Author: W. Keith Brenton

Stop Sinning

/ W. Keith Brenton / 2 Comments

I can only think of two times that Jesus said that; only once in those words. In neither instance was He preaching, and He did a lot of preaching.

One time was after he had healed the physically-disabled man by the pool of Bethesda (John 5). It’s peculiar because he tells the man – some time after the healing, finding him in the temple grounds – to “Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” Yet this is the same Jesus who, five chapters later in John 9, will tell his closest friends that the blind man He is about to heal is not blind because of his own sin or his parents’. It makes me wonder if the misconception behind their question to Him was widespread … if people of that time and place believed that infirmities were always a punishment from God. And it makes me wonder if Jesus might actually be (*GASP*) kidding with the fellow in chapter 5, who joyously goes around telling everyone who healed him – even if it lands him in trouble with the officials in Jerusalem.

Because if that assumption about sin and physical punishment from God is rampant, everyone who has passed him by or cast a glance at him may well have thought, “He’s a sinner. He might be unclean. I don’t want to touch him and help him into the pool and be unclean myself. Poor devil. Better him than me.”

So perhaps Jesus is making a bit of a jest off of the assumption – showing the man that He sees people differently; that God sees people differently. “See, you are well again!” (*wink*) “Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you!”

It isn’t that the man has sinned, causing his paralysis. It’s that everyone sins, and that something far worse may happen to them than some physical infirmity like paralysis or blindness … something like a life apart from God.

The other time I can think of Jesus telling someone to “leave your life of sin” is that somewhat-disputed passage between those two, in John 8: the woman taken in adultery. This woman, too, was dragged into the temple grounds before Jesus, and after embarrassing her exiting accusers with His no-exceptions teaching about sin, He tells her that He doesn’t condemn her, either.

I don’t think He’s kidding about her need to leave her life of sin; she, after all, was caught in the act. But it’s not like He’s leaving her with nothing but a “no-no” for direction. His very next teaching is “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Some people need to be told to stop sinning, and told seriously.

But everyone? Every week? People in church, people who always go to church, people who frequently go to church, people who even occasionally go to church? People who believe?

Do they need to be told week after week, sermon after sermon, to “stop sinning” … without any other direction for their life?

People need to hear about Jesus. People who have heard about Jesus need to hear more. We all need to know about the Example and Pattern, the Lord and Master, the Prince of Heaven, the Son of God, the Way, the Truth and the Life. We need to know that there’s more to faith in Him than just not sinning; that there’s hope and forgiveness through grace and sacrifice and resurrection. We need to know that there’s more to life than just trying hard, which always leads to failure; that there’s a Holy Spirit given to those who believe to comfort and strengthen them and seal them for salvation, making a down payment in their lives right now for the promise of better, wider, fuller, more joyous eternal life in the kingdom to come.

Yes, Jesus preaches “Repent” just like John the Baptist and a whole slew of prior prophets preached.

But He hardly ever does so without adding “… for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

A sermon that just says “stop sinning” is not a gospel sermon; it is half-a-gospel sermon at best. And while half-a-sermon is better than none, half-a-sermon is still not the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

So, help me, God.

Help me through Your Spirit – through any means You wisely see fit – help to me remember to tell the Story, tell all the Story, tell of penitence and turning and starting over before Your justice and Your righteousness … and also of renewal and inspiration and resurrection through Your mercy and Your love.

And through Jesus’ name ….

Amen.

Back To The Old Template – Sort Of

/ W. Keith Brenton / 3 Comments

I’ve decided to come as close as I can to one of my original Blogger templates at my blog’s new home, here at WordPress.

Maybe it will stimulate the kind of originality and spontaneity that used to be found on my blog!

Maybe it will engender a cosmic audience of interstellar blog fans from beyond the known reaches of so-called intelligent existence!

Maybe it will just give me something to do when I’m bored – and you, too!

We’ll just have to dig the planks out of our eyes and see.

Anything Goes

/ W. Keith Brenton / 2 Comments

Anything GoesWhile that makes a great title for a musical comedy, it does not reflect the thinking of myself and many other folks who are often accused of teaching that “anything goes” when it comes to worship, or living a Christ-like life (which, obviously, are not at all two separate things neatly divided by the tick of the clock from 11:59 Saturday night through 11:59 Sunday night).

Those who make that accusation either haven’t read/listened to those they’ve accused, or they’re exaggerating out of sheer bluster, or they are deliberately distorting the truth in order to oppose and condemn.

Obedience is important, under the New Covenant as surely as in the Old.

What most of us disagree about with our accusers is what we’re asked to obey. When it comes to biblical instruction, I’m all for obeying it – to the letter. Not because it earns me merit points in the Heavenly Father’s book of life, but because it helps my life reflect His glory as revealed through His Son. Because it helps me grow and mature and be transformed into His image. Because it’s good for me, good for others, good for everyone to give up self-desires and fulfill God-desires. That’s the definition of “good.” (If you doubt me, stop here and take a few moments to re-read Jesus’ prayer in the garden of Gethsemane.)

When it comes to non-biblical instruction that’s passed off as the very words of God, I am not all for obeying it – especially unquestioningly, nor for the common good and peace of the church, nor even because it might keep a brother or sister from “stumbling.”

Nope, I oppose that. Because even if the instruction may seem harmless or pious, there’s a lie involved if it’s a teaching of man being taught as the teaching of God – and that throws the teaching into instant suspicion.

It’s not like people in scripture have never dealt with that problem, folks. Jesus tackled it head-on every time He was challenged by the Pharisees, Sadducees, teachers of the law and other experts in entrapment. Paul, Peter, Jude, and John took it on when self-proclaimed teachers, preachers and “super-apostles” were requiring every kind of add-on accessory to Christianity that could be thought of: circumcision, abstention, holidays, unfleshed Christ, flesh-only Christ … you name it.

That used to be called “heresy.”

They did it to exalt themselves, to exalt their “flawless” logic and deduction in obtaining this superior “knowledge,” to exclude others, to squelch hope, to discredit and devalue genuine apostolic teaching.

That used to be called “selfishness.”

So I push back, and so do others, when accused by the legalists and the teachers-of-human-doctrine-as-God’s of proclaiming that “anything goes.”

J’accuse. I accuse them of doing the very same thing with any teaching they’ve inherited or contrived and favor and wish to bolt on to Christianity as if the grace of God through the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the free gift of salvation, spiritual strength and eternal life via the Holy Spirit were somehow not enough.

When it comes to adding on to the gospel, for these folks, anything goes.

Laws against anything they don’t like.

Laws against anything they don’t find “authorized” in scripture, unless it’s “expedient” because they like it.

Laws against anyone they don’t agree with.

And the trend I’m seeing is that the accused will no longer abide their accusations quietly.

Maturity

/ W. Keith Brenton / 9 Comments

“When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.” ~ Paul, 1 Corinthians 13:11

For the most part, I was a good kid. I behaved.

Noting that, one of my grade school teachers let herself be overhead telling my parents that she thought I had an “old soul.” I still don’t know what that means, but I liked the sound of it.

In junior and high school, I didn’t have an urge to rebel or act out or express my teenage angst, and as a result there were not very many rules in my house. Call when you’re going to be later than you thought; let us know when you’re out with the car; that sort of thing. There really wasn’t much need for rules.

Then I went to college. There really wasn’t much need for rules there as far as I was concerned, but there were plenty of them anyway. Rules pretty much regulated everything about a student’s life except how many times per minute one should breathe.

(During banquet season – we had banquets instead of dances; it was a very conservative Christian college – the dean of women had a letter read to all of the girls in the dorms beforehand, detailing how wide the straps of gowns {straps were required} had to be {1-1/2″}, and so forth. She closed it by saying, “Women who fail to abide by these instructions will be asked to change in front of their dates.”)

I was not a flagrant violator of rules at college, but because there were so many – and such a large number without any apparent value in preventing perfidy – I was unaccustomed to the onslaught of temptation to commit an infraction from time to time. I discovered that working technicals for drama productions gave a person some leeway on having to sign in to one’s dorm at 10:00pm, and actually made it possible to leave campus and have some two-or-three-day-old coffee (the best kind) at the truck stop near the highway during the wee hours of the morning.

That was about as wicked as I got. Sorry if that disappoints. But I still felt a little guilty.

I quickly became acquainted with the Romans 7 frustration felt by Paul about law.

And since then I’ve come to terms with the conflict of law versus grace in scripture on the theory that some folks just need rules. Some of them just like rules. They’re comfortable with rules. Rules let them know where the boundaries are. Some folks need rules to help them control themselves. Some folks need rules to help them control others. For them, rules rule.

So, of course, when they read scripture, they see what they like … and they see rules.

But then Jesus comes along, followed soon after by Paul and others, and everything gets messed up. The rules don’t sound like rules anymore. There are very few “thou-shalts” and “thou-shalt-nots.” Instead, there are beatitudes … words of comfort for people who are struggling with living a life pleasing to God; people who basically don’t need any more rules; people who have been marginalized and terrorized by the rules built upon the rules built upon the commandments God intended as instructions to help people live peaceably with each other and to express His love and holiness.

People who are being ruled to death: by Rome, by their own collaborating local government, by their own religious leaders.

They didn’t need any more rules to rule them. They needed love, healing, encouragement, comfort, respect, forgiveness, freedom, faith. They needed an Example of what God meant to convey with all those rules, a perfect Example to imitate and respect. They needed a Redeemer who could be perfect when they couldn’t be, and take their guilt away through His guiltlessness. They needed a mature older brother to point them back to the loving Father from whom they had fled and taken and squandered.

They needed fewer rules, and better instructions: Love deeply. Don’t judge. Forgive. Give. Share. Go the extra mile. Serve. Believe. Live fully. Die faithfully. Live eternally.

That’s exactly what Jesus brought, taught, shared, lived, died and brought to life again.

It’s called “grace.”

So when folks who like rules read the New Testament, they’re confused. They can’t find as many imperative rules there, when they were so easy to find in the Old Testament written when humanity was young and immature. Surely, they think, the rules must be there. If most of the old rules were abrogated by the authority of God in Christ, then there must be more and tougher rules to take the place of the missing ones.

Some folks reason that the rules must be hidden in scripture, and that with superb and unjaundiced logic, they are capable of ferreting out the rules and proclaiming them loudly and enforcing them on everyone else (and often, even themselves).

And – right or wrong – I’ve come to the conclusion that this reaction is simply immature. It’s foolish. No one has perfectly unprejudiced powers of logic and reason (fictional character Mr. Spock notwithstanding). The conclusion that rules are hidden in scripture is not a conclusion at all, but an assumption that is treated as fact. It’s based on a preference for rules over grace. That’s hardly unbiased behavior.

The old rules still have value: like a schoolmaster, they teach us what behavior God wants us to understand as good – and why (~ Paul, Galatians 3:24). But the old rules do not have ultimate value: like a prison warden, they enslave even the kid who wants to do right … by presenting temptations that are unlegislated under grace (~ Paul, Galatians 3:23).

And grace provides what law cannot: it saves us. Rules can only condemn us, because none of us is perfect (~ Paul, Romans 3:23).

Grace also provides help: the very Holy Spirit of God and His Son Jesus, invested in our hearts to guide us into all truth and empower us to live Christ boldly and comfort us when the world gives us our licks for doing so – eventually even breathing into us the eternal life that completes the life we’ve exhaled for the last time here in this world (~ Paul, Romans 8:11).

God, of course, still wants our obedience. But He wants our obedience to the gospel of our Lord Jesus – which is parallel in 2 Thessalonians 1:8 to “know(ing) God.” Rather than following an old law about sacrificing lives in worship, He wants us to lead sacrificial lives of worship (~ Paul, Romans 12:1-2), just as Jesus did.

He does not expect perfect obedience to law, especially to law that consists of doctrines contrived by men (~ Paul, 2 Timothy 4:3). In fact, when people do that and try to pass off their laws as God’s, He says it invalidates their worship (~ Jesus, Matthew 15:9; Mark 7:7).

The message of law is “Shape up – or else!”

The message of the gospel of grace is “Grow up in Christ.”

At some point, we really need to outgrow the infantile craving for rules, the desire to rebel against them or use them against others … and accept the love and grace and gift of the Holy Spirit, Who brings maturity, completion and salvation:

It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. ~ Paul, Ephesians 4:11-16

How God’s Holy Spirit Relates to Us Is Important

/ W. Keith Brenton / 4 Comments

“I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” ~ John the Baptizer, Matthew 3:11 … “I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” ~ Mark 1:8 … “John answered them all, “I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” ~ Luke 3:16

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” ~ Jesus, Matthew 28:19

“Whenever you are arrested and brought to trial, do not worry beforehand about what to say. Just say whatever is given you at the time, for it is not you speaking, but the Holy Spirit.” ~ Jesus, Mark 13:11 … “for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say.” ~ Luke 12:12 … “But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” ~ Jesus, John 14:26

“If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” ~ Jesus, Luke 11:13

Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” ~ Acts 2:38

“After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.” ~ Luke, Acts 4:31

“We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.” ~ Acts 5:32

“Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace. It was strengthened; and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it grew in numbers, living in the fear of the Lord.” ~ Luke, Acts 9:31

“And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.” ~ Luke, Acts 13:52

“God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us.” ~ Peter, Acts 15:8

“I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me.” ~ Paul, Acts 20:23

“And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” ~ Paul, Romans 5:5

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” ~ Paul, Romans 15:13

“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;” ~ Paul, 1 Corinthians 6:19

‘Therefore I tell you that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.’ ~ Paul, 1 Corinthians 12:3

“And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit,” ~ Paul, Ephesians 1:13

“You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit.” ~ Paul, 1 Thessalonians 1:6

“Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.” ~ Paul, 2 Timothy 1:14

“… he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit,” ~ Titus 3:5

“God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.” ~ Hebrews 2:4

“For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” ~ 2 Peter 1:21

How God’s Holy Spirit relates to us is important.

How We Relate to God’s Holy Spirit Matters

/ W. Keith Brenton / Leave a comment

“Yet they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit. So he turned and became their enemy and he himself fought against them.” ~ Isaiah 63:10

“But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin.” ~ Jesus, Mark 3:29

“And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.” ~ Jesus, Luke 12:10

Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land?” ~ Acts 5:3

“You stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are just like your fathers: You always resist the Holy Spirit!” ~ Stephen, Acts 7:51

“The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.” ~ Paul, 1 Corinthians 2:14

“And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” ~ Paul, Ephesians 4:30

“Do not put out the Spirit’s fire.” ~ Paul, 1 Thessalonians 5:19

How we relate to God’s Holy Spirit matters.

Anyone Still Remember ‘A Christian Affirmation’?

/ W. Keith Brenton / Leave a comment

Just curious.

If you never heard of it, this is where it’s found these days:

http://www.austingrad.edu/christianaffirmation/affirmation.html

(Its original domain name was evidently allowed to expire.)

A Christian Affirmation is coming up on its fifth anniversary. It was originally published as a paid advertisement in the May, 2005 Christian Chronicle, which thereafter instituted a policy to review the content of advertising before accepting it … even full-page advertising.

It was seen by many as an attempt to draw a line in the sand, a line of fellowship among Churches of Christ, by those who saw the introduction of worship services featuring instrumentally-accompanied vocal music in worship in some sister congregations as a threat to the distinctiveness of Churches of Christ, a product of the Restoration Movement.

Soon after its publication in this journal, the Affirmation was also posted at an appropriately-named Web site. There, it was possible to send in comments and, eventually, to add one’s name to the list of signatures on the document. This feature was abused in a very un-Christian way by immature detractors – and since identities of signers could not be easily verified, the feature was removed – but the dialogue had begun.

One thing nearly everyone could agree upon: the issue of a cappella-only / instrumentally-accompanied music in worship had been promoted by the Affirmation to the same level of importance as immersive baptism and the Lord’s Supper on the first day of the week.

Discussion continued in church bulletins and blogs and discussion boards on the ‘net. The discussion was often heated; sometimes cordial, sometimes acidic; but in the end, its effect was like that visited upon the hapless Ralph Mellish in the Monty Python sketch: suddenly, nothing happened.

Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

I’m sure it depends on whom you ask. The body of Christ was not further subdivided and vivisected as a result, and I see that as a good thing. People talked about what really was essential in the life and worship of believers, and I see that as a good thing.

However, no councils were proposed to prayerfully discuss the matter and ask for the direction of the Holy Spirit together. No lectureships nor publications volunteered to air scholarly or even self-published works representing all points of view. No consensus was reached. No unity was restored.

In short, suddenly nothing happened.

And I see that as a bad thing.

The unresolved issue of a cappella-only / instrumentally-accompanied worship remains – not the unspoken elephant – but the great, gaping seismic fault line between two camps of God’s people under the banner of the same tribe and the aegis of congregational autonomy and the comfort of pretending that everything has gone back to the way it was and should be.

And – just as is happening in politics, social association, and virtually every other aspect of life in the American nation – the chasm keeps growing wider as it becomes more and more effortless to associate only with those who share one’s fondest preferences.

We have become segregated – not so much racially as philosophically – in spite of the fact that we proudly proclaim that we wear the designer label “Christian” (without the “Dior”), referring to a Christ who associated with the meek, poor and lowly as well as the wealthy, privileged and powerful.

It is almost beyond question that Jesus worshiped with the likely-a cappella cantor’s songs of the small synagogues in Nazareth and Capernaum … as well as with the instrumentally-embellished psalms of temple worship in Jerusalem.

He is a both/and Savior.

We are an either/or church.

There is nothing about that worth affirming.

3:00 p.m. – Time To Pray

/ W. Keith Brenton / 4 Comments

Acts 3:1 –

“One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer—at three in the afternoon.”

What might happen if Christians everywhere took a few moments in the 3:00 hour to pray every day?

Acts 4:31, maybe?

“After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.”

In this instance, it seems, one thing just led to another ….

If I set my iPhone’s calendar alarm or my watch to remind me, and commit to doing this … would you join me?

Wherever you are?

Whatever time zone you’re in?

Whether you’re ready for what might happen or not?

A Question of Faith

/ W. Keith Brenton / Leave a comment

Is there any New Testament scripture which explicitly says (or even implies) that the faith of believers that led to salvation is in anything other than – or in addition to – the facts that Jesus is Lord (Romans 10:9) and the Christ, the Son of God (John 20:31, 11:27; 1 John 5:1-5) … that He came from God and was going back to God (John 16:27-28); … that God raised Him from the dead (Romans 4:24; 1 Peter 1:21) … and that God will bring, with Jesus, those who have died in Him (1 Thessalonians 4:14)?

Is belief in any of those facts regarded by scripture as optional?

Isn’t a teaching which denies or refutes any of these tenets of belief called heretical?

Congregational Autonomy – and Isolation

/ W. Keith Brenton / Leave a comment

They go together. Maybe not at the beginning of an autonomous congregation’s history, but eventually. When a gathering of believers becomes so convinced of their own righteousness – and of the unrighteousness of other believers in other churches – their circle of friendly fellowship churches shrinks until its diameter becomes a noose around their own necks.

Because – sooner or later – their membership dies off and their conviction with them.

(Example? My home church, I’m told, is listed on the bulletin board in the lobby of a small rural congregation in eastern Arkansas under the heading of “scripturally unsound.”)

Churches with such a spirit cannot have the Spirit of God.

They display the traits of the man described in Proverbs 18:1:

“He who separates himself seeks his own desire; he quarrels against all sound wisdom.”

You can tell them by their fruits: condemnation of others, revoking of fellowship, isolation, a conviction that they are the “only true church.” There are other fruits, described in the middle of Galatians 5:20-21:

“… hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy ….”

You can see it in their Web sites, when they have them. There will be pages and pages devoted to doctrinal soundness on issues like congregational autonomy, and only a few scattered acknowledgments of the saving grace of Jesus Christ revealed in the gospel story … if any.

Compare those displays of heart to the ones in the next verse:

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” ~ Galatians 5:22-23

These are not just characteristics of individuals anymore, but have become the culture of entire churches. They survive through the stubborn spectre of fear: each member terrified of a just but merciless God whose wrath might be called down upon them for the slightest infraction (or questioning!) of doctrine by one of their own brothers or sisters!

These churches shrink because most people do not find a life of fear to be attractive, nor something they are willing to sign up for.

Yet they persist because a culture has been established. It has been reinforced through publications and lectures and, now, the Internet.

The overwhelming irony of the “congregational autonomy” they espouse is that it does not restrict them in any way from telling other congregations exactly where they are “wrong” and why they are going to hell!

Some will not cooperate with other congregations – even of their own set of beliefs – because the established culture has declared that to violate congregational autonomy. Better that widows go un-cared for and orphans go hungry and nations go un-taught than to cooperate with other churches in bringing good news to the poor.

This is the sort of behavior that Amos (chapter 5) prophesied about in quoting the Lord as saying:

“I hate, I despise your religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies ….” ~ Amos 5:21

The people had denied justice to the righteous and trampled on the poor.

Where do you draw the line on congregational autonomy? Where does your congregation draw it? Because once you invent a term like that, and weave it out of whole cloth, you have to decide how far you will go with it. Will you loom enough to cover yourself completely, a whole suit with hooded veil, so that you are completely cut off from everyone else? Or just enough to cover your butt?

I’m speaking plainly because I believe the time to dance around the subject with polite terms has long since gone.

The Bible talks about kingdom. The apostles talk about kingdom. Jesus talks about kingdom.

That means churches – as outposts of the inbreaking kingdom – need to start seizing territory forcefully, and together, and under the direct operation of the Holy Spirit as revealed in the scripture He inspired.

It cannot be a kingdom if all of the outposts refuse to talk to each other, won’t cooperate with each other, won’t show respect and love for each other, won’t even communicate with each other. Or, worst of all, won’t stop biting and devouring each other.

“If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.” ~ Mark 3:24

What Jesus said is just as true of God’s inbreaking kingdom as it is of the one Satan is trying to establish – and might, if we’re just willing to give him a toehold on our hearts.

So I believe it’s time for more people to speak boldly and prophetically, like Amos did.

Time to weep like Jeremiah over the lost and the clueless and the rebellious and the isolated-from-God.

Time to speak like Isaiah; with authority about the Messiah who is to come again, and the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace which must prevail until He does.

Time to proclaim the onrushing day of the Lord, like Joel did.

Time to repent of soft words and soft concepts and soft-heartedness toward the isolationistic and the exclusive and the divisive.

They do not speak softly, and they do not hear soft words over the sound of their own shouting.

Still, there might yet be a few listening who will turn away from the self-centered congregational concept which turns away so many others from Christ.