The Incarnational Gospel

One aspect of the Incarnation which fascinates me is how God, in human flesh, manifested Himself as a common, simple person born into humble circumstances who traveled the countryside telling stories.

Jesus was a storyteller. He was a creative personality. His stories were allegorical snapshots of what life inside the Kingdom of God was like.

Only one of his stories, which he called “Parables”, was ever actually explained to his disciples. All the rest he left up to interpretation and discovery.

The Parables of Jesus provoked thought and invited those who were curious to explore for themselves what the Kingdom of God was really all about. By internalizing the search for Truth contained in his stories, Jesus entrusted the human mind with the task of working it out in due time.

Jesus was comfortable with loose ends. He didn’t feel any anxiety over how many understood the parable. He knew that those who were truly hungry for real spiritual sustenance would discover what they were craving after in their own time.

There was an organic quality to the ministry and teaching of Jesus that appeals to me in ways that are deeper than I can even comprehend at a conscious level. He had ideas that were subversive to the status quo of the culture and he transmitted the code of this social rebellion through simple stories about farmers, widows, travelers, sons, fathers, and fields.

Jesus was comfortable with unanswered questions. In fact, I think that many of us who call ourselves his followers could learn something from adopting his style of asking questions and telling stories without getting hung up on the answers.

Too often we in the Church are too quick to provide answers to questions we’ve never been asked. That is a serious problem, in my mind. It paints us as people who are more concerned about results than we are about other human beings. We provide answers without taking the time to really listen to the questions being asked. Often we are answering the wrong questions.

For example, no one cares about your answer to spiritual poverty if you have yet to address the very real physical poverty all around you. When you show an indifference to the very real poverty that is easily detectable with the naked eye, it doesn’t paint you as someone who is particularly skilled at relieving poverty. Your poverty-relieving skills come into serious doubt.

Those who have yet to embrace Christ are skeptical of the slogan- “Jesus Loves You” when those who claim to be transformed by this love look and act just like everyone else.

It matters, then, who we are and what we do. Our reputation has become soiled. This is what makes the pursuit of personal Holiness and ethical behavior essential to the Christian life. Not just for our own personal need for sanctification, to be transformed into the image of Christ, but for the purpose of demonstrating that Jesus does indeed change lives and make us a new creation.

It shouldn’t take faith to believe that Jesus has the power to set us free. It should not take faith to accept that Jesus is capable of making us into better fathers and mothers and employees and citizens.

Our lives should serve as proof that Jesus is alive and transformation is possible.

-kg

The Top 10 Things Every Christian Should Know #2

Number 2 - "Belief Is Not Enough (Or It's Not What You Think It Is)"

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life"- Jesus (John 3:16)

In the actual passage, Jesus is having a conversation with a Pharisee by the name of Nicodemus. In the conversation Jesus is not asking Nicodemus to believe that Jesus is standing there, or that he is real. Obviously Nicodemus believed Jesus was real and alive because they were having an active conversation together. So, to "believe" in Jesus is more than having mental knowledge of him, or an acceptance of a series of facts about Jesus as being true.

What does Jesus intend to teach here? I think it all hangs on how you understand his use of the word "Believe". If you think Jesus meant "to think that Jesus was an historical person", or even "to accept that Jesus was the Messiah", you’d be missing the real point.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BELIEVE?
I believe that what Jesus was trying to communicate in John 3:16 is the importance of living out what you say you believe, not simply saying what you believe and then living any way you please.

One way to express this is to ask yourself what it is you do each and every day of your life. I would suggest that Biblical belief can be expressed in the statement "Show me what you do, how you behave, and that is what you really believe".

WHAT DO YOU REALLY BELIEVE?
So, what do you really believe about Jesus? It's revealed in the way you live your life. It's revealed in the way you treat people. It's revealed in the way you think of yourself. It's revealed in the way you behave when you think no one is looking.

If you have really confessed and believed that Jesus is Lord, then your life will reflect that reality as you submit to the rule and reign of God in your life. It will be revealed as you search the scriptures for wisdom and in the way you apply it to your everyday life. If you have confessed it and yet continue to rule your own life as you see fit, then in reality it is you in control and not Jesus, therefore, Jesus is not Lord.

There is a wonderful passage in a book called "Follow Me" by Jan David Hettinga (which I whole-heartedly recommend) where the author relates a counseling session between himself and a dear friend who is undergoing turmoil in his life. The author listens to his friend complain about his life and then challenges him to prove whether or not Jesus is really in charge of his life. At first this friend is angry at him for suggesting such a thing, but then the author calmly points out every event in his life where he has blatantly followed his own lusts and desires and kept Jesus out of control.

At the end of the conversation the author asks his friend, "What would your life look like if you really gave Jesus control over everything today?" His friend is quiet for a moment and then starts to say, "I guess I'd stop drinking so much and I'd have to cancel my poker night with the guys every week. I know I'd have to be a lot nicer to my wife and spend more time with my children, etc."

The author then asks his friend if he's willing to start allowing Jesus to be the Lord of his life or not.

IS DOCTRINE IRRELEVANT?
I'm not suggesting that doctrine and belief are unnecessary. In fact, I feel that doctrine is quite important. But by itself it's not enough. In other words, if a group of people only believe that murder is wrong, but they don’t practice this belief, you’ll always have the occasional dead body to deal with. Practice matters.

The things we believe, really believe, will affect the way we live our lives. If we honestly believe that Jesus is God, then we will put His words into practice. If we say we do, but we live in a way that is contrary to His clear teaching, then perhaps we really don't believe in Jesus after all?

Maybe what we need is to have a reinterpretation of what it means to believe? Better yet, perhaps we should simply take Jesus at his word and begin to do what he says?

"If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching...he who does not love me will not obey my teaching." – JESUS (John 14:23-24)

I would love for the day to come when people can tell whether or not someone is a follower of Jesus by the way they practice the Jesus way of life.

In the early church, the Christian faith was defined more by practice, not by doctrine. Doctrine is necessary to outline the scope of the belief system, but without anyone actually practicing those beliefs, it's all quite useless and empty.

Islam, Judaism and the early Christians were all defined by what they did (practiced) more than their specific doctrines (beliefs). Jews kept the Sabbath. Muslims prayed several times a day, Christians gave to the poor. Faith was seen as a way of life, not something contained in a list of beliefs.

In our current culture, being a Christian is still understood as being more about having the right belief and less about having the character of Christ and practicing what you believe.

Again, I'm not against doctrine and this article is not in any way attempting to suggest that doctrine and theology are useless. Far from it. In fact, what I'm saying is that your doctrine and theology are a lie if you don't act out the principles contained in your doctrine and theology.

GRACE AND WORKS
I am also not suggesting that our actions affect our salvation, which is 100% the work of Christ and his act of sacrifice upon the cross. It is not our actions that save us, but our actions are evidence that we have been saved. Dallas Willard, one of my spiritual heroes, has a great quote about this. He says, "What you really believe about Jesus is revealed by what you do when you realize that you cannot do anything (to earn your salvation*)".

(*From the Allelon Series on Kingdom Living)

My summation of this goes, "Swimming won't make you a fish; but if you are a fish you will swim." So, if you do good works in order to be saved you're wasting your time. However, if you have truly become a new creation through a relationship with Jesus, you will become the sort of person who does good works by nature.

THE PROBLEM
My concern is for those people out there who are placing a false hope in a statement of faith in Jesus who have never actually surrendered their actual everyday life to Christ. I'm also concerned that our world is full of people who walk around proclaiming themselves to be Christians yet live any way they want; in complete opposition to the commands of Jesus

"Now this is eternal life: that they may know you the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." – JESUS (John 17:3)

The kind of knowledge Jesus is speaking of here corresponds with the idea of intense intimacy. In fact, it's closer to the word for sexual interaction. This is the kind of knowledge that conceives new life. This is the kind of intimate knowledge of God and of Jesus we are meant to have. It's not about knowing stuff, it's about knowing Him as a friend.

Knowing stuff about Jesus is not the same as knowing Jesus. For example, I could know all about Shaquille O'Neil but still not know him as a person. My knowledge of him would not mean that Shaq and I are friends. In the same way, it's possible for you and I to become experts on Bible Trivia about Jesus and still not really "know" Jesus personally.

A few months ago a friend of mine stood in my house and shared with me a story about someone who they were hoping would become a Christian. "If I can just get them to say they believe in Jesus, they're saved," the person said.

We had an interesting discussion out of that statement, but what really kept gnawing on me was the mindset that my friend had, and that I observe that many others have, when it comes to the question of Salvation. Specifically, I think it has to do with what we believe it really means to be a Christian.

Obviously, my friend would say that to be a Christian is to say that you believe in Jesus. Maybe you don't even have to really do anything else except say it out loud, like a magic word, and then God has no choice but to let you into heaven. I have to question this line of reasoning.

I know that many Christians believe that all you have to do to get into Heaven is to repeat a prayer, believe that Jesus was real and make plans for the afterlife. But is that really what the Scriptures teach about what it means to inherit Eternal Life? Is that really what it means to be a Christian?

According to Scripture, the earliest disciples of Jesus were of the opinion that following Him was all about practice, putting your faith where your life is, not saying one thing and then doing another.

Trusting in Jesus, believing in Him, is about obedience to His commands, submission to His will, and an ongoing relationship with Him. Biblical belief is not about cerebral acknowledgement of a set of doctrines, it's about putting into practice with your life what you have come to believe in your heart and mind.

So, the Christian life is about belief, and it's also about how we practice what we believe. This is where the real Christian life begins.

"Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do." – James 2:18

-kg

Trust: The Key To Everything [Part 1 of 3]

The other day a friend of mine made the comment that trusting God seems to be the hardest thing for us to do, even as followers of Jesus who should find it easy...or at least fundamental to our daily practice.

Several thoughts splinter outward from the impact of this statement. First, I wonder why it is that we find it so hard to trust God. Second, I wonder if this isn't the central key to everything.

WHY IS IT HARD FOR US TO TRUST GOD?
There are several possible reasons for this. One being that we may have a problem with trust in general. Meaning, all of us have been manipulated by the media, society, politicians, teachers, lovers, parents, etc. all of our lives. After a while we simply lose the ability to completely trust anyone or anything 100%.

There is no logical reason not to trust God. After all, if you could name only one being in the entire known Universe whom you should be able to trust with absolute certainty, it is God.

Author Jan David Hettinga suggests that the issue of trust is a big part of what God was doing on the cross in the first place. Even though God had all power and all authority at His disposal, including the ability to force us to do whatever He wanted us to do, God instead chose to lay it all down (see Philipians 2) and embrace a posture of servanthood and humility.

When Jesus laid down his life on the cross he was demonstrating that his intentions for us were good, that he only considered what was best for us, and that therefore we can trust him completely.

Not only did God not abuse his power over us, he allowed us to have the power of abuse over him! He took the punishment and refused to lash out. He forgave us for the nails and excused our ignorance.

When we look at Jesus, God in the flesh, hanging upon the cross, enduring the shame meant for us, we look into the eyes of a God who says, "Look at me. I will not trick you. I will not manipulate you. I will not lie to you. I love you."

If we cannot trust Jesus, we have no hope of ever trusting anyone, or anything, ever.

IMPERATIVE TRUST
The author of Hebrews reminds us that "Without faith it is impossible to please God" (see Hebrews 11:6) and the more I meditate on this concept of trusting God the more I realize that "Faith", "Belief", "Trust" and "Obedience" are practically synonyms.

If we believe God, we will obey His commands. Jesus says that if we love him we will obey his teachings. To trust someone is to believe them. To have faith in someone is to believe, and to trust them.

I now also realize that our joy in Christ, our ability to enjoy peace, or contentment in this life, is tied directly to our ability to trust God.

If we can trust God, completely, with everything in our life, we can experience peace because we know He is in control. If we really believe that God loves us then we can trust that He knows what is best for us.

The question then becomes, if we can't fully trust God with our everyday life, why not? What is it that prevents us from trusting God? Why is it so hard? What can we do that will make us more capable of trusting God with everything?

-kg
[END PART 1]

How's Your Sermon Coming?

What does it really mean to live by faith? According to the passage of scripture in Hebrews chapter 11 (often referred to as the "Hall of Faith") it involves acting on what you believe in your heart to be true.

More than simple "belief", Biblical faith is more about action than ideas.

"By faith Abel offered..." (v.4)

"By faith Noah..built an ark.." (v.7)

"By faith Abraham..obeyed and went.." (v.8)

"By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau.." (v.20)

"By faith Jacob...blessed each of Joseph's sons.."(v.21)

"By faith Joseph...spoke about the exodus...and gave instructions about his bones.."(v.22)

"By faith Moses..refused to be known as the son of Pharoah's daughter...chose to be mistreated along with the people of God.." (v.24)

The pattern seems to be that these people had faith and then they did something about it. Faith is doing something to demonstrate what you believe. It is not simply belief itself.

"You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did." (James 2:20-22)

What we do about what we believe is more important than what we believe. To believe something and to do nothing about it is equal to unbelief.

"You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone." (James 2:24)

Our lives are a living testimony of what we actually believe. If what we say we believe and our actions don't line up, we call that hypocrisy. Some call it Christianity. This shouldn't be the case.

I recently read through the epistles of Titus, Philemon, and 1 and 2 Thessalonians and 1 and 2 Timothy. One thing that struck me out of all of these letters from Paul was the importance of our character as followers of Jesus. Doing good and living lives of love and service to others wasn't an evangelism strategy, it was a way of life. Because they had been radically transformed by the living, resurrected Christ, they were changed into people who extravagantly loved and served and gave and shared all that they had with those around them.

Every one of us who names the name of Christ is living out a daily sermon to the world around us. We are pouring forth a message of the love of Christ to those who have yet to discover such love - or we're denying that such love is real by our attitudes and lack of concern for others.

"You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our service, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts" (2 Cor 3:3)

Each of us a living, breathing sermon testifying daily to the amazing love of Jesus our Lord.

-kg

OUR IDEA OF FAITH VERSUS GOD'S IDEA OF FAITH

Our idea of Faith:

To believe that what the Bible says is true and to agree with doctrines that our church upholds as truth.

God’s idea of Faith:

"What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds." Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder." – (James 2:14-19)

RECEIVERS WANTED

A few months ago I had a few friends over to my house to talk about poverty in Orange County, and to learn more about how God has called us to love the poor and serve others. One of my friends, Tommy Nixon, was with us that day. He and his family have become incarnational missionaries to a community in Fullerton. As Tommy began to share how he and his family were walking out their faith in their community he said something that helped me grasp more of life in the Kingom.

Tommy talked about how his home-based church had identified four key values which they practiced daily. The first two were familiar, but the second two were what intrigued me. These values, which drive their daily practice of faith together, involve examining every situation, and their own lives, to ask, "How can I use this experience to love God, and to love others?"

What Tommy said next has lingered in my mind every since. He said that he and his church family have also started to look at every situation to find ways that they can receive love from God and to receive love from others.

I think, maybe, this second statement captured my imagine because I'm not always sure how to receive love from others.

Learning to Be Loved
One Sunday morning our house church family had a similar conversation. We had been on a very long journey to explore "concentric circles of love" in our Body. Our hope was to identify our need start obeying the command of Jesus to love by beginning close to home. We start with our own family, then outward to our friends, then to our neighbors, then to our co-workers, and then finally outward to the community and the stranger in need.

So, on this particular morning we found ourselves going around the room and asking each other, "How can I show you that I love you?"

Most of us had a hard time answering that question. Others flat out refused to discuss the subject at all. It was a sensitive topic for some of us, and it touched on a nerve that made it clear that we're not very comfortable allowing people to love us deeply.

Over time I've become convinced that Trust is one of the most essential elements in our relationship with God. To "believe in" Jesus is to trust in Him. Faith is about taking your entire life and pushing all of your chips into the middle - to go all in so to speak - and to trust God with everything.

But what can we do if, at a basic level, many of us - myself included - have a hard time trusting our hearts to others? How can we love others as we love ourselves if, deep inside, we really don't love ourselves very much at all?

Maybe this fear we have of being loved is connected to our struggle with trusting God too? At the core, we had to admit that our "truster" was broken - or at least in need of an overhaul.

I think sometimes this concept of completing the circle is what holds me back. I tend to focus so much on loving God and loving others that I forget I need to soak up some of His love in order to splash it around on the people we're serving. If my sponge is dry, how can I refresh someone else?

So, we're still on this journey to discover how to love in these concentric circles. I know that I am only just beginning to learn how to allow God to love me, and to allow others to love me, as I follow Jesus daily.

-kg

A HOUSE OF PRAYER

A few months ago I began to rediscover prayer in my spiritual journey. I think it started when a friend sat down to share a testimony on MP3 by Lance Lambert. It was about how God touched the hearts of a few young people in England several decades ago and spawned a radical New Testament church. One thing that Mr. Lambert said on this recording stuck with me. He said, “An open meeting requires more prayer, not less.”

As someone who has been hosting an open meeting in my home now for over four years, this statement galvanized my passion for prayer and reignited a desire to draw nearer to Jesus in every way. In fact, before I was finished listening to the entire message I was overcome by an intense desire to fall on my knees and seek God’s face. It was like a spiritual gravity was tugging on my spirit and compelling me to immerse myself in the presence of Jesus.

Because of this, our house church began to meet a half hour early each Sunday to seek the Lord together and to ask Him to be the head over us and to lead us as a Church. Our women were already meeting regularly to pray, but eventually, we also added another weekly prayer time for men to meet and pray every Wednesday evening.

It was at our very first men's prayer meeting together that I was overwhelmed with this simple revelation – “We are not enough. But God is more than enough.” As we fell on our knees before God, it became abundantly clear that we were powerless to affect any change whatsoever in the lives of people around us. In fact, we were equally powerless to change our own hearts.

Apart from Jesus and His Holy Spirit, we knew that we could do nothing to grow, to teach, to evangelize, to make disciples, to change hearts, to restore relationships, or to even “be the Church” in our community. We needed more of Jesus, and we needed Him to lead this Church or we were hopelessly condemned to go through the motions every week. None of us wanted that.

The more I immerse myself in prayer, the more I realize how desperately I need to stay on my knees and continually seek God’s face. Jesus reminded us that “My temple will be called a house of prayer” (Matthew 21:13) and since we are the Temple of God (1 Peter 2:4-5; 1 Cor 6:19), this suggests that the Church should be a place where prayer is continually practiced.

Some people feel as if prayer is not their spiritual gifting and therefore they don’t feel that all of the many examples and commands regarding prayer in the New Testament apply to them. However, prayer is not a spiritual gift. Of all the 28 spiritual gifts mentioned in the Bible, prayer is not among them. In fact, many of those gifts can only be released or applied through prayer, (i.e. – Prophecy, Words of Wisdom, Healing, etc.). So, prayer is a necessary function of the entire Body of Christ, not just the chosen few.

Besides, no one argues that they do not have the “gift of prayer” when they discover they have cancer, or they find out their child is in the hospital. Tragedy has a way of reminding us that prayer is for everyone who lacks hope, or wisdom. Prayer acknowledges that we have a need that only God can meet.

I know many people who consider themselves “intercessors” and who believe that they have a ministry of prayer and a calling to pray that is greater than what everyone else in the Body might be called to. However, the word intercession is only used four times in the NT and three of those references describe how Jesus and the Holy Spirit pray for us, (Hebrews 7:25, Romans 8:26-27). It is only used once in reference to corporate prayer, and not in the sense of any special gifting or quality of prayer practiced by a chosen few. The entire Body is urged to “intercede..on behalf of all men.” (1 Timothy 2:1) So, the ministry of intercession is for everyone in the Body of Christ, even though some among us may feel more passionate about it than others.

Prayer in the New Testament is seen as something that every believer participates in. If we are serious about being people of the Book, and if we are dedicated to practicing the same quality of faith that we see in the New Testament church, then we will begin by praying together and we will continue to pray together for as long as we live. Prayer is like breathing for a follower of Jesus. It is an affirmation that “apart from (Jesus), you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)

If we really believe that we are powerless to do anything apart from Jesus, then we would be on our faces and in prayer daily seeking His direction, wisdom and power.

If we really believe that Jesus speaks to his people and that we can hear his voice, then we would be spending as much time as possible listening for that voice and seeking his counsel for our lives.

Often, it is only when we are in need that we abandon our selfish desires and surrender ourselves to prayer out of desperation. As C. S. Lewis so aptly pointed out, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”

I sincerely hope that the Church would not wait until death, divorce, bankruptcy, cancer or some other great tragedy compels us to enter into His presence. My hope is that God’s people would be drawn to their knees by simple obedience and a sincere desire to humble themselves and to seek His face.

We have been given access to the throne of Grace by the blood of Jesus, our Lord and King. He went to the cross to tear the veil in half and open a direct line of communication. Let us not trample on this awesome display of God’s desire for intimacy with us. Instead, let’s humble ourselves and confess our weakness and make our petitions known to Him.

“Cast all your cares on the Lord, for He cares for you.” – (1 Peter 5:7)

"When we work, we work. When we pray, God works." - J. Hudson Taylor


-kg


**
The New Testament on Prayer

Jesus intercedes for us:

“Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them." (Hebrews 7:25)

The Holy Spirit intercedes for us:

In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will. (Romans 8:26-27)


Prayer is necessary for the health and well-being of the Body of Christ:

“Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” (James 5:16)


Prayer is like breathing for a follower of Jesus:

“Pray without ceasing” (1 Thess 5:17)

“And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.” (Eph 6:18)


Prayer is an alternative to worry and stress:

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. (Philippians 4:6)

Jesus taught us to pray at all times:

“Now He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart…” (Luke 18:1)

Jesus taught his disciples (followers) to pray:

"One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples." (see Luke 11:1-13)



The New Testament Church was devoted to prayer:“These all with one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer, along with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.” (Acts 1:14)

“First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men” (1 Tim 2:1)

**
Common Christian sayings on prayer that we already know but seldom practice:

“A praying man will stop sinning but a sinning man will stop praying”

“Prayer aligns our will with God’s will. Prayer changes us, even if it doesn’t change the situation.”

URGENT: PLEASE FORWARD TO EVERYONE!

DISCLAIMER: Please read the following article VERY CAREFULLY before you do anything
at all. There is more going on here than meets the eye. You have been forewarned. -

URGENT!
As most of us are aware, Christians today need to be more vigilant than ever before.

This is why what I am about to tell you is SO CRITICAL for each of us. I'm tempted to ask everyone to forward this to EVERYONE IN YOUR ADDRESS BOOK right away. (Especially if you "really" love Jesus).

What I'm about to tell you is SO ALARMING, it could seriously threaten Church in America forever!

NEW LEGISLATION
There is new legislation in motion, at the earliest possible stage, which I need to let everyone know about now before it gets out of our control.

First, many of you are already aware that there are forces out there that threaten to take away the non-profit status of Christian Churches in America whenever messages of a political nature are delivered from the pulpit. As desperate as this is, there is a new development brewing now that is EVEN WORSE.

There are people who want to propose legislation that would challenge the non-profit status of any Christian Church simply based on whether or not that Church actually gives a significant percentage of its funds back to the community, as most other "non-religious" non-profits are required to do.

WHAT THIS MEANS is that your church could be in DANGER OF LOSING ITS NON-PROFIT STATUS simply because little of the tithe money goes to help out those poor families who live around the community. EVEN IF THEY DON'T ATTEND YOUR CHURCH!

Of course, there are plenty of churches in America that do care for the poor in their community. They pass out free groceries, they provide free oil changes for single Moms, they host after-school programs for kids in the area at no-charge, etc. Churches who are already "giving back" to the community in this way and serving others the way Jesus would would have NOTHING TO FEAR!

However, if a church in the community were to spend 70%, 80%, or even 99% of its tithe on ITSELF, it would be in danger of losing that non-profit status and would have to pay taxes JUST LIKE ALL OTHER LARGE CORPORATIONS.

This means that a church spending most of the tithe for salaries, or a new building, or the new flat-screen plasma televisions for the announcements in the nursery, or the Starbucks Coffee bar at the back of the Church, or the new carpet, etc., would have to justify their non-profit status on the basis of whether or not they were actually performing any actual "service" to the poor around them. If they couldn't demonstrate a tangible connection between their church and the community around them, their NON-PROFIT STATUS would be REVOKED FOREVER!

REGARDLESS OF THE FACT that Matthew 25 suggests that Jesus takes our concern for the outcast seriously, this attack on the non-profit status of our big, fat American churches is just NOT FAIR!

We've earned the right to collect as many hundreds of thousands of dollars as we like in the name of Jesus and it should be totally up to us how we spend that money. Especially if it's for our OWN NEEDS, WANTS AND DESIRES.

Just because we're not really involved in the needs of the poor around us, the Church SHOULDN'T BE PUNISHED IN THIS WAY.

Regardless of the fact that the Church in America HAS THE POWER and the ECONOMIC RESOURCES necessary provide affordable housing, long-term community development, and primary health care to everyone who needs it, the US Government should NOT be the one to force this upon us through legal means. That should be left up to a Higher Power.

Even though Universal primary education would cost $8 billion a year, which is about half of what parents in the US will spend THIS YEAR on TOYS FOR THEIR OWN CHILDREN, this has nothing to do with those of us who are called by the name of the One who humbled Himself and surrendered His life to demonstrate the compassion of God to the World, and especially to the least and the lost.

So, if you want to protect your church from this kind of judgement, I urge you to write to your pastors, your elders, your deacons and your church leaders and let them know how you feel about this very serious issue that faces the modern Church in America.

We, the Church in America, are dangerously close to the SIN OF SODOM!

Do you know what the Sin of Sodom is? Read Ezekiel 16: 49:

"Now this is the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. They were proud and did detestable things before me. Therefore, I did away with them as you have seen."

Obviously, the issue facing the Church in America today is WAY MORE SERIOUS THAN SIMPLY OUR NON-PROFIT STATUS! If the Church were to rise up and spend their money this way, THAT WOULD BE AN AWESOME THING, and yes, a lot of people would probably stop calling us HYPOCRITES and maybe they'd take us seriously when we tell them that Jesus loves them, because we've demonstrated that (just maybe) we love them too.

As you may have guessed, this legislation IS TOTALLY FICITIOUS! I have made up the entire thing with the help of my good friend Jarred Romley who first suggested the concept to me.

I couldn't resist mimicking the style of those alarmist Christian email messages we all get forwarded telling us that we must send it on to everyone we have ever known in order to prove our love for Jesus. Please, also forgive me for all the CAPITAL LETTERS I USED!

Seriously, I think if my friend Jarred were to introduce a Bill like this one to our Congress it might put a fire under our churches to wake up and realize that their Bibles are full of commands to care for the outcast, the poor, and the needy who are all around them. If nothing else, it would create an amazing open dialog in the media between the leaders of the Church, the members of the community, and the man on the street about issues of compassion, Christian charity, and the calling of Jesus to care for the poor as we would care for Him. (see Matthew 25)

Until that legislation comes to pass, I will have to resort to stunts like this to try to wake people up and realize that God's heart is for the poor and that He has taken this issue very seriously.

The truth is, the idea of their church losing its non-profit status is more likely to spur Christians to action than the fact that there are thousands of homeless, and poverty-stricken human beings suffering a few blocks from their front door.

"He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?"- GOD, speaking of King Josiah in Jeremiah 22:16

Keith Giles

GUEST ARTICLE: Alan Knox

NOTE: I've posted a slightly edited version of Alan's brilliant article here. For the complete article be sure to visit the direct link below.
-kg

**
AND THEY DEVOTED THEMSELVES
by Alan Knox

Acts 2:42 is often called a summary verse concerning the early followers of Jesus Christ. Luke records:

"And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers." - (Acts 2:42 ESV)

Luke says that the believers were devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayers. This does not mean that they were “devoted” to listening to what the apostles were teaching. Instead, it means that these early Christians were continually persevering in living according to the message that the apostles taught, as well as continuing to fellowship (share life) break bread (eat together), and pray.

Think about it this way: If the phrase “they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching” conjures up an image of people sitting around listening to the apostles teach, then the translation is NOT communicating the image to you properly.

On the other hand, if you read that phrase and picture the early believers attempting to live their lives in accordance with the message that the apostles taught, then you’re understanding what Luke wrote.

We see that Luke helps us understand what he means in the following verses:

"And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved." -(Acts 2:43-47 ESV)

This passage demonstrates how those early believers lived according to the gospel (the apostles’ teaching), and how they shared their lives and their meals with one another. On the day of Pentecost, God did not create individuals who loved to sit and listen to teaching. Instead, God created a new community who now lived new lives – lives that were not lived for themselves any longer. Instead, they lived their lives for God by sharing their lives with one another and with the world around them.

The world noticed...and the world found favor on this new community and new way of life.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT ALAN'S BLOG
HERE