Acts 15 tells of a crisis in the church… the number of believers in Christ was growing daily, & not just among Jews anymore. Now, even the Gentiles were coming to Christ! So what’s the crisis?

Certain groups among the Jewish believers couldn’t imagine God calling and saving people that weren’t circumcised. After all, circumcision was VERY significant for the Jew, as it marked the establishment of their covenant identity with God. Circumcision marked them in most intimate way as a separate, distinct, people who belonged to the LORD.

I thank God for Paul, Barnabas and the Jerusalem council; when confronted with the pressing question, “What are we going to do about this?” they reminded their Christian brothers that the gospel being preached is one of grace and justification through faith. I imagine their debate with those that were demanding circumcision, wondering out loud what other hoops to jump through could have arisen if Paul and the others had given in. Dietary restrictions? Hair and beards? Rejection of one’s culture of origin to embrace the Jewish culture?

Here we are 2000+ later, mostly Gentiles reading this, wondering what the big deal was… in hindsight its easy to point out the Old Testament scriptures where God calls for the “inner circumcision,” a circumcision of the heart. It’s silly, because we know that we’d never put stumbling blocks in front of new believers, and for sure would never add to the gospel… Would we?

Hmmm. I remember as a kid seeing people different than my family and me coming to church. I know now that they were ‘hippies” – identified by their bare feet, old Levis, t-shirts, and mostly unkempt hair and beards. They really stood out…

I remember it was a big deal when they came to Christ, gave their testimonies of deliverance and expressed earnest desire for freedom from drugs, immorality, and their desire to be clean, whole, and experience real love. I remember the discussions that took place where church leaders wrestled with the influx of new people, and wondered how we could help disciple them… One suggestion rings in my ears:

“What they really need is some different clothes and a haircut. They need to know that they’re the temple of the Holy Spirit.”

Ouch.

We do it too. Makes me wonder… are we adding to the “Main Thing” of the gospel? Are there “Louie-isms” that are being elevated to “gotta do’s”?

LORD, remind us that we are saved by Your grace, just as our brothers and sisters around the world are.

I’ve been pondering this for the last couple of days –

Proverbs 11:25b …those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed.

It’s counter-intuitive… it’s taking our eyes & focus off our our own needs in the desire to be a blessing & a help to others… & then while doing that, receiving the very thing that we’d been needing to receive in the first place.

My pondering has led me to try to think of ways to practically live out what it means to be a “refresher of others” – that thought process starts by 1st examining the ‘opposite’ of being a refresher – a life-sucker, a weight, a burden. What’s that look like?

To me, the opposite of ‘refresher’ means being selfish… Self-focused. Insisting on getting my own way. Getting my own needs met. Using others to do so. Complaining. Being contentious. Antagonizing. Nit-picking.

Refreshing means sharing. Paying attention to others & what they’re experiencing. Being willing to listen. Gentleness. Kindness. Self-control.

And in that, God takes it on Himself to be a refresher… and who does He refresh?

Isaiah 57:15b I refresh the humble and give new courage to those with repentant hearts.

The humble & repentant. The one who is in need of refreshing, & looks to God to do it.

Amen. & Right on.

Enter a ‘new’ concept: MAN CHURCH. Interesting – Billed as a place for men to go to church, with lots of things men like, & not the things they don’t.

Instead of a speech/sermon, there’s a short 20-25 minute “Chalk talk.”

Guys that attend are guaranteed to laugh.

Instead of a worship team with 30 minutes of music/worship, there’s a non-marching, marching band.

Free pizza. A HUG-FREE Zone, (sorry TPT – I know you’re a hugger.)

What do these questions have to do with faith in Christ? Are they meant to evaluate the depth & breadth of belief? Can my answers to these questions (& myriad others like them) be plugged into a formula somewhere to determine whether or not my faith is valid? How does this help to uncover a life dedicated to loving God & loving people?

What it did to me – made me believe that God’s love for me was based on the amount of time I spent in these activities… rather than on the reason I was doing them in the first place – love for God. Made me wonder if I’d done enough. And then if I’d done it right. Made me measure myself against others – & their faith (based upon their own measurements…) As though. As if. When I had difficulties, I read more. Prayed more. Devoted more. All in the hope that it would make God happy enough to answer my prayer & deliver me from… what turned out to be me. A religious person. A self-righteous person. I knew the words, & often exactly the address where they were located in the book.. but I was miserable, & there was little to no evidence of a “life in its fullness…”

Sigh.

What did this self-described “completely unreligious” guy have to say about Osteen? He’s positive. He seems authentic. He keeps the message simple. He seems to believe it. He’s doesn’t hammer on others that don’t do it like he does. He isn’t a “religious zealot.”

Interesting to me – I know that Pastor Osteen takes a lot of heat from the “Christian world” – esp. with the statements that he is just doing “Christianity Lite” at best, “heresy” at worst.

Here’s a couple of articles that have been in the news of fairly recently…

ABC News Article on Joel Osteen… and another GMA

I guarantee once you start reading these, you won’t stop.

ASBO stands for Anti-Social Behavior Order. Check it out.

The excerpt I’m sharing with you is from pp. 178,179 & gives some characteristics of different stages of emotional development – read it & weep.

EMOTIONAL INFANTS

EMOTIONAL CHILDREN

EMOTIONAL ADOLESCENTS

EMOTIONAL ADULTS

Interesting, esp. as a mirror for self-examination. What rings true of me & my behavior? What am I able to see about myself? Next, I’ll take this to the Bean & ask her to honestly assess how I interact with her… & we’ll go from there…

This rating was determined based on the presence of the following words in various posts written over the last 2 years:

Thanks to Dan for the info on blog ratings… who’d a thunk it.

The Scazzero book mentioned above, summed up, posits the idea that spiritual maturity & a true Christian experience can’t be separated from emotional health & maturity. E.g. emotionally immature people can’t/don’t grow to real spiritual maturity, even though they may have many, many years logged as Christians. Scazzero states, from his own experience, that only by becoming emotionally healthy can any of us truly grow to maturity.

In my un edgy-cated opinion, based solely upon my interactions with a large cross-section of humanity, (with a varied Christian experience & length of tenure as Christians,) tends to bear out Scazzero’s hypothesis. One of the things that I’ve also noticed is that the “ministry” seems to attract, nurture, & reward emotionally unhealthy people – in that it, the ministry, becomes a valid place for a person to ‘get their strokes,’ though its often at the expense of others. And in the name of God. Why is this?

I’m re-reading the book. And pondering these thoughts. And doing a lot of introspecting.