More from Accidental Pharisee

Quote: "In my mind, the quest for spiritual maturity was like an onion and a video game. With regard to sin, it was like an onion. There was always another layer to peel off. If people weren’t feeling seriously guilty about something, they obviously weren’t listening to the Holy Spirit. I rated Christian books and sermons by how bad they made me feel. The worse I felt, the better the sermon. The more difficult and challenging they were, the more faithful the message. With regard to growth, it was like a video game. There was always a higher level to attain. No matter how much people grew, no matter what sacrifices they made to get to that point, there was always a next level they needed to reach to fully please the Lord. Worse, I chided people who grew weary. I pushed them to work harder, pray longer, and study more.

Taking a break or temporarily stepping to the sidelines was simply not an option. Satan didn’t rest; why should we? My discipleship motto was simple: no pain, no gain. If you wanted rest, a lighter load, or an easier path, you’d come to the wrong place. I didn’t think that’s what Jesus offered. He offered a cross to bear, death to self, and eternal rewards to the faithful few who were willing to pay the price and stay the course. Or so I thought. In reality, as we saw earlier, if I’d read my Bible a little more carefully, I would have found that Jesus did offer something I had never considered worthy of a Christ follower. He offered rest, a light burden, and an easy yoke to those who were weary and heavily burdened. Imagine that! Maybe it’s a misprint. Maybe he didn’t really mean it. But then again, maybe that’s why he called his message good news. Maybe those of us who constantly demand more are the ones who’ve missed it.

Matt. 11:28–30: Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

For over two thousand years, those who fashion themselves as spiritual leaders haven’t been able to leave well enough alone. They keep trying to raise the bar to entry higher than Jesus placed it. They pile on heavier and heavier burdens and call it discipleship. They shut the door to the struggling and weak and call it purifying the church. Their intentions are noble. But their fruit is rotten. They unwittingly play the same role as the Pharisees of old, trying to keep out the very people Jesus came to reach. So why do we do that? What tempts someone to want to thin the herd that Jesus came to expand?"
Read the answers in the book!!


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Highlights from my reading of Accidental Pharisee

Accidental Pharisees: Avoiding Pride, Exclusivity, and the Other Dangers of Overzealous Faith by Larry Osborne

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JERKS FOR JESUS
You’ve probably known a jerk for Jesus, someone who thought they were advancing the cause of the kingdom when in reality they were simply embarrassing the King.
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It makes me wonder if any of us can lay claim to fully and completely taking up our cross, denying self, and loving him above life itself. I suspect that if truth be told, none of us has a devotion that is as absolute, undivided, or exclusive as we may think it is, even people who trumpet such devotion as the only acceptable mark of genuine discipleship. Second, it makes me hesitant to call out, write off, or tear apart those who struggle with full devotion and reckless abandonment. Who am I to blast a “secret disciple” as unworthy if Jesus didn’t? Who am I to write off the not-yet-fully-committed if Jesus didn’t? Who am I to say that God can’t use the kind of people he actually used?
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Sometimes I wonder if in our quest to purify the church, we’ve become more like Pharisees than like Jesus. Accidental Pharisees perhaps. But Pharisees nonetheless. When it comes to bruised reeds, smoldering wicks, and the weary saints, Pharisees have no patience. They pile on heavy burdens and lots of guilt. But they don’t lift a finger to make anything easier. They thin the herd at every opportunity. Not so with Jesus.
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I remember once meeting with a group of guys who were passionate about their walk with God. Somehow the conversation turned toward people in the church who were not so passionate. Next thing I knew, they were ripping on the way everyone else raised their kids, spent their money, read their Bible, and set their priorities. It was one of those “aren’t you glad we’re not like those guys?” conversations. Now, these were quality men. They were indeed doing a far better job than most in raising their kids, spending their money, reading their Bible, and setting their priorities. The problem wasn’t that they noticed it. The problem was what they did with the information. They used it to justify looking down on everyone else. They became arrogant.
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Years ago I was part of an amazing movement of God. I was lucky enough to be at ground zero. I saw everything. God’s Spirit was at work. Lots of people came to Christ. Lots of lives were radically changed. But then something happened. We began to compare ourselves with others, and we liked what we saw. We were on fire for God. Most people weren’t. So we began to look down on everyone else. We still loved the lost and the hard-core sinner. But we disdained the less than fully sold-out Christian. We were sure God was pleased with us and ticked off with them.

I have to admit, the view was breathtaking. That’s why some of my friends decided to set up camp there. Decades later they still haven’t moved. They’re living in the past, still certain that God likes them best. They have no idea how much he hates the place where they’ve chosen to live.
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the Pharisee who had lived such an exemplary life that he’d begun to look down on everyone else had no such luck. His prayers were ignored. Again, don’t miss that.
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Star it. Underline it. According to Jesus, it didn’t matter how moral or zealous he was. His arrogant trust in his own righteousness, and his pattern of looking down on everyone else, nullified all the good he had done. It left him worse off than a low-life tax collector.


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We Are Justified By Faith -- Not Works

As part of my on-going effort to get people to read the Bible for themselves, this morning I'm pasting a few scriptures.  Drop a search for "Jesus Christ" in Bible Gateway and a beautiful string of verses hang there like a dangling Christmas lights on a doorway. I love Paul's letter to the Romans so much. Not just because it is a passionate plea to a world gone mad with power, but because Paul's aim was to make the Gospel -- the Good News -- clear, simple, and poignant! Notice that we are "justified freely by his grace" and "justified through faith."  

Romans 3:22This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile,

Romans 3:24all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.Romans 5:1[ Peace and Hope ] Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,Romans 5:11Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.Romans 5:15But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!

"Through faith" is the first action in the first verse. Righteousness does NOT come by any other means. Not by being a good person. Not by being in the right church. Not by being right about your opinions. Righteousness comes only "through faith in Jesus Christ." Period. Why is it so important to understand this? Because IF we fill in the blank here with anything else other than "through faith in Jesus Christ" then we are now "self-righteous." It's that simple. Only by believing in the completed work of Christ on the cross do we become complete and righteous in God's sight.

WE are all "justified FREELY by his grace." Notice this gift from God is a FREE gift. We did not -- nor can we EVER -- do anything to make it not free. At least in God's mind. In God's plan this is a free gift. But so often we get our wires crossed and begin to believe it is somehow not completely free. Most often this is the result of false teaching from a church leader. He may take the handful of verses in the Bible that mention "works" and build a case for a different gospel than the one laid out clearly by Paul to the Romans and found in the entire scope of the Bible. One must study the ENTIRE topic of grace and salvation in scripture, not just a select few verses. And one must NEVER blindly trust someone to do your thinking for you just because they are "smart" or "charismatic."

Read the scriptures! Really read them. We often make this way too complicated. And we often exalt men to positions of power over ourselves to become a mediator for us. Then we let them read the Bible and "teach" us what it means. And then we "oooo" and we "ahhhh" and we quote the wise man and honor him. And the man becomes a "scholar" and he writes a book and we clap and spread the "I follow Apollos" gospel. Meanwhile the mortar in the wall we have built between clergy and laity is setting up good a hard. Soon we won't need to read the Bible at all. And if we ever do we will be sure to ask Apollos if we got it right.

!!!

So I challenge and even dare you to go back up and read these verses from Romans. Then read the entire chapter five and six and seven and eight. Ask God to enlighten your understanding of the Gospel. Then believe that He will.

Do you know that God wants to set you free in your mind? Free to come close to Him. To know Him as He loves you. But not just a knowing in your mind that you are His--He longs for you to FEEL His loving-kindness toward you. To rest in His arms. To be satisfied in Him. Nothing in all the universe satisfies like feeling the true love of God and knowing He did all this to save us when we were yet helpless and lost. His love is everything we long for. And now it is free. And when we accept this truth that we are justified freely by His grace -- I mean really and truly believe in the finished work of Christ -- there is but one result -- works. It's that simple. Now there's no longer any need for legalism.

How Christians get arrogant. [repost]

How Christians get arrogant. From here http://bit.ly/V199GB

The other day, a friend of mine made a comment about an author. He wrote:
“I’ll say he’s sloppy at best when it comes to sound doctrine and theology.”

I think the first half of that thought is awesome.

I think the author he was describing is sloppy at best.
I think I’m sloppy at best.
I think you’re sloppy at best.
I think there’s not a person on the planet who isn’t sloppy at best.

The longer I’m a Christian, the more I realize how big and mysterious and boundless God is. The idea that I can remove the “sloppiness” from my limited human understanding of him is comical. The idea that, at 36 or 56 or 106, I could reach a point in my life where I have him all figured out is silly.

In anything, the Christians I know with the deepest, most mature faiths tell me, “The closer I got to God over the decades, the more I realized how very little I knew about his wonderfulness and how very desperately I needed him more than ever.”

The fear in admitting faith is sloppy is that you’ll lose all sense of truth, and everything will become relative. As if admitting you haven’t figured God out completely is a single step away from “All religions basically say the same thing. God is too big to figure out so let’s not even try. Anything goes.”

But the more we fear that extreme example and refuse to have sloppy discussions, the more we invite something poisonous into our faith – arrogance.

My friend might not have had that in his words. But others do when they draw manmade boundaries around a boundless God.

As if any of us will get to heaven and have God say, “You got it all right. Every inch of who I am was perfectly understood by you while you were alive. That time in Isaiah 55 when I said, ‘My thoughts are not your thoughts,’ I meant that verse for everyone but you. You nailed it.”
Even the disciples, who lived with Jesus, were constantly getting it wrong.

I love what happens in Luke 9:
As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. And he sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him; but the people there did not welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem. When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?” But Jesus turned and rebuked them. Then he and his disciples went to another village.

I can’t help but imagine what Jesus wanted to say:
“Wait, what? What’s your solution? I’ve been preaching ‘turn the other cheek.’ And in Luke 9, or what you might call ‘Last Tuesday,’ I told you that if a town won’t welcome you, ‘shake the dust off your feet when you leave their town, as a testimony against them.’ What was the solution you just recommended? Call fire down from heaven to destroy them? OK, just checking. How did you ever think that was the right response?”

And then, the verse tells us he rebuked them.
If we were honest, I think a lot of us deserve a rebuke in that same way. When we add things to Scripture, when we put works as a means to grace, when we create rules in order to feel in control, I think Jesus wants to rebuke us.

Does this mean we should not study?
Does this mean we should not call ourselves to learn theology?
Does this mean we should not sharpen one another with truth?
Does this mean there are not doctrinal truths we must hold fast to?
Does this mean there are not slippery slopes that must be avoided?

Of course not.

It means we have to be honest.
To admit that we are learning, but we are sloppy.

Fortunately, we have a God who is not.



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Prove by the way that you live...

4 John’s clothes were woven from coarse camel hair, and he wore a leather belt around his waist. For food he ate locusts and wild honey. 5 People from Jerusalem and from all of Judea and all over the Jordan Valley went out to see and hear John. 6 And when they confessed their sins, he baptized them in the Jordan River.
7 But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming to watch him baptize,* he denounced them. “You brood of snakes!” he exclaimed. “Who warned you to flee God’s coming wrath? 8 Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God. 9 Don’t just say to each other, ‘We’re safe, for we are descendants of Abraham.’ That means nothing, for I tell you, God can create children of Abraham from these very stones. 10 Even now the ax of God’s judgment is poised, ready to sever the roots of the trees. Yes, every tree that does not produce good fruit will be chopped down and thrown into the fire."
"Prove by the way we live..."
Prove by who we honor, Christ or men, or a man.
Prove by what we say about people behind their backs.
Prove by how we treat people who are different than ourselves.
Prove by how we respond to those who disagree with us.
Prove by making the choice to love no matter what the consequence may be to our future.
Jesus proved that sort of love.
"Prove by the way we live..."
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For a fantastic book check out Accidental Pharisee by Larry Osbourne. I'm on chapter four now and deeply convicted.
Conviction is a very good thing when it leads to repentance and grace. God help me.
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Accidental Pharisees: Avoiding Pride, Exclusivity, and the Other Dangers of Overzealous Faith
Larry Osborne
$14.99 $10.19
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We Have All the Answers [repost]

We Have All the Answers from here http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/churchrelevance/~3/gm_UWwA7RCA/

Mankind tends to be compelled to have it all figured out. We oversimplify complex things into 12-step formulas. We make stereotypes. And no matter how big and unanswerable a question is, we seem unable to resist creating a theory to make sense of it.
In fact, I just did it by generalizing the whole human race.
Sometimes the only way to remotely grasp reality is to simplify it through the lens of our unique worldview. Christians are no different. We do this with theology. And we don’t just try to understand the fundamentals such as the gospel, grace, and atonement. We also want to know and explain the weird, obscure, and unimportant like the Nephilim, the rapture, how old the earth is, and what Jesus really looked like.
But we cannot forget 1 Corinthians 1:25, which reminds us that God is always exponentially wiser than the greatest of thoughts from our best theologians.
You don’t have it figured out. No one does. We have glimpses of truth on which we build our faith. I don’t believe our minds have the capacity to understand the fullness of the ideas formed by the language of God. They are otherworldly, marvelous, and awesome in the most literal sense.
The best we can do is stay content resting in the shadow of God and latch on to every bit of divine revelation gifted to us by the Holy Spirit through prayer and Scripture. And if we must know more, then listen to other true believers who are from different cultures, denominations, theologies, and models of ministry because their perspective may reveal to us a new vantage point of who God is.

I John 4 truly is a favorite...

7 Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. 8 But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
9 God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. 10 This is real love-not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
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16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love.* Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.* 17 In this way, love is made complete* among us so that we will have confidence* on the day of judgment,* because in this world we are like him. 18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear,* because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
19 We love because he first loved us.* 20 If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother,* he is a liar.* For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen,* cannot love God, whom he has not seen.* 21 And he has given us this command:* Whoever loves God must also love his brother.*
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Thank you, HLA staff, for a beautiful plaque with this passage mounted in it.

What the Bible Says About Anger [Repost]

From here: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/challies/XhEt/~3/kMXRtwtxgtk/what-the-bible-says-about-anger
I suppose it should come as no surprise that the Bible has a great deal to say about anger. Anger is, after all, not only a result of sin but also a common cause of sin. Here is what the Bible has to say: It is good to be slow to anger. Those who are quick to anger display a lack of wisdom. Whoever is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who has a hasty temper exalts folly. (Proverbs 14:29) Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger. (James 1:19) Be not quick in your spirit to become angry, for anger lodges in the heart of fools. (Ecclesiastes 7:9) Anger should be addressed as soon as possible because it can easily turn to sin. The LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.” (Genesis 4:6-7) You have heard that it was said to those of old, “You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.” But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment …. So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. (Matthew 5:21-24) Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger. (Ephesians 4:26) Though at times anger can be righteous (see especially Mark 3:5 where Jesus becomes angry), anger is generally to be avoided.
For I fear that perhaps when I come I may find you not as I wish, and that you may find me not as you wish—that perhaps there may be quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder. (2 Corinthians 12:20)
Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
(Galatians 5:19-21) Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. (Ephesians 4:31) But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.
(Colossians 3:8) Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. (James 1:19-20)

Jesus Criticizes the Religious Leaders

Matthew 23 is a favorite...and below I have some thoughts on making this practical.
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Jesus Criticizes the Religious Leaders:
1 Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, 2 “The teachers of religious law and the Pharisees are the official interpreters of the law of Moses.* 3 So practice and obey whatever they tell you, but don’t follow their example. For they don’t practice what they teach. 4 They crush people with unbearable religious demands and never lift a finger to ease the burden.

5 “Everything they do is for show. On their arms they wear extra wide prayer boxes with Scripture verses inside, and they wear robes with extra long tassels.* 6 And they love to sit at the head table at banquets and in the seats of honor in the synagogues. 7 They love to receive respectful greetings as they walk in the marketplaces, and to be called ‘Rabbi.’* 8 “Don’t let anyone call you ‘Rabbi,’ for you have only one teacher, and all of you are equal as brothers and sisters.*

9 And don’t address anyone here on earth as ‘Father,’ for only God in heaven is your spiritual Father. 10 And don’t let anyone call you ‘Teacher,’ for you have only one teacher, the Messiah. 11 The greatest among you must be a servant. 12 But those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.
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Verse three is the first big shocker. It's "do what the Bible says" but "don't follow the example" of those who are not practicing what they teach. So how do we know if a "teacher" is practicing what they teach? One word: LOVE. Does the "teacher" exemplify the sort of Calvary love which our Lord revealed to us? Is his or her life defined by love, driven by love, and known by others as love? Is the legacy he will leave a legacy of unconditional, self-sacrificial love, and not just to a select few, but to all those who knew him? The religious leaders were known for crushing "people with unbearable religious demands."  We are all to be known by our love for one another.

"Everything they do is for show." But what if its not "everything" but just "some things" they do is for show? Well, it's still wrong. Now this is a matter of the heart mostly. Each of us must ask the Spirit of God to search  our innermost and weed out that which we do for show. We must place ourselves on the alter and let God kill our pride and our insatiable flesh desire for human approval. Our approval must always come from God. And because our fallen selves always war against the Spirit the task of killing this pride is ongoing, internal, and deeply personal. Occasionally, however, it is obvious to us that another person "loves to sit at the head table" or in a special seat in church. And it's obvious that they love "respectful greetings" and special titles. Note that the instruction is to the leader, that he should "not let anyone call him" Rabbi, or any other special title. Why this instruction? Because "we are are all equal as brothers and sisters." Once again, "we are all EQUAL as brothers and sisters" in Christ. That's the church!

But what should we do in the case that a church leader does not personally refuse special titles and special treatment?

1. Number one: Stop feeding their ego! Don't let them have the special seat or special title. It's not good for them and it's not good for those of us who give it to them. Leaders are to be known not by their titles or chairs but by their love and servant-hood. If they won't lead by example those "followers" must rise up and declare the necessity of Christ's teaching -- that we must be known by our LOVE. Anything else is religion -- watered-down, ineffective, divisive, power-less religion.  
2. Number two: Pray for them. Most likely their desire for a special place and a special title comes from a spiritual identity crisis. We are to have our full identity in Christ Himself -- in Who He is and what He has done for us. There is nothing the world can offer that can give us security. A special title and special chair actually breeds more insecurity. We must pour over the scriptures that teach us exactly WHO we are in Christ and little by little those desires for anything the world can give us will be replaced by only that which Christ can give us. So we must pray for them and for one another, and always point to Christ as the author and perfecter of our faith.  

A religious person and a religious church is a weak person and a weak church. It reminds me of the structures my kids like to build with our base-ten math set. Some of them are SO ready to fall. Their impact on the world will fade into history. So purge the religious before it does. There's always time to do so if we humble ourselves immediately and dedicate ourselves to God's sort of unconditional love. 

That's our job -- to humble "ourselves." God's job is to exalt. Ours is to be humble and to serve.

The greatest among you must be a servant. 

But those who exalt themselves will be humbled, 

and those who humble themselves will be exalted.  

The Berlin Walls of the Heart

Last week I laid my hand on part of the original Berlin Wall. Then I walked around and lay my had on that other side. I went back and forth, touching it, leaning against it, looking up at the top and imaging an attempt to get over it. I walked down along side of it. I imagined I was in communist country, the East side, and I want my freedom so badly I considered risking my life. That's what so many did.

We discovered it wasn't just one single wall. It was several walls with distance between them. If you made it over one wall you then had to run 30 feet and jump a steal structure. If you make that you run another 20 feet and jump a barb-wire fence. All the time you're hoping you don't get shot! My assumption was there was this wall. It divided the city. Period. But keeping people from leaving bondage Berlin and getting into the new land of freedom was a full-time, expensive, and difficult task. I have a few thoughts and observations.

One: Creating a wall to keep people from being free is a very difficult, ongoing job.

Well after the War, far enough in the future that the remains of Hitler's most zelous followers were certainly decayed to bones, there was a great army of builders and guards assigned to this massive Berlin wall project. And it was indeed massive, the upkeep project that is. It would be easy if you could just build a wall and walk away. But not this time; not this sort of wall. This is a wall for a specific greater purpose than your average property marker wall, or animal containment wall. This wall was for the people; people who kept on and kept on trying to get free. Their desire for freedom made them relentless and resourceful. Many died trying to cross over. But many others made it freedom. Enough people did make it to freedom that it emboldened those still in bondage. The more people became brave the more they would try to escape. The more people would try to escape the more effort and material was added to the Wall. Creating a wall to keep people from being free is a very difficult, ongoing job.

Two: NO one was trying to escape from the free side into the communist side. No one.

Freedom is a basic human need. A Dictator is simply someone who dictates to another how they should live their lives, thus robbing them of basic freedom. The drive to be free from a dictatorship is as strong as our will to live, eat, or love. Therefore the real burden to maintain a communist way of thinking and living falls to the Dictator and his most dedicated adherents. But this is different than the desire to be governed. People DO want laws that provide for a greater, more safe, level of freedom. But if a leader crosses the line of law making into the gross area of complete life-management, taking over your life and declaring it the property of the State, then you can be sure the fight for freedom will begin. People always, always move toward freedom.

Three: The Berlin Wall is a two-fold symbol.

On the one hand it is a symbol of division, reminding us about our human nature and the easy way in which we can slip into separation.  On the other hand it is also a symbol of change, reminding us that it is never too late to make it right, to tear down that wall.

We all have the potential to build Berlin Walls of the heart.

One of the GREATEST challenges to being is a Christ-follower is learning how to be friends with those who disagree with us and how to love those who have different views of how to be a Christian. The KEY to to learning this, I'm convinced, is knowing WHO we are in Christ! If we are secure in our identity we are less likely to be threatened by another person's interpretation of scripture, or preference in worship, or goals for parenting, or believe in man's origin, or theology of the church or .... etc., etc., etc. Pick a topic. At any given point if we are not drawing our self-worth from the God who created and defines us we are more likely to construct walls in our hearts. Once the wall project begins it will be a constant labor, stealing our joy and draining our spiritual vivacity.

Fortunately the walls of our hearts can come down and we can experience great freedom ourselves, as well as set others free who we lead or influence. I know this personally, because I made a Berlin Wall in my own heart, dividing in my mind a true and right way to be fully "Christian" from a great many of wrong ways. This was my wall of judgementalism. As it grew I had to maintain it. The Wall project began to consume me.

The great enemy of God is a Dictator himself and is an expert Wall builder. I let him in to swing his hammer and pour his mortar. I spent so much energy maintaining my own heart's wall.  And it wasn't easy, because my own heart also wanted to be free. Fortunately, the Spirit of God is represented by a dove, a perfect symbol of freedom. He flew over to my side of the wall and brought a green blade of grass from the other side. I realized in that season of my life that loving others regardless of whether they agreed with me was indeed a greener grass on the other side of the wall. And I wanted that freedom, the freedom to recognize and cooperate with the millions of Christians around the world, and not think my own little way of "church" was the only right way, or the best way. The beauty of the grass became a weapon against the wall, allowing me to chip away -- and then hack away -- at the foundations of the wall. And I could hear a voice, not the gruff cowboy voice of Ronald Raegan, but the sweet soft voice of God Himself whispering to me, 'Tear down this wall.' And so I did. Today I cannot describe the great happiness which comes from the freedom of not judging other Christians if they don't believe like I do.

It is never too late to obey God's sweet voice and tear down the walls of our heart. The walls don't make those persons on the free side want to come into our hearts, nor are they able. Our barrier attitude does not make the free less free, or less happy. They are the free ones. When we build walls we are those who are NOT free. Our wall only harms us. And we have to work so hard to maintain it. God never intended for His children to build walls. God never intended for churches to build walls.

It's time to tear down these walls in our heats and unite to build God's Kingdom instead.

“The worst thing is not being wrong, but being sure one is not wrong.”

“The worst thing is not being wrong, but being sure one is not wrong.” ~ Paul Tournier

"...knowledge puffs up while love builds up." 

~ 1 Corinthians 8:1

If you ever come across a teacher who thinks that he has all or most of the right answers -- about God, Church, Bible, Creation, etc. -- do proceed with extreme caution! There is nothing more dangerous than a proud religious leader who believes his or her interpretation of Scripture is the only correct one. I have seen so much damage done to fragile faith and young believers when those with charisma and influence do not take the humble road and question their own opinions and interpretations.
I knew a teacher in a church one time who was so sure of his own reading of Scripture that he carried a condescending tone with anyone who disagreed with him. I asked him one time how sure he was of himself and he replied, "I am 98% sure of my conclusions. But it might as well be 100%." I'll call this interpretive pride. It's the pride that one's own interpretation of scripture, books, research, etc. should not be questioned, because the interpreter has already risen above all others in their process of discovery and of interpretation. All that remains is for those who are "below" the prideful interpreter to concede his or her knowledge and cease any personal exploration. The result of this spiritually crushing haughty attitude is this:

1. Interpretive pride causes a widening gap between clergy and laity. In many cases the prideful interpreter may not even believe in a clergy-laity distinction. Never-the-less the mere attitude inevitably creates the distinction and the subsequent growing gap because the feeling most followers are left with is we must access God in some way or another through this "smart" man.
2.  

We are to remain true to the teachings of Christ, first and foremost.

Accidental Pharisees! I bet this book is going to be great. Ordering now...

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Accidental Pharisees: Avoiding Pride, Exclusivity, and the Other Dangers of Overzealous Faith [Paperback]

Larry Osborne (Author)

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Book Description

Release Date: October 9, 2012

Zealous faith can have a dangerous, dark side. While recent calls for radical Christians have challenged many to be more passionate about their faith, the down side can be a budding arrogance and self-righteousness that 'accidentally' sneaks into our outlook. In Accidental Pharisees, bestselling author Larry Osborne diagnoses nine of the most common traps that can ensnare Christians on the road to a deeper life of faith. Rejecting attempts to turn the call to follow Christ into a new form of legalism, he shows readers how to avoid the temptations of pride, exclusivity, legalism, and hypocrisy, Larry reminds us that attempts to fan the flames of full-on discipleship and call people to Christlikeness should be rooted in love and humility. Christians stirred by calls to radical discipleship, but unsure how to respond, will be challenged and encouraged to develop a truly Christlike zeal for God.

Posture of Listening? Or Talking?

Watch "Michael Frost - Adopt a Posture of Listening" on YouTube

Should We Abandon Those Who Disagree With Us? [ repost]

"...abandoning those who disagree? 

Saying farewell to those whose doctrines are not like ours? 

This is nothing short of the power mongering spirit of the world."

from the blog of Donald Miller

~~~~~

What I love about our faith is it’s power to reconcile. At the beginning of the church, just after Christ went back to be with the Father, the Spirit was sent to reconcile Jews and Gentiles (and yes, even Muslims) with no shortage of truth. But the spirit of that movement was love, peace and reconciliation.

In history, there are very few movements that involve strong, unshakeable statements of truth of which people did not lift a weapon to defend. These leaders were not willing to compromise, but were very willing to die at the hands of their enemies.

We’ve all met believers who use the Bible to divide. And to abandon. If we associate our identities with dogma rather than the person of Christ, this will always be the temptation. Satan uses Scripture, too.

Does truth divide? Certainly.

When I think about Christ being the Prince of Peace and also coming to divide families, I picture Martin Luther King, Jr. marching across the bridge in Salma, Alabama.

It was a tense scene, to be sure, and the movement he championed would divide a nation. And yet, the tension caused wasn’t caused with violence, it was caused with non-violent resistance. Love our enemies was the “battle cry” of a great portion of the civil rights movement. Turning the other cheek was the command of the day. And it worked.

Sometimes, taking stands in love is paramount. But abandoning those who disagree? Saying farewell to those whose doctrines are not like ours? This is nothing short of the power mongering spirit of the world. A world that seeks temporary power, like a man getting his blows in on his way to the executioners chamber. This man wants to hurt, not to reconcile. He wants to do more damage to feel his own power. Even if he doesn’t understand his motives.

What is the self righteous man defending? Why is he lashing out? He’s defending his own truth, rather than a truth that has changed his heart into a loving, humble child of God.

In our everyday lives, this looks like disagreeing while still being truly loving, and even going so far as to honor the nobility and dignity of all of God’s creation. Our love is not a statement of agreement, it is, rather, a powerful statement about the power of truth, a truth that heals the heart and protects it from the spirit of the world.

Loving those who disagree with us differentiates us from the spirit of the world and makes a powerful statement about the relevancy of Christ and His mission to reconcile all people to Himself, and to each other.

Reach out to those who disagree with you and truly validate their humanity. God does. Because, after all, the chances of all our ideas being right are a billion to one, and God validates us all the same. He does this because He loves us. His children don’t need to be right to be loved.

-Donald Miller

Christianity is that Which Looks and Acts Like Christ

I talked with a friend this week who has been burned badly by judgmental "Christians." At one point in her life, when she was at an all time low, most (but fortunately, not all) of her "Christian" neighbors actually walked by her house and ignored her. Those who did walk by knew her needs, her poverty, her situation with her husband, yet they judged her, condemned her, and shunned her. And many of them still do. Why? Because she wouldn't listen to them, believe their "gospel," or support their church. We talked about how that sort of "Christianity" damages a person's chances of genuine faith in God.

Jesus was known to be a "friend of sinners." The church is the second incarnation of Christ on the Earth. Therefore the church should also be known as a friend of sinners. My opinion is this "friend" status between Jesus and sinners was nothing short of those sinners feeling loved and accepted by Jesus. In other words, sinners were drawn to him, felt comfortable with him, and trusted him. At the same time Jesus would teach the Kingdom of God to them, calling for repentance and holiness. He would invite them to turn away from their sinful lives and come follow him. Yet, he was still known as a "friend of sinners." So how is this possible? How can we be like Christ in this regard? How can we preach the same gospel of the Kingdom to the world and maintain a lifestyle of open friendship to those who are not "Christians"? 

But what is a Christian? In so many ways the friend that I mention above has taught me to not be judgmental. And in so many ways she is very Christian - that is very Christlike and loving. She is one of the main reasons that I have re-thought my walk with God. So what does it mean to be Christian?

I read this simple definition a few years back: Christianity is that which looks and acts like Christ. To the extent an individual or church looks and acts like Christ that individual or church is "Christian." To the extent it does not look and act like Christ it is not "Christian." I like this definition because it measures all of our activity against the activities of Christ. And it makes sense -- "Christianity" (if we must call it that) is founded by Christ. He is the Son of God and the ultimate example for us on how to live in this world -- in the world but not of the world.

Would Christ pass by this wounded woman's home knowing she was crying behind that closed door? Would he talk about her behind her back, avoid her in public, and ask her to leave the neighborhood? Would he shun her? Would he shun anyone? When Christ invited people to turn from a sinful life, trust Him and follow Him, if they did not do so would He give up?

Would He write her off, scold her in anger, and move on to the next? How would Christ treat her?

But you say, "No, Jesus was tough on people!! Scripture is full of places he was tough on sinners!" But I say, "No, He was tough on the Pharisees." He consistently condemned the hypocrisy of the "Teachers of the Law" and berated them for not practicing what they preached. We must read through the Gospels more carefully. Jesus was a "friend of sinners." That is exactly what made the Pharisees hate him so much -- for he not only condemned their attitudes and behaviors toward sinners. He showed them daily how much God loves the sinners by loving them Himself. The hypocrites' lack of love was exposed to all by the stark contrast coming from the very Messiah they had been waiting for. The more it was exposed the more angry they became. Off in the distance, at every encounter between a sinner and Jesus, was most likely an angry Jewish Ruling Elite with a rock in his hand. As the prostitute dried the remaining perfume with her hair that Pharisee turned the stone in his palm looking for the best grip to throw it!

Jesus was a friend of sinners.
The hypocrites were not.
And it made them furious, because it exposed them for what they really were.

We must see that there is always a tension within each of us, a battle between the Spirit and our flesh. The Spirit wants to show us how to love unconditionally, how to become a friend to sinners just like our Lord. But our flesh wants to judge them, condemn them, and shun them. Then our flesh wants to pick up a rock and hurl it at those who are loving the sinners like Christ-- because their love makes our flesh feel guilty. The tension is always present but so is the answer -- surrender. Daily surrender to the Spirit is the only way for God to win over our flesh. Daily surrender. Daily surrender. And then we must seize those moments to love; those moments that come to us a dozen a day; those moments that we so often miss. We must seize those moments and act on those thoughts to love -- for those thoughts, those moments, are a gift from God. The thought to love is not from our own mind but from the mind of Christ within. Only He can love through us. We must surrender to Him, and become a mere vessel. As we do so the tension gives way to rest.

Christianity is that which looks and acts like Christ.

But we have to be honest with ourselves -- there is no perfect "Christian." If we ever think for a minute that we are, or our church is, or our country is, or anything is, perfectly "Christian," or even a better "Christian" than "that" Christian over there -- then we have forgotten the plank-eye story. Jesus Christ was the only sinless human so he has a right to tell us a parable about the plank in our eye, reminding us that if we ever get proud of ourselves for any reason we have become the hypocrite. The point of the story is not "get the plank out of your eye so you can move on to judging others." The point of the story is "always remember that we always have a plank in our eye!!" So at the same time we say "Christianity is that which looks and acts like Christ" we must always walk in ultimate humility knowing that we have a very long way to go.

That Way -- His Way -- begins with loving and caring for our neighbor. It is the second greatest commandment coming from the lips of our King. And who is our neighbor? If Jesus lived in your neighborhood how would he treat people? If Jesus lived in your neighborhood how would he treat people who didn't live in your neighborhood?

Fortunately, my friend who was burned by the "Christians" in her life is not giving up on God. Fortunately, there were a couple people who showed her love. We talked about God's love this week. And we talked about prayer. We talked about faith. She is crushed, but so are countless more who fall under the heavy hand of hypocrisy. But God keeps on showing his love to them, and to her, revealing His acceptance and His care. And we keep praying for her and loving her by the grace of God and believing the way forward is not to judge, condemn, and shun but love, accept, and invite. We believe this is the Way of our Lord. He taught us whenever you give a glass of water to them you have given one to me. So we try to keep our cups full and our doors open. But we have so far to go...to love our neighbor as ourselves. And we always will.

God .... please help us love like you. 

Christianity is that which looks and acts like Christ.

A discussion starter for how missional communities might be lived out and looked at.

 A discussion starter for how missional communities might be lived out and looked at. Hopefully, it sparks a little conversation and dialogue.

Is Your Church Inviting? [Repost]

Love this post from here: 

I wish every church said what this church says in their bulletin …

It’s easy to poke fun at some of the things churches say on their welcome sign. It’s easy to question some of the things that make it inside a church bulletin. It’s easy to say “this is bad,” but it’s a lot harder to say “this is good.” Anyone can critique, but creating is a lot more difficult.
So what does a great welcome message look like? What does an awesome welcome message look like? It looks exactly like what “Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Community” has in their church.

My friend attended there recently, and I got a copy of what they hand out. I posted a photo of it below so you could see what it looks like, but the image got cut off so here’s what it says:

We extend a special welcome to those who are single, married, divorced, gay, filthy rich, dirt poor, yo no habla Ingles. We extend a special welcome to those who are crying new-borns, skinny as a rail or could afford to lose a few pounds. We welcome you if you can sing like Andrea Bocelli or like our pastor who can’t carry a note in a bucket. You’re welcome here if you’re “just browsing,” just woke up or just got out of jail. We don’t care if you’re more Catholic than the Pope, or haven’t been in church since little Joey’s Baptism.

We extend a special welcome to those who are over 60 but not grown up yet, and to teenagers who are growing up too fast. We welcome soccer moms, NASCAR dads, starving artists, tree-huggers, latte-sippers, vegetarians, junk-food eaters. We welcome those who are in recovery or still addicted. We welcome you if you’re having problems or you’re down in the dumps or if you don’t like “organized religion,” we’ve been there too.

If you blew all your offering money at the dog track, you’re welcome here. We offer a special welcome to those who think the earth is flat, work too hard, don’t work, can’t spell, or because grandma is in town and wanted to go to church.

We welcome those who are inked, pierced or both. We offer a special welcome to those who could use a prayer right now, had religion shoved down your throat as a kid or got lost in traffic and wound up here by mistake. We welcome tourists, seekers and doubters, bleeding hearts … and you!

Bravo to Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Community! That should be made into a poster and hung in church offices around the world.

I love the thought that a few members of Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Community getting together and saying, “Let’s invite everyone to come meet Jesus!” And then they started writing their list.

And it got long. Why?

Because everyone needs Jesus.

Everyone changes when they meet Jesus.

And they wanted to make sure everyone knew they were invited to meet him.

Thoughts on Change and the Pain of Becoming More Like Christ

This topic has been on my mind for a good year now. And for a good year now God has been working some deep change into me. And it's painful, to see oneself. Sometimes it's so painful it feels like someone took a meat tenderizer to our hearts. But we must yield to the potter's hand as He attempts to make me a little more like Christ. Now looking back not just over the last couple of years but over 21 years of trying to follow God I see some very important things about transformation and Christlikeness. Here are my thoughts.

1. The human race IS in fact a fallen race; corrupt, fleshly, and sinful. We need a savior. We cannot save ourselves. We also need power. That power God sent to us by His Spirit. The Spirit's role is to make us more like Christ.
2. Christ is perfect. He is the only sinless human soul to ever walk this dusty Earth. He is everything we are not, but everything we truly want to be like. He is our role-model, but He is also our friend and now even our brother, for we have the same Abba Father, who adopted us and gives us a NEW life. But what is this new Life? It is a Life of ongoing change.
3. There is an eternal part of each of us -- our own spirit -- and there is a flesh part of us -- our own soul. God aims to change both parts. He changes the eternal spirit within us the very moment we accept -- by faith -- that God sent His Son to atone for our sins. This eternal part of us is changed completely into a new creation and we immediately have a new identity which we can now walk in. We are adopted, forgiven, and saved for all eternity. The flesh part of us needs a lot of work, however. God's ongoing work on our flesh to make us more like Christ in character and in action does not have a bearing on our eternal security. That is done, as I said, through Christ's sacrifice for our lives. It does have a bearing on our quality of LIFE, our usefulness to God, and our impact and role within God's Kingdom.
4. God does in fact WANT to change the flesh part of us as well, and make us more like His Son. He sent His Son not only as an atoning sacrifice but to give us an example, and to teach us, how to LIVE like Him -- but to do so would require an on-going change in our hearts.  So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image. 2 Corinthians 3:18 (NLT) 
5. We have a choice as to whether we will yield to God's work in our lives to transform us. God will not force that change on us. We can indeed resist His hand and remove ourselves from the potter's wheel. I do not think this means we cease to be saved. Some do. I think God's grace extends to those who love Him and believe in His Son but for one reason or another -- perhaps a difficult childhood, or harsh current circumstances, or hearing poor teaching -- it is difficult to let the Spirit change us.
6. God seeks to change us by using both our personal, intimate relationship with Him and in our corporate relationships with one another. 
7. The greatest strength needed to let God work on our hearts comes from fully knowing and accepting who we are in Christ. As I mentioned in #2 above, we have a new identity from the very moment we have Faith in what our Father has done for us. Knowing who we are IN Christ is what gives us the security to become more LIKE Christ. The more we accept by faith that our eternal spirit has been made new (past tense) the more we can confidently let God change our temporary flesh (future tense) in order to make it more useful. It is vital that every one us BELIEVE in the finished work of Christ on the cross or putting our own flesh on the cross will be pointless. We are a NEW creation and at the same time we are being transformed into His likeness. 
8. God has also set in place a corporate expression of His Son -- the Body of Christ and the ecclessia, the church. We are surrounded by people. And God does indeed want "a people." He always has. From the moment He commissioned Moses to tell Pharoah to "let my people go" God has chased after His Church. All believers in the world -- all of those who "call upon the name of the Lord" -- are saved and are part of the Body of Christ. But then there are those God puts in our immediate path. These are part of our local expression of the church. All believers within our circle of friends are part of this church. God does not see the church names, church buildings, and church programs that we see. He just sees "a people" and declares to Satan still today, "Let my people go!"
9. The greatest barrier to God working on our hearts comes from one another. Even though God's plan is perfect in that He would join us together with a common purpose and fill us all with a common Spirit, His Spirit, God has also made it clear He wants to partner with us to fulfill His will and advance His Kingdom. His ultimate goal is LOVE, for He Himself IS love. This is where we completely get in the way -- our fallen flesh that is. We become a barrier to God's change in one another when we are judgmental -- or when we fail to see others the way God's see others. I have been in situations -- in churches -- where there is a spirit of judgementalism hanging over the body and this spirit keeps people in bondage. In the times I've had people try to show me things about myself with a heavy-handed judgement I could not see. Judgement creates a blockage to the Spirit's work. But in the times I've had brothers and sisters love me and see me with God's eyes I was free to look at my flesh and yield it to God's work of change. Unfortunately, I have also been on the giving end of this judgement, and still fight against it today. Thankfully, God delivered me from an attitude of judgment but there is always the on-going work of seeing one another as fully saved -- as a New, Spiritual, Creation. And there is the on-going work of fully LOVING one-another and giving one another the acceptance and grace to have a fallen flesh that God is working on. God extends this acceptance and grace to me and to you. So we must also extend it to one another.
10. Helping one another change and become more like Christ is a tender, delicate, and loving affair. We have to exercise incredible patience while showing one another complete love and acceptance. We can never brow-beat, Bible-bang, or bully another person into change. These methods are always counter productive, or if they appear to be successful they are only that -- appearance. Down deep the person who changes for any other reason besides "God has done this work in my heart" runs the risk of becoming insecure or worse -- self-righteous. Does this mean we never say "hard" things to one another? No. But my best friends are those who simultaneously FULLY accept who I am with my weaknesses while at the same time are honest brothers who will tell me like it is. 

The most important thing to remember in all this is none of us are perfect, and none of us will ever reach full Christ-like-ness in this life-time. We will always be on the potter's wheel. But as we are on that wheel we must never remove God's hands on another person and replace them with our own. God is working on you and on me. We are on different wheels, turning at different speeds, and with a different amount of pressure and depth which God is applying. As we look over at one another we must look on with LOVE and acceptance, realizing that ALL change is painful, some much more than others. We cannot look over with judgement, thinking things like 'Oh, I already made that change. What's taking you so long?' We must look always to the change going on right now, in our own lives. And IF God wants us to speak to another about change we should do so with great fear and trembling. We should crawl to one another on our knees, with great humility. We should offer our insights and criticisms as if the Lord might strike us down for being judgmental. Because .... he just might. 

Fortunately, our spirits have already been made NEW -- We are HIS! Do you hear that? WE ARE HIS!! We belong to Christ. We are God's children. If you have children you know they all need to change in some way, and we loving try to help them do so. But their pace of change does not change who they are --- MY children; YOUR Children. It is the same with life in God. First we recognize there is NOTHING that can change the fact we are accepted and forgiven just the way we are. But being accepted and forgiven just the way we are is precisely what gives us the courage to let the power of God change us into some which we are not. And our role with one another is exactly the same -- first we ACCEPT one another just the way we are, and second we loving work with God's Spirit together as one Body to all become a little more like Christ today and tomorrow. 

May we accept that God pours out His LOVE and acceptance into our hearts and may we accept one another in the same way.   

Erosion of Freedom

Child Welfare Legislation Outlaws Spanking

Senior Counsel Dee Black answers questions and assists members with legal issues in Delaware. He and his wife homeschooled their children. Read more >>

When Governor Jack Markell signed into law Senate Bill 234 on September 12, 2012, Delaware became the first state in the nation to effectively outlaw corporal discipline of children by their parents.
Sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Patricia M. Blevins (District 7), the legislation creates a definition of the term “physical injury” in the child abuse and neglect laws to include “pain.” Currently the law permits a parent to use force to punish a child for misconduct, but it prohibits any act that is likely to cause or does cause physical injury. By defining “physical injury” to include the infliction of pain on a child, spanking has become a crime in Delaware punishable by imprisonment.
 
Under the new law, a parent causing “physical injury” (e.g., pain) to a child under age 18 would be guilty of a class A misdemeanor and subject to one year in prison. A parent causing pain to a child who was 3 years of age or younger would be guilty of a class G felony and subject to two years in prison.

Home School Legal Defense Association opposed this bill as a violation of the right of parents to direct the upbringing of their children, including the long-recognized right to administer reasonable corporal discipline. HSLDA worked with the Delaware Home Education Association and the Delaware Family Policy Council in an effort to bring about a defeat of this legislation.

Other Resources

View the text of this bill.

Grace works!!

Tullian Tchividjian: Living by Grace vs Living by Law

Life by Law

When we root our identity in anything other than Jesus, we become enslaved. Things must go our way.

As a preacher, I have felt like I need the congregation to like my preaching in order for me to have value. That is life by law! We see life by law play out in a thousand different ways in our life.

When you decide to live life according to law, you think it is up to you to do everything. Slavery according to the Bible is self-reliance, and that is where it all started in Genesis 3 when the serpent says, “You can be like God!” The world says the bigger you are, the freer you will be. It is simply not true.

If law is all there is, then all of our pursuits become a burdensome self-rescue project. It is all law – you must do. And it leads to nothing but despair.

Life by Grace

Grace alone is what frees us from the law. The gospel of grace liberatingly declared that in Christ we already are. Grace reveals that our true identity is in Christ.

If you are a Christian, who you are (your background, abilities, resources) has nothing to do with you. At first that may seem like bad news, but it is great news. Your identity is rooted in Christ’s performance, not yours. It is rooted in Christ’s abilities, not yours. It is liberating!

Somewhere along the way, we’ve adopted the idea that who you are is what others think of you. Because we are so addicted in finding our identity and worth by what others think about us, we are lost. We’ve come to believe that the core of our identity is grounded in who we are and our strengths.

We need people to think we are great, but we know that if they know the truth, they wouldn’t think we are great.

The gospel announces that because Jesus is extraordinary, you are free to be ordinary. What others think of you doesn’t rattle what your true identity in Christ is. The gospel comes as good news.

Freedom happens when we finally see that we can’t fix ourselves. Life by law is do, do, do; your worth is anchored in your doing. Life by grace is done, done, done; your worth is anchored in what Christ has done.

Who is This Man?

This is a fantastic book! I'm closing in on chapter 11 and I have to say it's one of the most inspiring and education works on the life of Jesus I've ever read. As a fan of John Ortberg's writings for a decade this one just takes the cake and adds the icing. It's the sort of book you have to re-read sections just to get the full meaning. Light-bulbs are going on in every chapter, whether it be the Palm Leaf political symbol, the women's liberation of the woman at the well, or going to "the other side" where no moral Jew would ever go -- the Decopolis! Jesus was not just a teacher, healer, prophet, and Son of God who came and went after completely his mission. He impacted every area of history, creating great waves or ripples that exist to this day. I highly recommend this book. You'll come away knowing a great more about "this Man" than you did prior to reading. And, if you're like me, you be that much more of a dedicated disciple. After all, He is the only WAY. 

Book Description

Release Date: August 7, 2012

Jesus' impact on our world is highly unlikely, widely inescapable, largely unknown, and decidedly double-edged. It is unlikely in light of the severe limitations of his earthly life; it is inescapable because of the range of impact; it is unknown because history doesn't connect dots; and it is doubled-edged because his followers have wreaked so much havoc, often in his name. He is history's most familiar figure, yet he is the man no one knows. His impact on the world is immense and non-accidental. From the Dark Ages to Post-Modernity he is the Man who won't go away. And yet . . .you can miss him in historical lists for many reasons, maybe the most obvious being the way he lived his life. He did not loudly and demonstrably defend his movement in the spirit of a rising political or military leader. He did not lay out a case that history would judge his brand of belief superior in all future books. His life and teaching simply drew people to follow him. He made history by starting in a humble place, in a spirit of love and acceptance, and allowing each person space to respond. His vision of life continues to haunt and challenge humanity. His influence has swept over history bringing inspiration to what has happened in art, science, government, medicine, and education; he has taught humans about dignity, compassion, forgiveness, and hope.