activate...

Last weekend, we talked at length about how we as followers of Jesus can live out our faith by giving back to those in need. Scripture is full of passages calling us to care for the poor, weak, widow, orphan and alien. We have struggled because we have talked about this a lot, but have not acted it out...yet. It's time to ACTIVATE! I loved Liza's post which pretty much sums up where we are. We discussed some ideas including participating in Adopt-a-Family and Family-to-Family. These are two initiatives that we will try to pursue this year. In addition, we have an opportunity to serve our neighbors in Quakertown this Sunday at the Halloween Parade at 2:00pm. We are trying to gather a group of people that can help us distribute hot chocolate or lemonade (depending on the weather) to the community as a practical way of displaying God's love.

religion vs. Jesus...

This past weekend, we spent some time discussing the difference between religion and Jesus. Jesus didn't die on the cross to start a new religion. The Latin root of the word religion can mean binding or to bind up. In the Jewish context, to bind means to forbid. Unfortunately, religion often focuses on rules, do's and don't's, and misses the point of freedom in Christ. Jesus confronted the Pharisees and religious leaders head on about their hypocrisy in not practicing what they taught and creating unnecessary hoops for followers to jump through to obtain righteousness. They seemed bent on climbing the ladder of righteousness through rules and regulations to elevate their status with God. Jesus demolishes their ladder and turns their thinking upside down and through grace welcomes all to the table. How can we as followers of Jesus demolish the ladders that modern religion creates?

they like Jesus but not Dan's hair...

We had the opportunity to watch a talk that Dan Kimball gave on this topic and although we were a bit distracted by the hair, Dan communicated some important information. He called us to be educated about the culture that we live in, step outside our Christian bubbles and redefine evangelism. How do we put this into practice, love people like Jesus, all the while not diluting or hiding the message of the Gospel?