Why so Motivated?

When did the church become about motivating people, like your average thousand dollar corporate dinner speaker?

 When did it stop being about challenging the very soul of people?

 When did it become about the tweetable catch phrase rather then the biblical truth?

 Why isn’t the church offering the one thing people can’t get anywhere else?

Does the church even remember what that even is? Or have they gotten so carried away with the latest album recording, the new TV studio, the highest attendance ratio…

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Isn’t it supposed to be about Jesus? Isn’t it supposed to be about how He saved our souls? Isn’t it supposed to be about how He is the one that can heal us?

 Sure we have to do our own share of stepping in the right direction.

 And yet, without Him it is all for nothing.

 The bible says: “I [being Jesus] am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

 If that’s the case, GET THE HELL OUT OF THE WAY.

 Stop telling us we can be better, but buy my seven part series on being richer in the brain pan.

 Stop telling us we can be healed, but only when we sit in the third seat two rows behind the blind guy’s accountant.

 There is no formula. There is no system. There is only Jesus.

 Start teaching that again for the love of God.

 (maybe then the seats will start to fill themselves)

"i’ve just had a cunning plan! So cunning they had to take the word cunning out of the dictionary and replace it to better show how cunning this plan actually is."

"He can. He will. And even if He doesn’t…"

Matt Chandler

"

Depth of mercy! Can there be
Mercy still reserved for me?
Can my God His wrath forbear,
Me, the chief of sinners, spare?

I have long withstood His grace,
Long provoked Him to His face,
Would not hearken to His calls,
Grieved Him by a thousand falls.

I have spilt His precious blood,
Trampled on the Son of God,
Filled with pangs unspeakable,
I, who yet am not in hell!

I my Master have denied,
I afresh have crucified,
And profaned His hallowed Name,
Put Him to an open shame.

Whence to me this waste of love?
Ask my Advocate above!
See the cause in Jesus’ face,
Now before the throne of grace.

Jesus, answer from above,
Is not all Thy nature love?
Wilt Thou not the wrong forget,
Permit me to kiss Thy feet?

If I rightly read Thy heart,
If Thou all compassion art,
Bow Thine ear, in mercy bow,
Pardon and accept me now.

Jesus speaks, and pleads His blood!
He disarms the wrath of God;
Now my Father’s mercies move,
Justice lingers into love.

Kindled His relentings are,
Me He now delights to spare,
Cries, ‘How shall I give thee up?’
Lets the lifted thunder drop.

Lo! I still walk on the ground:
Lo! an Advocate is found:
‘Hasten not to cut Him down,
Let this barren soul alone.’

There for me the Savior stands,
Shows His wounds and spreads His hands.
God is love! I know, I feel;
Jesus weeps and loves me still.

Pity from Thine eye let fall,
By a look my soul recall;
Now the stone to flesh convert,
Cast a look, and break my heart.

Now incline me to repent,
Let me now my sins lament,
Now my foul revolt deplore,
Weep, believe, and sin no more.

"

Charles Wesley

"sometimes the hardest part of getting out of the way, is forgetting to not look directly in the headlights"

Of trees and such

At what cost?

That sure is a fancy coat you got on there, goes well with the mask.

So you think you can hide from the world.

So you think you know better then the rest of us.

Well… you’d be right. 

You can hide, you probably do know better, but its cost is far too high and its taking the difference out of your soul.

What little you have left that is.

How goes that new printer that you traded it for?

I hope it serves you well.

Have you forgotten for what that this was started?

Have you forsaken the code for which you stood?

How will you find your way home?

There is a way out of here, little one, a way to fight the night.

First there is gnashing, now there is tears, soon there will be anger, the rest will be jeers.

How can this continue, like a possum tussling with a tiger, a shrew with a jaguar?

One day this will crumble around you, one day it’ll fall.

I hope I’m not there to see it. I really hope, it’s true.

I hope you find that answer so unyielding that causes you on this path to destruction.

I’m sure when you find it you’ll mark it for all to see, so that if we ever follow we too can stave off the armageddon we will face.

May you find the course that you have avoided and correct your sails. 

May you discover anew why it is you were here to begin with, and enlighten your mood.

May all the things you sorely long for, come to pass.

May you live forever in the happiness you will find.

May you realise, in the end, the cost is far too high.

"At what cost?"

What the sad man sang

Went to the store and spent a dollar, bought myself a happier tomorrow. Love what I can buy, days like these.

“Give ear to my prayer O God, and do not hide yourself from my supplication! Attend to me, and hear me; I am restless in my complaint, and moan noisily, because of the voice of the enemy, because of the oppression of the wicked; For they bring down trouble upon me, and in wrath they do hate me!”

Imagine singing that in a church in this upright, steadfast day and age. I mean really. We’re much too happy to be singing sad songs, in fact I just bought something else to fix that particular problem with the enemy, guy, person, thing *cough*.

Fancy trying to sing the bible in church! A CHURCH of all places! You should know that people don’t sing bible passages in their songs, no. In fact I much prefer singing that song about my mystical boyfriend that somehow managed to make a universe by sneezing, although he may or may not be a spaghetti monster we won’t hold it against him.

Do we even know for what we sing or worship anymore?

Are we trying to perpetuate our need to think everything is a bed of roses now we’re in this illustrious club of the church. In fact my smoking jacket is a bit worn, so i’ll need a new one, cheers. Hold our heads up high, just don’t show anyone you’re human or anything, not like they did in the bible. NO, that’d be against everything we teach!

For the record that passage above is the first few verses of Psalm 55. Fancy a God fearing type needing to sing about being somewhat depressed about his situation. What ever happened to the old psalms? Im not saying we need to sing them the same way they’ve always been sung, cause lets be honest they lyre is a bit dusty and no one wants it at the dinner table, but we are more then happy to get the ol’ marshall out and warm up the valves. Why are we so set on writing songs that we’ll forget in 2 months, especially when we’ve already been given words. Words God claims as His very own.

Imagine that… singing God’s words in a church…Enjoy perpetuating your self delusion… Just don’t expect me to too.

"This in turn, has the potential for the creation of what is basically a form of gnosticism, where the claims of the Christians are rendered invulnerable to criticism from the outside by the fact that the one holding the beliefs has had a certain experience"

Carl Trueman

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Family risk (Lightbox photo)