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“In the same way the Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time. God became man for no other purpose. It is even doubtful, you know, whether the whole universe was created for any other purpose. It says in the Bible that the whole universe was made for Christ and that everything is to be gathered together in Him.” CS Lewis
“Jesus is Lord is a radical claim, one that is ultimately rooted in questions of allegiance, of ultimate authority, of the ultimate norm and standard for human life. Instead, Christianity has often sought to ally itself comfortably with allegiance to other authorities be they political, economic, cultural, or ethnic.” Lee Camp
“Jesus undermines any status quo that is not built on the all-encompassing demands of the kingdom, and this must call into question much of our religious codes, institutions, and behavior.” Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch
I just came across this post, from a leader in Australia, and thought I would pass it along. It’s short so read to the end about Vincent Donovan’s experience as a missionary.
What would happen if we stopped speculating about how to share the gospel with others and what people think about us, and focused on praying for people, loving people, and sharing Christ with people as the Spirit leads?
John Wesley once said: “If you want to be used by God, just go somewhere and burn.”
I’ve been re-reading one of the best books I’ve encountered in a while called, ReJesus. The central idea of the book is the problems we face in the church are a result of not really knowing Jesus well enough, and that we need to be re-”Jesused” so we can follow who the God of the Scriptures really is. The book is “an attempt to reinstate the central role of Jesus in the ongoing spiritual life of the faith and in the life and mission of God’s people” (15). Isn’t that the point of what we are all about as a church? To put Jesus in the center of everything?
I love this quote:
“The difficulty for the church today is not in encouraging people to “ask what would Jesus do?”, but in getting them to break out of their domesticated and sanitized ideas about Jesus in order to answer that question.
Jesus was a wild man. He was a threat to the security of the religious establishment….If your answer to the question “What would Jesus do? Is that he would be conventional, safe, respectable, and refined, then we suspect you didn’t find that answer in the Gospels.”
I received this quote from a friend today that I found very insightful, discerning, and courageous. This comes from one of Dietrich Bonhoeffer‘s last writings, Letters and Papers from Prison, entitled, “Who Stands Fast?”
The great masquerade of evil has played havoc with all our ethical concepts. For evil to appear disguised as light, charity, historical necessity, or social injustice is quite bewilderingly brought up on our traditional ethical concepts, while for the Christian who bases his life on the Bible it merely confirms the fundamental wickedness of evil….
Who stands fast? Only the man whose final standard is not his reason, his principles, his conscience, his freedom or his virtue, but who is ready to sacrifice all this when he is called to obedient and responsible action in faith and in exclusive allegiance to God- the responsible man, who tries to make his whole life an answer to the question and call of God. Where are these responsible people?
Each generation always has the chance to follow Christ with courage and humility, or else to settle for comfort, security, self-seeking, approval of others, accommodation to culture, or flat out giving into Satan. Following Christ is not easy, comfortable, or secure, but always involves risk, sacrifice, and devotion with our whole selves. Which kind of faith will we pass on to the next generation?
By God’s grace, may we have the courage, integrity, and compassion to pass on a faith worth living for through Christ. One that graciously invites the world to find freedom in following the way of the Savior with our whole lives.
“If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” Jesus, Luke 9:23-24
“I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live. It is Christ living in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20
