There is more to life than being a wimp. This refers to our softness on ourselves when it comes to living the gospel. We need to have good posture. We need to exercise what we know. Living it out is a daily practice, not a monthly one. Exercising once a month won't get you in shape. Going to church once a month won't make you fervent. Hey wait. . . isn't fervent a little too intense?
Kindness and softness are not the same thing. We need to be kind instead of soft, encouraging others to rise to their full potential. Everyone has a destiny, not just the pastor. He gets paid, but you are being you out of your own free will. Your response is free.
We need to be somewhat stringent to really come down to a person and a relationship, not a religion, method, or structure. The reason is, Jesus can be found in many colours, many faces, many beliefs, many buildings, many structures, in the hearts of men. We can't quite pin it down, and this is good. When we want to make Jesus into something we can control, it has lost its life. There is already the understanding of what a dead church is, of the image of an old church building whose tithes and parishioners have dwindled down to nothing. A church full of people, with no life. A building where people come but don't mean it. Nominal holiday attending blank faces. The church is meant to be alive. It is meant to be a flame, a controlled fire of love. But be careful you don't put out the fire entirely with the hope of controlling the flame. Every believer has a flame in their hearts. They need those with their candles lit to light their hearts to flame. This fervency is what you see in a real believer. They have the capacity to light others.
We can rejoice that the real church lives and breathes, but it exists through pain and persecution. It is birthed by solitary prayer. It happens when we are alone with God through the trials in our lives and come face to face with who we really are. The persecuted church exists today as much in North America as it does in Asia. There are Christians who live out painful lives, crucifying their flesh until they know the reality of Christ in every country. That is how they know it is real. Jesus himself lived out human life in all its pain, and as a lamb, finally crucified the flesh once and for all. Halleluiah!
There are widows and orphans everywhere, and many mouths to feed. There are the poor on every continent who can tell you stories about the light of a church feeding them. There is both physical hunger and spiritual hunger, and both require our dedication.
When they went across the lake, the disciples forgot to take bread.
"Be careful," Jesus said to them. "Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees."
They discussed this among themselves and said, "It is because we didn't bring any bread."
Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked, "You of little faith, why are you talking among yourselves about having no bread?
Do you still not understand? Don't you remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered?
Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered?
How is it you don't understand that I was not talking to you about bread? But be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees."
Then they understood that he was not telling them to guard against the yeast used in bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?"
They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets."
"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"
Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."
Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.
And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.
I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."
Then he warned his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ.
From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.
Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. "Never, Lord!" he said. "This shall never happen to you!"
Jesus turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men."
Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
Matthew 16: 5-24
