.questions.

Questions are such a powerful thing. There is this idea happening in the church that questions are an innocent thing. However like anything it depends on the heart of the person who is asking the question. If the person truly wants to know something then questions are great and need to be asked. On the other hand if a person is asking questions to mislead someone then they are wrong.

There are some leaders of the church who are trying to lead people down a path that is not true by the questions they ask. They are a lot like a salesperson. I have worked as a salesman for a few years now and our most powerful weapon is questions. I can lead people to a decision to buy what I want them to. I ask them questions that have them deciding that they want is what I have to sell. Now these leaders are saying that they are honestly just searching, however by their questions that doesn't seem to be the truth. They are trying to lead people down a dangerous path that does not lead to life by their truths.

So what I have to say is that we need to look at people's questions. We need not be fooled by the facade that they put on. We should never stop asking questions or leading questions. However the questions we ask need to be leading people to life.

Do our questions lead to Jesus?

Do they lead to the cross?

Do they lead to the resurrection?

Do they lead to Jesus as the only Way?

.human will?.

"We who are Jews by birth and not 'Gentile sinners' know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified." (Galatians 2:15-16)

How often have we tried to be better people?

How often have we failed at being better people?

How often have we heard a sermon about being a better person?

How often have we as teachers of the Bible taught people how to be a better person?

How often is the answer Jesus?

I ask these questions because in my life I have tried to become a "better" person. I have tried to be a person that is more like what I read about in the Bible. I have heard so many sermons, it doesn't matter from what kind of church, about being a better person. Not often was Jesus the answer from conservative churches to emergent churches the answer was the same, human will and strength.
When I look back on some of the lessons I taught, they were about doing things. Doing things under our own effort. Some were about relying on Jesus for the power and guidance to change and be transformed. However not as much as I would like. I only hope that the ones about relying totally on Christ Jesus sunk in. So I hope when I am in a teaching position again the message that the students hear is Jesus, Jesus and Jesus. I want to be a one song band.

So have you found a place where Jesus is the hero?

Have you found a place where you are taught to seek Jesus?

Have you found a place where you are taught to rely on Jesus?

Have you found a place where Jesus is the answer?

I have and I plan on someday soon being that place for students. A place where they can come and fall more in love with Jesus and learn to humbly follow and rely on Him. I hope that we all learn and live out that Jesus is Lord and Savior.

.all about Jesus.

It is all about Jesus. We as the church need to be proclaiming this all of the time. It is so easy to forget sometimes. Sometimes the message of the church can become moral-ism. Not that the things that are taught are wrong, the things taught are good things. However people are told to just try harder to do good. That however has not worked, has it? The church in America hasn't grown, we just have moved people around. We haven't changed America, on the other hand America has changed Christianity in America. We need to proclaim Jesus as the answer to everything. Not just for our salvation but also for our sanctification. We need to humble ourselves and rely on Jesus. When the church in America starts preaching Jesus and teaching people to rely on Jesus and his grace I believe that we will see lives changed for the glory of Jesus. May we make him the hero of everything and in everything proclaim that Jesus is Lord and Savior.

.my generation.

Its seems as though my generation has made a lot of the Bible a relative thing. While I was listening to past sermons of the pastor where I go to church he had a good point that this is nothing new. My grand parents generation really started doing this and it has affected those of us who grew up in conservative churches where things that we a cultural thing were said to be Biblical. So it is no surprise that my generation people in their 20's and 30's are relativistic. However it saddens me that the pastors and other Christian leaders have come up with some absurd claims that are supposedly Biblical.

One recent development has been with Young Life. This is an organization that I was a part of and was in a position of leadership in and where I realized that I was called to be a youth pastor. So this is a organization that is near and dear to my heart. If you go to Christianity Today you can read about it more. However I will try to boil it down into a summary that is true. Basically Young Life is making its leaders sign a set of beliefs that are the non-negotiables of what they teach. This is an important thing because of the nature of the organization. It is a group that is multi-denominational, there are not requirements really of secondary theology. Their goal is to earn the right to be heard and then proclaim the Gospel of Jesus to students, even to the farthest out student. Just to give you an idea of what is being argued here is the non-negotiables that Young Life has put out:

1) We proclaim the Person of Jesus Christ in every message.
2) We proclaim the reality of sin and its consequences — that apart from divine
grace, we are estranged from God by our disobedience and incapable of a right
relationship with God.
3) We proclaim the crucifixion of Jesus Christ as the ultimate proof of God’s love
and the only solution to our problem of sin.
4) We proclaim the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
5) We proclaim the risen Christ’s offer of salvation by inviting our middle school,
high school and college friends to confess Jesus as Lord and Savior.
6) We proclaim God’s call to discipleship by encouraging all who respond to grow
in their faith.

The problem that has arose from this is number two, leadership in North Carolina did not agree with the fact that they should have to preach sin. They claimed that students did not need to hear the sin message and that Young Life was just trying to guilt students into believing and be legalistic in their ways. They have decided that the message of sin is no longer relevant to this generation so why teach it. It would be nice if this was an idea that only existed in Young Life, however this is an idea that has started to permeate the church from all over. It seems as though the church in the mega church movement to the emergent movement has decided that we do not need to preach the idea that we as humans are sinful and apart from the grace of God we have no chance of having Life. Some have decided that we aren't that bad and that Jesus is just a good way to live. Some have decided to preach this idea of humanism. However this is not the true gospel. The gospel is that I am a sinner and am separated from God and that the only way that I can have life is the grace of God which allows me to have faith in the person and works of Jesus. In my life and in others we need to realize our sin and need for a savior before we can accept the grace of God. We need to come to grips that we can't have life on our own. So may we not stop preaching about sin, we do not need people to wallow in it. We don't need to bash people over the head with it but we do need people to realize that sin separates them from God and life and that Jesus is the hero of the story and that He alone can give life everlasting.