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Books / Videos

A Church Building Every 1/2 Mile

This excerpt is from the third section of Jon Zens’ book describing Four Tragic Shifts. This is the introduction to that section. Check out Jon’s website here.

The church portrayed in the New Testament was a dynamic organism, a living body with many parts. The church from around A.D. 180 onwards became an increasingly hardened institution with a fixed and complex hierarchy.

We claim to take Christ’s revelation about the church in the New Testament seriously, yet the reality is that too often we are more attached to the inherited way of doing things – which is based on human traditions. What does it mean to be faithful to the New Testament’s teaching about the church? In what sense are the examples of church life “binding” on us?

For instance, some assert that since the early church met primarily in homes, we are obliged to emulate this example. I think the primary theological point of the New Testament in this regard is that under the New Covenant there are no alleged “holy places.” Contemporary Christianity has almost no grasp of this significant point. Taking their cue from the Old Covenant, people are still led to believe that a church building is “the house of God.” In actuality, believers are free to meet anywhere in which they can foster, cultivate and attain the goals set before them by Christ.

The problem today is that many church structures neither promote nor accomplish Christ’s desire for His body. Homes are a natural place for believers to meet, and the early church flourished well into the first and second centuries without erecting any temple-like edifices. In places around the world where persecution reigns, house-church movements have flourished. Someday in America, if our religious infrastructure falls as a result of economic and political turmoil, true believers will be forced to meet outside of traditional church buildings. But the issue still is not what type of believers gather in, but what form their committed life together takes as they wrestle with the many duties and privileges flowing out of the priesthood of all believers.

I believe that it is far more important to capture the spirit of church life as we see it unfolded in the New Testament than it is to attempt to woodenly replicate certain cultural aspects of first century life. We do not live in the first century, but the concepts and principles in the New Testament endure and will come to expression in any culture. Christians must take their stand and devote their precious energies to building up the body of Christ in ways that return to the original patterns of the New Testament.

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Books / Videos

Reimagining Church

This is the second excerpt about counting the cost. Thank you Frank for being honest and encouraging.

Let me be clear. There’s a price to pay in responding to the Lord’s will for His church. You’ll have to reckon with being misunderstood by those who have embraced spectator Christianity. You’ll bear the marks of the cross and die a thousand deaths in the process of being built together with other believers in a close-knit community.

You’ll have to endure the messiness that’s part and parcel of relational Christianity – forever abandoning the artificial neatness afforded by the organized church. You’ll no longer share the comforts of being a passive spectator. Instead, you’ll learn the self-emptying lessons of becoming a responsible, serving member of a functioning body.

In addition, you’ll have to go against the harsh grain of what one writer calls “the seven last words of the church” (we never did it that way before). You’ll incur the disfavor of the religious majority for refusing to be influenced by the tyranny of the status quo. And you’ll incite the severest assaults of the Adversary in his attempt to snuff out that which represents a living testimony of Jesus.

Add to that, living in organic church life is incredible difficult. The experience is fraught with problems. Read the New Testament letters again with an eye to discovering the many hazards the early Christians encountered when living in a close-knit community. When we live in the same kind of community life today, the same problems emerge. Our flesh gets exposed. Our spirituality gets tested. And we quickly find out just how deep the fall goes.

As one person said, “Everybody’s normal until you get to know them.” This is all too true for those who take the plunge of living in organic church life. The problems are endless. It’s much easier to become a “pew potato” two hours on Sunday morning in an instititutionaal church. Anyone can be a perfect Christian then. Organic church life, however, is a wedding of glory and gore. But this is the genius of God. It’s His prescribed way to transform us into His image. For “iron sharpens iron” (Prov. 27:17).

Yet regardless of the suffering that follows those who take the road less traveled, the glorious benefits of living in body life far outweigh the costs. The Lord builds on broken lives; His house is constituted out of conflict (1 Chron. 26:27). This being the case, “Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore” (Heb.13:13). For it is there that we may meet the Savior’s heartbeat.

Frank Viola, Reimagining Church
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Books / Videos

Reimagining Church

Masterful work by Frank Viola, here is the first excerpt on rediscovery.

To borrow a term from scientific philosopher Thomas Kuhn, we need a “paradigm shift” regarding the church before we can properly rebuild it. That is, we need a new worldview regarding the meaning of the body of Christ. A new model for understanding the ekklesia. A new framework for thinking about the church.

Of course, the “new paradigm” that I’m speaking of is not new at all. It’s the paradigm that undergirds the entire New Testament.

Our day is not much different from that of Nehemiah’s. In Nehemiah’s time, Israel had just rediscovered the Law of God after being without it for many years. But once it was discovered, it had to be reexplained and reinterpreted. Consider the words of Nehemiah:

They read from the Book of the Law of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that people could understand what was being read.

Nehemiah 8:8

In the same way, twenty-first-century Christians must relearn the language of Scripture with respect to the church. The original meaning of countless biblical terms like “church,” “minister,” “pastor,” “house of God,” and “fellowship” have largely been lost.

These words have been invested with institutional power. A power that was foreign to those who originally penned them. Therefore, a pressing need today is the rediscovery of biblical language and ideas. We need to rethink our entire concept of church and discover it afresh through the lens of Jesus and the apostles.

Because of common misteaching, we have many deeply buried assumptions that are in need of excavation and examination. Many of us have been mistaught that “church” means a building, a denomination, or a worship service. And that a “minister” is a special class of Christian.

Since our contemporary notion of the church has been so entrenched in human thinking, it requires a conscious effort to view it in the way that all first-century Christians did. It demands that we rigorously plow through the thick and tangled weeds of religious tradition until we unearth the virgin soil of organic Christianity.

As we rethink the church in its scriptural context, we’ll be better equipped to distinguish between the biblical notion of church and those institutions that pose as churches.

In the eyes of those who see the world through institutional glasses, unless a church meets in the “right” place (a building), has the “proper” leadership (an ordained minister), and bears the “correct” name (one that indicates a “covering”), it’s not an authentic church. Instead, it’s dubbed with innovative terms like “parachurch.”

Hence, among those who haven’t yet grown weary of running on the program-driven treadmill of institutional “churchianity,” that which is abnormal is considered normal and that which is normal is regarded as abnormal. This is the unhappy result of not basing our faith and practice upon Scripture.

In brief, nothing short of a paradigm shift regarding the church, coupled with an impartation of fresh light from the Holy Spirit, will produce enduring change. Readjustments to the old wineskin, no matter how radical, will only go so far.

Consequently, in my personal judgement, the church doesn’t need renewal. It needs a complete overhaul. That is, the only way to fully renew the institutional church to wholly disassemble it and build something far different. The brittle wineskin of church practice and the tattered garment of ecclesiastical forms need to be exchanged, not just modified. Some may disagree. But this is my conviction based on my experience, and I’m not ashamed to state it.

Frank Viola, Reimagining Church
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Biblical Church

King Makers

I went out for some Mexican food with my friends Rich and Craig and at one point we talked about some of the larger churches here in the Phoenix area. We discussed some of the multi-million dollar homes the pastors of these large churches had or were currently building for themselves. Of course this is not only a local issue. I’m sure we all are aware of the big salaries, mansions and jet planes many of the ministers around the country have. I certainly don’t believe Christians should live in poverty but it does seem the excesses of ministers are not a true reflection of the life of Christ and His followers.

The question is…how does this happen? I’ve always been fascinated with the Hebrew people demanding a king, recorded in 1 Samuel 8. God’s plan was to have Judges and Prophets guide the people but the people wanted a king like the other nations. Samuel warned them.

So Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who asked him for a king. And he said, “This will be the behavior of the king who will reign over you: He will take your sons and appoint them for his own chariots and to be his horsemen, and some will run before his chariots. He will appoint captains over his thousands and captains over his fifties, will set some to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and some to make his weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers, cooks, and bakers. And he will take the best of your fields, your vineyards, and your olive groves, and give them to his servants. He will take a tenth of your grain and your vintage, and give it to his officers and servants. And he will take your male servants, your female servants, your finest young men, and your donkeys, and put them to his work. He will take a tenth of your sheep. And you will be his servants. And you will cry out in that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, and the Lord will not hear you in that day.”

1 Samuel 8:10-18 NKJV

Is it our fault? Are we the ones still demanding a king? Are we the king makers? Instead of developing personal intimacy with Christ and intimacy with other followers, we would rather go to a large facility and listen to a king tell us what and how to do life. Many of the warnings stated by Samuel still ring true today. At church we become workers for the king, busy bees, building his kingdom. We lose our freedom and of course we are required to give our tenth. For most this is the easier path, requiring us to give our time, talent and treasure but not develop true intimacy that the Father requires of us.

It’s quite sad that the people rejected God.

But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” So Samuel prayed to the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, “Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them. According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt, even to this day—with which they have forsaken Me and served other gods—so they are doing to you also. Now therefore, heed their voice. However, you shall solemnly forewarn them, and show them the behavior of the king who will reign over them.”

1 Samuel 8:6-9 NKJV

I hope you take the time to examine your heart to see if you are truly serving the King or if you are in service to a king. There is so much beauty and freedom in doing our Christian walk the way God intended. Yes, the path is difficult but the results are worth every step!

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Books / Videos

Pagan Christianity

Incredibly researched and written, Pagan Christianity, authored by Frank Viola and George Barna, is a must read. They explore the roots of our church practices and, unfortunately, confirm that pagan practices have had a huge influence on what we do today.

FYI. Pagan C. is not a stand alone volume. The majority of those who read it without the constructive sequels misinterpret and misapply the message. Check out the video-audio at PaganChristianity.org for an explanition. Thx!

Frank Viola, Facebook post response.

Yes, it’s true, you can use the information in the book to hammer away at people but it is not the intent of this book. If the Holy Spirit hasn’t begun the process of revealing truth to a person, no amount of head bashing will work.

Below is an excerpt about the introduction of the pew. It may seem insignificant but you can get a sense of the research that has gone into this book.

The pew is perhaps the greatest inhibitor of face-to-face fellowship. It is a symbol of lethargy and passivity in the contemporary church and has made corporate worship a spectator sport.

The word pew is derived from the Latin podium. It means a seat raised up above a floor level or a “balcony”. Pews were unknown to the church building for the first thousand years of Christian history. In the early basilicas, the congregation stood throughout the entire service. (This is still the practice among many Eastern Orthodox).

By the thirteenth century, backless benches were gradually introduced into English parish buildings. These benches were made of stone and placed against the walls. They were then moved into the body of the building (the area called the nave). At first, the benches were arranged in a semicircle around the pulpit. Later they were fixed to the floor.

The modern pew was introduced in the forteenth century, though it was not commonly found in churches until the fifteenth century. At that time, wooden benches supplanted the stone seats. By the eighteenth century box pews became popular.

Because box pews often had high sides, the pulpits had to be elevated so as to be seen by the people. Thus the “wineglass” pulpit was born during colonial times. Eighteenth-century family box pews were replaced with slip pews so that all the people faced the newly erected high platform where the pastor conducted the service.

So what is the pew? The meaning of the word tells it all. It is a lowered “balcony” – detached seating from which to watch performances on a stage (the pulpit). It immobilizes the congregation of the saints and renders them mute spectators. It hinders face-to-face fellowship and interaction.

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Biblical Church

Prepare and Warn

I really don’t like to write blogs that may be time sensitive but I’m making an exception here. Today I read two articles, one was titled ‘Berlin city official advises citizens not to make their Jewish faith visible’ and the other one was ‘US nabs Iranian national who snuck across southern border in dead of night’. Also today, my cousin Danny talked about the church he attends. He wonders if it’s really necessary that people are assigned to carry guns inside the church to protect the congregants.

My good friend Rachel posted a YouTube link in our House Church group chat. I usually don’t watch videos about prophetic predictions especially if they are an hour long, however, because it was Rachel I checked it out.

At one point they were comparing the days of Noah to our present day. They referenced Luke 17.

And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.

Luke 17:26-30

They made the point that Noah was doing two things. Noah, knowing a storm was coming, was preparing a place of safety and he was also warning people.

If you’re on social media it seems Christians have the second part down. They are predicting and warning all the time, especially now. Concerning the first part, I know that there are ministries out there prepping people for the upcoming storm: buy a generator, raise chickens, get silver coins, accumulate food and medicine, but is there more to preparing a place of safety? What happens if synagogues and churches become targets of hate? Will every synagogue and church need armed gunmen inside and outside of worship facilities?

For us, we are building Arks. House Churches across the globe are places of safety. There may come a time when people are afraid to go to a building to worship. Where will they go? Hopefully we will be ready. We will need plenty of Arks to welcome them in two by two, now is the time to build…the sky is already getting cloudy.

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Books / Videos

The Three Myths

An excerpt from a book by Rad Zdero entitled The Global House Church Movement.

My purpose in writing this book is not to tear down anything that God is doing in and through the traditional church. God has always, is currently, and will continue to use it in drawing people to himself. Of this I have no doubt. It is not my intention at all to throw stones at my brothers and sisters in traditional churches.

However, it must be admitted, traditional churches also perpetuate the unbiblical and often ineffective ‘cathedral’ model of church, characterized by three cardinal myths that prevent individual believers and the Church as a whole from functioning as strategically and biblically as possible. In essence, the ‘cathedral’ model of church used by many today is that of a holy man performing a holy ceremony in a holy building. Let’s look at each of these points briefly.

The first myth is that of the ‘holy man’. Many believe that seminary-trained professional clergy are absolutely indispensible. Biblically, in contrast, the vision of the Church is a priesthood of all believers using their talents for building up God’s kingdom (1 Peter 2:4-10, 1 Cor 12:7-12, 27-30). Make no mistake, there is a biblical pattern of appointed leadership (Mark 3:13-15, Ats 13:1-3, Titus 1:5-9), but this never should result in others believers’ talents and skills withering from lack of use, which often happens in conventional churches. In addition, today’s single-pastor model stands in contrast to a team of co-equal volunteer elders that managed networks of house church in the first century (Acts 20:17-21; Titus 1:5).

The second myth is that of the ‘holy service’. The very word ‘church’ for many conjures up images of a few people performing a ritual – however useful or exciting the ‘show’ may be – in which a few designated individuals perform for a rather passive audience. These gatherings are really one-man shows. Biblical house churches, in contrast, afford open, interactive, and participatory meetings (1 Cor 14:26, Eph 5:19, Col 3:16, Heb 10:25), being an ideal breeding ground for leadership development, every – member participation, and relationship building.

The third myth is that of the ‘holy building’. Most people assume that church buildings, or large rented spaces for corporate meetings, are required to be a legitimate church. Whatever church buildings may or may not be useful for, the book of Acts and history bear our that they are not requirements for rapid church planting movements, evangelism, or discipleship; in fact, they are often a hindrance. Church buildings also breed a ‘temple mentality’, which puts church in a box and, thereby, prevents Christians from seeing their very neighborhoods as mission fields. As well, the massive practical release of time, energy, and money from the elimination of building projects and/or rental payments should challenge us rethink current practices.

Today, God is currently ushering in a monumental structural reformation of the global church that addresses these three myths. Cell churches – with their equal emphasis on home cell groups and Sunday morning services in a church building – and house church movements are growing rapidly in non-Western nations and are being used in startling ways to fulfill Christ’s Great Commission in this genertion. House church movements though, are even more effective than cell churches in eliminating the above three myths and are closest to the apostolic model of church. Therefore, what I am suggesting is that traditional churches are good, cell churches are better, and house church movements are best. As such, one purpose of this book is to call the church in the West to rethink its approach in light of New Testament practice and strategic effectiveness.

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Perspective

Trespasses and Sins

I found this article by John Fenn of CWOWI to be very insightful.

Perhaps the single largest doctrinal error in Christian culture today revolves around the concept of forgiveness. What Jesus taught within the context of Jewish culture and Old Testament law is completely twisted by the modern church.  

Paul stated in Ephesians 2:1: “And you has He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins.” Trespasses AND sins. They are not the same. 

A trespass is one person sinning against another. It is horizontal, person to person, and deals with injury. A sin is against God, it is vertical and deals with the guilt.

Our inner demand for justice is built around the injury. They did wrong, we want them caught. We want to hold them accountable. Church culture says ‘forgive them’ which takes care of the guilt, but it doesn’t address the injury they inflicted on us. That is our conflict. We will forgive, but we want an apology. We want them to admit what they did. We want them to make it right. 

Our inner demand for justice agrees with the Law of the Trespass. Everything Jesus and Paul taught on the subject is based on the Law of the Trespass.

Law of the Trespass: Leviticus 6: 1-7 

“If anyone is unfaithful to the Lord by making a trespass against his neighbor in something entrusted to him, or something left in their care or something stolen, of if they cheat their neighbor, or find something lost and then lie about it or not return it. If they sin in these ways and realize their guilt… 

“They must return what they stole or got by deceit or lying. They must return the lost property they found to their neighbor, and in anything like this that they lied about or did to their neighbor, AND add 20% of the value when they return it to the person they trespassed against. 

“Then they (with the other person) will take all this to the priest who will make a sacrifice for them, and they will be forgiven of these trespasses.” 

Notice they have to make it right with the person they trespassed against BEFORE they can be forgiven by God for that trespass.

That doesn’t threaten their salvation for the law is specific to each particular trespass. It means if they keep that which was stolen, or they never admit to the person they lied about something, or any trespass, and they never reconcile by admitting their trespass, when they stand before the Lord they will be held accountable. 

The victim may forgive them, but they haven’t done what is right to be forgiven by God, which is to apologize to the person they trespassed again. For that trespass they will be held accountable by Him.

What does this look like in modern times?

How do you add 20% interest in our day? In their day, if someone found a lost leather coat that was worth $500, they would have to return the coat and add 20% or $100, and give the person they trespassed against the $100 and the coat, THEN go to the priest to receive God’s forgiveness. 

Today, if we trespassed against someone and wanted to make it right, we would apologize to them, then that “20%” could be taking them to lunch, or meeting them for tea or coffee which you pay for. It could be sending a card or note after you reconciled, just to be sure all is right between you once again. That 20% would be doing something just to be sure you two are okay again.

BUT….If a person keeps the found coat instead of returning it, they become guilty of that sin of stealing before God. They won’t go to hell, but they will be held accountable for stealing.  

Jesus spoke of the Law of the Trespass in Matthew 5: 25-26: “Agree with your adversary (the person you trespassed against) quickly while you are on the way with them. Or they might deliver you to the judge, who will turn you over to the officer and from there to prison. I tell you the truth, you won’t come out from there until you’ve paid every penny you owe.” 

Christians have misunderstood this for years, thinking this is heaven or hell. It is not. It is simply an exhortation to reconcile with the person you trespassed against, for if you do not, you will be charged with theft, fined the 20% and sent to prison. That was the custom in that day. 

The larger passage is about anger without cause, and ‘leave your gift at the altar and go and be reconciled to your brother.’ It’s about being willing to make it right when you’ve trespassed against someone. 

This is the big one

Mark 11: 25-26: “And when you stand praying, forgive if you have something against another so that your Father in heaven may forgive your trespasses. But if you don’t forgive (their trespasses against you) neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.”

This is not heaven or hell, this is the Law of the Trespass. First, forgiveness is a decision, not an emotion. It is a decision to forgive that person who injured us. You don’t have to feel good about them or what happened for you were injured. They remain guilty before God unless they come to you and reconcile. 

That said, both Jesus and Steven asked the Father NOT to charge their executioners of their trespass of murdering each. We have that option of asking the Father to forgive them anyway, even if they don’t account for their injury to us or seek reconciliation. 

Jesus said at His resurrection: “Whosoever sins you forgive, they are forgiven. Whosoever sins you retain, they are retained.” We are given the authority to use His name against demons, to use His name to lay hands on the sick. We can come before the Father in His name to seek mercy and grace to help in time of need. We can also ask the Father to forgive a person’s trespass even if they don’t reconcile first with us and add that 20%. OR…we can ask Him to deal with them. 

Paul in II Timothy 4: 14-16: In v16 he says when he was first indicted in Roman court none of his friends went with him to court, and he said: “I pray God that it won’t be laid to their account.” 

But just before, in v14 he wrote this: “Alexander the Coppersmith did me much harm. The Lord will reward him according to what he did.” 

In the case of Alexander the Coppersmith, Paul chose not to release him from the injury he did to Paul. I’m sure Paul forgave him the guilt, but he didn’t release him from the harm he did to Paul. Paul chose to let the Lord deal with him. That meant if Alexander never repented, he would stand before the Lord to give account on that harm of which Paul wrote. 

There are some people who will not apologize for the injury they did to us, and we forgive them vertically, but we want them to face the consequences of their action. That is what Paul did – let the Lord deal with Alexander the Coppersmith. That isn’t unforgiveness. It is forgiving them vertically, but because they won’t do what is right horizontally, we release them into the Lord’s hands and go about our business.

The link to the article is here.

Categories
Biblical Church

The Problem With Success

It’s so encouraging to hear stories of House Churches growing and expanding. In Jason Shepperd’s book, A Church of House Churches, he describes an initial group of forty people meeting in 2 House Churches expanding over time to thousands in 75 House Churches. They also started Church Project, a more conventional church that meets twice on Sunday and has about 4,000 people gathering. It seems there are other Church Project Network churches. Together there are 8-10,000 who consider Church Project their church.

Many of us that have established House Churches, have seen imperfections in the conventional church model and would never consider going back. It might seem odd for a House Church network to grow and become successful and start a conventional church. Jason Shepperd describes it like this:

All of this happened with no centralized office, no phone number. No receptionist. No office foyer. No mailers. No marketing.

The rest of his book, which is only around 100 pages, seems like a defense of his decision to incorporate a conventional church and a network of House Churches. He writes the following:

But, God has also seemed to value the large gathering of His people. There is a value to corporate worship. In the Old Testament, people gathered regularly for feasts and festivals and the worship was pretty phenomenal, planned out and prepared and had a ton of people present. In the New Testament, where House Church was birthed, large corporate gatherings still happened. The apostles taught people by the thousands. They were kicked out of the Temple courts and rented Solomon’s Colonnade, a lecture hall contiguous to the Temple, for weekly gatherings for thousands of people.

I’m not sure what smaller communities will look like in Heaven. I’m not sure what diversity will look like in Heaven with age, gender, skin color, etc. But, the glimpses that God has given into corporate worship of His people in Heaven, joining with the angels, will be phenomenal.

God seems to love the corporate gathering of His people in the Old Testament, the New Testament, and in Heaven.

One of my mentors, Teryl Hebert, was a conventional pastor that dissolved his church to pursue a more relational model. There are a number of House Churches he is overseeing. Teryl holds corporate gatherings about 3-4 times a year so new people can meet others, they can worship together and they can discuss material and spiritual concerns as a community. From my experience, this seems to be the trend for House Church Networks…not developing a traditional weekly corporate gathering but setting up meetings whenever the need arises.

The author claims there is scripture to justify the Church Project but never gives any except the references to the Temple court and the Colonnade. Maybe they rented Solomon’s Colonnade for a time, but Christ followers were kicked out of there also. Beyond that, there seems to be no Biblical references in the New Testament for the church meeting in large venues with thousands of people.

It would be interesting to hear comments from those that have experienced Church Project. From the book it appears that this movement is highly successful, vibrant, growing and financially helping lots of people.

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Books / Videos

Losing Our Focus

This is such a great article by John Fenn of CWOWI. I know it resonates with me; I hope it resonates with you also.

What’s the buzz….

Rome burned in July of the year 64 for 6 days. Nero blamed Christians, which started the first federally sponsored persecution of Christians. 10 Caesars persecuted Christians on a federal level, right up to the time it was legalized by Constantine in June of 313AD. (Nero, Vespasian, Domitian, Trajan, Hadrian, Marcus Aurelius, Maximinus, Decius, Valerian, Diocletian, (Constantine & Galerius, early in Constantine’s reign would be 11)

Up to that point persecution had been localized and sporadic. In Jerusalem Acts 7 records Stephen’s martyrdom less than a year after Pentecost. James, the brother of John, was killed in Acts 12, about 10 years after Pentecost. 

As Christianity began to spread, unbelieving Jews followed Paul and stirred up trouble. In Acts 18: 12-16 in Corinth, Greece, the Jews tried to make their persecution of Christianity a federal case. 

The passage tells us the Roman judge Gallio, who would be like a Supreme Court judge in our day, ruled against the Jews, saying their case against Paul was not a federal case. This gave Christianity about 10 years of relative peace with Rome, though Paul continued to be persecuted by the Jews within their religious system – and when they could spread it to local government, they did so. 

What is amazing is the letters of the New Testament barely mention persecution. Peter’s first letter is about the subject, but without naming specific instances. The letters from Paul, Peter, James, John and Jude are about Christ in us, what He has done for us, what our lives in Him should be. 

Compare that with many Christians today and their focus. Were the authors of the NT informed on current events? Certainly. Was that their focus? Not at all. 

Today, we use the excuse of ‘wanting to know what God is doing’, to surf the web, and honestly, much of it is focused on what the devil is doing. But we don’t see that in the pages of the NT. They were all about what Christ in them meant to their lives, how they could be more Christ-like, and urging us to develop the healthy relationships in Christ so necessary for growth in Him and as people. 

Whatever happens in the world has not caught the Father or Lord by surprise. The Father is still going to provide just like He has always provided to this point – if your gaze is focused on Him and not on the fear of world events. 

The issue with many is not lack of faith, but a high level of unbelief. That comes by looking at circumstances more than looking at the miracles He has already done in your life. When you count up all that He has done to get you to this point, then whatever is ‘out there’ in the world seems rather inconsequential – for He had not change, His arm not shortened to save. 

Focus on what He is doing in you; that’s what He asks of each of us daily. If we seek Him and His righteousness, the rest will be added.