Category: Readiness

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What is Evangelism?

Evangelism is being redefined for me.

I've been thinking about selling a product as an analogy to sharing the gospel. Though it's probably not the best analogy, it brings out a few interesting points.

Somewhere along they way I began to see evangelism as a sales pitch. I have a product that you need and you don't know that you need it so I'm going to try to convince you that you need it. Hopefully by the time we're done you've agreed to try the product out and I go and tell everyone I've sold it! Everyone wins right?

First problem I see is the push to prove a person's need to them. I think before someone decides to follow Jesus they should be aware of their current state, that's very important. But for us to try to convince someone that they are in need seems like manipulation. Like all our current advertising: convenience and pleasure is made to be a perceived need. And if this product doesn't work out for me I can go get my convenience and pleasure from another (or so the claims go). Are real needs being met? Or are they manufactured? Continue reading “What is Evangelism?”

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Motivation

In the gospel of John, Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, you want to be with me because I fed you…..”.  In some of the older translations, this is worded, “You seek me because….”.

Food in the belly is a powerful motivator, and fear of no food in the belly is also.

Jesus was, here, it seems to me, trying to help this group purify their motivation.  It is good to be near Jesus, no matter the motivation, but if we are taking our cues from our lower nature, how are we to access the higher things that the Lord wants to give to us?

Here He is saying, you are following me around because I took care of your hunger for natural food.  If you read on, you can see that He illuminates a better way to go about this.  He says, spend your energies for seeking the eternal life that the Son of Man can give you.  He is showing them (and us) that we can become too naturally focused and get (even) our motivation to seek the Lord from carnal motivators.  But if we do this, we are going to miss the GREAT opportunity that is present in this setting – eternal life. Continue reading “Motivation”

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crazy times and a new logo

 

FXM

This is a logo that Jesse Fisher did for us.

I like it.

Thanks Jesse.

It has been crazy times, but I do feel some stirring…  Stirring to get closer to the Lord, and by that to be closer to everything important, everything central.

I have had a host of experiences over the last month or so.  Major changes in the business.  Major changes in life, though some of these changes will be more clear as a little time passes.  Major change can rarely be understood while you are in it.

Jesus is serious about His commitment to our lives, and He will be present and active if that is our desire.  Often the events that accompany His arrival on the scene cause us to rescind the invitation.  Lord, help us to stay in place when the shaking starts, help us not to run, not to attempt (in futility) to hide ourselves.  All things are present and unhidden before You. Continue reading “crazy times and a new logo”

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Change

change from earthen vessels

We are being invited into something new in God. It doesn’t look much like what is, and it doesn’t look much like what has come before. There are few who see it, and fewer who enter, tho it is being felt and is stirring in the hearts of many. More would enter, but forerunners are needed to make the way for others to come. Will you be one of those?

I am having the sense that this is bigger than i thought early on, or maybe just how I have thought about it lately. There seems to be a fair amount of turbulence, resistance, that is attempting to prevent access to the promise of change, this groaning promise of something new. How can we be sure that our pursuit will bring us to where we are hoping to go, when the trail is not well marked, there are many detractors, and others prominent who market false hope?

Luke 18:25 In fact, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!”

Is it that we have to take off everything that we have put on, accumulated?

As we enter the Kingdom more and more, we lose affection for and entanglement with the things of this life. The verse above reveals the idea that abundance creates many entanglements. Whatever our entanglements, their value can not be compared to the value of His Kingdom, tho it takes the eye of faith to see it as it is.

Is the threat of losing what we accumulated worth the promise of something transcendent, but elusive? People are making this decision every day. Make it well today.