More thoughts from platform talking
Posted by at 20th December, 2007
[This is a ramble continued from here...]
Are we, as Christians, connecting people with Christ?
Some of us can become worshipers of the Word (i.e. the Bible) and suck the life right out of it. I believe the Bible is the divine inspired word of God. But I also believe that without God the pursuit and reading of the Bible is boiled down to mere words on paper. Many may argue this, but it isn’t as if they words put in a correct order that make up the book create a mystical union of spirituality. God illuminates scripture, God breathes life into it. Think about the Trinity. Is the Bible part of the Trinity? It’s not the Father, Son and Holy Bible.
There are those who are unwilling to leave the safety of the church and walk amongst the sinners. They would rather pour over the Bible, but never live it. What have you gained if you know the words, but are unwilling to walk it out? If your love of the Bible and fear of “sinners” keeps you hidden away from the world, you’ve missed the point of why Christ came in the first place. You’ve forgotten that he didn’t just die for you.
Evangelism isn’t about being right when others are wrong. It’s not about proving a point. It’s about investment and a relationship. It’s about us showing the love of Christ to an unbelieving world. It isn’t easy, but it’s what we are called to do.
If we don’t mirror Christ, nothing we preach will matter.
10 Responses to “More thoughts from platform talking”
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Well said.
This is complete crap! You throw out the bible you throw out everything. the church is all there is. you leave the church and all you have is apostasy. hetic. liar. idiot!
What is “GideonWithASword” talking about??? You never said to “leave” the church, i.e. not go back to your local assembly…I take what you said as leaving our comfort zone and seeking to see conversions. Going to church is not the end of obedience…it is means to obedience. Go to church, but after you’ve been edified and encouraged and admonished, go seek the lost!
I think Gideon may have read a different post than what I read. You are right on Stuart. We need to be investing in relationships with believers and non-believers. It is in knowing and being known by people that they will see the Gospel alive in us. If we are just preaching AT people we don’t even know how to relate to what they are walking through at the time. Keep stepping outside the walls and reaching others for Him…
Where did you get that amazing thought about the Father, Son and Holy Bible…must have been some really cool person.
No…really, this was really well said and I think that you are dead on. We feel so very safe behind our four walls and reading our words, but we need to put faith into action. If we are reading our Bibles we will see that we need to be out in the world among the dirty people, we need to be willing to get in the dirt with them, if we are ever going to help them get out of the dirt. The Bible says that the greatest commandment is to love and in order to love we must meet and know people.
Gideon, brother, I think perhaps what Stuart is saying and you are saying are not contradicting. The Word is God breathed, Jesus Christ is the Word, John tells us so. Stuart is trying to convey that if all we do is stay at home, read our bibles, go to church, how can we change this broken world? We can be so much more interested in proving “our” point in what we think the bible says than caring for those who don’t even own one. Let’s engage and debate the word for that is healthy but to name call on the blog about or to another brother is exactly what the “non churched” would expect from us. Paul writes these words that I feel Stuart would agree…
2 Corinthians 3 (The Message)
1-3Does it sound like we’re patting ourselves on the back, insisting on our credentials, asserting our authority? Well, we’re not. Neither do we need letters of endorsement, either to you or from you. You yourselves are all the endorsement we need. Your very lives are a letter that anyone can read by just looking at you. Christ himself wrote it—not with ink, but with God’s living Spirit; not chiseled into stone, but carved into human lives—and we publish it.
4-6We couldn’t be more sure of ourselves in this—that you, written by Christ himself for God, are our letter of recommendation. We wouldn’t think of writing this kind of letter about ourselves. Only God can write such a letter. His letter authorizes us to help carry out this new plan of action. The plan wasn’t written out with ink on paper, with pages and pages of legal footnotes, killing your spirit. It’s written with Spirit on spirit, his life on our lives
GideonWithASword- Whatever church you go I would never want to attend.
Stuart- This was perfectly put.
@ Staurt. Thank you for those thoughts. At this time when we think afresh of the incarnation and God coming among us, its good to be reminded of our responsibility to reach out and demonstrate the love of Christ to an unbelieving world.
@GideonWithASword. Brother, the next time you call someone a heretic, I’d be gratful if you would spell it correctly. Thanks. I’m English and I love my language. BTW I prayed for you today (I’m serious), I hope that’s OK. May you have a peaceful and joy filled Christmas.
Oh man, you’ve been whacked by the “GideonWithASword” too!
What a nutcase! Wielding a sword with no expertise causes much damage.
OH!! WOW, there’s Gideonwithasword. We had farm animal like him when I was growing up. My dear sweet, sweet Grandma, always called it a “jackass.” I’m just saying…