We are pushed to succeed and accumulate, and we feel like failures if we don’t.
“Dear Friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us” (1 Peter 2:11).
I often hear people say that the need of the hour is being a “Relevant Church.” Some people argue that the world’s attitude toward the church (indifferent at best, and hostile at worst) is because they don’t understand what we are trying to do, or that we don’t connect with them. or that we aren’t relevant.
I would disagree. Though we are not opposed to being relevant, in practice, we often end up mirroring the world rather than engaging it.
Jesus didn’t tell his parables so that people could “connect with the points.” Jesus told his parables to awaken the imaginations to the new reality of the kingdom of God that was breaking in around them. I believe that the real need of the hour is a robust discipleship that engages the whole of our lives with the Lordship of Jesus, the resurrected head of the Church.
The great work of ministry is not entertaining the saints, but transforming them. We do not need to withdraw from secular institutions but to engage them with the truths of the gospel.
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Pray for Nepal, Sikkim and Bhutan Please – Bryan