In our men's class last night we shared the account of David's death. We talked about how he went out as a dreamer. That's the way I want to go out, too.
I then mentioned that we, in Churches of Christ, have tended to be motivated by fear for most of my life. Fear is the worst motivator there is. We have resorted to pulling up the drawbridge to try to hold on to what we have. We have been really hard on our dreamers, too. In such an atmosphere, how can we possibly hope to hold onto future generations?
God wants us to be bold and courageous. He wants us to take the land! We can't do that when operating out of fear about what XYZ church in San Antonio or Nashville is doing. When we become passionate about the possibilities for Kingdom advancement, that will become contagious for our children as well.
So, in future weeks, I think I will lead our men's class into discussions from 1. Ephesians 3: 20-21 ("Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine . . ."), 2. fear, 3. Nehemiah 6 (When the nay-sayers come, Nehemiah says, "I've got important work going on here. I can't come down to fuss with you."), and 4. perhaps some stuff from Joshua about being "bold and courageous."
Any other ideas?
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On another note, I find it very sad that the media is using the murder of the preacher in Tennessee to paint the Church of Christ as a cult that fosters murderous behavior. They get people who have no clue (usually a narrow-minded pastor with an ax to grind) to tell them about who we are. Oh well, no one ever promised that our mission would be easy.
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3 comments:
I look forward to the dreaming. I have great anticipation for what our dreams and our God will lead us to. I have great hope that we can change the world, that we can make an impact that is profound and everlasting.
I, too, look forward to the dreaming. But I will be even more excited when we get to the doing of those dreams. I am already pumped up about what the Lord is doing and can't wait to see what He has in store. Let us, indeed, be bold and courageous!
On that other note: it doesn't really matter too much what other people say. All of us who look to Jesus for salvation and follow Him answer to Him. Let's just be about His business and the rest will take care of itself. Just my 2 cents.
K. Reeves
We must change ourselves before we can change the world. United in Christ we can change the world. I look forward to hearing the dreams of my brothers that are different than my dreams.
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