Life Goes On

In this day of cookie-cutter churches, it seems that when one church does something that results in numerical increase, many other churches line up behind and emulate them. The primary idea seems to be the old Tony Robbins mot "Find someone who is successful, do what they do, the way they do it, and you too will be successful." BTW that probably is not a completely accurate quote, but you get the gist. The problem with this approach when used by churches is that they copy the technique, the program, or the marketing approach while giving little thought to their scriptural assignment. That assignment is found in Matthew 28:18-20. Having discovered the assignment, the real question is how do we accomplish it? Jesus gave us help, both as individuals and as churches in Matthew 25:31-46, commonly called the parable of the sheep and the goats. The defining factors that determined who was welcomed into the kingdom and who was not were these; Feed the hungry Give water to the ...

A couple of entries back I talked about love for one another being a badge of discipleship. That idea acutally springs from the words of Jesus in John 13:34-35. One problem that many of today's Christ-followers have with this is that their definition of love is too shallow. Anyone raised in the modern west has been programmed to believe that love is primarily a feeling that comes upon you and there is little or nothing that you can do about it. We're stuck in the phileo (brotherly love) or eros (physical or fleshly love) definitions of love, and have very little understanding of agapaeo. Agape love is what I call "love on purpose". The act(s) of love precede, and eventually produce, feelings. The old DC Talk song, "Love is Something You Do" pretty much nailed it. Bottom line; I can choose to love people that I really don't even like. I can choose to do loving things for them because that is what Jesus did for me. I can choose to love that other...