Church Vision
PT of Hopewell MC spoke Sunday night about Romans 14:17:
"For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost."
He mentioned that it is not ultimately important whether his wife wears a cape dress, what car he drives, whether he uses the Internet (for you non-Mennonites, that's an issue in some such churches). What matters is following righteousness.
He also referenced the scenario when there is a choice to be made about whether or not to do a certain thing when you are unsure. To a lot of people, the best choice is to refrain from the action. Is that Biblical? It was the weaker brother who would not partake of meat.
To add some of my own thoughts to his comment, we may actually inhibit the work of God through our lives by refusing to do certain things. For an extreme example, suppose there's a person who refuses to drive cars because they get him places faster and therefore keep him from more quiet time with God. Because of that, he sticks within a 10 mile radius of his homestead 95% of the time and does little positive building in the kingdom of God. He probably prides himself in abstaining from cars, thinks he is very holy, but in reality he is burying the treasure God gave him and not doing the work of a Christian.
If a person lives the life of a semi-hermit for fear he will lose his eternal life, he will not lead many souls to God. Think about it -- he is actually valuing his spiritual life more than that of others. Of course, there is a balance in such thinking -- we by no means should walk on the outskirts of what is holy. But if we are out there working for the salvation of others, we will actually be less likely to grow spiritually cold than if we keep our faith to ourselves.
I was very impressed by the comments PT made. I feel strongly that if the members of my church take them to heart and allow them to positively affect their lives, our church could really go (good) places.
"For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost."
He mentioned that it is not ultimately important whether his wife wears a cape dress, what car he drives, whether he uses the Internet (for you non-Mennonites, that's an issue in some such churches). What matters is following righteousness.
He also referenced the scenario when there is a choice to be made about whether or not to do a certain thing when you are unsure. To a lot of people, the best choice is to refrain from the action. Is that Biblical? It was the weaker brother who would not partake of meat.
To add some of my own thoughts to his comment, we may actually inhibit the work of God through our lives by refusing to do certain things. For an extreme example, suppose there's a person who refuses to drive cars because they get him places faster and therefore keep him from more quiet time with God. Because of that, he sticks within a 10 mile radius of his homestead 95% of the time and does little positive building in the kingdom of God. He probably prides himself in abstaining from cars, thinks he is very holy, but in reality he is burying the treasure God gave him and not doing the work of a Christian.
If a person lives the life of a semi-hermit for fear he will lose his eternal life, he will not lead many souls to God. Think about it -- he is actually valuing his spiritual life more than that of others. Of course, there is a balance in such thinking -- we by no means should walk on the outskirts of what is holy. But if we are out there working for the salvation of others, we will actually be less likely to grow spiritually cold than if we keep our faith to ourselves.
I was very impressed by the comments PT made. I feel strongly that if the members of my church take them to heart and allow them to positively affect their lives, our church could really go (good) places.
posted by Claire at 16:54
1 Comments:
Thanks, Steve.
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(To make sure I'm not putting words in PT's mouth, everything from "to add" onward is my stuff. (The way I had it worded before was unclear.))
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