work through us.

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New Life

Posted in christian living, tagged , , , , on March 19, 2014| 13 Comments »

At this time of year, new life is a welcome sight. Trees start budding, plants start showing signs of life, the grass starts to green up. It is a good time of year.

Spiritually speaking, for my wife and myself, this is a time of new life also. Not in the sense of rededication or recommitting our life to God, but of a new way of looking at things, of new truths being revealed.

We both grew up in organized religion and followed certain doctrines and specific beliefs. After nearly 58 years in the system, our dissatisfaction with what we were seeing, and many questions we had about some of the things we had been taught, finally brought us to a point of leaving.

Having been out of organized religion for a year now, we have found that it is a time of new life for us. We have a new dependency on fellowship with the Father and with other brothers and sisters, even though it is outside the four walls of what we call church.

It is a time of new life in the way we think of church. What we had always thought of church is really not so. Church is the body of believers, each fulfilling an equal function in the body, with Christ as the head. It is not a building we attend once a week for a pre-planned religious service.

We have new life in our learning process, open to let the Spirit teach us and not settle for a specific doctrine or belief system based on what a particular denomination has told us. We had many things that bothered us and caused questions that just didn’t make sense, but we are finding new life knowing that God is within us and that we are the temple of the Holy Spirit. We don’t have to rely on a man or woman to teach us. We can listen and hear the leading of the Spirit for ourselves.

We have come to realize the new life we have in the New Covenant. No longer do we need to try to mix the old covenant law with new covenant grace. We now depend on Jesus, and Him alone, as our all in all. He lives within his followers and is the living, inerrant Word of God. We have the mind of Christ, and the Holy Spirit within us teaching and guiding us.

We’ve found new life in fellowship. We had such a hard time finding true fellowship within the four walls. We’d sit for an hour looking at the back of someone’s head, listening to a man or woman tell us what they thought God was saying. Fellowship normally doesn’t happen at a typical church service. We’ve found more fellowship going about our daily business, knowing that God is within us. He brings other brothers and sisters along that we wouldn’t find while sitting in a meeting. We each have a small group of fellow believers that we meet with regularly and have really come to know what fellowship is meant to be.

We know everyone isn’t going to agree with what we are finding to be good for us. A lot of people want the organized meetings. There is nothing wrong with that if that is what you want for now. But we have found new life being outside of organized religion and traditional church. For us, this is so much better and we’re finding some of the questions that were bothering us actually have been answered. Some things make so much more sense now. Of course, there are still many questions, but rather than beat ourselves up over trying to make sense of everything, we’ve accepted that God is in control. We’re not going to know everything or have the answers to everything. We each learn over our life-time, and as God reveals new truths to us.

It is also a time of new life in the way we accept others and let Christ live and love through us. We can love and accept people the way they are. We can be loving and kind and not condemning. As followers of Christ, we are all at different stages in our walk with God.  We aren’t on different levels, as we feel all of us have equally important functions in the body, with Christ as our head.

Actually, each day is a time of new life. Stop looking to man, and man-made institutions to be your link to God. The Father says that we are now one with Him. Let Christ live through you every day and listen for the Spirit to teach and guide you as you go about your daily routine.

 

This post is part of the March Synchroblog, ‘New Life’, which can be viewed here
http://synchroblog.wordpress.com/2014/03/26/link-list-march-2014-new-life/

K.W. Leslie – Sin Kills; God Brings New Life
Carol Kuniholm – New Life. Mystery Fruit.
Jeremy Myers – I Get Depressed On Facebook
Glenn Hager – A Personal Resurrection Story
Loveday Anyim – Spring Forth – Ideas That Speak New Life
Loveday Anyim – Inspired By Spring To Create A New Life
Sarah Quezada – Post Winter Delight
Edwin Aldrich – Finding New Life In Our New Home
Doreen A. Mannion – Each Day A New Decision: Choose Life
Kathy Escobar – new life through nonviolent communication
Anita Coleman New Life, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, and Eternal Living
Sonja Andrews Persephone
Mallory Pickering New Life Masterpiece Theater Style
Liz Dyer New Life, Empowerment and Dropping Keys

 

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It’s a Matter of Interpretation

Posted in christian living, tagged , , , on March 11, 2014| 1 Comment »

So many times what we say and what we mean are two different things.

Take for instance the word church. Most of us think of a building where Christians meet every Sunday for an organized, pre-planned service of music, prayer and sermon by a paid pastor. In reality, church is better described by the word ekklesia. It’s people. It is people who are following Christ and allowing Him to live and love through them. Church isn’t a place, a building, or the house of God and it isn’t at a set time or day. Church is the body of Christ, each of us equally functioning as part of the body under Christ, going out each day and letting Christ live through us, loving others, accepting others.

How about the word Christian. We think of people who love God, go to church, pray, read their bible and try to do the right things. Actually Christian is a man-made word that originally was used to describe those who followed the teaching of Jesus and were doing the works of Jesus. Today, rather than being the true sense of following Christ, it is more widely known as a religion. Christians are considered people who believe in Jesus, go to church, follow specific rules, adhere to a set doctrine, pray, read the bible and try to get more people to come to their church. We think of Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindu and a host of other religions rather than a way of life walking with Jesus.

When we talk about prayer, we generally think of a pastor or godly person saying spiritual sounding words to God. Many times prayers are written out and followed word for word to make people sound more spiritual. Actually prayer is just talking. Like you would talk to a friend or relative, prayer is talking to God. Not only talking, but being quiet and listening for God to speak to you. Believe it or not, prayer is not spoken in King James English. It is talking to our Father like we talk to anyone else.

What about the bible. Of course our first thought is a book that God inspired men to write. If we look closer at John 1:1, we find that the Bible is not a book at all. “In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God and the word was God”. Actually, the Bible (the Word of God), is Jesus. He is the inerrant, all powerful, living Word of God. What we call the Word of God, the bible, is a book that is God inspired. It is words that show us the ways of men and the Way of God. Does that mean we don’t need to read the bible? Of course not, we can learn a lot about God and ourselves by reading it. What we don’t want to do is make the bible equal to God. The bible is not part of the trinity, it is a book. Again, God inspired, but humans still had a part in writing it.

The word worship is generally thought of as a time during the service when people are lead into song and outward praise to God by a leader or group, paid to lead people this way. The style of worship also varies greatly from group to group. Many people think worship are songs, or lifting of hands or dancing. A lot of people think of worship as a church service. Worship is a true sense of reverence and adoring praise to our Father. It is personal and does not need a professional leader to bring us to this point. It is a sincere and earnest thankfulness we have for God.

I’m sure there are many other words we could come up with that would fit here, but the main point being is it is not as important the word we use, but the true meaning. Jesus is the all in all. It doesn’t boil down to our doctrines, beliefs and man-made efforts. It’s following Christ, allowing Him to live through us and giving Him the throne of our lives. Jesus is the head of the body, the rest of us are equal parts with equal functions.

 

This Post was a Guest Post at Till He Comes website.
Visit the site here http://www.tillhecomes.org/what-christians-say-and-what-christians-mean/

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Steps to Leaving

Posted in christian living, tagged , , , on February 4, 2014| 5 Comments »

For those of us who have left organized religion, it seems most of us go through similar steps in the process.

There are the months or, in our case, years of dissatisfaction and questioning. My wife and I knew for a long time something wasn’t right, but kept thinking it was just us or the church we were attending. We would try different churches and find our feelings were the same.

Once we got to the point that the option to stop attending church is very much part of our thinking, the next step was to really question ourselves. Thoughts like, are we really Christians, are we backsliding, are we losing our religion (losing your religion is a good thing). We began to feel something was wrong with us and wondered what others were going to think.

Next was the decision to stop attending something we felt was way off base from what true Church should be. Then there were feelings of keeping this to ourselves. Don’t tell anyone, just stop attending and keep it to yourself. In our case that was easy. We had been a part of an organized fellowship for a few years, but never got involved in other activities. It was a larger group of people and we didn’t do anything outside the normal Sunday morning show….service. This made it much easier not having to explain our actions to anyone else. To those of you who have made this decision and were active members, even pastors or so-called leaders in the church, we applaud you for making such a stand.

Next came the ‘us vs. them’ mentality. We wanted to look at the organized church almost as an enemy. We wanted to point out where they were wrong and why they were wrong. We wanted to associate only with those who felt the same as we did and didn’t want to hang around with those still stuck in the religious game. Obviously this isn’t the way to feel or treat people.

The next step was realizing God loves all people. Not just those outside the walls of the organized church. He loves us all, no matter what line of thought, doctrine, religion or lifestyle we choose. Jesus came to love people and show each of us the love of God. Finally we came to love and accept everyone. We no longer care what people think of our decision, we just want to love and accept each of them.

We are sure this isn’t a complete list of steps, but it is as far as we are for now. We are thankful for the years we had in the church as we learned a lot and made a lot of friends. We are equally thankful for the decision we made to leave the church with walls and focus more on the Church (ecclesia) made not by hands, but by God. A group of people who are saved by grace, following Christ, equally a part of the body and equally important to the body, and touching others day by day with the love of God.

We are all on different steps in life and fellowship, but we know that God is with us and leading us each step of the way. Keep the faith, keep your eyes on Jesus and be the Church each day of your life.

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