To or from

In my line of work I am in many different vehicles. A few weeks ago I drove a Ranger with two giant white bumper stickers on the tailgate talking of salvation and Jesus' death on the cross. As I got in the pick-up I noticed a Bible on the passenger seat as well as about a dozen Bible tracts in the driver's door.

I don't find any fault with these things, but I wonder sometimes if we, as Chritians, are trying to save people from hell..... or to God. I see it as two totally different things with a single common thread.

I believe Hell to be a real place and I find the idea of it to be terrifying. However, in our efforts to get people 'saved' are we just trying to squeeze one more soul onto the salvation lifeboat, or do we want to actually introduce people to a real, relational God who can be their saviour?

 

Guilty by denomination

    “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world..."

    “...Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels..."

Matthew 25:31-34, 41

Chilling scene. This is more than enough to make me hit my knees and thank God for His grace... for saving me. It also creates in me an angst for those not (yet) 'washed' in the blood of Christ.

(side note: How do you suppose Rob Bell interprets v41? Honest question...)

So I think we can agree that Jesus is to take priority... as is our neighbor. Mark 12 finds Jesus aswering the religious leaders of the day:

"...And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Now, I am not a scholar of the Greek language, but I don't think Jesus said anything about being Baptist there. Nor was there anything about adopting a young earth creationist mentality. Oh, and I'm pretty sure He didn't mention anything about anti-war activism.

Love God. Love people. Simple.... until we, in our humanism, start dragging in all the rules, regulations, committees, conferences, & petitions into the mix. God saved me! I am not a Christian because I DO or DON'T DO certain things. I am not the Holy Spirit, and despite my intentions I cannot expect to bring a non-Christian to faith in Christ by forcing them through some denominational equation and then hand them a 46lb binder with 6 appendixes full of christianese. It is God's kindness that is meant to bring us/them to repentance (Romans 2:4).

Now, I know the rules & regs people are experiencing panic attack because this mentality has had a strangle hold on the American church for decades. There are 'do's & don'ts' in Scripture, but I do (or don't do) these things BECAUSE I love God, NOT to earn salvation or gain His favor and/or recognition. When we stumble (and we will stumble) this is where we experience God's grace,mercy, forgiveness, and love.

    "The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases;
        his mercies never come to an end;
    they are new every morning;
        great is your faithfulness.
    “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul,
        “therefore I will hope in him.”
Lamentations 3:22-24

So here is what I need to remember. Its great to be passionate about certain things, but people will not see Jesus through me just because:

-I vote a certain way

-don't drink wine with dinner

-believe the earth is thousands of years old as opposed to millions

-I protest any sort of war

-etc

What people will take notice of is how I love God and how I love those around me. Time to take inventory...

 

 

 

 

Untitled

From a statistical perspective I have been a Christian for 30 years. As that number has gotten larger over the years, it used to be something I was proud of. How dumb is that? God saves me by His grace, and I'm stuck on a number...anyway in an effort to make my way out of this religious forrest I have to take out one tree at a time.

The following verses deal with women and ministry:

I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling; likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness—with good works. Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Yet she will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control.
(1 Timothy 2:8-15 ESV)

From there, chapter 3 goes on to talk about qualifications of an overseer/pastor/elder, and it's obvious that this position is supposed to be filled by a male.

I recently heard a sermon from a Nampa pastor that really made me think. Statistically, women outnumber men 11 to 1 on the foreign mission field. So if there is a woman in south American village doing God's work, and people are getting saved can she 'pastor' that local church or should she stall until a man steps up to fill that role?

Is this a major issue, or a minor one?