i just listened to a sermon from Erwin McManus, and as usual his fervor and passion challenged me on a deep level. the sermon was on prayer and he used the scripture from I Kings when Elijah triumphed over the prophets of Baal.
new insights from the sermon:
we can all agree to pray more. but that will not make us any different from the Hindus, the Muslims, or the Buddhists. we need to stop making the resolution to pray more, and start connecting to God through our prayers.
how many of us would be honest enough to say, 'when i pray, nothing happens.'
when people look at Christians, can they undeniably say that God is in our midst?
verse 36 reads, "At the time of sacrifice, Elijah stepped forward to pray."
a life of prayer is intricately linked to a life of obedience. in reading the passage, i noticed that the prophets of Baal had far more fervent prayers. i want more connection with God through my prayers. i think we all do.
i need to be willing to step forward at the moment of sacrifice just as elijah did. i need to be willing to no longer pray a prayer when i am not willing to be the answer to that prayer.
erwin's final thoughts:
we can make Christianity just another world religion where we pray and pray and pray. God never speaks and we never obey. or we can step into the intimate presence of the creator God through Jesus Christ and believe that he speaks and treasure his voice with obedience. and know that when we, in the time of sacrifice, step forward and pray with confidence, that God will bring down the fire of Heaven. i don't know about you, but I am sick and tired of Christianity becoming just another world religion, it is time for a revolution where we become followers of Jesus and prove that the Lord is God.
posted by Kelly @ 11:50:00 AM
7 Comments:
"...it is time for a revolution where we become followers of Jesus and prove that the Lord is God."
Amen to that!
I just finished (like, last week) reading his "The Barbarian Way". His passion and heartfelt comittment to Christ is contagious, to say the least.
preach it erwin!!
great stuff.. thanks.
Thanks kelly!
That was the best thing I've read all day.
Okay, here I go... why is it up to us to "prove" that Christianity is not "just" another world religion?
Judiasm accounts for .02% of all religion in the world. The text he quotes is from the Hebrew Bible. Jesus was a Jew. God heard the prayers of the Jews. Why so much emphasis on "Christianity"? Does Jesus really care about "Christianity"? Is he suggesting that God doesn't hear the prayers of the Jewish people? He did Elijah-- what's changed? Hindus, Muslims, or others? Only Christians?
He seems to have made prayer amore about how he feels. "I want more connection to God through my prayers..." How?
How do we "connect to GOd through our prayers"? He seems to place the responsibility on the pray-ers and not God who hears the yearnings of our hearts.
When Christians actually step out in obiedience to God and walk where Jesus walked the world will know that Jesus is present. So will those who claim to follow Jesus. Christians have nothing to PROVE to the world, other than that actually follow Jesus and the way they do that is to put their lives on the line, not for Christianity, but for the same things Jesus put his life on the line for-- mercy, justice... etc.
Sorry for the ramble... that was my 10 cents. :)
Christians have nothing to PROVE to the world, other than that actually follow Jesus and the way they do that is to put their lives on the line, not for Christianity, but for the same things Jesus put his life on the line for-- mercy, justice... etc.
Following Jesus is not a pre-requisite for putting our life on the line for justice and mercy, nor does it - by itself - show one is a follower of Jesus Christ - except perhaps incidentally. My experience, unfortunately, bears this out. People harldy ever make the connection between works of justice and mercy and Christ's presence in a 'mercy-workers' life - they hardly ever know this instinctively. Unless one has the intimacy with Christ that McManus is talking about, well, how would anyone recognize His presence? How could they recognize someone they don't know?
I fight so hard and struggle so often to prevent the truths of justice and mercy from becoming my reason for being. Christ must remain my calling.
The other thing is, (he said, reckelessly adding to his already lengthy comment!!!) that all of Judaism looked forward to the coming of the Messiah. All of 'Christendom' looks back to it. The pivotal point in all of history was the person of Jesus Christ. What 'changed' is that Christ came to earth. And no, Jesus was not Jewish.
He was God.
And that done changes everything, don't it? :)
rick--erwin did go into the different ways we can connect to God, and he did have a very strong focus on obedience. unfortunately, i just posted the highlights of his sermon which spoke to me personally.
i have never considered the point you made about Christ even caring about "Christianity." he probably doesn't. it's fascinating to think about really, when much of what we do seems to stem from making sure "Christianity" is stable. i have to ponder your statement about whether or not Christians have nothing to prove to the world.. i feel as if so much wrong has been done in the name of Christ, that there is a sort of responsibility to right those wrongs. i could be totally off-base here, but i'm going to consider that one.
rwk--interesting comments. i, too, struggle with not making justice and mercy the "thing" which i am to be about. and i love your statement, "how could they recognize someone that they don't know?"
Thanks Kelly. I was just thinking aloud. I don't know, Jesus did not point to Christianity, he pointed to God. He pointed to the Kingdom of God in our midst... among us. He certainly did not point to himself. (yes, I've read the Gospel of John... along with Mark, Luke and MT)
Jesus did not try to save God or himself. He wanted to save humanity. He asked his followers to follow him.
I love Jesus. Jesus is my savior. I think Jesus is the Savior of the humanity, so I am not sure I would call Jesus my PERSONAL savior, that would be extremely arrogant on my part. Although I have a relationship with Jesus. I don't think Jesus wants to SAVE Christianity. Much of our take on Jesus is through the eyes of our particular culture and the manner in which our certain culture expresses its faith.
RWK, hey brother, love your passion, but the dude with dirty toenails was a jewish rabbi according to scripture-- and yes, he most definitely requires that we put our lives on the line... most definitely-- for justice and mercy. As a matter of scripture the only place JESUS talks about who is in and who is out is in MT 25 and it directly refers to the "least of these".
He was a Jew-- fully human (I know that we think he was God)Jesus was all about mercy and justice and reversal of social systems-- and unless we are about those things we are not his followers regardles of how in love we are with our persoanl savior.
As long as my relationship to God is "personal" and all about me, I doubt I'll ever respond like Jesus calls me to.
Okay, I'll stop rattling... in just one more second (LOL!!!) The more I think about it the more I am convinced that most of what we see and hear about Christianity and beliefs has very little to do with Jesus or God's becoming human.
Okay. I'll shut up now. I'm going to go read my Bible and pray.
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