Wednesday, April 24, 2019

When in Rome-Week 1-Introduction

We can hardly do Romans justice in the 5 weeks we have planned to cover it because this is simply the most comprehensive and rich description of Christian belief in the whole Bible.  It’s the clearest A-Z compendium of the Fundamentals of our Faith.  And there’s a good reason for that.

Of all the 13 letters of Paul that we have preserved in the New Testament, this is the only one where Paul is writing to a church he never planted or even visited.  So Romans is missing the impassioned, paternal sternness of Galatians; it’s missing the warm familial tone of Philippians; it’s missing the specific addressing of specific problems of Corinthians.  In fact, most scholars note a more regal, magisterial tone in Romans style, and Paul’s introduction of himself is remarkably more formal than other letters.

But we are the beneficiaries of all the ways Romans stands out!  You see, because Paul doesn't know this church personally, and because he doesn’t know anything other than there’s a mixed Church of Jews and Gentiles in the heart of the Empire, he decides to write them a comprehensive treatise on the good news of Jesus.

There are probably two reasons for this.  One is to prepare for a visit he plans to make to Rome in the near future.  Paul was always planning, always on the move.  He had a strategic mind which he reveals in the intro, when he says he’s always, “…asking in my prayers that if it is somehow in God’s will, I may now at last succeed in coming to you.” 

Two is that he wants them to see that he has the Jesus-message straight, and conversely, the letter is his help to them, to make sure they get it straight too.  So without a bunch of inner church problems to deal with, Romans could address Christianity at the level of pure 101 and answer the question, what is the basic message of Jesus we hold out to the world?  So this letter became Paul’s affirmative Case for Christ, and laid the intellectual foundations of a revolutionary new worldview built on His Gospel.

Because of that, Romans became so much more than a mere, A-Z of Christian belief.  This letter has become monumental in the history of the church.  F.F. Bruce (a prominent New Testament Scholar) said this about Romans:
“Time and Again, in Christian history, it has liberated the minds of [people], brought them back to an understanding of the essential Gospel of Christ, and started spiritual revolutions.”

This isn’t an exaggeration.  The early period of Christianity was marked by the monumental writings of Augustine, whose conversion began by reading this book.  The entire Protestant Reformation, which transformed Europe and realigned the Church with the freedom, the beauty and the wonder of its original message of Grace, began after a Roman Catholic monk named Luther read this book.

I can say I myself have had my Christian journey, and all subsequent ministry utterly formed by this book.  The end of the 8th chapter has always seemed to me, a sort of climax of the entire Bible – the conclusive, eloquent stamp on everything Jesus came to bring us!

If you have never done so before, this series is a great time to dive into the meat of this Spirit-inspired treatise.  Because this treatise will (re)introduce you to an idea that cannot help but change the life of everyone who grapples with it in faith.  That idea?  Grace.

-Written by Rick Thiessen

Wednesday, April 10, 2019

Who is AC3? Love the World

How To Hate The World
(Disclaimer: I think I've made it painfully obvious, but just in case... The following is satire - an extreme opposite of what I would like to actually say)

Welcome to my blog! The New Scrooge!
Many of you have reached out to me at The New Scrooge (#DaGeezerEbenezer) asking for a basic tutorial on this subject because you have noticed how well-practiced I am at hating the world. When I say "world" I don't really mean the "Earth" like you see on the nature documentaries - that stuff is alright I suppose - no what I really mean are the people in the world. And when I say hate, I don't really mean the kind of hate you might get out of some club-wielding skinhead at a some supremacy rally... no... I just mean a low-level disregard and indifference (bordering on latent hostility perhaps) for everyone who has not given me some really good reason for treating them with respect. So let's get to it.

Number One: (Pragmatism)
Well I sort of already teased this one... but if another so-called "human" person has not lately done something for me personally (and by lately I mean very quite recently) then there is no pragmatic reason for giving them any respect or consideration. That lady with 3 kids in her shopping cart at the Costmeco - what has she done for me lately besides get in my way and slow me down? I need not even ask to let me by - I just push past. Who cares that she thinks me rude. General courtesy towards other humans might have worked when there were very few of us around - but with nearly 8 billion fighting for my space and my air, who's got the energy to be nice?

Number Two: (Dehumanization)
I really helps to perceive other people as accidental combinations of molecular matter. After all... what is really all that bad about objectifying people? Why not dehumanize someone you don't like or even know? The antiquated notion of personhood can just go rot in my opinion...
Defining personhood is a controversial topic in philosophy and law and is closely tied with legal and political concepts of citizenship, equality, and liberty. According to law, a natural person has "rights, protections and privileges". Blah blah blah... like I said - antiquated stuff. People are essentially no different from cattle and chickens when you look at the science of it, so let's just get over the moldy-oldie notions,

Number Three: (Divisionism)
Speaking of law and politics... you can really express your hate for the world in the voting booths and in the memes you post on social media. Chances are you will be in disagreement with a lot of others in today's political climate. The time for rational and reasonable discourse with a willingness to see things from the others side is over - way over. The only truly effective method of argument these days is the ad-hominem attack - so learn it, practice it on facebook or whatever - get really really good at delivering vicious chat-attacks against any disagreeing person - rather than trying to argue only the position they are maintaining.

Number Four: (Indifference)
All these religious types keep talking about being compassionate towards the suffering. Well I got enough suffering of my own to worry about... why should I invest in the care of fools I know nothing about? If you follow my advice above - only help those who are in a position to help to you back - for the rest - just disavow their humanity and you're golden. If anyone thinks differently find some flaw in them to point at and thereby negate everything else they might say.

Rather than taking my queues from the book that has led humanity for thousands of years - I choose to follow after my fore-bearer Scrooge

I Hate People
(as expressed by Scrooge in Scrooge the Musical - 1970 https://youtu.be/hU6WXCvNGms)

Scavengers and sycophants and flatterers and fools
Pharisees and parasites and hypocrites and ghouls
Calculating swindlers, prevaricating frauds
Perpetrating evil as they roam the earth in hordes
Feeding on their fellow men
Reaping rich rewards
Contaminating everything they see
Corrupting honest men like me
    Humbug! Poppycock! Balderdash! Bah!
    I hate people! I hate people!
People are despicable creatures
Loathesome inexplicable creatures
Good-for-nothing kickable creatures
    I hate people! I abhor them!
When I see the indolent classes
Sitting on their indolent asses
Gulping ale from indolent glasses
    I hate people! I detest them! I deplore them!
Fools who have no money spend it
Get in debt then try to end it
Beg me on their knees befriend them
Knowing I have cash to lend them...
    Soft-hearted me! Hard-working me!
    Clean-living, thrifty and kind as can be!
    Situations like this are of interest to me
I hate people! I loathe people! I despise and abominate people!
Life is full of cretinous wretches
Earning what their sweatiness fetches
Empty minds whose pettiness stretches
Further than I can see
Little wonder I hate people
And I don't care if they hate me!

~Written by Shea Caperoon 

AC3 VB201 GLS Final Update

Check out this video blog with Rick and Dan as they talk about the Global Leadership Summit and what our role in that will look like this year. Enjoy!

Thursday, April 4, 2019

Constructive Connections-Part 13

Muddied Hands


Constructive Connections is a fiction series.  They are beginning tales of how each person is crafted by God to fulfill a purpose, to enhance the narrative of life.  By contributing unique talents to serve one another, a tower God calls us to construct begins to form for His joy.


“Hey Harper, what’s your shirt say?” 14 years old, Mason, asked me in the kitchen today.  He had on a hoodie, ripped baggy jeans, and plenty of attitude about how his mom had “made” him come help in the kitchen tonight.  
I knew the boy could read, but I read it out loud anyway, “Says: ‘He restored me’.”  I remember when I ordered it online a couple of months ago, the artwork was cool; a painted pair of ragged hands reaching up-rugged rough hands, working life hands.  And there was one bright spotless hand reaching down; the forgiving hand.
“So…is it like a God shirt?”  he said with a smirk.
My gloved hands were covered in meatball mess, while Mason’s were clean and clearly holding tight to the cell phone in his sweatshirt pocket.  My 4-year-old son Charles has a security blanket; apparently there’s such thing as a security-cell. “No, not a ‘God Shirt.’”  I stopped and thought about what kind of a statement I was making by wearing my favorite black tee.  How could I explain?
Do I tell him?  Would this kid actually listen as I told him of my life as an only child; one who fought for attention from my folks?  Should I tell him of the long list of trouble I got into when I was his age, with individuals camouflaged as friends?
Do I tell of the ways I failed?  How when my need for attention was not met by my wife Ramona, I found attention from someone else?  Do I reveal the agonized sound of my best friend’s heartbreak and how it wrecked and ripped at every fiber of my being?   
Do I tell him of how I almost lost my life?  Would he listen to me yammering on about how I saw my moral failure as something I wasn’t in control of; that it was everyone’s fault, not my own?
Do I tell him how I let my family, my treasure, fall away from me?  When I told of my heart being packed up, along with my wife and son, as my body watched it all drive away to live without me across the country; would he comprehend?  Would he get it?
Maybe I could tell him about when I got broke.  About the time I found myself in men’s group at our church; the church where my wife and I met, the church where we looked like Christians, had the membership card, wore the t-shirt, but forgot to let Jesus (or anybody else for that matter) into our problems.
Then I could tell him about the time I confessed to everyone I hurt; especially to Jesus, who I claimed to follow.
Suppose he might understand why I left my job, left my home, why I gave up that sinful man, to reclaim what God had freely offered me once more…hope.
I wonder if this youth just sees a man rolling meatballs and labels it inconvenience, or chore, or boring.  I wonder if he could recognize my pure joy knowing my son and wife and I are in the same house again.  No, it isn’t where we sleep, it’s our church home; it’s where we are awake. Providing a meal for family, sisters and brothers in Christ, is something that is done effortlessly.  If he understood, maybe, just maybe, he’d take his hands out of his pocket to open the cans of spaghetti sauce.
“It is not a God Shirt, Mason.  It is a statement of who I owe my life to.” I rolled another meatball.  “I wrote a life story I was not proud of. God and I are writing a new one.”  I held up the meat covered gloves, “These hands were so dirty. But when I reached,” I took off one of the gloves to reveal my clean left hand, “He cleaned me up, because he loves.  He absolutely loves…me.”
He brought me out into a spacious place; he restored me because he delighted in me.
2Samuel 22:20

Written by Jennifer Love

Who is AC3? Love the Church

Fill in the Blank

“The Church is just a _____” ; you can fill in the blank and it probably has come out of the mouth of one or more people in a religious debate.   I cannot blame people for what they say, and I even see that some of their points are valid. There are all too many examples of churches doing wrong.  With the scandals, hate disguised as Jesus’ Word, and historical wrongs that still play out today, ALL leading to the divide that has caused so many to fall out of love with the church.  
Others I have conversed with have argued not against the church as directly; their argument is more about not “Needing” the church to be a good Christian.
So, what does my defense sound like when faced with all of these real accusations and attacks on the church?
First, we have to look at the attack on church failures.  It is unfair to look only at the wrongs church has done. How about the humanitarian efforts that have come from Christians doing church right? Without the church medical treatment, food distribution, shelter, and compassion for the poor would be nonexistent in some places around the world.  As for the haters who use scripture out of context; haters are gonna find a way to hate, even if it means misquoting the Bible.
The world’s media love to highlight the failings of the big “C” church, but just as with most things in this world the majority is not what gets air-time attention.  It is the few that stand out; the weakness of one pastor that destroys a church, the extremist holding a sign stating “You are going to hell!” whom the media loves to call “Fundamentalists” (True fundamental Christians spread love not hate).  But these make the broadcasts, because the ones who get it right are not deemed “news worthy”.
Now about not needing the church?  We are called to gather: “For where two or more gather in my name, there am I with them” (Matt 18:20).  We are not meant to be alone, we are called to love one another. We are called to love the church, not the organization or the building, but the people.  Fact: There are 59 “one another” commands in the Bible, I leave you with this question: How do you “One Another” if you don’t gather?

-Written by Christian Love

Tuesday, April 2, 2019

Who is AC3?-Love God




Who is AC3?

Love God-
Imagine for a moment what it looks like for you to love God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all our strength and with all your mind. What do your neighbors, co workers, friends, immediate and extended family see?  Does your life look any different in your imagination as it appears in your day-to-day life experiences? For me, there is a clear distinction from my life before I accepted Jesus as my savior and my life after my conversion. But, that's not what I am really talking about. I am honestly evaluating my life against the lens of who I am for God. I am frankly asking myself how can others tell that I love God? More importantly how do I see in my core that I truly love God with all my heart, soul, strength and mind? Does my life reflect my deep love for Yahweh in ways that are profound?

Just last week I thought I could squeeze into my already packed day a quick workout at the gym. I was trying to manage my mental to do list with limited time to really get the things done that I sought to accomplish. When things were not going the way I anticipated I began to spiral into a frazzled and frustrated form of myself. Have you ever been there? My heart was distracted and my mind in chaos and yet God in His perfect timing corrected me, gently and lovingly in the form of service. I was rushing down the hall and a woman rushed by me even more frazzled than myself. She was really  in need of help. And she needed that help immediately. Two things were evident: no one else was available and this was not the kind of help that would be easy. She needed the type of help that requires time, effort, compassion and love. So there it was friends, the profound moment when my own timetable became irrelevant and God pressed upon my heart to love my neighbor as myself. I was obedient to His prompting. These revelations help me to see that I really am different.But, if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in Him. Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.” 1 John 2:5-6  Only through the Father may I have the heart and strength to love extravagantly. Loving God with my all my heart, soul, strength and mind looks like Jesus and how He calls us to live everyday.

The process in which we grow more like Jesus has a fancy word, sanctification. As we grow in our faith and in our disciplines we embody the word Christian- which from this past weekend’s sermon means to be little Christ. I move forward in my growth in my relationships with the people whom God places in my life. I find that with the form of grouping I can love God in ways I never would have imagined a decade ago or even just a few years ago. But, in stepping out to look more like Jesus I am surrounded by many who are doing the same thing. Growing in profound ways that show others that the church isn’t a building but the bride. My groups challenge me to speak truthfully, walk faithfully and love the church in beautiful ways.


I will add for the sake of transparency that I am hesitant to admit how often I find myself caught up in things that don’t feed my soul and distract my mind. The things of this world that tie up valuable bandwidth, things such as my never ending laundry, my constant drive to declutter our home and my desire to be productive and seen as worthy. All of the chaos created by me or thrust upon me robs me of opportunities to just love God with my soul and with my mind. I tend to become preoccupied  by circumstances and not what truly matters, which is HIM. As I am growing in my spiritual disciplines I do find myself more and more stopping to sit in His presence. I regroup my scattered thinking and rest in HIM. I pause to revel in His abundant blessings.(John 10:10) I am sustained as the Lord draws near to me when I cease to run ahead of Him or lag behind Him but instead choose to rest in Him. How do I do this? Like Dan suggested in his teaching on the topic, I come to HIM and glorify my Father in Heaven. I have my go to scriptures that recalibrate me back onto the narrow way. I sing songs of praise. I call out to Him and in my pleas for mercy He feeds my soul and calms my mind. I confess, repent and love Him with all my heart, soul, strength and mind. And in those moments of honest and heartfelt devotion I discover I am loving God in profound ways.