We really enjoyed this movie!!!

We found this to be a very fascinating, thought-provoking
and convicting movie ... a movie somewhat in the same vein
as the old Bill Murray classic, 'Groundhog Day',
yet on a very serious note.

If you have seen this movie, share your own personal review below.

prayin' a "hedge of protection" ... LOL

a Puritan prayer of praise and thanksgiving (audio)

Many pathways INto Jesus ...

Yet Jesus is the ONLY way to the Father!!!

I really have appreciated all of your responses, regardless of viewpoint, to the post of the last few days regarding our family’s return to the institutional church.  Of all the posts I have written over nearly six years, this one has prompted far and away the most comments via message … people reaching out and making a personal connection with me.

The responses have been very mixed … some are offering incredible heartfelt concern regarding my decision to walk away from a local church initially and for such a long period of time … others find themselves almost in an identical place wrestling with a return into the local church … while yet others are finding themselves convicted to walk away for a time.

I truly appreciate each of you openly sharing your hearts … being so transparent with me … and in trusting me with your struggles … I will keep them in confidence.

Believe it or not … for me personally … I have at times in my life experienced and embraced each of the three positions described above.

I don’t really know how long I will sense the leading of the Lord to continue to write on the return to church … that is His choice now.  Used to be mine … now it’s His.

But I just want to reiterate some prior points and maybe add a few more.

I have no regrets for the last seven years … except for the fact that perhaps I was not quite the family shepherd my family needed … I was there and in the midst of family life which I was not before so that is definite improvement.  But please don’t praise me because I choose to be a family shepherd … there are miles to go between the choosing and the being …

I personally did stay intimately connected on a regular and somewhat weekly basis with a group of men throughout this ‘wilderness’ experience … and in case you haven’t realized it … most of the real growth of institutional churches is not in its numbers and what goes on inside the four walls of the church building but in what is happening relationally and spiritually among its people … in Waffle Houses, in living rooms, over kitchen tables, in phone conversations and yes, even over the Internet.  The love and relationships of people who love Jesus, love each other and love those in the world around them are the perfect reflection of the church Jesus is building.  If you find yourself attending church every week but are not connected to other believers … ask the Lord if that is indeed His will for you … or does He desire something else?

I am NOT advocating ‘Lone Ranger’ Christianity … I did that before the last 14 years … and it does not work.  We are designed to need the love of God and the love of those around us and we are designed to give love to God and those around us.  The journey is not a solo one …

That is not to say, there won’t be times where God may not lead you into the wilderness for a time … so that it might be just Him and you for a spell.  I could list all the Biblical examples … but for this post I would simply ask you to consider the OT saint s and prophets who God called to do such … consider John the Baptist … consider the 40 days of Jesus in the wilderness … consider the first days of faith IN Jesus for Paul I shared about yesterday … there are indeed times the Lord leads His people into a place where He can get our undivided attention.

If you indeed find yourself with Protestant leanings of any kind, Christian history is filled with saints over the last 2,000 years who stepped out from the institution of church and man’s constraints, many at the price of death that we might meet as we do today and gather as we do and have our own personal copy of the Bible.  Take the time to consider two millennia of Christians saints that preceded us.

 Walking away from a church can be a crisis if you are not walking toward Jesus … and too many choose to walk away from both … my parents being a perfect example.

And yet as many of you have also pointed out … sometimes in the midst of church trials and tribulations and disagreements … God simply wants us to learn to live in grace, mercy, love and forgiveness bearing with each other right where we are … He wants us to be Jesus to each other.  Praise God for folks who do so … they are indeed the peacemakers of whom Jesus speaks in the Sermon on the Mount.

And finally perhaps you and yours have had an incredibly deep, blessed and rich church life and cannot understand why anyone would walk away … praise God with a heart of thanksgiving!!!  That is so incredibly awesome … I would like to encourage you to share about your experience here and elsewhere … some of us really need to hear what you have to say.

There is indeed only one way to God the Father …

 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”   John 14:6 NASB

And some would tend to suggest that no one comes to Jesus but thru the church …

I disagree ... maybe not totally and completely disagree … but the church is not the gatekeeper to Jesus.

If you believe the church is the gatekeeper to Jesus, I am indeed open to correction according to Scripture … so if there is indeed error in my understanding I encourage you to offer correction based on that simple ground rule.

Yes, our love of one another and the unity and oneness among believers (according to Scripture) is indeed to be a testimony to Jesus and draw people unto Him.  Our lives and what is reflected in our lives is indeed intended to be an evangelistic magnet so to speak that draws people in.  I am not disputing the need to proclaim the Gospel in word and truth … but the hypocrisy in our lives oftentimes blinds or turns people deaf to the hope and power of the gospel.

Every single one of our journeys to Jesus, while sharing in some degree of commonality, is totally unique.  If you find yourself in any of the different scenarios I have described above and you sense the Lord’s conviction regarding that situation and what you must do next … test it and be true to your convictions.  Of first and foremost importance is to be true to Christ Jesus … when He wants you in the church He is building … He is more than willing and able to do so according to God’s plan, purpose and will.

Please consider … a body part without Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit and without a devoted relationship to the head … will indeed wreak havoc and disease upon the rest of the body.  Sometimes a body part must be worked and prepared by the Lord for its place in the body …

I would ask that you forgive me also.  Many times I have written in this post stating there is only one right way or path to Jesus.  I was wrong.

Each of our journeys look so different … while it may be clichéd, I encourage you to ‘Run to Jesus … He’ll take care of the rest.’

Trust and believe … that is faith.

Be blessed IN Christ Jesus my friends!!!

Bernie
 

Currently The Christmas Box By Richard Paul Evans see related

a revelation regarding release and rescue from religion

I believe I may have surprised a few folks with my Friday post, Going to church … again … after nearly 7 years.  Today I want to share some Scripture (and later a bit more testimony) that over the last seven years has been an encouragement to me.  I have highlighted a few verses that are important to me.  Read and consider what Paul is offering as his testimony:

For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

For you have heard of my former manner of life in Judaism, how I used to persecute the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it; and I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen, being more extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions. But when God, who had set me apart even from my mother's womb and called me through His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went away to Arabia, and returned once more to Damascus.

Then three years later I went up to Jerusalem to become acquainted with Cephas, and stayed with him fifteen days. But I did not see any other of the apostles except James, the Lord's brother. (Now in what I am writing to you, I assure you before God that I am not lying.) Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. I was still unknown by sight to the churches of Judea which were in Christ; but only, they kept hearing, "He who once persecuted us is now preaching the faith which he once tried to destroy." And they were glorifying God because of me. Gal 1:11-24 (NASB)

Or how about this passage one more time?

Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision; for we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh, although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more: circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless.

But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Phil 3:2-11 (NASB)

A confession … when I left the institutional church I was at the end of a different kind of seven-year period … one where in the early and middle years I was the dog, the evil worker, and the false circumcision that Paul describes.

How you might ask?  I was a religious man with a religious heart in religious churches that encouraged both.  The boastful pride of life that causes one to thrive in the world of business was the one that caused me to thrive in the religion of the church and be confident in and glorify in my flesh as I did things for Jesus … there is an extremely fine line between encouragement and praise … and the flesh longs for and thrives upon praise … and will selfishly transform offered encouragement into received praise.

My religious pedigree bears no resemblance to that of Paul … in fact, I’m a bit of a religious mongrel:

• Church council secretary for a Methodist church of 1,000 and growing
• A failed attempt at chairing a committee to start a church bookstore
• Chairman of the men’s ministry of the same church
• Men’s retreat leader and speaker at that church
• Men’s small group leader
• A brief stint at leading a Habitat for Humanity project … one in which we built a adult-size playhouse to encourage participation
• Young Life youth worker for weekly club and camps
• Young Life boy’s small group leader
• Men’s prayer group team leader
• Youth ministry volunteer and teacher at subsequent Baptist church
• VBS volunteer (they can be as crazy as youth workers)
• College/Career ministry leader and Sunday School teacher
• Prayer team again … twice a week
• Upward Basketball coach for 10 year old girls (the straw that broke the camel’s back … but that is another story … a long story)
• Elected as deacon in the Baptist church … but did not accept

Seven years ago this defined who I was … I had a granddaughter come visit once in the midst of the busyness (Burdened Under Satan’s Yoke) and she posed this question to my wife, ‘Nana, does Papa work for the church?’

It only took me about four more years after that to understand what my seven-year old granddaughter understood after just a couple of days of observing me.

While once I actually started to put together my church experience resume, I count it all rubbish now … I understand now what Paul personally testified to once upon a time.  I once worshipped and gloried in the flesh … my prideful flesh … but now by the grace and the work of the Lord I find myself loved and blessed into worshipping in the Spirit of God and to glory IN Christ Jesus.

For a time I may have lost a church (not the church) … but in its place, I gained Christ Jesus.

No doubt … I traded up … waaaaaaaaaaaaay up!!!!

Brothers and sisters, be blessed IN the love and IN the indwelling presence of Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior!!!

Bernie