What are we really saying?

Christian Speak — the language of evangelical Christians — has developed over time. It’s the inclusion of certain terms and phrases in our vocabulary. We hear things, we repeat them.

• I “asked Jesus into my heart.”
• Just “repeat this prayer after me.”
• I’m saved because I prayed “The sinner’s prayer.”

The problem is this: over time we use words and phrases just because we’ve always used those words and phrases, but we never stop to consider their origin — or even if they are biblically accurate. Erik Raymond discusses one such phrase at his blog Ordinary Pastor. He considers the meaning of the phrase “I accepted Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior.“

Retro Thideology

Thideology News of the Day

Here are a few odds and ends from around the blogosphere today…

• Youth ministry done well — a nice perspective on how youth ministry can be a vital and biblical part of the Church.
• William Carey at 250 — a retrospective on the “father of modern missions.”
• Bible verses NOT displayed on the refrigerator.

Also, Bro. Dave Black, a professor of Greek at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, is sorrowing today. Here is what he had to say at his blog…

This morning I am sorrowing. I am sorrowing for my brothers and sisters living a life of conflict and confrontation because of the enemies of Christ. I am grieving for the hundreds of thousands of villages in the world that are without a Gospel witness. I grieve for the millions of Asians who work from dawn to dusk for a handful of rice while Americans go on diets to lose weight. The Lord is breaking my heart over the lostness, the brokenness of this world. I grieve over the thousands of unreached individuals, tribes, and people groups. I sorrow over my own callous indifference to the things of God. I grieve over the watered-down perversion of the Gospel that has pervaded our churches in America. I am grieved by those who think we’re not called to suffer, that suffering is a thing of the past, that it is an archaic notion to suppose that Christians should accept inconvenience, suffering, and uncertainty. I grieve over my own shallow spirituality and self-serving, wimpy religion.

Today, this day, I must remind myself that I belong to a Body that is the living presence of a God whose heart is pounding with a passion for lost and dying souls. “Mercy’s door is still ajar” — yes, but for how much longer?

How can a church that does not live for the Gospel be the Bride of Christ?

 

All I have is Christ

What if Church looked more like this…

Church or Country Club?

As if He needed us…