The gospel...no longer foolishness!
God continues to blow me away with what he can do in spite of who we are as screwed up humans. I've said before that when we started TXC, the one constant that would always remain was Jesus. Our whole goal is to reconnect people to Jesus. Every week we call people to His standard. There have been some that don't like that and that's okay. We will NEVER change this.
Today I got a message from someone who's been coming to our church for about 2 months. When they showed up, they really had no clue who Jesus was and I don't think had ever been to church. There were exploring spirituality because they had recently had some crazy experiences and realized that there was more than just the natural. They were exploring buddhism, taoism and other religions, along with Christianity.
From my perspective, this was my redemption. In the first few months of being an "official" church, I made some stupid mistakes regarding people and rushing them to follow Jesus as quickly as possible. I think it was a pride thing - a sense of accomplishment that I was doing what I was supposed to do. So this time, I was determined not to screw it up by getting in God's way and trying to manipulate how things shook down.
As questions came up, we tried to answer them as best as we could without going to far. I went over the line a few times by getting too defensive and had to admit that. Here's a question: Why is it that Christians get all worked up when someone claims to not believe what we believe? We have been so ingrained that we are RIGHT and everyone else is WRONG that it has really become a barrier for others to want to follow Jesus. It's not Jesus they are afraid of...it's us!
Anyways, we suggested some books and a version of the Bible for them to read that would make a little more sense. And we prayed like crazy. Because, quite frankly, what I've come to realize is that it's near impossible to prove Jesus to someone. Sure we can prove the facts, but how do you prove experience if they haven't experience him yet?
The Holy Spirit is the one revealed to us who God is. Paul says that the gospel is foolishness to those who don't believe. So why do we try and make it seem like it's not foolishness if Paul himself said that's the way it's gonna be? When we backed off enough for God to speak to this person where they were at on their journey towards Him, that when they heard.
I get the message this morning. This person is freaking out! Why? Because this morning everything just clicked! It all makes sense! Jesus. God. The Holy Spirit. How we can know Him. How our lives are changed! Their life has been changed! They said "I'm in!" I'm not sure about you, but that sound like a decision to follow Jesus?!
And I was freaking out! Because this had nothing to do with what we could have ever said! It was God! And this is what I KNOW that God has told me is going to happen through TXC. And it's happening all around us in unbelievable ways. This is just the beginning for them and there is a long road ahead...welcome to the journey!
This really is only just the beginning! We had an awesome lead team meeting last night and there are some things that are in the works that have potential to impact our community in an amazing way! Hang on!
Today I got a message from someone who's been coming to our church for about 2 months. When they showed up, they really had no clue who Jesus was and I don't think had ever been to church. There were exploring spirituality because they had recently had some crazy experiences and realized that there was more than just the natural. They were exploring buddhism, taoism and other religions, along with Christianity.
From my perspective, this was my redemption. In the first few months of being an "official" church, I made some stupid mistakes regarding people and rushing them to follow Jesus as quickly as possible. I think it was a pride thing - a sense of accomplishment that I was doing what I was supposed to do. So this time, I was determined not to screw it up by getting in God's way and trying to manipulate how things shook down.
As questions came up, we tried to answer them as best as we could without going to far. I went over the line a few times by getting too defensive and had to admit that. Here's a question: Why is it that Christians get all worked up when someone claims to not believe what we believe? We have been so ingrained that we are RIGHT and everyone else is WRONG that it has really become a barrier for others to want to follow Jesus. It's not Jesus they are afraid of...it's us!
Anyways, we suggested some books and a version of the Bible for them to read that would make a little more sense. And we prayed like crazy. Because, quite frankly, what I've come to realize is that it's near impossible to prove Jesus to someone. Sure we can prove the facts, but how do you prove experience if they haven't experience him yet?
The Holy Spirit is the one revealed to us who God is. Paul says that the gospel is foolishness to those who don't believe. So why do we try and make it seem like it's not foolishness if Paul himself said that's the way it's gonna be? When we backed off enough for God to speak to this person where they were at on their journey towards Him, that when they heard.
I get the message this morning. This person is freaking out! Why? Because this morning everything just clicked! It all makes sense! Jesus. God. The Holy Spirit. How we can know Him. How our lives are changed! Their life has been changed! They said "I'm in!" I'm not sure about you, but that sound like a decision to follow Jesus?!
And I was freaking out! Because this had nothing to do with what we could have ever said! It was God! And this is what I KNOW that God has told me is going to happen through TXC. And it's happening all around us in unbelievable ways. This is just the beginning for them and there is a long road ahead...welcome to the journey!
This really is only just the beginning! We had an awesome lead team meeting last night and there are some things that are in the works that have potential to impact our community in an amazing way! Hang on!
