One way or another?

One way:
   You have sinned and therefore you are condemned to eternity in the lake of fire to suffer alone forever!  If you do not fall on your knees and beg Christ for forgiveness and repent of your ways you are doomed!  God will punish you for your sins with eternal fire! You should fear for your soul!  Your only hope is in Jesus dying a horrible death on the cross for you!

Or another:
   God created you to love you and has a plan for you.  It is only in following that plan/design that you will find peace, joy and fulfillment.  Although you fail and have done bad things God offers you redemption and restoration through Jesus.  If you will surrender to Him and follow a process of discipleship He will lead you into a life greater than you imagined and that life will only get greater when you move into eternity!

Both are accurate to a point.  Both are truthful.  Both have scriptures that can back them up.  One focuses almost exclusively on the after life and the other on this life with how it leads into the after life.  Both call for change - one through fear and one through love.  One was used as the primary focus of outreach until Jesus came and used the other nearly exclusively.

Some say change that is not driven by fear is not lasting.  The bible says perfect love casts out fear.  We see people conquer fears and encourage that very thing all the time.  For love of family, country, freedom, etc. we will move past our fears to do what we want or think we need to do.  Fear will only motivate change for a short period of time - until we find something else more motivating.  Sin can be very enticing and will easily conquer fear.  Love changes for a lifetime and is not easily conquered by selfish sin.

What will your focus be in your life? Fear or love?  What about in how you reach out to others?  Whether in business or evangelism what will you use?

Have to...

Read an interesting book today that had a lot of great principles in it.  Through out the book the authors say Christianity is about relationships not religion.  I enjoyed the content of the book.  I was very surprised to get to the end and find in the final chapter some interesting references.  In a chapter on "have to" vs "want to" or "need to" we should recognize that in our relationship with God there are things that are 'have to's".  I completely agree with this - there are many things that over time in our growing relationship with the Father we come to realize are "have to's".  In referencing this concept an illustration is made regarding churches seeking "want to" people or developing "want to" people for going to church and in that illustration clearly references activities The Bridge has done in the past.  Referring to "some" churches the authors say these churches are putting in Tattoo parlors and hosting MMA fights to attract crowds and then preach a feel good message saying that God loves everyone so no one has any responsibilities.  I would like to address this assertion being made pretty clearly about The Bridge and what we do.  First I want to say I know one of these authors and have met with him several times seeking his guidance, help and input.  I admire the ministry he does and believe in him and the difference he has made.  I find it disturbing that in all the times I have talked to him he has never had any negative comments about our outreach ministries - it was only in a book that it comes out he thinks our ministry lies about what the Bible says.  My thoughts...

In this chapter on the "have to's" it almost sounds like the authors are contending that church attendance is a "have to" and should be taught that way - that it is compulsory.  I believe, as the bible says, we are not to forsake the gathering together of the believers and that we "have to" be a part of that for our own good.  As a believer if we do forsake the body it will not be long before we drift and then forsake God even - it is only when we gather with the body that we are pointed toward God and together live out the purpose God has laid out for us.  My understanding of what Jesus did in His ministry here on Earth was to not impose, as the Law had done, a list of "have to's" - rather it appeared that He would draw crowds to Himself with miracles, food and association with the unwanted and through their "wanting" to be there rather than "having" to be there He would build relationships.  In time many of the people began to realize that not only did they "want to" follow Him they "had to" follow Him because anything else would lead to destruction.

Much like Jesus' and Paul's ministry we try to be all things to all people that by all means we might win some.  In the assertion that we have a Tattoo parlor and MMA fights to draw the crowds so we can tell them they have no responsibility to do anything because God loves them there is some serious fact checking that should have been done.  We have never hosted any MMA fights although we have had people use a part of our building for martial arts, self defense and MMA training.  This was not done to draw crowds to hear preaching either - this training was not done on days we were preaching.  The reason we allowed the building to be used for this was to meet a need for some people needing a location to train in and to build relationships with them.  The Tattoo parlor was not opened to draw crowds either nor was it near our auditorium that we used for services.  It was in our office space and it was opened to meet the need of a young man that came to us as an atheist drug addict and found Christ.  He was a tattoo artist by trade and wanted to create a safe environment in which to practice and for people to come to that wanted tattoos without all the sin themed decorations.  As we were building this relationship with the artist and found him in need we felt it was the right thing to do to offer him some office space we were not using anyway so he could follow the leading of God.  Although the news made a big deal of this and did not report everything accurately it was a very powerful way we reached into our community and many new people were exposed to the Gospel because of this.  If the authors had taken the time to contact me and ask a couple questions about this they could have found these truths out and realized we were not attempting to do what they accused us of.

One thing that the authors did get right was we are seeking "want to" people and developing "want to" people as far as attending the church services goes.  Our ultimate goal is to help these "want to" people see that they "need to" attend and even realize they "have to" for it is only in Christ that they will find the words of life.  We have seen this happen to many people under our ministry.  I believe the authors have seen this transition in people at their churches as well.

I wanted to post this because of their inaccurate attack on our ministry.  I am really disappointed that someone I have looked up to and sought advice from would so blatantly attack our ministry and portray it as a "feel good" ministry that calls for no change in people's lives.  This same author has had attacks and false accusations made against him for the non traditional activities he has done so it surprises me that he would make such accusations without fact checking or even have the guts to say something directly to me in the several meetings we have had where I was looking for advice and help.  Anyone that has questions regarding what we do and why can feel free to contact me.  Everything we do is biblically based and if I am shown where we are in error on anything we will change it immediately.

Everything happens for a reason

I hear this said often - "Everything happens for a reason".  This statement is usually left open ended.  It is absolutely true, but there is no help from that statement until the "reason" is discovered.  Where I hear this most is people referring to God as the reason.  It is meant as a comforting statement - like when a loved one dies someone may say this and even follow up with "God wanted your loved one with Him."  This is not comforting to me and it is bad theology.  What we see in the Bible is that everything does happen for a reason and often that reason is because of our decisions - sometimes it is weather or timing or another person exercising their free will to inflict pain upon you, but usually because of our choices.  This statement is the other side of the coin to the "Devil made me do it" statement.  It happened for a reason is a way of saying this is Gods fault without coming right out and saying that.

For the last 6 months I have gone through some very difficult times, I have caused serious pain in others lives and damaged relationships.  It would be so nice and easy to say it all happened for a reason, like God wanted this to happen so the good things that are happening now could come to fruition.  I cry foul - I can directly link most of the bad things that have occurred over the last 6 months to decisions I have made.  Some of those decisions were terrifyingly stupid and bad, some were the best decision I could make at that time with the information I had.  Regardless, I refuse to lay the blame at God's feet for my poor choices.  The flippant "everything happens for a reason" answer does not satisfy, is not accurate in its implications and prevents learning from our mistakes.  What I will lay at His feet is the credit for bringing good out of disaster, for healing people and relationships and for restoration.  That all happens for a reason too - because He loves me and you!