Things I Think…
1. Let me simplify this…if the church and its Gospel are the only hope for humanity, I should be far more concerned about the health of the church than the sins of the culture…
2. The greatest deception of the enemy is to continually direct people in the church to fight against outside forces when the real enemies are inside the camp…
3. There is a lot of backlash from pastors toward people that are “deconstructing” their faith. Deconstruction is what happens when trust is broken by those who claim to represent God…and if you don’t understand the relationship between trust and faith, just shut the hell up and let us minister to people who you’ve helped break…
4. The claim is that people who “really” know Jesus would never have serious questions about their faith…there is some truth to that, because the real Jesus has been greatly misrepresented by a lot of evangelicalism…and people aren’t rejecting the real Jesus, but the distortion they’ve been shown…
5. What many are deconstructing is not the faith once delivered, but an idolatrous system that borrows the verbiage of real faith for the benefit of religious leaders and systems…burn it to the ground…
6. I’m always in a process of deconstruction and reconstruction…it’s called growing in the grace and knowledge of God in the Bible….
7. For those upset about the labor shortage and those who haven’t returned to work…in my area, many of those who do go back will instantly no longer be able to afford housing…it’s not as simple as it seems….
8. I get frustrated with how slowly my body is healing from the trauma of surgery at times, but it helps me to remember that mental and spiritual trauma takes even longer to heal…
9. Both sides of the Civil War believed God was on their side…and still do…
10. I’m recovering well…starting to get my strength back…thank you for your prayers!
Re: #2
How is it that we so often forget that the people “out there” who we are supposed to be mad at are actually the mission field we are called to love? If we could just be more concerned about our responsibilities as Jesus’ followers, as opposed to fighting for our “supposed” rights, we might be a little bit more fruitful.
PH,
Exactly…
Yeah, but Hillary…..
There, that should settle everything.
Hillary is the fulcrum on which the faith rises or falls…
Exactly. Now you get it.
Each numbered thought should be followed with a “Yeah, but Hillary.”
Troubles in the Methodist Church… Hillary’s a Methodist… She’s married to Bill who’s a Southern Baptist… Troubles in the SBC…
It all makes sense. Thank you Kevin and Michael!
Good observations, Michael… and all. ..
We don’t really grasp what it means to be ambassadors…..
Our Kingdom is offensive to the self righteous and to the “scoffers “
Yes, Duane, now you’re getting it. Hopefully others start doing their homework and find the truth.
The other night I got a papercut while trying to sort through some papers. The movie Jaws just happened to be on the tv when I sustained my papercut. The presence of the movie removed my full attention from the papers I was handling and led to my harm. The director of Jaws was Steven Spielberg. Steven Spielberg is a known donor to Hillary Clinton’s political campaigns. Therefore, Hillary is responsible for my suffering.
https://www.centerforbiblicalunity.com/about-monique
I need to thank the pastor of my church for bringing in Monique Duson and Krista Bontrager (TheologyMom.com) to unpack CRT at a women’s conference at my church this past spring (I translated the conference). The tragedy and sin of racial prejudice was exposed, but CRT is clearly not the answer to it. I actually translated the conference from English to Spanish. I encourage you to look at both web sites. I have always found it helpful to understand what I am arguing about before I come out with my opinions (example: I do believe in systemic racism-it’s existed for thousands of years), but I also don’t believe that I am personally to blame for all the racial sins in the world. The argument taken by both women was based on Ephesians 3-that we are one in Christ as believers no matter our color or background, and as children of God we should reflect that reality.
Good stuff here Michael.
A thought or two about “deconstruction”. This was a topic in a few articles over at The Christian Post, and it was very disheartening to see that all that was published was from the viewpoint of “if you are deconstructing, then you are committing apostasy.”
I find this absolutely sickening for the reasons you have outline…with church and pastoral abuse in the forefront.
Those who scoff and kick the butt of those deconstructing remind me in, in all honestly, immature believers who, like some Pavlovian Dog, judge anyone and everyone as being not a Christian for not having their act together.
Dan,
I think more highly of dogs…but affirm your point.
Thanks Michael, and I couldn’t think of a more “animal-neutral” analog…and I am a dog lover btw!
Maybe it’s because of Hillary that we’re not all raptured out of here by now?
Muff, if Hillary dies, do we get raptured? š²
#4 Billy Graham at Forest Home Camp, prior to the LA Crusade.
The famous Bible and the stump prayer, regarding hiS doubts of the Bible’s authority. Graham had already been preaching for several years, pastoring, and conducting a radio broadcast. Still had a faith crisis.
Michael.. this is right on the money. Thank you for writing this. Iām so impressed by your heart and your understanding and your drive to advocate for the hurting .
Thank you, C…we’ll keep at it…
I’m late to this party, but as someone still recovering from a very legalistic church 10 years down the road…your words are healing. Thanks for being on the side of Christ and not man.