Paul Ellis's Blog, page 31

Letters from Jesus: now in paperback + Easter Treat!

Ten years ago I started writing about the letters from Jesus, and two good things came out of that exercise: (1) a website call Escape to Reality and (2) my new book, Letters from Jesus. The book comes out today in paperback. Paul, what is your book about? Letters from Jesus is my most radical book. Contrary to all tradition, it dares to claim that the seven letters from Jesus are full of undiluted good news for all of us. There’s no bad news in the good news, and there’s no bad news in the l...

How do we become lukewarm?

Many Christians are lukewarm, but not for the reasons they think. “I don’t go to church enough, I don’t pray enough, I don’t witness enough.” Let me stop you right there. How much is enough? How many people do you need to lead to Jesus to stop him from vomiting you out of his mouth? The answer is zero, because Jesus will never vomit you out. You are not lukewarm because of your productivity. But you may be lukewarm if you are mixing the white-hot love of God with the stone-cold demands of the...

Who are the pillars in the church?

As a young man, I was told I was a pillar in the church. It made me feel good to hear the pastor say this, and I could hardly disagree. Of course I was a pillar. I was a good boy. I didn’t drink or smoke or do burnouts in the church car park. I arrived early on Sundays to put out chairs and I stayed back to pack up the AV equipment. I served on the worship team and got to share the Word on occasion. I was not only a pillar; I was a rocket going places. Watch me soar! I cringe to write about t...

Why does Jesus wish we were cold?

“You gotta be hot, hot, hot for Jesus! You gotta get enthusiastic in evangelizing the lost. You gotta get on fire with passion for the Lord.” This is a message I used to preach, yet it is only half of what Jesus said. “You are neither cold or hot but lukewarm. I wish that you were cold or hot” (Rev. 3:15-16). Wait, what? Cold is the opposite of hot. If hot is good, how can cold be good too? I have heard some silly answers to this one over the years. “It is better to be dead in your sins than...

What does it mean to remove a church’s lampstand?

If you wanted to control people using fear and dark threats, you could become a Sith Lord, or you could take the good promises of Jesus, turn them inside out, and use them to terrorize God’s children. Let me give you an example: Unless you repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand out of its place. (Rev. 2:5) What does that mean? It sounds scary. I’d better do whatever the man of God tells me. And bam, there goes your freedom. Hi ho, hi ho, it’s off to work we go. In the research I...

Are you working too hard for Jesus?

Who were the hardest working Christians in the Bible? The answer must surely be Paul and his friends, but many people will say it was the church at Ephesus. They say this because of what Jesus said in his letter to the church: “I know your deeds and toil” (Rev 2:2a). Commentators make much of Jesus knowing the Ephesians’ deeds and toil, as though an impressed Lord was recording their labors in his scorebook. But the original word for know simply means “I see”. It’s not necessarily a commendat...

Are your deeds incomplete?

If Christians are worn out, it is for one of two reasons: (1) they don’t know how much their Father loves them and (2) they have an unbiblical definition of work. Hey, I’m not judging anyone here. When it comes to overwork, I’m guilty as sin. I’m a workaholic who regularly pushes himself past breaking point. I’ve learned a lot through my mistakes, but sometimes I wonder whether I have learned anything at all. So put this one in the “Do as I say, not as I do basket.” On the subject of rest vs...

Happy Birthday to us, and a free book for you!

Today is Escape to Reality’s 9th birthday, and to celebrate I’m giving subscribers free PDF copies of my most misjudged book, AD70 and the End of the World: Finding Good News in Christ’s Prophecies and Parables of Judgment. I say misjudged, because people who haven’t read it have claimed that I’m a preterist (I’m not) or that I don’t believe in either the rapture (I do) or the final return of the Lord (I am very much looking forward to it!). Anyway, you can read the book for yourself and make...

What does it mean to keep his deeds?

If you were to make a list of big topics discussed by Jesus and the New Testament writers, the subject of deeds or works would have to be on that list. They all spoke about it, and no one more than Jesus. Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for not doing the works of Abraham (John 8:39-40), and said we would be judged for what we have done (John 5:28-29). This frightens some people. They think we have to get busy for the Lord and that he will judge us on our performance. “Am I doing enough? Will I ma...

What deeds does Jesus know?

“I know your deeds,” says Jesus to the churches. He exhorts the Ephesians to do the deeds they did at first (Rev. 2:5), he rebukes the Sardisians for having incomplete deeds (Rev. 3:2), and he promises to reward the Thyatirans according to their deeds (Rev. 2:23). Clearly our deeds or works matter to Jesus. But what sort of deeds is Jesus referring to? The preacher of law says, “Jesus is referring to our law-keeping performance. We must keep the commands to please the Lord.” A similar interpr...