Thursday. Sept 29, 2011.

I often wonder why God has me do the things that I do. As far as my writing goes, I don’t even pretend to have some inside track or insight into the person of Jesus or the truths of the Gospel. That’s what writers are supposed to do aren’t they? Aren’t they supposed to bring to life an aspect of Jesus that the rest of the world has missed? Aren’t they supposed to highlight some grand deficiency within the church and point the way out of the mess? I have never pretended to write or to say anything that has not been said or thought of before. I am sure that you have had many original thoughts yourself.

Even though I haven’t set myself up to start that special denomination which has sole proprietorship of the “true faith”, God still see fit for some reason to keep me employed in His service. This Thursday evening I’ll be teaching our church’s men’s Bible study at 7:00pm.

Without fail, every time I speak, I often ask myself the question, “Do I still have it?”

I am neither trained nor schooled as a speaker. I do get the odd opportunity, but it’s normally months between engagements, so I wouldn’t even say that I am practiced. Maybe God is done with me as a speaker or teacher. There are other aspects of my calling that have fallen by the wayside over time, so how do I know for certain whether or not the same won’t happen for me as a speaker?

If I was trained, at least if I was empty on the inside, I could fake it. I could still put on a decent performance. As it is, if my heart runs cold, I know I’ll probably fall flat on my face. This begs the question:

“Would I want the ability to fake it?”

If I was dead on the inside, would I even want to have the appearance of one who is standing firm in Christ? I think I’d rather fall. I’d rather embarrass myself than to give off the impression of being something that I’m not.

So if you’re a guy, and you are considering coming to Faith this Thursday evening, please don’t come with any expectations because I don’t know what to expect myself. If you’re wanting a heads up on what we’ll be covering, here is a link to the notes that I’ll be speaking from.

Hope to see you there.

Living With a Clear Conscience.

People are rarely as secure in their life choices as they would prefer you to believe. Otherwise, how on earth could anyone ever “make them feel guilty”?

We are rarely as secure in our life choices as we would prefer others to believe. Otherwise, how could their words ever “make us feel guilty”?

"Mom. Where do Missionaries come from?"

It often seems like we’ve fabricated an extra biblical vernacular. We commonly use words and phrases that are neither part of our culture, nor from scripture themselves. I’m okay with it. I really am. Please feel free to use words like eschatology, hermeneutics, cessationism, or imputation any time you like. There are descriptive purposes for these terms that few other words are able to capture.

Some words however, have evolved into the very fabric of our faith which have become commonplace, which at the same time, I believe serves to create a disconnect between the faith that we live and the faith that was lived out in scripture. This post might be challenging for some of you. In fact, some of you might want to bring my card carrying Christ-citizenship into question. Think about this word;

Missionary.

Where do we see the word used in the actual biblical text? We don’t. Do we? Well, kind of. In our English translations, the word only shows up in some of the subheadings that we have created to describe Paul’s ministry.

I’m fine with the use of the word, “missionary”. I really am. You will probably hear me use it from time to time myself. However, when did missionaries come to be? Is it a new spiritual gift that came to be after Biblical texts were canonized?

In the circles that I run, we talk about missionaries quite often. Yet when we read the Bible, we hear absolutely nothing about missionaries, in the sense that we speak of them in our day. The words that we use to describe the work of people such as Paul, aren’t the same words that they used to describe their own role within the world as part of the body of Christ. What word did Paul use to describe His calling in Christ?

I’m tempted to leave the post here, and force you to figure it out for yourself, because I know that some of you are lazy. You might also be set in your ways, and you will rage against what I say without actually looking at it for what it is. The truth of the matter, is that the very people who might rage against this the most, are the very people whom I desire to please. Yet, I’m not called to be a people pleaser. Am I?

So I ask the question again. What word does Paul use to describe his role in the body of Christ? Are you ready?

“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God...”Ephesians 1:1

Paul describes himself as being an apostle of Christ Jesus. Just so you know that I’m not taking a small sound byte from scripture, check it out. That isn’t the only place in scripture where Paul’s role is described as an apostle.

Many of the people whom I like to please lean towards thinking that apostles don’t exist anymore. It’s a spiritual gifting that died somewhere around 70 AD. I don’t know what significant even happened to squash that specific work of the Spirit, but it must have been as great or greater than the accomplished work of Christ on Calvary’s hill. There were only 13 Apostles, (14 if you count Judas) and they all died.

When we think of apostles, what comes to mind? Do you think of the 12? Were they an elite bunch? We may think of the people who performed those freaky ultra super amazing spectacular miraculous things. We might think of the demons driven out. We often think of the dead being raised. We think of the healings. And why not? Those things tended to accompany the apostles.

However, if we look at the word, ‘apostle’ for what it is, the miracles and the works had little to do with the role itself, but merely accompanied the men who were called as such. The word apostle literally means, “one who is sent”. Hmm. Sounds a lot like what we might call a missionary. I wonder why that is.

As for me, I believe that God still gifts people by His Spirit in order to send them. I believe that the word apostle is still appropriate to describe those who are sent to lands and peoples unknown to them.

Do I need to find a new chuch?

Dear Punk;

So you’ve been going to church lately. That’s good. I’m happy for you. I really am. I just want to make sure we have an understanding about a few things.

Just so you know, I’ve been here in this workplace for the past 10 years. So if you’re turning into one of those Evangelical types, you need to know that this is my gig. So if anyone gets saved around here, it goes on my tally.

I don’t mind the thoughts of you growing up to be a better mechanic than me someday, but I won’t stand for you to become a better evangelist or a more effective witness for Christ. I’ve worked too hard and for too long to let some punk kid with an earring ruin my Christian monopoly on this place.

I like working with you. I really do. I’m just saying, if you are going to try and win souls to Christ, go find your own gig. So go to your little church, with your own little people, saying your own little prayers. I’ve got dibs on this place. Just do your job and drink your gravy. It’s what you’re good at.

Sincerely,
Kevin

PS. On a serious note- you are in my prayers. I pray that you are finding what you are looking for in the person of Christ. It’s a privilege to know and work with you.