Other Focus

The church only lives up to its mission in that others are placed more important than itself. Those others are other believers in the church and those outside the church in the world.

To the degree that the church turns inward and the church becomes about oneself or simply those within the church the church has lost its mission. The early church spread quickly because it understood that Christianity is something to be shared.

The more the church focuses on itself and its survival the poorer and less likely to survive it is. The radical thing about the gospel is that God accepts everyone and it is through spreading the gospel that it has power.

Often today churches sit and hope that people will enter the confines of the church. Maybe they do one small event in the community each year. But often the church faces inward and the inward faced church is not healthy. It does not fully grasp the gospel.

Sometimes the inward facing is because of a desire for purity. If we pull literally every sinner into the church then it will be hard to maintain the purity of the church seems to be the objection. It is of course one of the main objections Jesus' enemies had against his ministry.

You see we often assume that the people in the church are meant to be there. Or that certain people outside the church are better prospects to be pulled into the church than others. Our assumptions are almost never helpful and often wrong.

It is an interesting phenomenon that often God calls the most sinful people into the church. It plays out repeatedly through scripture and church history. I believe the point is that some people in the height of their folly understand that they are broken.

They may not have an answer but they often know that they are on the wrong track. You see that the broken sinner with little hope who knows they are on the wrong track may be a better candidate to enter the kingdom of heaven than the wealthy non believer next door who seems to have their life together.

Ultimately we cannot know why they will enter the kingdom of heaven but assuming the quality of prospects is folly. And the church should always have an outward eye toward the world.

Test Me in This

The bible tells us to never put the Lord to the test. Jesus' rebukes the devil in the wilderness for suggesting that Jesus put the Lord to the test.

The bible does command us to test God in one area: our giving. It often seems at times that we cannot afford to give. We have this or that bill, or had sporadic issues, and this or that reason.

God responds asking us to put God to the test. It is interesting that we see that God is all powerful and do not connect it to giving.

I am of course not suggesting that the bible teaches prosperity gospel. Rather that God promises to provide for those who give.

He says that you can put him to the test and not be disappointed. I thought early on that the women who put her last two coins in the collection must have suffered terribly.

Of course we do not know so. We often assume that things will follow logically. We miss the fact that we are dealing with God. His logic is not ours and he can do as he pleases.