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Emil Brunner Quotes about ekklesia

Ever since I encountered the risen Jesus in a Spirit-led meeting on a college campus, I’ve wanted to go beyond the formal way of doing church and meet the way Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 14:26. In 2008, The Salvation Army asked my wife and me to open a “non-traditional church” in Nashville on that model. In 2015 I wrote a book about meeting that way: Beyond Church: An Invitation To Experience The Lost Word Of The Bible–Ekklesia.

Today I discovered Emil Brunner, a Swiss theologian who died in 1966, and his writings about ekklesia. I am amazed at how much Brunner’s writings match what we do at The Salvation Army Berry Street and my book. Here’s a quote from him that matches how I feel about the opportunity to experience ekklesia with The Salvation Army:

“I am inexpressibly grateful that the Lord of my life has granted to me in such abundance these opportunities to take part in the life of His Ekklesia and to bear witness to the Living Christ in so many places and in so many ways.” –Emil Brunner (1889-1966)

Here are quotes from two of Brunner’s books:

Quotes from: Dogmatics: Volume III – Christian Doctrine of the Church, Faith & The Consummation

“The Spirit who is active in the Ekklesia expresses Himself in active love of the brethren.”

“The Ekklesia does not only know that God is love. The Ekklesia also lives from the love of God.”

“Christ did not give the Ekklesia the Word alone, but His life also.”

“Luther realized that the true Church, the Ekklesia, was based wholly on the Word and Spirit of God and not on the Sacrament. He realized that faith is not the obedient acceptance of a doctrine but encounter with Christ present in His Word and Spirit.”

“The more time passed, the clearer it became that the official and institutional character of the the Church hindered the creation of Ekklesia.”

“Only by starting with the Ekklesia can we understand this bond that unites faith to the fellowship of faith.”

“Ekklesia, in it’s love individuals are bound together in fellowship and brotherhood at the same time.”

“The faith which stems from the Church and not from the Ekklesia, from doctrine and not from witness, is not in itself living faith.”

“The misunderstanding of the Ekklesia as the Church, as a sacred institution, corresponds to the misunderstanding of faith, through which faith was misunderstood as affirmation of doctrine.”

Quotes from: The Misunderstanding of the Church

“The ekklesia is what it is through the presence of Christ dwelling within it.”

“The very being of God is Agape — that love which the Son brings to mankind from the Father — and it is just this love which is the essence of the fellowship of those who belong to the Ekklesia.”

“The historical Church . . .has arisen, in the course of a long and complicated history, through a process of development, transformation and retrogression, out of the New Testament Ekklesia.”

“The New Testament Ekklesia is a is not an it, a thing, an institution, but rather a unity of persons, a people, a communion.”

“The Ekklesia of the New Testament, the Christian fellowship of the first Christians, was not a church and had no intention of being a church.”

“There was in the Ekklesia a regulation of the functions— Scripture declares this explicitly— assigned by the Holy Ghost to the various individual members who were thus equipped to perform their special services — falsely represented as offices. For an office belongs to a public organization; an office is part of an institution. The diakoniai, however,

the services, should be conceived on the analogy of the organs with their specific functions which inhere in a living body. Even though it be only a metaphor, this is relatively

the most adequate expression of the truth.”

“The New Testament surprises us again and again by the multiplicity of these functions and their bearers, of the various services and those who render them. One thing is supremely important: that all minister, and that nowhere is to be perceived a separation or even merely a distinction made between those who do and those who do not minister, between the active and the passive members of the body, between those who give and those who receive. There exists in the Ekklesia a universal duty and right of service, a universal readiness to serve and at the same time the greatest possible

differentiation of functions. The metaphor of the organism illuminates one aspect of the reality; the dependence of all kinds of ministration on the one Lord reveals the other. The

head of a body is something different from the ruler of a people. Yet both sides of the reality are expressed and must obviously be expressed, in order to do justice at one and the

same time to the vertical and the horizontal relationship, on the one hand to bring out the mysterious vital fellowship, on the other hand to show that it is the one Spirit who effects

the differentiation of functions. It is therefore quite wrongheaded to describe this pneumatic ordering of the Ekklesia as anarchical simply because it is something different from an organization or institution.”

“It is the mystery of the Ekklesia as the fellowship of the Spirit that it has an articulate living order without being legally organized.”

“The impression made by the life of believers plays a part of decisive importance in the genesis of faith. People draw near to the Christian community because they are irresistibly attracted by its supernatural power. They would like to share in this new dimension of life and power, they enter the zone in which the Spirit operates before they

have heard a word about what lies behind it as its ultimate transcendent-immanent cause. There is a sort of fascination which is exercised mostly without any reference to the Word,

comparable rather to the attractive force of a magnet or the spread of an infectious disease. Without knowing how it happened, one is already a carrier of the infection.”

“It is so much easier to discuss from an intellectual and theological standpoint the ideas implied in the revealed Word of God and to analyse them conceptually than it is to allow

oneself to be transformed at the center of one’s life by the action of the Holy Ghost”

“It is so much easier to secure the life of the fellowship, its coherence and its indispensable hierarchy by means of solid legal forms, by organization and offices, than it is to allow the

life of communion to be continually poured out upon one, to allow oneself to be rooted in it by the action of the Holy Ghost. You can handle and shape as you please such things

as law and organization, but you cannot act thus towards the Holy Ghost.”

“The fellowship of Jesus discloses a paradoxical unity of terms which elsewhere are incompatible. It is a mystical unity of visible earthly persons with an unseen,

heavenly, and yet present Person, their Head, with the eternal ever-present Christ.”

“The Ekklesia is the sphere of actual and realized fellowship with the Christ — a fellowship which is as real as faith and love and hope are real.”

The Ekklesia wherein the one Spirit bestows upon each his peculiar gift and therefore assigns to each his characteristic ministry . . . is reality, heavenly divine reality.”

“The Ekklesia of which the apostles speak was thus not simply a theory or ideal springing from the vision of Christ; it was also the sphere of the new life grounded in the historical

fact of redemption through Jesus Christ, and in His effective presence and power as living Head of the body.”

“What we know as the church or churches resulting from historical developments cannot claim to be the Ekklesia in the New Testament sense.”

“The meaning of the Ekklesia is what we recognized from the New Testament as its characteristic essence: communion with God through Jesus Christ, and rooted in this and springing from it, communion or brotherhood with man. The oneness of communion with

Christ and communion with man is the characteristic mark the Ekklesia.”

“With or without the churches, if necessary even in opposition to them, God will

cause the Ekklesia to become a real community of brothers. Whether the churches yield to this recognition or on the contrary blind themselves to it will determine the question whether or not they have a future.”

Here are a few additional quotes from Emil:

“To be united with Christ through the Holy Spirit means: to be directly united with Him. Here there is no difference between an ordinary Christian of our own day and an Apostle.”

“The fact of our redemption—the history of salvation—is transmitted by the proclamation of facts, that is, by the testimony of the Apostles under the guidance and inspiration of the Holy Spirit.”

“Above all the teaching of the Church, even above all dogma or doctrinal confession, stands Holy Scripture.”

“The Dogmatic Theologian who does not find that his work drives him to pray frequently and urgently from his heart: ‘God be merciful to me a sinner,’ is scarcely fit for his job.”

“Theology is an assault on the sin-distorted intellect.”

“Gospel preaching, is the spreading out of the fire which Christ has thrown upon the earth. He who does not propagate this fire shows that he is not burning. He who burns propagates the fire.”

“Take oxygen away and death occurs through suffocation, take hope away and humanity is constricted through lack of breath; despair supervenes, spelling the paralysis of intellectual and spiritual powers by a feeling of the senselessness and purposelessness of existence.”

“I am trying to express a view of revelation which does not fit in any of the ready-made patterns.”

Letting Heaven’s culture freely flow

Jesus revealed Heaven’s culture. His disciples wrote it down. Now let’s follow the risen Jesus & the Bible and daily live it out! Son-gazing will release God’s flow. (Hebrews 12:2)

It’s not enough to be in the know. We also need to be living in God’s flow. I love to see ordinary people open their hearts & freely let their love for Jesus flow. Let’s activate the anointed, not appease the apathetic. Why marginalize the congregation & make it peripheral? God can flow and speak through anybody!

Bible words dance in my soul, filling me with hope, peace, & joy! If we trace the word church back to the New Testament we find ekklesia — the name of the city council in Greek city/states, where democracy began to flow.

Let’s gather & let God use each other to make what we don’t know better known. To avoid being misled, listen to God both in your heart & through the Bible. Heaven’s culture book, the Bible, can keep you from caving to contemporary culture. It shows us what the first Christians believed about Jesus & can keep us on track.

If you can’t find happiness inside your heart, it’s very hard to find it outside. The risen Jesus Christ, living in you, is the source of stable happiness.

Let’s go beyond

A well-planned show

And together experience

Christ’s spiritual flow.

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Let Heaven’s culture invade the days of your life. The future belongs to everyone who wakes up tomorrow. Use it wisely! God gifts us the present of the future, one day at a time. The first day of yesterday’s future has arrived. Now what ya gonna do? Showboat self or surrender to God’s flow and Heaven’s culture?

The past didn’t last. So let yesterdays go, unwrap the present, & let God build your future. If you try too hard to erase the past, you may miss out on the present of the present.

Putting Old Testament violence in perspective

There were times in the Old Testament where God ordered the killing of all the people, and even animals, in a town. When reading those verses it is easy to think that God is unjust. It’s easy to judge God, the only being in the universe who is truly just. But what a double standard we humans use!

For example, I am an American. America was founded on some great injustices against both African Americans and Native Americans. Many of our Founding Fathers forcibly held innocent men, women, & children in life-long bondage; making them work without pay; forbidding them to read the Bible or any other book; breeding them like cattle (sometimes forcibly fathering their own slave children); and having them brutally punished if they disobeyed them. And yet, many of the men who did such things are still considered great — George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, for instance. How can people judge God so harshly, yet whitewash the grievous cruelty of America’s early human traffickers?

Another example is that untold numbers of Native American men, women, and children were slaughtered over the years. However, accurate records were not kept and most those who ordered such acts were not held accountable. One American President, Andrew Jackson, even went against the Supreme Court to order the removal of all Indians east of the Mississippi River, leading to the death of many thousands of innocent men, women and children. Why do so many people want to accuse the righteous God, but justify Andrew Jackson and others who practiced genocide against Native Americans?

According to the book Fire Sites by Jörg Friedrich, around 600,000 German civilians were killed by the Allies’ World War II bombing raids on non-military targets in German cities. This including 76,000 German children. So why aren’t the American, the British, and other allies judged for their cruel killing of 600,000 men, women, and children. Is it fair to give them a pass while judging God for Israel’s violence? Is it somehow different to kill innocent people with bombs rather than with swords?

And what about President Harry Truman’s order to drop two atomic bombs on two Japanese cities that resulted in the slaughter of 300,000 or so innocent men, women, and children? Is it fair to let Truman off the hook for the people he ordered killed, while judging God for His orders in the Bible?

History is full of accounts of political and military leaders ordering the slaughter of innocent people, yet still being considered great and wonderful people. Why aren’t those who ordered such acts judged harshly? Perhaps it is because we humans feel justified in using violence to get our way. We think it’s okay to kill civilians if it is for “a good cause” (usually meaning our country’s cause); but we don’t want God to use violence for His purposes.

Another example of killing defenseless people is the violence against the most innocent form of human life — the child in the womb. Prenatal people have done nothing to deserve death, yet millions of them are killed every year. Personally I don’t see any difference between abortion and killing children after they are born. In both cases, innocent life is taken. So many people and governments support abortion. If we approve of killing the unborn, how can we judge God, the giver of life?

I don’t fully understand why God commanded Israel to kill civilians. I do know that, if anyone in the universe has pure motives and the ability to use violence justly, it is God alone, not human leaders.

So here’s a question. If you can overlook the atrocities of your country, your leaders, and your heroes, why won’t you trust that the Creator had a pure and just reason (bigger than you can understand) for what He commanded ancient Israel?

Making lovely places in your life

I can’t make human society a lovely place; but with Jesus’ help I can make my own mind and heart lovely places. Let Jesus’ presence & power open like a flower in your life. A flower flows with inner life. It’s a flow-er. Be a flow-er with God’s Spirit.

Freedom is to overcome sin. Bondage is being overcome & controlled by sin. If you’ve produced enough pain & misery in your life, you may be ready for Jesus to heal you & set you free.

Can we make more room in church for the living Jesus to freely move among us? A tightly controlled meeting can restrict the freedom to be led by the Holy Spirit. Howard Thurman put it this way: “The testimony of the individual is always fresh.” Why not let people freely testify in church?

Christianity first met as informal support groups, not as formal religious meetings. However, open meetings can go off track without a commitment to be faithful to Scripture. Accountability to Jesus, to others in His body, & to the Bible; keeps me on track. That makes it safe for us to introduce design flexibility into church services & try new ways of meeting.

Expertise is good, but there’s no need for an expert when we meet for worship. Perhaps church could let people engage together in open community meetings. Ekklesia gives the Spirit design flexibility in the meeting yet stays with Scripture.

Grace doesn’t make me free to sin. It sets me free from my sins. God’s forgiveness is so much better than attempting to justify yourself. To continue doing what does you in is to pedal a cycle of defeat.

The solution to self-produced pain is to stop producing it. People who habitually do things that hurt themselves have trouble being happy. “To stop running cycles of self-defeating behaviors in your life is called “repentance.”

Jesus warned: “Beware of false prophets.” The Bible helps us recognize them. The Bible helps us to follow the real Jesus & avoid a counterfeit. To change the teaching of Christ & His disciples is to abandon the faith.

Don’t take one person’s spiritual views. Pray for God’s revelation & search the Bible. Avoid people who want you to believe what they teach & to ignore the Bible. Some people make bold theological statements that depart from Scripture. Be careful. People can reject biblical faith but they can’t change it. It is what it is. Before believing a theological statement, check it out to see that it is scriptural.

The wisdom of Scripture is a much more reliable guide than my feelings & whims. Christians who think they don’t need the Bible, need it the most. For solid spiritual guidance: Stay close to the risen Jesus & stay in the Bible. The Bible is the bellows that fan the flames of the Spirit in my heart! Like the first Christ-followers, I believe the Old Testament Scripture & Jesus words.(See John 2:22) The Bible will point you to Jesus & help you avoid false guides that lead to deception.

You can be as open to God (or as closed to Him) as you want to be. God won’t force anyone to be with Him forever. However, He invites everyone. God is so tolerant He allows people to turn away from Him & reject Him forever.

The most effective life coach is the living, resurrected Jesus. He transforms lives! There’s an inner flow from Jesus that lifts me up with hope & joy all day long! God’s way is the high way! Follow Jesus.

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Meditations during Mental Health Awareness Month

I didn’t know that May 2017 was Mental Health Awareness Month. However I woke up on May 10 & 11 with the following thoughts about mental health running through my mind. (For me mental health has always required a lot of work, but the peace and joy that I have has been worth every struggle!)

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Mental health doesn’t just happen. It is built by specific thought & effort. Don’t allow tormenting & troubling thoughts to trample your mental health. For mental health; continually think, say, & consume true, wholesome, and uplifting words.

If you regularly ignore your conscience, mental health will be hard to find. A wide open mind is consumed with consternation. Choose your thoughts wisely.

Some thoughts produce mental health; other thoughts produce mental pain. Every thought that you allow to reign in your brain, shapes your mind in its image. An unmanaged mind careens into inner chaos. Embrace contentment; reject resentment! A mind open to everything stays entangled in mental traffic jams.

Perhaps our minds are too open and our hearts are too closed. We’ve opened our minds to chaos and closed our hearts to wisdom. If you won’t control the thoughts that you allow in your mind; they will control you.

People falsely assume that all their thoughts are self-generated. Not true! Three voices speak in you: 1) yours, 2) evil’s, & 3) God’s. Which do you follow most? God, evil, & self, all put thoughts & feelings in you. Learn to discern between them. If you aren’t controlling your thoughts, who is?

Evil thoughts torment, accuse, depress, discourage, deceive, tempt, oppress. Resist them! Your own thoughts focus on your desires, your interests, & your concerns. If a thought that you don’t want comes to your mind, that thought isn’t from you. God thoughts warn, comfort, direct toward good, give wisdom, bring hope, show love. Live well by embracing thoughts from God & rejecting thoughts from evil.

Evil thoughts like to trick you by pretending to be your own thoughts. They lie! If you don’t overcome evil thoughts, they will torment & control you. If you continually embrace & obey thoughts from God, He will lead you to peace & joy. Regularly reading the Bible will help avoid deception by (& overcome) evil thoughts.

Overthrow evil thoughts. Continually combat them and keep them out of your mind. Refute evil thoughts with truth. Talk back to them. Forcefully make them leave! The closer you get to the risen Jesus, the more power you’ll have over evil thoughts.

If you’re following yourself, you’ll just go in circles. Follow the risen Jesus instead. Jesus taught “deny yourself,” not “accept yourself.” Too many people have put on Son-screen to avoid exposure to the risen Jesus. When confusion abounds, we need the Bible’s wisdom & clarity more than ever. True love warns when it sees someone headed into danger.

Regularly running inspiring thoughts through your mind is an invigorating exercise. Reading the Bible with an open heart, is a powerful workout for your mental health.

Prayer — the pause that refreshes. The most effective life coach is the living, resurrected Jesus. He can transform lives from mental pain to mental health! There’s a rising inner flow from Jesus that lifts me up with hope & joy all day long!

Unscripted prayers

That flow from the heart,

Go beyond formality

And connect with God.

You can be as open to God (or as closed to Him) as you want to be. God won’t force anyone to be at peace with Him forever. However, He invites everyone. God is so tolerant He allows people to turn away from Him & reject Him.

However, God’s way is the high way — the way to mental health. Confused? Stuck? Feeling inner pain? Can’t see the way forward? Jesus is the Way Maker!

To have it your way is to miss out on God’s way. (See Isaiah 55:8.)

Support groups can be a great benefit to mental health. Christianity was originally set up as informal support groups rather than as formal religious meetings. More @ this link.

Amazed, astonished, & awed by Jesus!

I’m continually mystified–amazed, astonished, and awed by the living, resurrected Jesus. To encounter the awesome wonder of the risen Jesus is forever life-changing! To close your heart to Christ is not “self-protection.” It’s self-deception!

Jesus fills my heart with both empathy and ecstasy. To perceive the presence & reality of Jesus is to be overcome with astonishment. I’m continually overwhelmed & undone by the majesty, splendor & grandeur of Jesus. Sensing the magnificence of Jesus releases dazzling brilliance in my soul. Behold the Lamb of God! Why settle for just hearing talks & singing songs about Him?

Without personal & direct revelation of Jesus, all we have is words about Him. If you let your heart be touched & led by Jesus, you’ll step into a whole new life. Jesus shines in the Bible like a light in a window. If you look, you will see Him.

If Christ is your Comforter; your true “comfort zone” is wherever He leads you. Jesus makes my spirit soar; He makes life worth living for. If we will stop running away and let Jesus seize us, we’ll never be the same!

You can’t go in a fresh new direction if you are unwilling to turn. Let God make a diagnostic search of your heart & heal your deepest hurts! Let the Holy Spirit escort your heart into the presence of the risen Jesus!

Christ fills me with so much love, joy, and peace that I can’t keep quiet about Him! You don’t need human endorsement or approval to show & tell what Christ has done!

Without inner spiritual sight (God’s insight) we stumble about without vision. Many surrender their body to the influence of a drug but won’t surrender to Jesus. Some side effects of surrender to Jesus are peacefulness, sudden relief, bouts of joy!

What makes life stagnant? Lack of personal & spiritual growth! It’s good to play follow the leader with Jesus. Only let Him be the leader!

If you’ve had enough of doing nothing; experience significance with Jesus. Let God flip your circuit breaker so the living Jesus can freely flow in your heart. Grow forward into the bright Son-light! Have you lost your get-up-and-grow-in-the-Lord? Jesus gives spiritual life. The Bible fertilizes it. Stay close to both.

We think of church as a group or crowd. Jesus liked twosies & threesies. (Mt. 18:20) Those taught by Jesus see & obey His teaching in the writings of the 1st Christians. Jesus even saw the Old Testament as “Scriptures.” To deny its authority is to disagree with Him. The Holy Spirit doesn’t contradict what He taught through the writers of the Bible. The Bible shows us God’s revelation to the first Christians & aligns us to His truth. Some first century folks inked their experiences of Jesus. The words burn in my heart. Reading in the Bible about those first Christ-followers, makes me long for the faith they had — defiant Christianity!

Defiant Christianity

Joy that defies misery;

Love that defies hatred;

Humility that defies pride;

Goodness that defies evil;

Purity that defies corruption;

Truth that defies dishonesty;

Kindness that defies rudeness;

Compassion that defies apathy;

Inner peace that defies anxiety;

Freedom that defies compulsion;

Hope that defies discouragement;

Surrender to God that defies rebellion.

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McKay Books confirms nontraditional church in Nashville

While walking into McKay Books in Nashville on May 5, I saw a book, New Day, on top of the free-bin & grabbed it. YOU WON’T BELIEVE THESE QUOTES FROM IT THAT CONFIRM WHAT WE DO AT THE SALVATION ARMY BERRY STREET!

–“Recover the original purpose of the Christian assemblies–which is not found in rituals or ritualism, but is instead found in the commitment to build up one another in love.”

–“What we call ‘worship services’ they called ‘gatherings,’ ‘assemblies,’ or just ‘fellowship.’ And this matters because the two concepts imply very different things.”

–“When we restore our assemblies to their original purpose of building up, teaching, and encouraging each other, awesome things can happen.”

–“The assemblies can be intimate and almost like a round table . . . to maximize the horizontal purposes of the gathering.”

–“When I say they met together in devotion and fellowship, you think one thing. When I say they met together for a worship service, you think another. The former is biblical. The latter is not in the Bible. The former implies a sharing environment, give and take, fluidity, joy, fewer rules. It is horizontal–about building up one another. The latter implies a stiff environment, a program, rituals, ceremony, lots of rules. The latter is vertical–about performing sacred acts before God. The former is in the New Testament. The latter is not.” (Learn more about “Christian assemblies” at this link.)

I posted the above on Facebook. Later someone posted this comment:

“I’ve seen your posts for years, and have never seen anything about McKay. Today was the first time I had ever been there. Took a 4 hour round trip just to go there and it was almost like a spiritual experience for me. And then as soon as I get home I get a notification about this post.”

I love how God does incredible things like that, that are so against normal odds of ever happening, and you know it can only be God’s work and His timing. Perhaps your reading this post is something God has done.

Come and experience The Salvation Army Berry Street every Sunday morning at 10:45, 225 Berry St., Nashville 37207.

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Bottom line & personal (the real deal)

The real “bottom line” is your spiritual condition, not your financial condition. You’re true “net worth” is what you possess after everything material is gone. Pursuing Jesus is a game changer. Life’s never the same when you put Him first. When Jesus is living inside a person, it shows on the outside. If you’ve had an electric shock, you know it. If you’ve ever met Jesus, you know it.

A body of believers relating together can often reflect Jesus better than one person can alone. When Jesus-followers collaborate in humility, they open the floodgate of His love. Roles in the body of Christ should be assigned by the Holy Spirit. “The priesthood of the believer” gives all Christ-followers the same status.

The body of Christ is more than assembled spectators observing a performance. If people’s only role in a church service, is to be a spectator, they have no role. Instead of over dependence on a pastor, we need excessive dependence on the Spirit. Centralized control can collapse a church’s creativity. Religious cruse control keeps things going the same pace. Christ-control releases creativity. Don’t try to understand & control Jesus. Let Him control you & be your Lord & Master. People try to figure God out when they can’t figure themselves out. Just love Him.

Unfortunately, group norms can compel us to quench the Spirit, who often leads beyond the usual. To keep Jesus contained on a tight leash is to miss the power of His presence! Without open interaction a group becomes a gathering of spectators. Christianity began with the dynamics and power of Spirit-led, group interaction. Church is a group under a chain-of-command. Ekklesia is a group of Christian friends. Ekklesia releases Heaven’s ecosystem.

Interact with the ecosystem in this picture. Can you find two birds hidden in it? (The answer is below the pic.)

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After taking this pic, I noticed a few things. In the top left hand quarter I see a shadow of a bird perched on a rock and right beside the bird, a shadow of Jesus walking by. In the bottom left hand quarter I see a small bird made out of rock. And of course, there’s an interesting book at the bottom. (“Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” –Jesus) Get Beyond Church @ http://amzn.to/2qCqo4O

When desire tells you

To do something wrong,

Time to be strong.

Resist all day long!

Dream noble dreams,

Work hard to make them real,

And let God do the rest!

Let’s go beyond mental theological study to experiential encounters with Jesus! Perhaps we can repackage Christian theology as a lifestyle, not just as information. A balloon low on helium is pulled down. So also is a Christian low on the risen Christ.

It’s easy to let trust in theological concepts take the place of the risen Jesus. Don’t do that! Without genuine spiritual formation, theology is only religious information. Theological discernment is both a gift of the Spirit & a mental comprehension of Scripture.

Physical homelessness is bad. So is spiritual homelessness. I found home with Jesus. I want to see beyond whatever is blocking my view of God. Christianity is all about seeing and surrendering to the living Jesus! More than biological desires; we have spiritual longings only Christ can fulfill.

Grace is like a base on balls. It’s free, but you still have to run the bases. “Salvation” is to be delivered from rebellion and reconciled to God by Jesus Christ. Run, baby run!

You can’t buy inner peace. but Jesus bought it for you & offers it to you as a gift. Take the gift and boldly carry it forward!

A dummy without a ventriloquist

Jesus is a ventriloquist. Will you be His dummy? (Matthew 10:20) Christ’s ventriloquism happens when ordinary people speak as led by the Spirit. “Christianity for Dummies”–Open your mouth and let Christ the Ventriloquist fill it with His words! –Psalm 81:10 (Learn how to start a Jesus’ Ventriloquist Group here.)

Paul Winchell said: “Ventriloquism today is in a slump.” That’s also true about Jesus’ ventriloquism through everyday people. Perhaps it’s time to let Jesus speak through you! (If Christ lives in you, then He can speak through you. Will you let Him?)

When ordinary Christians speak humbly, from the heart, the words of Christ come out. If we hold back the words of Jesus, we’re like a ventriloquist’s dummy with lockjaw.

Just saying what Jesus puts in your mouth is to flow with God’s words. To be a ventriloquist’s dummy in Jesus’ hands, is to speak with love & wisdom! Jesus’ ventriloquist dummies speak amazing words that surpass the wisdom of the wise.

Christians have been trained to sit in silence and passively listen to a speaker, however, Jesus said; “Speak in the light.” But don’t be a nominal Christian. Let Jesus be phenomenal in you!

A head faith’s not enough. We need Jesus “living on the inside roaring like a lion.” Perhaps the traditional form of church as a religious program to be watched by an audience has kept Christianity behind a fence. Maybe it’s time to go beyond church as usual.

Interactive, Spirit-led activity is more powerful than spectator passivity. Sitting on the premises is not the same as walking out God’s promises together. Jesus never said; “Come, be an audience.” He said; “Come, follow Me.”

Too many keep Jesus in the past or the future, and ignore Him in the present moment. Go beyond Jesus as history & religion to the living, present Jesus.

Let’s meet & let the Great Ventriloquist speak through all His dummies, not just one of them. At The Salvation Army Berry Street in Nashville, ordinary people let Jesus the Ventriloquist speak through them. Come see on Sundays at 10:45 am., 225 Berry St., 37207.

Jesus came to heal the missed up; not to thrill the dressed up. Don’t tolerate emotional pain. Take it to Jesus & be healed. Many people redefine Jesus according to their likes. Instead let Jesus redefine you.

Christ in you will be consistent with Christ in the writers of the Bible. The Bible’s words will heal your heart, but only if you read it:

Go ahead

Take a peek

In God’s Book;

You’ll see Christ’s real

If you’ll take a look.

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Without Christ we’re like a dummy without a ventriloquist. Be a ventriloquist dummy for Jesus. Let Him move you & speak through you.

An Army Is Not An Audience!

Meeting to wait on the Lord is different than meeting to follow a program. However, meeting that way is off the beaten path of religious Christianity. The body of Christ is called to assemble as an army actively obeying its Commander — the risen Jesus — not just as an audience.

The Kingdom of God has a powerful army, “fighting the good fight of faith.” Are you an active part of God’s army? The Kingdom Of God first; above all other nations. (Matthew 6:33)

Jesus is like a power outlet. To receive His power we must plug in & let His current freely flow through us when we gather for worship and when we are alone.

Don’t just sit and mope; get up and hope! Many surrender to drugs to try & feel good. I surrender to Jesus & feel great! Getting on the innernet and live streaming Jesus is amazing! There’s no better addiction than addiction to spending time with the risen Jesus! Follow & obey the risen, biblical Jesus; not “another Jesus.” (2 Corinthians 11:4)

Christ-followers are called

Beyond self-expression

To Christ-expression!

For ekklesia:

* Come together;

* Listen to the Spirit;

* Let people share what they hear.

Ekklessia express: Everyday people expressing what the Spirit is saying. To return to ekklesia is to release the free flow of the Spirit. The mistranslation of “ekklesia” as “church” has caused considerable confusion in Christianity. Jesus chose to call the gathering of His body “ekklesia” which was the name of the city council in Greek city/states, where any citizen could attend and have an equal voice with any other citizen. More at http://amzn.to/2pbrciY.

Spiritual formation is not a study, but a long-term experiential process. Christianity has neglected soul refreshing, a time to actually drink of Christ’s living water. Sometimes we need Jesus to goose us to drink from His living water.

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