This message would make a great many liberal mainline Protestant pastors spit like crazed camels.
But I think Bono would be quite pleased.
Filed under: Jesus only, Pastor Mark Anderson, Sermon | Leave a comment »
Well, isn’t that what is happening in so many churches?
You’ve got someone who is starving to death (spiritually) and you lay out for them your favorite recipe on just how they can get what they need?
Then you add another ingredient to the recipe each week, so there’s no way this much needed, life giving meal will ever come out of the oven and be finished, and enjoyed. It becomes impossible to ever ‘arrive’.
I’m here to say that that is a terrible way to “help” people.
Hand Him over!
Give them the True Bread which comes down from Heaven, which is the meal that is completely finished for you and ready to “take and eat”.
‘How to’, ‘instructional Christianity’, just throws gasoline on the fire. It keeps alive the Old Adam and Old Eve. It creates phonies and Pharisees. It drives people to despair. God is not interested in cleaning up the Old Adam and Old Eve in us. He wants to kill them off! He will create in their places, the New Man and New Woman, and He does this through the announcement of the forgiveness of sins for Jesus’ sake. And He does this in His Holy Supper which He lovingly prepares for you with His Body and Blood that was nailed to a bloody cross in your place. And He does this when we speak of Him and the great things He has done for us, one to another. And when we comfort each other in His Name.
This is what people need. They don’t need a ‘program’ that puts them on the fast track, slowtrack, or any other track, to greater obedience or greater spirituality.
If the non-denoms, or the Baptists, or the Roman Catholics, or the Calvinists, or the Mormons even, would hand over this bread that comes down from Heaven for broken sinners, and not put any conditions on it, then I would say “AMEN! Thanks be to God! We are in agreement!”
To the extent that they do not hand Him over without strings attached, I will always be critical… never judgemental. Their final destination is not my business. The Lord is after the heart and knows each heart individually. He is certainly capable of making someone His own apart from any particular denomination, or church, or institution.
But we want the light of the gospel and the freedom that Christ gives to burn ever more brightly…don’t we?
So we continually place Christ at the center of it all towards that end so that some will hear and be freed from the religious project and the propping up of the self.
Don’t hand them picked-over recipes, that feature ‘what they ought be doing’.
Hand over the One true and everlasting food that is Jesus Christ Himself and His forgiveness of sins for sinners in need of new life. And keep handing Him over, again and again, and again…in the face of all those who object that that is just not enough.
He, and He alone…is enough. He is enough.
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You got a problem wit dat?
.
Filed under: Freedom, Jesus only, The Gospel | 13 Comments »
Roman Catholics have Christ… plus the pope, and your good efforts 
and your penance.
Many Protestants have Christ… plus your ‘decision’ and your ‘seriousness’ (your fruits), or ‘your experience’.
The Orthodox have Christ…plus your ‘efforts’ to become better.
The Christ ‘alone ‘ crowd seems to be a pretty small group in comparison to the ‘plus’ groups.
Why is Christ alone, never enough for many of these folks?
Just wondering out loud.
Filed under: Jesus only | 14 Comments »
This post is an answer to someone on another blog who thinks that I am an intolerant, self-righteous, bigoted Christian with no love for my fellow man.
Because I say (the Bible really says) that Jesus Christ is God’s revealed Word of righteousness to a sinful, broken world.
There has been a lot of talk about Muslims here of late
. Why pick on the Muslims? Maybe because they are blowing people up all the time. Maybe because 95% of the terrorism and carnage in the world are due to their warped vision of God, and that they are the number one enemy of the cross on the face of this planet. And that people had better wake up and knock of this stupid idea of getting along with a religious system that does not want to get along. That’s why.
OK then. So if the gospel is not meant for Muslims then who is it meant for?
What! I never said that. One of the problems with many folks these days is that they do not know how to read. They do not know how to listen. They insert their own preconceived notions and bigotries into other people’s mouths.
The gospel (the forgiveness of our sins , the whole world’s sins, for Jesus sake) is meant for those who really hear it. It is meant for those whose skin color is white…black… red… yellow… or brown. It is meant for ‘left wingers’ and ‘right wingers’ and people who just couldn’t care less. It is meant for anyone, whether they be Moslem, Jew, Gentile, Buddhist, Hindu, Atheist, who has ever hurt someone with something they’ve said. It is meant for anyone who has ever hurt someone with something they’ve done. It is meant for anyone who has ever been selfish and less caring for the poor and needy and homeless. It is meant for all those who have ever taken something that didn’t belong to them, even if it was a long time ago. It is meant for all those who are self-righteous and judgemental of others. It is meant for all those that do not honor their parents. It is meant for all those who are drunks, or drug addicts who hurt themselves and others with their uncontrolable addictions. It is meant for the good church going elder who follows the rules uncompromisingly so much so that there is not an ounce of grace or forgiveness in his heart for others. It is meant for the brokenhearted of this world. It is meant for the lonely. It is meant for those with sickness and disease. It is meant for those who are penniless and destitute. It is meant for those with sexual perversions. It is meant for those with secret sexual desires. It is meant for adulterers. It is meant for the mentally insane and criminally insane. It is meant for liars, thieves, murderers, and rapists. In short, it is meant for you. You fit in there, somewhere, I’m sure of it. I fit in there in too many places. If you don’t fit in there anywhere, then don’t worry about it…you do not need the gospel.
Well, that was pretty bigoted of me, wouldn’t you say? I left out a lot of people there didn’t I? I tried to keep the club membership to just my select group, didn’t I?
Why then, does it have to be Jesus only? Why can’t you say that God will save everybody, whether they believe in Jesus or Mohammed, Moses or Buddha?
The Bible does not say that ‘if you don’t believe in Jesus that you are going to hell’. If anyone can show me that exact line in scripture, I will eat my entire Bible, page by page.
What the Bible says, is that Jesus will be the One to decide who will go to the Father…or not. That’s all. He and He alone. Not Buddha, not Mohammed, not Krishna, not Al Gore, George Bush, nor Barrack Obama.
If you believe that, then you are a Christian. If you don’t believe that, then you might be something else.
All that said, if you still believe that I am a bigot who is trying to keep some people out of Heaven, then you are a bigger moron than I thought and incapable of understanding the writtten word.
Filed under: Jesus only | 23 Comments »
The Old Adam Lives! 