HARMLESS THOUGHTS

All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. (John 6:37 ESV) What do you hear when you read this statement from Jesus? The vast majority of Christians today... read the statement of Jesus this way: 'All who come to me the Father will give me.' In other words... we come... we decide. 'Then the Father recognizes our decision and makes us gifts to his Son.' But that is not the way Jesus taught it. Jesus said, 'The ones whom the Father has given to Me will come to Me -- every one of them." Sometimes the teachings of Jesus are difficult. Will you listen to them, re-interpret them, or just plain ignore them? (I preached on this passage of scripture this past Sunday. More than one person walked away questioning... but what I loved was that they weren't questioning me... as far as I could tell... they were questioning Jesus. In a good way!)

You may have to read this quote twice. This is so good and so important. I want everyone who is a part of the Edgewood Baptist Church Community to read and understand this idea. I added some emphasis to help get across the point. Read this a couple of times and let me know what you think. Innumerable times a whole Christian community has broken down because it had sprung from a wish dream. The serious Christian, set down for the first time in a Christian community, is likely to bring with him a very definite idea of what Christians life together should be and to try to realize it. But God's grace speedily shatters such dreams. Just as surely as God desires to lead us to a knowledge of genuine Christian fellowship, so surely must we be overwhelmed by a great disillusionment with others, with Christians in general, and, if we are fortunate, with ourselves.   By sheer grace, God will not permit us to live even for a brief period in a dream world. He does not abandon us to those...

“Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. (Isaiah 55:1-2 ESV) The Gospel Transformation Bible's notes for this passage include this wonderful thought: His bounteous goodness is only for those who resist the impulse to pay for it . His love and grace come to us not because we have been so good but because he has been so gracious. 

Ok, I am attempting not to bombard you with quotes from this book I am reading, but I am finding it to be exceptionally challenging to prohibit myself from blogging every other paragraph. The only thing keeping me from doing that is then I would be forced to also include the paragraphs I have skipped, and the next thing you know I would be blogging the whole book. And even though Dietrich Bonhoeffer probably wouldn't mind, I am fairly certain that blogging entire books isn't allowed by someone, somewhere. Nevertheless, I need to share this quote on community. A light bulb went on over my head as I was reading it. I have often wanted to find a way to describe to those who are newer to church the reality of true community. This explanation fueled that understanding, and I couldn't wait to share it with someone. "Our community with one another consists solely in what Christ has done to both of us. This is true not merely at the beginning, as though in the course of ti...

I just started a book by Dietrich Bonhoeffer called Life Together, and the very first two paragraphs of the very first two pages knocked me over. "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!" (Ps. 133:1). In the following we shall consider a number of directions and precepts that the Scriptures provide us for our life together under the Word.   It is not simply to be taken for granted that the Christian has the privelege of living among other Christians. Jesus Christ lived in the midst of his enemies. At the end all his disciples deserted him. On the Cross he was utterly alone, surrounded by evildoers and mockers. For this cause he had come, to bring peace to the enemies of God. So the Christian, too, belongs not in the seclusion of a cloistered life but in the thick of foes. There is his commission, his work. "The Kingdom is to be in the midst of your enemies. And he who will not suffer this does not want to be of the Kingdom of...