………not only individually, but as a church congregation…..and collectively as the church AT LARGE!
And where do we begin? Are we in the faith? Do we prove all things? Are we producing fruit? Why did Jesus curse the fig tree which looked good from a distance? Is Christian examination limited to individuals only? For example: Are we in any way connected to or responsible for the existence and welfare of Western Civilization? Was the development of WC even possible without Christianity? And most importantly – why and how have we lost it?
How many of us are familiar with the history of Christianity AFTER Jesus walked the earth 2000 years ago…….that wasn’t written by a humanist?
“Historians abandoned any commitment to neutral history a century ago. Yet they pretend that they are sufficiently neutral to be entitled to financial support by taxpayers. Public day schools and tax-funded universities teach anti-Christian history.”
“Christianity
is a religion based on history. Yet Christians are remarkably ignorant about
the history of the church. They are even more ignorant about the
culture-transforming effects of the church. Even if they know a little about a
few key figures in the history of the church, they cannot explain exactly why
these people were important in the history of Western civilization. They cannot
tell you what difference these people made outside of the institutional church.
They have no understanding of the relationship between the church’s teachings
and historical progress.”
“I
wrote this book so that a hard core of Christian leaders and prospective
leaders will read it and then will act on what they have read. Leaders act
representatively. Action is crucial to all forms of leadership: in households,
churches, and everywhere else. Knowledge alone is insufficient for meaningful
change, either personally or institutionally. We must act in terms of what we
believe. But, before we act, we had better count the cost. Jesus said: “For
which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth
the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lest haply, after he hath
laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to
mock him, Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish” (Luke
14:28–30).
“Maybe
you do not want to be a leader. You are a leader anyway. If you are a parent,
you are a leader. Parents teach their children. If you make decisions on behalf
of others, you are a leader. Basic to all forms of leadership is the knowledge
of history. Every organization has a history. Successful leaders must know something about the past of the
organizations in which they possess God-given responsibility. They need to know
how they got into the positions they occupy. They need to know something about
the successes and failures of previous leaders.” - The Biblical
Structure of History by Gary North – I guarantee you will have some challenges here as I did.
(Dear reader – as is true for most writers – and I am not really a writer, more of a librarian who connects dots – when I started this particular post, I had a general outline in my head - but as I plod through it, it’s becoming somewhat painfully obvious to me that I’ve bitten off more than I can chew in one day. Therefore it will become a work in progress, with perhaps regular updates as time and occasion dictate.
However,
that should not prevent you from using DaLimbraw
Library for your own research on this topic or any other…..and perhaps
edify me as to what you have discovered.
As is true
for everything in life – discovery of truth is a process!
I will add
some lessons here I have learned from my reading in the last 15-20 years, but
your decisions are yours to make.
Good
hunting! – CL)
When seeking
Biblical truths - expect to be corrected
and sometimes severly admonished. After all, admonishment for the children of
God is a constant from Genesis to Revelation, is it not?
Here is one of my pet peeves with all three suspects – individually, as a congregation and certainly collectively – just judging by our fruits.
Have we
moved on from milk to meat – so we can by constant practice – determine good
from evil? These are just for starters – so let’s get started and connect some
dots.
Let's get On with It | Heb 5:11 -
6:12 | RayStedman.org
The
passage before us is so important and so provocative that I will waste no time
in introduction. I shall follow the suggestion of our title and "get on
with it." The section from 5:11 to 6:12 gathers around four figures, or
pictures, though one is implied rather than stated. We shall call these four
figures the milk drinkers, the meat eaters, the stillborn, and the fruit
growers.
And after reading Ray Stedman – take a bite out of this collection - Maturity – a list of headnotes that will take hours, if not days to read.
And then on to: CAP – Kingdom of God Study List
Jesus Christ to His Church: "Do Your JOB!"
I will conclude at this time with a question: Are we advancing the Kingdom of God?
