<–begin rant now–>

I’m probably a rare breed. When someone is speaking to me, I want them to start out going 60mph. I wish people would throw the gear into 5 and drive. Instead, the first 5 min are usually filled with meaningless bull snot. So that leads me to this list. The list of things that drive me nuts when I watch someone speak.

Meaningless openers for the sake of making noise:

- “Hey, how are we doing?” (do you really want to know? I hear no one answering…)

- “I’m so excited to speak to you today” (really?)

- “So and so asked me to speak, and I thought, yeah, I could do that” (obviously, that’s why you’re up there)

Other random pet peeves:

- Using a voice that you never use, except when you “preach”. Such as yelling or adding accents on every word-da. Do you know what I’m saying-ah? Jesus is good-da. They talk like this-ah.

- Repeating phrases over and over and over because they’re nervous and don’t know what to say.

- Prayers that turn into preaching at people. Or prayers that start off talking to God, and then end in directing other people to do something. I sometimes wonder who that person is talking to. Is it me, or God? When did it change?

- When you don’t look me in the eye.

- When you pace back and forth way to much.

- When you whisper, then yell, then whisper, then yell again.

- Asking people to clap or applaud. Sometimes I think the person does it (possibly unconsciously) for self edification. Because if no one claps at the end of the song, they don’t like it right?

<–end rant–>

Two things you need to know about. 

1. Justification

2. Sanctification (transformation, life change)

Justification (the act of being saved) is made possible by Christ’s death and resurrection. Our only hope is in Jesus. Most people (Christians) believe this, and frankly, they love it. They don’t need to do anything for their salvation. Sweet!

And then comes Sanctifcation. It means you quit loving the world and love the Father. It means being transformed into the image of Christ. It means righteousness. It means holiness. It means letting go of your old sinful ways and embracing God’s life for you.

Sanctification is a life long, bloody, painful, hard process.

But it’s Christ’s process. He’s the Perfecter, not just the Author.

Everyone seems to love submitting to Christ for salvation (justification). But rarely do you see someone truly submit their life to Christ for sanctification (life change).

Here’s the scary part.

1 John 2:3,29
3 Here’s how we can be sure that we know God in the right way: Keep his commandments.

29 Once you’re convinced that he is right and righteous, you’ll recognize that all who practice righteousness are God’s true children.

1 John, and really the entire Bible, state that fruit is everything. You will know if people truly know God by their fruit.

Not by what they say they believe. Not by church attendance. Not by whether they say they’re saved. Not by anything else.

You’ll know them by righteousness.

Christ is the author, AND the perfector of our faith.

Please, for the love of God, submit your life to Him and practice righteousness.

Quit getting drunk. Quit having premarital sex. Quit lying. Quit hating. Quit being judgemental. Quit being proud. Quit being selfish. Quit cheating.

Quit. And start being Christ.

The Bibles clear, but we get it fuzzy sometimes. You don’t have to ‘behave’ in order to be saved. However, if you’ve legitimately given your heart to Christ, His perfection of your life will follow. You will be moved into action and obedience (for the highest good) by His love.

We’re going to sing a “secular” song in church this Sunday. Actually, it won’t be a part of the worship set, but an after thought to drive the message home with people. 

I’m so dumb, I actually believed no one would have a problem with it. Wrong.

So for those who think I’m a heretic, here are my thoughts.

Ephesians 5:19
Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord

Colossians 3:16
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.

- Every song is a spiritual song, if the song was written by a human being with a spirit.

- Therefore, there are good spiritual songs, and bad spiritual songs.

- Context is everything. Framing the song is everything. You can take a secular song, frame it or explain it, and turn it to use for the glory of the Kingdom.

- The advantage of doing a secular song in church is this: the next time that song comes on the radio, the person who heard it in church will instantly be reminded of the truth of God they learned from that song. Whala! We’ve just hijacked the radio waves to remind people of the Gospel.

- You can use secular music to prepare the hearts of secular people.

- We will use secular music this week to prepare the hearts of secular people.

Read Romans 14.

This is proof that there will always be, and always has been, differences of opinion in the church concerning what’s right and wrong.

Make no mistake, there are many things the Bible says is wrong. I’m not talking about those issues. I’m not talking about things like murder, theft, adultery, or homosexuality.

I’m talking about differences of opinion. Things like:

• dress code (jeans vs cuff links)
• architecture (stained glass vs the neutral shade of brown)
• music (organ vs the Strat)
• food (luby’s vs Rudy’s)

I’m voting for Rudy’s cream corn all day long.

Paul basicially says:

• don’t argue about your preferences
• we’re all going to give a personal account to Christ
• don’t cause anyone to stumble, stupid
• focus your attention on the harmony in the church
• build others up
• don’t tear apart the work of God over your stupid differences, stupid!

The trick is, God created us for interdependence, not independence. Biblical community takes real love. Give and take love. But remember, individual differences don’t get legislated in love.