GlocalNet

How foolish we are. We are more obsessed with the water pump than the water. The focus becomes the pump-—not the water. We build a pump and/or well and we want everyone else’s to be just like ours. Yet, different soils, rocks, depths, and conditions all require different approaches. Acts proves house churches existed. Acts proves the church gathered in large corporate gatherings. Acts proves that there were so many people involved there had to be structure and organization. Yet, the focus was on the Gospel impacting lives. When are we going to get beyond body building contests where we stand on stages to flex our well-developed muscles? Every form and every model of church is beautiful and necessary. The various forms should never compete. They should just realize they are the compilation of the whole body of Christ and each must be valued and respected and loved. When that happens, we get traction and movement.

On another subject …I was visiting one of my Jewish friends that always makes me think. I deeply respect and love him. He’s a thinker/doer. Thinker/writer’s are nice. They sell books and speak, but thinker/doers live and change things for the better. He challenged me not long ago to be more open if not an universalist. We both love the world and people and God. He told me I’ve yet to cross that line. He’s right. I have and continue to ponder deeply over our conversation. Here are some conclusions. He told me I understood the Great Commission as a literal thing that causes me to evangelize and that short circuits all I do and all I say. Here are some of my thoughts.

First, fifteen years ago I did start with the Great Commission. It was the command--not any more. Today, I start with the Great Sermon--Matthew 5-7, and focus on the disciple. Then, Matthew 25--the way we touch the world. To me, the Great Commission is the culmination and result of reading all the rest of Matthew. I believe our global work is short-circuited often because we start at the end of Matthew instead of the first.

Second, I saw the atonement of Christ early in life as a heaven and hell and eternal life issue. It was atonement to heaven. That was it. I can’t leave that atonement because in it is who created us, who redeemed us, and where we’re headed. BUT, I’ve discovered the atonement was not just for my sin, alone, but the whole of the cosmos that has been lost:

Rom 8:19 The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. 22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. NIV

There is a moral atonement--no doubt about it. People who are not Christians recognize that the life of Christ was a moral example and one to be followed. Ho Chi Minh admired and respected Christ. To ignore that is to cut the credibility of the message which undermines personal atonement. If anything, it builds the case for personal atonement. There is also a societal atonement. The way that Jesus lived and engaged society was powerful. Ghandi was the example of this. I think we only see atonement in our eyes by what is broken in front of us. The further we walk from the society of the redeemed, the more we see brokenness, the more we understand atonement. The point of all this is simple. If even the rocks would cry out, and men who have not experienced the personal atonement of Jesus Christ, but believe in the moral and societal redemption from the example of Christ, what does that say to us, as believers, who have experienced personal redemption? Shouldn’t we be the most moral and the most compassionate and the most redemptive? I think so.

Just writing and turning over some soil in my mind and letting some seeds get some water . . .

One other thought. The reality is salvation by grace through faith means I can only answer for myself. I cannot see men’s heart like God sees it. I don’t even see my own heart like He sees it. My salvation is the only one for which I can vouch. So, we Christians all gather in huddles to encourage one another and dissect things to make sure we’re all heading to heaven, but the person on the end knows--and that sometimes isn’t right! Bottom line, if I don’t know 100% who’s in and who’s out, shouldn’t I treat all men the same? Therefore, when Christians focus just on Christians (salt on salt) doesn’t that deny the redemptive and reconciling love of Christ for all?