Tidal Wave–change comes to the local church

“And day by day, continuing with one mind and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favour with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.” Act 2 46-47

We have something spectacular to share with the world–Jesus loved you enough to give His life so that you don’t lose yours. How do we share that? Tidal Wave is a 29 minutes long Vimeo–do you have time to to find out about Simple Church?

 

Jesus–The Whole Gospel

Charles Spurgeon got it right when he said, “Preach Christ . . . He is the whole gospel. His person, offices, and work must be our one great, all-comprehending theme.”

Jesus Is All

Thanks to Frank Viola for this blog post the centrality of Jesus in all our lives.

Jesus, on the evening of His last day with His disciples, prayed that we would all be one, as He and the Father were one. That’s The Mark of a Christian, according to Francis Schaeffer.

One of the advantages of Family Church is that we have a great opportunity to develop this love and unity because we are so often in intimate fellowship with our brothers and sisters. As we learn in this setting how to love one another, it seems increasingly possible to love the “one another” who are at a little more distance.

“Let me pass on a word of advice. If you ever hit a fork in the road with the people with whom you church, there’s one sure way that the Lord will get what He wants. Drop whatever is causing the problem, and let it go into death.

There is nothing that we must cling to except for the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing. So let that other thing that your group is dividing over go into death. Give it up, and watch what the Lord can do.

This is the principle of death and resurrection. Whenever we place something into death, if it was born of Christ to begin with, it will return again. It will come forth out of the ground. But when it comes forth, it will always look different from what it looked like before it went into death.”

In just a couple hours thousands of Christians will join their hearts and voices at Rogers Arena (Vancouver) to celebrate Canada Day by celebrating Jesus–Voices Together–Lift High the Name of Jesus. We can do that because we are learning how to love one another; “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:33-35)

Jesus Died For My Sins…

“Jesus died for somebody’s sins but not mine
Meltin’ in a pot of thieves
Wild card up my sleeve
Thick heart of stone
My sins my own
They belong to me, me”

I was listening to an interview with Patti Smith by Eleanor Wachtel on CBC when they started talking about Patti’s version of Van Morrison’s song “Gloria”. And in case you never listened to the Patti Smith version, the above verse is the first of the song.

She went on to explain that she wants to take full responsibility for her actions, and if they were wrong, bad, whatever, she still wants to own them–that’s who she is, and she doesn’t want to be otherwise.

I wonder how many people feel the same way, and therefore completely reject the concept of a stranger taking the fall for their actions, and see it as taking pride in their own independence?

I know that sin separates me from God my Father. I know that I can’t do anything to change that. But if I had no interest in being reconnected with God my Father,  then I wouldn’t NEED to change that, I wouldn’t care that sin separates me from God, and I certainly wouldn’t want Jesus to die for my sins. (…somebody’s sins, but not mine”).

This worries me, because it seems to mean that sharing the love of Jesus (THE SAVIOUR who saves me from the punishment of my sins) is meaningless to some proportion of my circle–maybe a large proportion. Until I remember… GOD. He knows and loves us all much better than we know and love each other, and knows the exact keys to open hearts.

So we pray for Him to open hearts. Easy! If only we’d DO IT.