Sunday, July 13, 2014

Trade that window for a mirror, and maybe you'll see things differently.

Tullian quotes Keller:

Jesus’ teaching consistently attracted the irreligious while offending the Bible-believing, religious people of his day. However, in the main, our churches today do not have this effect. The kind of outsiders Jesus attracted do not bother coming to our churches, even our most avant-garde ones. We tend to draw buttoned-down, moralistic people. The licentious and liberated or the broken and marginal avoid church. That can only mean one thing. If the preaching of our ministers and the practice of our parishioners do not have the same effect on people that Jesus had, then we must not be declaring the same message that Jesus did.

Tchividjian, Tullian (2010-04-23). Surprised by Grace: God's Relentless Pursuit of Rebels (p. 150). Crossway. Kindle Edition.

Is it no wonder that in today's world of American Christianity, there is little difference in the statistics on divorce and etc. when compared to the secular world. Would not the very words of Jesus, if spoken today by Him to us in the manner that they were spoken then offend and turn many away? But, of course, we don't hear them like that. We apply His words to others. To those outside the church. To that other denomination that is so wrong. To the guy sitting next to us because we know what he really did last night. But not to me.

So how do we fix this?

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