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Big Church…Small Minded

When I committed to posting blog articles daily last month I did not think that a month in I’d want to post two per day. I’ve noticed that activity in anything I set out to create almost always stimulates further activity.

It’s the same way with inactivity.

So Imagine how much more of the work of Jesus Christ would happen if Christians were active. And were not stuck in the tradition of sitting idle and watching others “let their light shine” professionally on Sunday mornings!!

•How many more church meetings would be scheduled?

•How many more kids would start shining Jesus to their generation?

•How many more theologians would be writing books and sharing videos and podcasts?

•How many more Christians would even exist …if the church was active?, were trained to be active, trained and expected to bring a teaching or a song or an encouragement, or their extra finances to share with one another at every meeting? Then allowed and encouraged to share one by one?

I’d rather have a million small (30 member) churches that don’t have a building than a thousand big ones (500+ members) that do.

That is 30 times more Christians potentially who are active as opposed to 1/30th of that who let their clergy do the majority of the “work” and the sharing. The difference is incalculable, it would be like we were living on another planet.

Jesus people, bringing the kingdom of heaven down to earth.

Big-money church mentality is small-minded!

What Jesus started was much bigger and better, exponential means multiplication upon multiplication. Your pastor may be able to win 500 and handle 1000 if he is talented enough… but what happens when he moves away? Or retires or just quits? Likely collapse and dispersal of the body because it all rests on him.

It is not scale-able.

It serves a tiny, talented, clergy, and those ambitious enough to become clergy. It does not serve Jesus Christ well and not the masses of people he is after.

My prayer is that we (all Christians) together go back to following him and his plan for how and when to gather.

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Socialism, Satan & Jesus

The concept of Socialism (using the state to pool resources and to create financial equality) could work. But only if we were to completely remove the state from the equation. The state represents human government, which is irredeemable. This realization was the foundation of the US government. They concluded, at best we can separate powers and keep the people free to violently defend themselves (by bearing arms).

I think the root cause for this fact is that the concept of the state is inseparable from the influence and control of Satan. And Satan is inseparable from stealing, killing, and destroying. So for now, we should consider all forms human government as synonymous with stealing, killing, and destroying. Socialism is usually strongly resisted so it requires dictatorships to try to implement…things go down hill fast from there. Think of the formally prosperous Venezuela as the most recent of many examples. It won’t always be that way but for now it is.

The best way to work around this is to separate powers within a state. And to separate finances from the state into the hands of the people (capitalism). To concentrate money in the state is to tear down society.

This disturbing fact is true everywhere human government dominates on earth. The only place this is not the case is where Jesus Christ personally dominates a people. Not Christian leaders but Jesus personally.

Jesus Christ is the only alternative to the state, or human government. Wherever he is Lord, natural, voluntary love-based “socialism” happens.

Where he is dominant in people, there is genuine and lasting equality, generosity, sharing with one another and with the poor, out of love, equality, racial blindness, gender equality. “In Christ there is neither rich, nor poor, slave nor free, male nor female, all are one in him.”

Where he is not in charge, there is unfair hierarchy, there is inequality (financial, racial, social). If unchecked, there is tyranny from government, and there is the rich dominating and taking from the poor.

So the next time you hear people say we need more socialism or capitalism. Think no we need more a Jesus Christ, we need more Jesus people, much more! Then become one yourself, he deserves it.

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Jesus Worhsip
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Anxious To Please The Lord

“I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord. But the married man is anxious about worldly things, how to please his wife, and his interests are divided. And the unmarried or betrothed woman is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit. But the married woman is anxious about worldly things, how to please her husband.”

‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭7:32-34‬ ‭ESV‬‬

The married man/woman is anxious about how to please his wife/husband.

Pleasing our spouses here is described as a “worldly anxiety.” This surprises me, not because of experience but because I guess I’ve always seen marriage as a creation of God therefore how could it interfere with other things of God.?

But I guess the ways in which a husband and wife please one another are worldly or fleshly things. Before this passage in the book of Corinthians there is talk of not depriving one another physically.

It occurred to me that this divided interest can be minimized if both spouses are going after Jesus Christ equally. If both are seeking him and actively sacrificing their lives to please the Lord. Laying down what we want and expect out of life can free the spouse up a bit to focus on seeking and pleasing the Lord.

Their pursuit of him can grow together, it can perhaps be enhanced by the marriage rather than distracted by it, which is so common.

Paul also alluded to this at the end of chapter 7. He describes how the Jesus follower is to lay aside their current state in exchange for the kingdom of God.

“This is what I mean, brothers: the appointed time has grown very short. From now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none, and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no goods, and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away.”

‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭7:29-31‬ ‭ESV‬‬

At the end he reasons “the present form of this world is passing away.”

Which implies the present state of marriage is passing away as well. According to the spirit of God, we are to live, if possible, as if that were true now. Live as if the future were current.

Could you lay down you demands on your spouse in order to seek the Lord? Could you die daily from what you think you need from her/ him?

I think the answer to that is yes for most serious Jesus followers, at least periodically.

But why bother? Why do something which might be that uncomfortable?

The answer i think is repeated in chapter seven. “Pleasing the Lord” which really gets my attention. Knowing he is pleased with me is a great motivator for me. Also “securing our undivided devotion to the Lord.”

Let your anxiety and the anxiety of your spouse be focused on how to please the Lord Jesus. Just as if you were single Christians. Don’t be your spouses distraction from the Lord Jesus.

Let your spouse be Undivided to the Lord and maybe they will return the favor.

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