Relocation

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Mostly Good

I use the word “good” to describe anything from the weather, to tacos to morality and ethics. Most of the time I speak of "good" as a relative idea. I think, "I am not that bad, I am better than that guy over there.” The problem is when I use my relative defination of what is "good" in my encounter with God. I assume that because I am “mostly good” or better than another I am acceptable to God. There is a great danger in evaluating my life and concluding that "I am not that bad," therefore I must be acceptable to God. My "goodness" relative to God is real bad.

Simply put, my offence to a “good” God is the fact that I am not “good.” Why is this an offense? Because in the beginning God created man and woman in his image. We of all creation were created to bear the very image of God. It is in humanity that the glory of God’s character is to be displayed. His Mercy and compassion, his grace and love his and HIS GOODNESS. Since Genesis 3 mankind no longer reflects perfectly the beauty of God’s character. Sure there are glimpses of it in humanity but at best they are like roadside bathroom mirror reflections of God’s glory. All mankind, once image bearers of the beauty of God’s glory, has gone it’s own way leaving a dirty and distorted picture of God in the faces of His highest creation.

So the next time that someone asks, "how you are doing?" Don't just thoughtlessly reply, "good."

Might I suggest something like, “There is none righteous, not even one; There is none who understands, There is none who seeks for God; All have turned aside, together they have become useless; There is none who does good, There is not even one.”

or if that seems too thoughtful perhaps a smile and a "mostly good" would be appropriate.

John 5:39

“You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that bear witness of Me;”

In the midst of a sharp rebuke Jesus utters these words to Jews upset with Him for healing a man on the Sabbath. I am reminded that I can know a lot about God and still not know God. I can even have much of his words committed to memory and still miss the One whom these very words speak. Might it be said that God is not so concerned with what I know but who I know?

Revelation 3:20

Following a week of Vacation Bible School at Church, Tami overheard the greatest conversation between our two youngest in the back seat of the van. It went something like this,

SAM: “Hey Emma, do you know that your heart has a door in it.”
EMMA: “Yeah?”
SAM: “Yeah. You can open it right up and let Jesus inside.”
EMMA: “Yeah?”
SAM: (after a contemplative pause) “I wonder what it looks like in there.”
EMMA: “Yeah”
SAM: “I bet it’s gross.”

Isaiah 40:8

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God stands forever.

Imagine Church

Imagine a church where we can watch the preacher on a big screen, maybe even two screens, up close and focused on his face so we do not miss a single expression. Personal with out a person.

Imagine a church where the we can email the paster if we want to tell him how great the message was or if we have a specific questions, and one of his staff will quickly reply.

Imagine a church where we could buy or maybe rent the tape of Sunday’s lesson if we happen to miss a Sunday church service.

Imagine a church where we could simply go the archives of great video lessons long after our preacher is gone.

Imagine a church where we could cut into the message with appropriately placed announcements or “commercials.”

Imagine a church where we could edit the video of the preacher if he speaks to long or makes a verbal blunder.

Imagine a church where we could simply drive up in our cars and tune into a radio station and listen to the message as we watch on gigantic screens.

Imagine a church where we could simply have our offering direct deposited so as not to worry ourselves about missing a service.

Imagine a church where we could simply send our support for the poor and the Red Cross could distribute it as it sees fit.

Imagine a church where we could put in a CD and sing to the music of the most talented musicians. All we would have to do is press pause for a time of prayer.

Imagine a church where worship was via headphones distributing different styles of music according to individuals preference.

Imagine a church where we could be part of online chat rooms to discuss how we are hurting and share our burdens and even pray for one another via cyberspace.

Imagine a church that would not have to assemble together to worship. This is not a church. The very word speaks of gathering and assembling together. A church that does not gather? What church?

Concerning the Scriptures II

1. God, who is Himself Truth and speaks truth only, has inspired Holy Scripture in order thereby to reveal Himself to lost mankind through Jesus Christ as Creator and Lord, Redeemer and Judge. Holy Scripture is God's witness to Himself.
2. Holy Scripture, being God's own Word, written by men prepared and superintended by His Spirit, is of infallible divine authority in all matters upon which it touches: it is to be believed, as God's instruction, in all that it affirms, obeyed, as God's command, in all that it requires; embraced, as God's pledge, in all that it promises.
3. The Holy Spirit, Scripture's divine Author, both authenticates it to us by His inward witness and opens our minds to understand its meaning.
4. Being wholly and verbally God-given, Scripture is without error or fault in all its teaching, no less in what it states about God's acts in creation, about the events of world history, and about its own literary origins under God, than in its witness to God's saving grace in individual lives.
5. The authority of Scripture is inescapably impaired if this total divine inerrancy is in any way limited or disregarded, or made relative to a view of truth contrary to the Bible's own; and such lapses bring serious loss to both the individual and the Church.

-The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy (1978)