Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Thomas Campbell and Verbal Kent

Two hundred years ago Thomas Campbell wrote a document for a group of Christians who saw the divisions between churches and denominations as a great failure. He called all who express faith in God to find unity in the teachings of the Bible and to allow the Bible to be our only guide. Clearly, we've not been able to fulfill Campbell's vision in the past two centuries.

Why?

Can we not extend fellowship to people who profess to be Christians even if we disagree about some things beyond the deity of Jesus and our absolute dependence on his redeeming work? Aren't we failing to see that we have a common enemy? Do we really believe that our downfall will come at the hands of professing Christians who ... (insert your favorite here... let women wear slacks, let women speak, take communion from one cup or many cups, believe something actually happens to the bread and wine, actually use wine, send money overseas, eat food in the building, eat food in a separate building, etc, etc, etc)

I quote my good friend Verbal Kent, "The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist."

If we could recapture all the wasted ink, breath, time and energy spent splitting hairs with the people who share 99.5% of our spiritual DNA what could we accomplish?

Friday, October 16, 2009

If God refines us through suffering...

I know some people watched The Prodigy and it changed their lives... I'm not one of them. It's a fascinating plot acted out by what looks like the night class of a "complete your GED in 4 weeks" school. But sometimes, when you sift through enough mud, you find a gold nugget.

The question that this film asks, perhaps more succinctly than I've heard it asked before is, "If God refines us through suffering, then why blame the devil at all?"

If an omnipotent God is in control of our world and involved in our lives... and we experience pain or loss or death... isn't it ultimately His responsibility?

What do you think?