Category Archives: Attributes
Repentance
In the New Testament, repentance means to change the way that we think and act. Without the Lord, this would be impossible. However, when we bring, and then surrender, our thoughts, beliefs and actions to the Lord, He replaces them with peace, truth and hope. True repentance brings transformation.
I love to work in my garden. Have you ever dug a large hole in hard clay to plant a bush? I think repentance requires many of the same steps.
When I dig the hole, I expend a tremendous amount of energy. Being willing to openly expose my sins and faults to the Lord also requires much effort.
Sometimes my feet hurt from stomping down on the shovel as I try to break through the hard soil. Likewise, there have been times when my body, soul and spirit ache as I struggle and my heart can feel like heavy, solid clay.
Come to the Waters
Just some of many who gathered Saturday to celebrate new life!
On Saturday, over sixty people gathered for a mass baptism at our house, involving various fellowships and ministries relating together here in Virginia.
After we buried lots of old natures, and lifted lots of new believers up into that same resurrection power that raised Christ from the dead, we enjoyed a cookout and just hangin’ with each other.
Celebrating
Oscar and Nicole
This is the one year anniversary of a wedding I performed for Oscar and Nicole.
Marianne and I hosted the wedding in our home, and they are part of the fellowship that meets there.
I was very sick at the time, and had to have a stool beside me just in case I felt weak and needed to perform the ceremony sitting down. But I made it through on my own two feet and it was a great time of celebration!
This was a highlight of ministry for me. Oscar and Nicole mean a lot to Marianne and me, and are evidence of how God delights in redeeming lives.
Here’s more of the story…
~ Jim
Grace and Forgiveness
Christians seek God’s forgiveness – not to remove some block in His heart, but to release a block in our heart.
To Love and Be Loved
Today is our wedding anniversary.
Our marriage is a testimony to the greatest gift two people can give each other: The ability to love and be loved.
Finding Freedom in a Prison Cell
Finding Freedom in a Prison Cell, by Marty Friedman
This is a wonderful story of redemption. Marty Friedman came to the Lord in jail, and for two years was part of a fellowship we helped start in the housing unit where he lived. He became a leader in that fellowship, where he profoundly impacted many, many lives. Now that he’s out, I am privileged to call him my friend.
BTW, I’m not sure about that reference to me as his “Sunday pastor”.
Marty, we gotta talk about that… 🙂
Grace at Work
The ongoing work of grace brings wholeness and freedom from hurts and bondage.
See Life or Reaction?
Love and Evil
Like the gnostic Marcion in the early church, some still elevate their own sensibilities over Scripture by denying that God’s righteous wrath and gracious love are fully compatible.
See Beyond Scripture? (Part 3)
Grace at Work
Among those I hang with, the unflinching ministry of confession and forgiveness brings freedom, and repentance produces maturity and wholeness.
See A False Love
Neil Cole on Institutional Church
Critique of the Center Church by Tim Keller [Part 3], by Neil Cole
I like Tim Keller’s books. We even went to the same seminary and share many similar influences. But Neil Cole provides a needed critique on Keller’s latest book, which views churches as institutions.
Real Grace
Facebook seems to be a hot bed for the new distorted view of “grace”.
The other day someone posted that through grace, God finds our sin acceptable. He thus no longer “deals” with sin in our lives – and we are free of sin – because it no long exists.
According to their “logic”, sin ceases to an issue in our lives because it ceases to be considered sin by God.
That neat theological sleight of hand was followed by lots of “likes” and “amens”.
To deny the reality of sin and its bondage – and to say God doesn’t deal with sin in our lives or that we are free of sin – is an abuse of grace.
The Prophets?
German martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer:
Where the world seeks gain, Christians will renounce it; where it exploits, they will let go; where it oppresses, they will stoop down and lift up the oppressed. Where the world denies justice, Christians will practice compassion; where it hides behind lies, they will speak out for those who cannot speak, and testify for the truth.
Do we really want virtue, justice and truth – especially when they challenge the status quo of our settled lives, churches and ministries?
Do we really value virtue, justice and truth – even if they challenge any self-affirming relationships with Jesus and each other?
This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. (1 John 1:5-6)
May God send prophets among us yet again.
~ Jim
Good Fruit, Bad Fruit, No Fruit
Fruit seems to be a touchy issue these days.
Being Faithful
Jesus tells us to be fruit inspectors, and even says that we are to be known by our fruit. See Matt. 7:15-27.
We shouldn’t, therefore, be bashful about looking for and asking about fruit when discerning someone’s ministry, doctrines and practices – even if they find that offensive.
However, it’s one thing to look for fruit, but it’s another thing to be wise fruit inspectors.
Voices from Jail
A rap/poem by a brother in fellowship in the local jail, who is learning to become the man God created him to be.
A Brother in Jail
Perfect Wisdom
When I reached out
You took me in
When there wasn’t a soul in sight
And all I saw was you
You took me in
Dusted me off
Cleaned me up
Asked me if I’d yet had enough?
Knew about my past
Had been there through the struggles
Said you’d carry my burdens
If I’d give you my troubles
I grabbed to my shirt
Expressed a cold smirk
Yeah I’d heard that before
Seems never to work
Sexuality and the Church
I often have people send me links to articles and blogs, and here are several that deal with different aspects of sexuality in the Church.
Being Gay at Jerry Falwell’s University, by Brandon Ambrosino
A very candid personal story of a man who struggled over his homosexuality, yet found friendship as the Christian community at a leading conservative university expressed love and grace while remaining faithful to their Biblical convictions.
You Cannot Heal What You Cannot Talk About, by Survivor Girl
Survivor Girl is a frequent commenter here, and this is her very personal story about sexual predation in the church. Please, read this. When a leader uses his position and spiritual gifts to prey on women in the church, it is not an affair, it is sexual abuse. This article will help you understand how sexual predators groom their victims, and also provides links to good resources for dealing with these issues.
Predators in the Pulpit, by Susan McKenzie
Another first person account of sexual predation and grooming in our churches. This too provides good background on how this happens, so we can be on guard and protect others.
Sexual Sin is a Corporate Affair, by Harry Schaumburg
“When we take the gospel seriously we not only correctly understand the nature of sexual immorality, we must become proactive in taking corporate responsibility for the sexual maturity and sexual problems within our local church.”
~ Jim
Self-Control
The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Gal 5:22-23 NIV
Self-control is the last fruit of the spirit. In life no one wants to be last. Somehow last implies that you don’t measure up, didn’t try hard enough or couldn’t quite do it. However, I don’t think being at the end of the list of fruit puts self-control in that same category.
I think self-control is like the parenthesis in math. For example, with (3+2) x (8+2) the math inside the parenthesis has to be completed first. You would get a totally different answer if the parentheses were missing from the equation.
In a sense love and self-control are like the parenthesis. They help group the other fruit. 1 Corinthians 13, the front parenthesis, reminds us that without love we can do nothing. Self-control comprises the back parenthesis.
Amazing Grace
True grace is truly amazing… it has power over the vilest sin. Forget that, and you are left with cheap grace.
See A Doobie Brothers’ Gospel
Being and Doing
When did it become a choice between being and doing?
I Want More Religion (Part 1)
Storing Up Riches?
Yesterday, as some folks in our fellowship prayed for me, I had one of those rare times when I heard the Lord very directly speak to my inner man.
He said I had laid up many treasures in heaven from a life spend serving Him and His people.
He let me know I could begin a new season of life, in transition toward my life to come, with the settled peace of His pleasure and honor.
Then He asked, however, if I was willing to spend those treasures, over whatever remaining time He chooses to give me, by investing them in others?
Gentleness
The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness… Gal 5:22-23 NIV
Webster lists the characteristics of gentleness as being soft, meek, passive, mild, delicate, kind and docile. In Psalm 18:35 David says that the Lord’s “gentleness has made me great.” This seems to be a contradiction. How could the characteristics of gentleness, as defined by Webster, make someone great? Perhaps the Lord’s definition of gentleness implies much more.
I believe that the Lord wants us to be gentle, but His gentleness is not a wishy-washy docility. Gentleness has a hidden core of strength and this core is what makes someone great. Gentleness’ strength runs deep, like the molten lava in a volcanic magma chamber. Tremendous heat transforms hard rock into a flexible, moving force.
Beyond Scripture? (Part 3)
The low view of God in the Old Testament, found among those touting a so-called “Christocentric hermeneutic”, comes from too high a view of themselves.
The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil
They often take personal offense at how God dealt with humanity in the Old Testament – including His sometimes fierce display of holiness and punishment of sin and rebellion.
So they make God in the Old Testament an aberration. They substitute their own perceptions of Christ – rooted in their post-modern sensibilities – for the totality of Scripture, and make their resulting “Christology” higher revelation than God’s own external Word of Scripture.
They have joined Adam and Eve in choosing the moral autonomy of deciding for themselves what is right and wrong, and have the further hubris of then imposing it on God Himself.
Chilling Out
We put so much “perfection” and “deeper life” pressure on new believers and fellowships. Let’s just chill out and learn that God delights in meeting us in whatever He uniquely designed us to be and do.
Been Hearing God Lately?
God’s Pleasure
Nearly a year has passed since I’ve been with the very first fellowship I helped start here in Virginia. I’ve missed them dearly.
Last night I got to be with them, share some stories of their beginnings, and convey a sense of God’s special pleasure and love towards them.
We all laughed and listened and talked – and there was life.
Speaking Truth
Don’t be deceived by books, blogs and misleading biographies from those who make their living telling others how to be the church, but are not living it or ever succeeded at reproducing their grand concepts in any sustainable, healthy fellowship. They do great harm to the Body of Christ.
Dealing with Church Leadership Abuse
Crossroad Junction 