A New Direction

For those who have been reading my blog, first let me say thank you. It truly means the world to me when I look at my page and see that someone has opened and hopefully read through my blog. I would encourage each of you to leave any comments you may have as I welcome anything that furthers educated discussion.

I know that my post have been few and far between over the past few months as life has been busy and I have been at a standstill on what direction I was to take with this blog. My goal is still the same; to connect Christ with a generation that does not know Him. A generation that has been labeled the post-church atheist. Those raised in the church but for one reason or another have left it behind. Like many people smarter than myself I feel that they have left the church because they never knew the REAL JESUS. There faith was born of peer pressure or family pressure and build on false ideas. This generation and the ones that follow are not socially bound to have a relationship with God or Church and many of them don't have a problem with God or Church but it is the people inside the church that are keeping them away. These are the ones I want to reach; I want them to see the REAL JESUS. I want them to see the God who told his disciples that the two greatest commandments were to Love God and to Love each other.

Today was Easter Sunday and as my family got ready for church this morning I threw on a polo and some dress pants. Normally for Easter I would be in a coat and tie but today my son was so happy because he had a pink polo for Easter and wanted to look like dad. So you know what I did, I put away the coat and tie and put on that pink polo. This caused me to think, when did Easter Sunday become about what we were wearing? When did we start to feel like you had to wear your absolute best if you wanted to go to church on Easter? When did Easter become the Sunday morning best dressed contest? I don't think they got dressed up to go see the empty tomb, do you? I do not have a problem with dressing up but we have to make sure that we have not created a perception that you are not welcome if you are not dressed a certain way at our houses of worship.

This got me thinking; what other traditions are we holding on to that are not bad, but they are not biblical either and are these traditions getting in the way of our ability to share Christ with others? Are we focusing on the wrong items and is this focus causing an entire generation to lose their desire to want to join us? I have to consider that if God has called me to Love Him, and Love His children then it is my duty and obligation out of that love to do everything I can to keep them from having to spend one day in Hell.

Over the past few months as I have prayed and prayed and thought about were this blog was going I joined my Sunday School class in working our way through Andy Stanley's series "Irresistible". This study and the book have brought me to a question that scares us church folk.

What if the Birth, Life, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ was an end to the old law of Moses as we know it; an end to the old covenant; and a birth to a new covenant and a new law. What if, just hear me out, we only relied on the teachings of Jesus and limited our use of the "Old Covenant" or "Laws" as they were given to Moses and the Israelites over many years. Would it change our beliefs at all? Would it cause an earth shattering revolution if we simply followed Jesus? I am on this journey myself and I ask you to join me as I document my way through this adventure. During the next - well however long it takes, I want to examine Scripture and truly see what would change if we focused on the teachings of Jesus as the foundation for our lives.

I feel like this needs to be said, I believe the Old Testament is one half of the Word of God and is very significant to our lives and our faith. I believe it is the foundation for our moral code. I believe the Old Testament is the true recorded history of the church before the birth of Christ. However, there is confusion to non-believers over the church's ability to hold onto certain aspects of the old testament, like the 10 Commandments while throwing out other laws and punishments set by the old testament. This journey is to take a look at simply what would happen if we took that argument off the table by focusing the unbeliever on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. I have zero idea where this is going to end or what I am going to write or say or what God will show me through this process. I can guarantee it is not going to be easy and there will be times I want to give up so please pray for me that I have the strength to stay in the Word of God and keep pushing and documenting my journey so that Christ may be better served and shared with others.

Feel free to drop a comment below and let me know you were hear and I will pray for you as you pray for me.