tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4309238156655213462024-03-18T21:51:02.143-07:00Men Of Praise Motorcycle MinistryHeaven Bound by the Grace of GodPastor FedExhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04000708319207515343noreply@blogger.comBlogger21125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-430923815665521346.post-45973123694690990842013-10-16T08:32:00.001-07:002013-10-16T08:32:17.525-07:00New BlogWe will be closing the Men of Praise Blog and moving our blogging activity, little as it is to <a href="http://urbanpresence.blogspot.com/">http://urbanpresence.blogspot.com</a><br />
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Any of you who still follow this blog are invited to join us on our new blog. We will be posting information about our ministry, our family, and opportunities for joining us in ministry. We look forward to this new chapter in blogging and ministry. Pastor FedExhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04000708319207515343noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-430923815665521346.post-68542853466362024052012-01-02T08:22:00.000-08:002012-01-02T08:23:23.845-08:00New Years Thoughts<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Among the many traditions that have eluded me over the years is the tradition of the New Years resolution. I can honestly say that I have not broken a new year’s resolution, but mostly because I cannot remember ever having made such a resolution to break in the first place. It’s not that I have something against self-improvement, or that I don’t have plenty of things that I could change or do better, its just that I never really felt like making a promise to do better simply because it is a new year would help me to accomplish any of these things. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><a name='more'></a><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">There is one thing, however, that I do believe in, and that is establishing goals, even though I am not always very good at accomplishing them. So rather than listing the things that I resolve to do differently this year, I am working on a list of goals for my personal, business, and ministry that will help me to better know where I am and where I would like to be. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">While I am still just starting on my list of goals, I do have a few goals for this blog that I would like to share.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">First, I want to share more about the ministry of Men and Women of Praise. I want this to be informative for the reader so they know how they can support and pray for this ministry, without the blog becoming a place to brag about all the good things we are doing. My intention in sharing about specific events we attend and people we work with will only be to provide a glimpse into the world where God has lead our ministry. I do not desire to bring glory this ministry, to myself, or to anyone else, other than God who has done such incredible things in us and through us. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Secondly, I want to make it a goal of this blog to make the readers more familiar with the other ministers involved in the Men and Women of Praise. Men and Women of Praise encompass ministers from many different walks of life and while some passions are shared in common, we all have different areas of ministry that we are more or less passionate about. This year will include several guest posts from the members and officers of the ministry so you can get to know them better. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Lastly, I am continually reminded of the fact that I am not a very prolific blogger. In the last year, I averaged around 1.5 blog posts per month. This could be due to my very busy life with four kids, a small business, and a ministry, but probably not entirely. I have friends with almost equally busy lives that blog a few times a day so I think I can find time to blog more often. I am not going to say just yet exactly how often, but I think I can bring my average up a few posts a month at least. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Praying God’s blessings on all of my friends and fellow ministers in the year 2012, </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Edwin “FedEx” Aldrich, </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">President, </div><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Men of Praise Motorcycle Ministry</span>Pastor FedExhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04000708319207515343noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-430923815665521346.post-53555988239768836252011-12-13T12:12:00.000-08:002011-12-13T12:12:41.590-08:00Reaping What We Sow<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXuwHN86NOL84globjXIfn481f7R5JRT-S_ZydvvQVj9-DJJdpzRzff4nqt_NDwjHfYJKK0uOrwK9MK0g2HACc6oMygI4U5ouAAtpgVSiaVYio7Vk1oGIYrtMhzKtSqQWJwSDN_OtsJGI/s1600/wheat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="221" oda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXuwHN86NOL84globjXIfn481f7R5JRT-S_ZydvvQVj9-DJJdpzRzff4nqt_NDwjHfYJKK0uOrwK9MK0g2HACc6oMygI4U5ouAAtpgVSiaVYio7Vk1oGIYrtMhzKtSqQWJwSDN_OtsJGI/s320/wheat.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div>This week, during my hour long commute, I was listening to a radio program that is produced by a national evangelical ministry. They were interviewing a well known leader of another national ministry about recent events leading up to the current financial crisis. Although I do not normally involve myself in politics, I listened for a while, right up until the person speaking said the number one problem with America, and particularly the Church in America was that we have lost our "Puritan work ethic". I changed the radio back to my music channel and began to ponder just what the speaker meant by this statement. <br />
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Now, I am pretty sure what this person meant was that we could fix America's social and financial problems if only we could convince everyone to work harder. We need them to work harder toward living good lives, toward providing for themselves; if everyone would just work harder at being better people, then we would not have the problems we have today. Here is where I jump off the ship, so to speak, and head in almost the totally opposite direction. <br />
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Now don't get me wrong, I am not against working, in fact, I think that having a work ethic is biblical. Paul even goes so far as to tell the Thessalonians that if a person capable of working does not work, then he should not get to eat. But I have a little trouble swallowing the dubious claim that the primary problem is that people are not working hard enough toward being better.<br />
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I do agree that part of the problem is the "Puritan work ethic", whatever that means. I mean seriously, have you ever tried to find a picture of a puritan at work? I did, and what I got was hundreds of pictures of puritans sitting in church or around a Bible study, and probably just as many of puritans sitting in judgement, or burning someone at the stake, or placing someone in stocks. But the pictures of them actually working are exceedingly rare. I digress, however, and yet somehow, this is exactly my point. <br />
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The reason the Puritan's worked so hard, the reason the Pharisees worked so hard, the reason the Catholics work so hard, and the reason that evangelicals work so hard, is exactly the heart of the problem. For so long our pulpits have taught "good people do this, and look like this, and work like this, and if you do not measure up to the standard then you are not a good person. And furthermore, we know that only good people are going to get into heaven, so if you do not want to incur our wrath here and God's wrath in the future, then you better make sure you work hard at measuring up."<br />
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So maybe, the problem is not that we have forgotten the "Puritan work ethic", but that we remember all to well the religious teaching that we must reach some unattainable goal in order to be "good enough". We remember that only judgement and wrath await those who fail to reach that goal. We remember the feeling of failing to measure up and the pain associated with being judged and we choose instead to simply sit this one out. Perhaps in the end the real trouble is that we know deep down that we can never measure up, and that if the only way to achieve acceptance is to measure up then why even bother. The Bible says that we reap what we sow, and maybe what we are experiencing now is reaping the fruit of self righteousness.<br />
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What this country needs is not people proclaiming the message that all we have to do is work harder at being "good people". What this country and the church needs to hear is the message that God already knows we will never measure up, and that he took care of that already. What we need to hear is not work harder toward your own salvation, or toward saving others, but rather rely more on the completed work of Christ on your behalf. Working harder never results in real righteousness, only self righteousness or self condemnation. <br />
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FedEx, <br />
President, <br />
Men of Praise Motorcycle MinistryPastor FedExhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04000708319207515343noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-430923815665521346.post-2456343159562617632011-11-08T09:56:00.000-08:002011-11-08T10:00:03.971-08:00Of Blessings Planned and Unplanned<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4BevJfRMPDAkvWsNuxo76R8EU9FIgwmXwsW4QaGAgM0rpQdWSWpnKUOXJQcsYEffAfSxFv7dcxMX9aNcBJT09ItA5804xy-kPBJo6EGU8E4UR4TowmEoR1OeZ3nZs2n-5Q8O9co4w4Sc/s1600/Baby+Zeke.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="301" ida="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4BevJfRMPDAkvWsNuxo76R8EU9FIgwmXwsW4QaGAgM0rpQdWSWpnKUOXJQcsYEffAfSxFv7dcxMX9aNcBJT09ItA5804xy-kPBJo6EGU8E4UR4TowmEoR1OeZ3nZs2n-5Q8O9co4w4Sc/s400/Baby+Zeke.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>Everybody say hello to the newest member of the Aldrich clan, Ezekiel Aldrich, or baby Zeke as the nurses are calling him. Baby Zeke was born yesterday, November 7th, at 10:04am by cesarean section and both he and Charity are healthy and recovering well. We are praising God for the blessing of our new child and for protecting both baby and mother through the birth process. <br />
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For those of you who know my family and I, you probably already know that things did not work out like we had been planning. After the last two of our children were born quietly at home with little fuss or trouble, we had planned for baby Zeke to enter the world in pretty much the same way. For the last few weeks we have been preparing our home for the birth, gathering and staging the supplies needed. When this weekend came and Zeke's due date approached we had everything ready and we were as prepared as we could be. <br />
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But like everything in life, you can never be truly ready for every possibility. After a few hours of labor with baby Zeke's heart rate dropping and mother not progressing as she should the decision was made to go to the hospital. Within a few hours more of close monitoring both mother and baby, the doctor recommended a c-section and we were whisking Charity off to the operating room. Within minutes we were welcoming our newest child. <br />
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After all of it, we never did get an answer as to why the baby was having heart rate problems or why things were not progressing as they should have. I guess it would have been easier to accept the interrupted plans if we knew that we had narrowly averted some life-threatening disaster. It is always easier to praise God in difficult times when we can find the reasons (or at least think we can) behind them. What is not so easy is trusting God and praising Him when there was no obvious reason for any of the problems, and there was no unseen disaster avoided by God's divine change of plan. <br />
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So for now it appears my choices are to keep looking for the underlying "divine purpose" in all of this so that I can praise God for that, or I can simply trust that even in this seemingly unnecessary interruption God is still working and actively seeking what is best for his beloved children. I am resolved that I may never understand or be able to explain why this birth didn't go as we had planned. But just like baby Zeke clings to my hand looking to me, completely helpless and trusting me to care and provide for him; I guess I get to cling to my Father and completely powerless to bring my own plans into being, just trusting Him to care for me and my family, and our newest member. <br />
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FedEx, <br />
President,<br />
Men of Praise Motorcycle MinistryPastor FedExhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04000708319207515343noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-430923815665521346.post-33938677648549888872011-10-23T20:20:00.000-07:002011-10-23T20:25:50.505-07:00Who is the Church? (Part 4)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHWcz5UsGTPOr6Oilap16nxwAoztjw-0-034dhePIY_ZLnZi0KjxyYpr81xhkK3_I6WUb7SsrvRdL0V6yZudpQkel0SkyH4G9s_Cy99NUKXGFvkvzIUd-43RYQGhKbLhim2MKLc7K-44Q/s1600/Two+or+three.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHWcz5UsGTPOr6Oilap16nxwAoztjw-0-034dhePIY_ZLnZi0KjxyYpr81xhkK3_I6WUb7SsrvRdL0V6yZudpQkel0SkyH4G9s_Cy99NUKXGFvkvzIUd-43RYQGhKbLhim2MKLc7K-44Q/s320/Two+or+three.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div>When thinking about who or what constitutes a "Church" it is really impossible not to look at Matthew 18:20. In this very well-known verse, Jesus says that wherever there are two or three gathered together in His name, He will be in their midst. The words of this verse have long been used by both those inside and outside the traditional denominations to claim the authority of Jesus over what they call "Church". The argument is that if we have a group of people, no matter what size, who come together, and talk about Jesus, or in some way claim affiliation with Jesus then that IS Church". <br />
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So, is this really what Jesus is saying to His disciples here, is he really placing a rubber stamp in the hands of His followers that allows them to declare any gathering loosely related to Jesus as the "Church"? Somehow, I cannot see this really being the intent of Jesus; in fact, I think it may be quite far from the actual intent. I will attempt to explain the process that lead me to believe this. <br />
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First, lets look at the other places where we see Jesus use the phrase "in my name". In the book of John, we see "in my name" paired with petition or asking something from God. In John 14:13, 14, 15:16, and 16:23,24. Jesus essentially says that when a Christian asks for anything "in His name" they will be given that thing. So is Jesus issuing a rubber stamp that gives his followers the right to claim any desire they have for themselves if and only if they tack his name on to the end of it? While there are some who actually teach and believe this to be true, it obviously cannot be since there are countless stories of prayers that had the name of Jesus attached to them that have not been answered. <br />
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While this impossibility may seem intellectually obvious, this idea has so permeated Christian thought, that most prayers from Christians of nearly every stripe are ended with the line "in Jesus name we pray, Amen". Some Christians have realized that their prayers are not being answered, do they have added the very spiritual sounding "if it be your will God" to the "give me this in Jesus name". This way, when they do not get what they want, they can simply say it was not "God's will" for them to get their request. The problem with this is that Jesus' words do not really give this option. In everyone of the above passages from John, Jesus says "ask in My name and you will receive", not "ask in My name and according to God's will, and you will receive". <br />
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What then, could Jesus have been saying when he said "in My name"? While I am not certain that anyone can fully understand this, I think that the book of John gives us one more important clue. In John 17:20-26 Jesus is praying for His disciples and asks that they would be "one in Us" in the same way that Jesus was one with the Father. Maybe Jesus statement includes the idea of asking according to God's will, but also so much more. What if Jesus is saying "If you know Me, and seek to live like Me and you ask something from God because you desire to know Me more and live out God to the world in the same way I did, you will receive it, because that is God's will for you". <br />
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Now, we began this discussion about the Church, not about prayer, so lets bring it back around. What about the "in my name" with reference to the gathering of believers. If we apply the same idea here, it might look something like this :<br />
<blockquote> "wherever two or three believers come together in order to better know Me and My Father so that they might better live out God to the world in the way that I lived out My Father before them, I will honor their desire to know Me and live like Me by Joining with them". </blockquote> How different would the Church look if this were our interpretation of Jesus' words?<br />
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FedEx, <br />
President, <br />
Men of Praise Motorcycle MinistryPastor FedExhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04000708319207515343noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-430923815665521346.post-6651541667051854882011-08-30T13:37:00.000-07:002011-08-31T11:37:42.498-07:00Who Is The Church? (Part 3)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioFOCQv2-3kHz7m5b5LQtcM-ZZZaDuEUnOlrud6i0_CTqDKZFFmTBNXsUU9V4LpExanQvCXtHgMjuWptNaDg0olyU_-q4AwQxGVvX-t4xYSuF_Ymbci4FNABdUasGHY5ePF67tClT3IvU/s1600/Church+in+a+Box.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioFOCQv2-3kHz7m5b5LQtcM-ZZZaDuEUnOlrud6i0_CTqDKZFFmTBNXsUU9V4LpExanQvCXtHgMjuWptNaDg0olyU_-q4AwQxGVvX-t4xYSuF_Ymbci4FNABdUasGHY5ePF67tClT3IvU/s400/Church+in+a+Box.bmp" width="400" xaa="true" /></a></div><strong>The Para-Church Organization</strong><br />
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Growing up in a traditional institutional church, I was constantly reminded that one of the greatest enemies of the "local church" was the so-called para-church organization. An organization that existed outside of the "authority" of the local church and that, more importantly, competed directly with the local church for precious monetary resources. The para-church organization was a parasite sucking resources that should rightly have been committed to the particular local church group, or at least that's what I had been taught. <br />
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It was also said that para-church organizations existed outside the authority of the local church because of a complete lack of desire to submit to authority of any kind. Since the local church's authority was given by God himself, they were unwilling to submit themselves to God. Clearly any group or organization that was denying the authority of God was in trouble. This was clearly evidenced by the para-church's focus on active service over correct doctrine. <br />
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<strong>Is there such a thing as Para-Church?</strong><br />
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The organization that I now lead would be considered by my old church as a para-church organization. We have leaders, and we call them pastors, and overseers, and deacons. We all attend a gathering called church regularly, but the organization itself is not part of or under the control of any one local body. Does this make us "para-church" or outside the church? I would have once answered this question with a resounding "yes". <br />
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But are we really outside the church? No, we are not outside. We are part of many churches, and part of God's larger church body. We are all believers, and when we gather in any number, because of what Christ has done for us, and for the purpose of bearing God's image to one another and the world, we ARE church. <br />
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The church is not a building, or a denomination, or a specific group that meets at a set place and time. Church is two men having coffee and encouraging one another with God's word. Church is a handful of people who come to help a single mother move in the middle of a rainstorm. Church is wherever the people of God gather as a result of the work of God in their lives and seek to minister to one another and to the world. Church can take place in a building at a specified time and in a specified way, but it can also take place on the side of a road with a broken down single mother running away from her abusive past.<br />
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It is certainly much easier to keep church inside the walls of a building, but just as God is not meant to live in a box, church was never meant to be kept in a box. Church is meant to be a traveling community, a living breathing organism that is carried along with each and every believer. Church is meant to encompass all of those who believe in Christ, and to impact all of those who do not. <br />
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<em><strong>So go ahead, let your church out of its box, stop just going to a place called church, and start living like you ARE the body of Christ. </strong></em><br />
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FedEx, <br />
President, <br />
Men of Praise Motorcycle Ministry<br />
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Pastor FedExhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04000708319207515343noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-430923815665521346.post-76737906813883436592011-08-11T11:44:00.000-07:002011-08-31T11:37:24.192-07:00Who Is The Church? (Part 2)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIJnxin6nFEw9hXMerTqmZWiXklUG9m41cFAstDzpulRW2o6OQ-K95sOizPF6BDtzk0tiOy2BuIyywq6pvSVj_ys1o0xsGf0_8LtrUjBEpoBb5bBgMD73e8Gt4vzHQ8rEt7q5PmgM3nqc/s1600/local+church.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="215" naa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIJnxin6nFEw9hXMerTqmZWiXklUG9m41cFAstDzpulRW2o6OQ-K95sOizPF6BDtzk0tiOy2BuIyywq6pvSVj_ys1o0xsGf0_8LtrUjBEpoBb5bBgMD73e8Gt4vzHQ8rEt7q5PmgM3nqc/s320/local+church.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<strong><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Local Church</span></strong><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Growing up, I cannot count the number of times the term "local church" was said from the pulpits of the churches I attended. I was in my teens before I realized that the term appears nowhere in the bible. In fact, there isn't really even a Greek word in the entire bible that can be translated "local". To be fair, the idea of a localized group of believers is found in many places, and this idea has come to be known as the "local church". </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The trouble is that as I was growing up, the idea of "local church" was always used to try to get people to attend a particular building more regularly and or to give more to one particular group. The result was that to defend this idea, pastors of these local assemblies had to take scriptures out of context, or at least stretch the context, order to "proof text" their particular views. I remember once being told that the local assembly was the NT equivalent of the "storehouse" in Mal 3:10. The result of this thinking was to command all those in the local assembly to give their tithe to this particular "local church" and to condemn those who may give to God in any other way. Another time, I was informed by an assistant pastor that Jesus praised the Pharisees for tithing (Matt 23:23) and then he went on to use this as a proof text that Jesus commanded the believers in the NT to continue the tithe. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">To my shame, I have even participated in this deliberate misuse of the Bible. While I was serving as a deacon we were asked to see if we could help out a family who was struggling financially. After interviewing the family, it was discovered that they stopped regular giving after the father lost his job. The deacon board chose not to help this family until they began to once again give their tithe. We justified this through some clever misuse of the Bible and felt little guilt (at the time) for turning our brother away because he was not contributing to the ministry of the "local church". </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">I am not saying that the various institutions we have come to know as the local church are completely unbiblical. What I am saying is that the idea of "church", as it appears within the pages of the Bible, may have a different meaning than what we first think of when we say the word "church" today. Maybe, it is not talking about a group of people who meet at a certain place, and listen to a certain person, and all agree on the same things and sing the same songs every Sunday. Maybe, just maybe, it is talking about the living, breathing, organism that the Apostles called the "Body of Christ". And Maybe, just maybe, it does not look anytking like the institutional church we have come to know. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"></span>In Christ's Service,<br />
FedEx,<br />
President,<br />
Men of Praise Motorcycle MinistryPastor FedExhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04000708319207515343noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-430923815665521346.post-53767877021120100192011-08-04T09:28:00.000-07:002011-08-04T09:30:04.655-07:00My First Guest Blog Post<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi365P_uI-dfSPMk9tkzBuvBQd1VcHmnJF2VLz2ENWhEdDRge7hj5f9JzdMHmf_AdMaoQB0TvPsFpt0yW4jWG9SDkMn3DUEsA26NxpkVjPWKLqlngffZ3RRbS_teyekwkmwjF3yMoNFAlI/s1600/Blogging.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi365P_uI-dfSPMk9tkzBuvBQd1VcHmnJF2VLz2ENWhEdDRge7hj5f9JzdMHmf_AdMaoQB0TvPsFpt0yW4jWG9SDkMn3DUEsA26NxpkVjPWKLqlngffZ3RRbS_teyekwkmwjF3yMoNFAlI/s1600/Blogging.jpg" t$="true" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div>I have really been enjoying the "Identity" series over at <a href="http://jenniferluitwieler.com/blog/">Jennifer Luitwieler's</a> blog. She has been inviting bloggers from around the country that she has come to know to share their own stories and thoughts about what makes our identity. Sometimes, hearing about the struggles of others helps us to put our own struggles more in perspective, and I feel this series has done exactly that for me. <br />
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Jennifer asked me to share some of my story and what God has taught me about who I really am. If you have not heard my story go over and check it out, and if you have, this may give you a new perspective on what God is doing with me. <br />
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Click here to read my post <a href="http://jenniferluitwieler.com/2011/08/04/more-than-a-biker/">"<em>More than a Biker". </em></a>Pastor FedExhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04000708319207515343noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-430923815665521346.post-87084507058424924172011-08-03T08:38:00.000-07:002011-08-03T09:14:53.314-07:00Who Is The Church(Part 1)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvwd2RPbaKspELCGovl5aJmRE8z3dLArywiJkVJ0y_iVr2wjON9cc0ZWl9d4oWeNODxwd0swD1OQy5W9CnxJ8z0oGg7r2-gQ1mkgNk7hIoX4zcQQsAtaQayt96Faxrc79qJYfaipUv34g/s1600/Church.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="302" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvwd2RPbaKspELCGovl5aJmRE8z3dLArywiJkVJ0y_iVr2wjON9cc0ZWl9d4oWeNODxwd0swD1OQy5W9CnxJ8z0oGg7r2-gQ1mkgNk7hIoX4zcQQsAtaQayt96Faxrc79qJYfaipUv34g/s320/Church.jpg" t$="true" width="320" /></a></div><strong>How do we define "Church"?</strong><br />
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I have been doing some study recently on what the bible teaches about the Church as part of my journey away from the Institutional Church. I started of course with my Strong's and looked at the possible definitions of the Greek word <em>ekklesia, </em>the word that is translated "church" in our modern Bible. Strong's gives the following definitions of the word when used in the "Christian sense": <br />
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<div class="lex3"><b>1)</b> an assembly of Christians gathered for worship in a religious meeting</div><div class="lex3"><b>2)</b> a company of Christian, or of those who, hoping for eternal salvation through Jesus Christ, observe their own religious rites, hold their own religious meetings, and manage their own affairs, according to regulations prescribed for the body for order's sake</div><div class="lex3"><b>3)</b> those who anywhere, in a city, village, constitute such a company and are united into one body</div><div class="lex3"><b>4)</b> the whole body of Christians scattered throughout the earth</div><div class="lex3"><b>5)</b> the assembly of faithful Christians already dead and received into heaven<br />
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Definition 1 seems to be the generic definition of a church, while definition 2 defines what most of us would call an institutional church. For my purposes, I decided to focus on definitions 3 and 4 as I feel they are closest to what the authors of the NT were thinking most often when they used the word church. For the purposes of my writing, though, I think we should maybe change these definitions up a little bit. Perhaps they would look a little like this:<br />
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3) <em>Those believers, in any particular city, village, or singular location who regularly come together to be reflections of God's love and grace to one another and their world. This may be done through worship, fellowship, Bible teaching, loving, sharing, or serving. This gathering may take place in any location or any number of locations and may or may not be associated with a particular building or meeting place. </em><br />
4)<em> The whole body of Christ, comprised of those who believe, wherever they may be found or wherever they may travel on the earth. </em><br />
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In this series of discussions, I am going to explore some of the ways that an incorrect understanding has been used and misused. Many in the institutional church have hidden behind "proof texts" and poorly interpreted verses in support of their own agendas. My own view (at least my view now), is that the church is not limited to any one or number of specific locations, that it is not defined by religious practices or rites, and that it is more inclusive than nearly anyone in the institutional church would want you to believe. <br />
<br />
FedEx, <br />
President, <br />
Men of Praise Motorcycle MinistryPastor FedExhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04000708319207515343noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-430923815665521346.post-11970792315297746972011-07-29T14:12:00.000-07:002011-08-03T08:54:24.828-07:00Correct Theology or Correct Practices?<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYKvvNnQK4Mrx8yMKsSZj88xbXG808EWvCsUbLDJQ1fTFFheAnHb2H5RC1wKkPZw5z_Hz5a40O4pq6wohNrLP3E1BUI5UwQL0TF9pgwUabWrfgM3f9tRajVCm9sStXGRVXtaYBAJcIE8M/s1600/Calvin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYKvvNnQK4Mrx8yMKsSZj88xbXG808EWvCsUbLDJQ1fTFFheAnHb2H5RC1wKkPZw5z_Hz5a40O4pq6wohNrLP3E1BUI5UwQL0TF9pgwUabWrfgM3f9tRajVCm9sStXGRVXtaYBAJcIE8M/s200/Calvin.jpg" t$="true" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAR6d198ChlMMuSr-QoWkswnOKZ9mh4NjK9dkBXaos4Ian7nlk27OoM0yKDv1Lw1A0OIP8ohJivFdLInHL23pDus7dUFtclhUOka8i3ha06G5-VKNpgQnKPbTnail3PDbxxSfKzcUa6gY/s1600/Feeding.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="height: 160px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; width: 210px;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAR6d198ChlMMuSr-QoWkswnOKZ9mh4NjK9dkBXaos4Ian7nlk27OoM0yKDv1Lw1A0OIP8ohJivFdLInHL23pDus7dUFtclhUOka8i3ha06G5-VKNpgQnKPbTnail3PDbxxSfKzcUa6gY/s200/Feeding.jpg" t$="true" width="190" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
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</div><strong>The Importance of Theology.</strong><br />
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It seems that there are some out there in evangelical circles that believe that you cannot go out and evangelize, or even really serve, until you have your theology or doctrine just right. Now, I know that none of these groups or persons would admit that they felt this way, but I have noticed that in many circles they are acting this way. They get into deep theological debates and gather like-minded individuals to argue their cause with them. Once their position is clearly established, they denounce anyone who may teach something even slightly different as a false teacher, or heretic, or worse. <br />
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Now before you denounce me as a post-modern relativistic heretic, let me say that I do believe that theology and doctrine are important; I even once believed that I, or at least some of the men I was following, had figured this whole theology thing out. <br />
<a name='more'></a>I believe that we should study the scriptures and that we should try to understand as much about God and what He is up to as we can. I just do not believe that any one of us can do that perfectly, or realistically, even near-perfectly. Most theologians would agree that no one can understand perfectly. I suspect, however, that most feel their particular understanding is at least better than anyone else's. <br />
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<strong>What About Practice?</strong><br />
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While there is not an agreement on what exactly believers should be doing, it is widely accepted that once a person becomes a believer they should be doing something. Some groups feel that the single most important thing we can do is evangelize, so they teach their followers to go out and get as many people to agree with their understanding of the Scriptures as possible. Some groups feel that incarnating Christ is the most important thing, so their followers are taught to go out and serve, often in the worst places possible in order to "show the love of Christ". Still others believe that it is important to effect political change and spend their time focused on petitioning and lobbying for new "moral" laws. <br />
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All of these are good things, all of them can and sometimes do accomplish the will of God. Unfortunately, all of these can also be done with the wrong attitude, all of them can become an end unto themselves, and all of them have the potential to do more harm than good. God has undoubtedly given work for the believer, James 2:10 and many others show this to be true. How then is it even possible to know what we should be doing, much less which think is most important.? <br />
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<strong>Which is more important; Theology or Practice?</strong><br />
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So is it possible to determine which is more important, and if it is, how much does it matter? I believe it matters a lot, but maybe not for the reasons many would think this. My current understanding is somewhat circular in its reasoning, but bear with me. <br />
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Theology is most important inasmuch as it informs us of who God is, and what He is up to(miseo Dei). Doing that is not informed by at least a good understanding of these things is is in danger of falling into one of the pitfalls described earlier. An example of this can be seen in the varying styles of evangelism that reduce coming to Christ down to a series of facts. We get a person to assent to a list of truths about Jesus and then pronounce over them "salvation" but the bible reveals that relationship is one of God's primary attributes and by reducing God to a list of facts we rob people of the opportunity to develop a deep and personal relationship with God on their own. This is nearly always done with an eye to getting as many "notches" on our spiritual belt as possible. <br />
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But in a way, practice is also more important than theology. One place where people look to scare anyone away from theological error is James 3:1. James warns that people not seek to be teachers as they could be subject to stricter judgement, but how do we reconcile this with the great commission where all believers are called by Jesus to "make disciples, teaching them all things that I have commanded you". Kinda hard to fulfill the great commission without teaching, but who wants to teach if you can receive condemnation or judgement if you get something wrong. <br />
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Well what if James isn't pronouncing condemnation on all teachers here, what if there is something deeper. After making the pronouncement in verse 1, James goes on to say no one can get it all right, not in practice (speaking things that offend) or theology (that which controls the speaking), in fact, he makes it sound pretty hopeless. But then we have v 13-18 and the glimmer of hope returns. James is not telling everyone to be afraid of teaching, he is not saying make sure you get everything right before you dare to teach anyone, he is not even pronouncing judgement on teachers who may not have everything right. James is saying that we know that we will in fact NOT get everything right, that we will offend, and get things wrong, but that we would operate out of wisdom. Wisdom from above that operates in the humility of knowing we do not have everything right and does not act in hypocrisy to condemn those who just like us may also not have everything right. Wisdom that seeks gentleness, and mercy and peace, not earthly wisdom that is displayed in condemnation and envy and strife. <br />
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<strong>Conclusion</strong><br />
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Theology is important, we should try to have as accurate an understanding of God and His mission as possible so that we can accurately portray Him to those around us who are lost. We should let this understanding inform our practices rather than trying to make a God who fits neatly into our lists of facts or truths. But practices are equally important. We need to be out showing God to the world and telling them of His love, and we should not be afraid to get it wrong, we all do and we all will continue to. Another beautiful aspect of grace is that God is able to accomplish His eternal purposes and mission even while using messed up people like you and me. In fact, 1 Cor 1 tells us He delights in using messy, foolish things to accomplish His purposes,. He doesn't condemn us for failing at perfection, He revels in the fact that our imperfection increases His Glory. <br />
<br />
FedEx, <br />
President, <br />
Men of Praise Motorcycle MinistryPastor FedExhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04000708319207515343noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-430923815665521346.post-26913864700279352462011-07-21T12:34:00.000-07:002011-08-03T09:00:13.466-07:00Developing True Community (Part 5)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcngj6RmXQOOf6_PgGg1LMCjlr-bQOf73DHwDk8qFS8jTNURHiLwFDgnkAEF3jAfGB3BaSd1Tg2_qQ_Fjs8kGDTAMoFx7e8EfWpz6xW3qnVoF0FHpbGycL9wnvUBpgtpJXCysPRHPjtSo/s1600/jesusdisciples.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcngj6RmXQOOf6_PgGg1LMCjlr-bQOf73DHwDk8qFS8jTNURHiLwFDgnkAEF3jAfGB3BaSd1Tg2_qQ_Fjs8kGDTAMoFx7e8EfWpz6xW3qnVoF0FHpbGycL9wnvUBpgtpJXCysPRHPjtSo/s400/jesusdisciples.jpg" t$="true" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Part 5 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Jesus and the Believer</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">In part 4 of this series, we briefly looked at how Jesus addressed those who were not yet reconciled. At this point in our discussion, we will look at Jesus' interaction with those who have placed their trust in Him for eternal life. In this chapter, we will look at two types of people, those who have been reconciled with God, and those who have been reconciled with God but whose lives do not reflect that reconciliation.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Jesus and the Reconciled</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">One of the themes of the Gospel of John is the idea of being in Christ. In John 14, we see a discussion between the disciples and Jesus. Jesus is preparing the disciples for His departure, and He makes the statement that you already know the Way. This is a clear inference that they are reconciled, because they already know and believe in Jesus the only Way to the Father (John 14:6). On hearing this, Philip asks Jesus to show them the Father, and here is how Jesus answers Philip;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span><br />
<em><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, 'Show us the Father'? "Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe because of the works themselves. "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father." John 14:9-12</span></em><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">So what is Going on here? Jesus is leaving, His work is complete, and He is returning to the Father. He tells the disciples that they are not going with him, that His work is complete, but that theirs is not. In fact, He even tells them what their work is going to be; an extension of His work of revealing the Father. Just as Jesus is IN the father, the Disciples are called to be IN Christ and to reflect the Father to the world around them. </span><span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">(John 17:21-23)</span><span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Jesus and the Reconciled Not Living in Reconciliation</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Out of all the characters in the New Testament, one of my favorites is Peter. Peter was quick to react, quick to speak, full of zeal, and pretty much always in the middle of whatever was going on. Peter had plenty of failures, but he also had plenty of faith. No one else left the boat to go walk on the water with Jesus. How much faith must you have to take on an armed Roman detachment and a group of temple guards with only a short sword. Here is a man who really trusted in the power of his God, at least sometimes. Everyone who has ever been in a Sunday school class can probably tell you the story of Peter's denial of Christ. Here is a guy who really understood what living in relationship with the living God through faith was about, and he is hiding his true identity from a servant girl.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">So what is going on; well, life got hard, things didn't work out with the messiah, like Peter and the others had hoped. A few days later, after Jesus was resurrected, we find Peter and some of the disciples heading out to go fishing. When life gets hard, and things happen that do not look like the life we expect, we return to the places where we have found life (even temporary life) in the past.Peter returned to his fishing, his life before Jesus. In much the same way that those of us who have been delivered go back to where we found life before Jesus when our lives become difficult. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">So how does Jesus deal with Peter after his failure to live out the truth of his identity. Jesus invites Peter to get back into doing the work of the kingdom (Feed My sheep), and he does it not once, but three times. As if to say "for each time you deny Me, or fail to live up to your identity, I will invite you back", what a wonderful thought, the invitation to get back to kingdom work is always open. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Conclusion</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">So is there a pattern here that we can look at in dealing with others who are believers, even those who may not be looking or acting like believers? I think that there is; in dealing with the believer, Jesus says "you know the way", let me give you the mission. He doesn't focus any longer on eternal destiny any longer than that simple statement. Then He explains His purpose in the world, and calls the disciples to carry on the work of revealing the Father. In Peter also we see a pattern, Jesus does not go back to the question of eternal destiny. Belief and love are not synonymous, Jesus is not saying do you believe in me, that has already been settled. Jesus is saying do you love Me, do you desire relationship with Me, do you want to abide IN Me? Just a few chapters before, he has already explained what being IN Christ looks like. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">I believe the pattern for our lives is the same. Eternal destiny is important, the most important thing, but once a person has believed, we treat them as a brother, always challenging them to reflect more of the Father. And when they fail, as we all will, we invite them back to abiding IN Christ, and living out a life that reflects the Father. We keep doing this no matter how many times they fail, no matter how badly they fail. We keep reminding one another of our mission, and keep inviting those around us to come along. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">I think that in our next installment we will begin to look at the implications of what we have discussed so far on living in community. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">FedEx, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">President, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Men Of Praise Motorcycle Ministry</span>Pastor FedExhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04000708319207515343noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-430923815665521346.post-55722601449416600312011-07-15T06:57:00.001-07:002011-07-15T07:00:19.915-07:00Community is Hard WorkWhile I am working on part 5 of the developing true community series, it is taking a little longer than I had hoped. I think part of the reason for this is that the next section is about how Jesus interacted with those who had believed and been reconciled. But dealing with believers should be the easy part, right? In my own church experiences, I have found that it is often easier to deal with those who are not believers, than those with whom we should have unity and close fellowship. <br />
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In the last week I have had two examples of this. I do not want to give the details here, but in both cases, the goal of the interactions was to build unity, and single mindedness in serving Christ together. In one instance, theological differences sprang up, and the unity is now worse than before. In the other case, the individual involved agreed to work toward unity and after the meeting began to send e-mails justifying his actions and taking jabs at the other people involved in the discussion. <br />
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In both cases, there was a group of leaders who were attempting to build closeness and unity. In both cases, the goal was building a stronger, closer community, and in both cases, the community and fellowship was ultimately harmed. Both of these men I would consider friends, and I wrestle with believing that our unity in Christ has been damaged and at least part of the damage is probably my fault. <br />
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My point I guess is that really opening up yourself to other people, really connecting with them spiritually and emotionally, is messy. And the worst part is that the most messy are the ones that inwardly, at least, have been redeemed. Those we have the most in common with are often the hardest to really develop meaningful relationships with. <br />
<br />
FedEx, <br />
President, <br />
Men of Praise Motorcycle MinistryPastor FedExhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04000708319207515343noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-430923815665521346.post-20948813985269091722011-07-03T19:52:00.000-07:002011-08-03T09:30:35.049-07:00Spiritual Snipers<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJWT8_1seKrfxIjsdCBc_M7B1rEh84gm5jHWhs5D0sYRtwX3WHEeEf4OplRGI4GgcTejQt23nTPtEwhTEMefeuoAgAW9Yfe1d0dyPluSTKubS9uYXcs0i4qAx45tJJcyxOgz-CjYF6wKQ/s1600/Sniper.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJWT8_1seKrfxIjsdCBc_M7B1rEh84gm5jHWhs5D0sYRtwX3WHEeEf4OplRGI4GgcTejQt23nTPtEwhTEMefeuoAgAW9Yfe1d0dyPluSTKubS9uYXcs0i4qAx45tJJcyxOgz-CjYF6wKQ/s320/Sniper.jpg" t$="true" width="320" /></a></div>Snipers<br />
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During my time as a military police officer in the Army, I attended the long range rifle course. This course is the prerequisite course to become a sniper, which before my disability, was one of my aspirations. As part of the course, we were required to learn about sniper and counter-sniper operations and tactics. <br />
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One of the first things you learn in this course is that once a sniper is in a concealed position, he should do everything possible to keep from revealing his position to the enemy. The snipers job is to reduce the strength of the enemy, by drawing soldiers out of their secure positions and shooting them down. Of course the best target for snipers is the officers and leaders of the troops, but if it is possible to take out some foot soldiers without compromising their cover, then they are happy to do that as well. Snipers use all kinds of ruses, fires, nuisance firing, grenades, and booby traps to draw their enemies out into the open where they become easy targets. <br />
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Spiritual Sniping, <br />
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So why am I posting about snipers on a ministry blog? In recent months I have encountered several people who behave in much the same way as a sniper. They have many different names for themselves, but mostly their purpose is to find anyone who has a blog that teaches theology different than their own and to take shots at the people there. Much like the sniper in the above scenario, they do not reveal their own spiritual positions, but use ruses and deception to draw the blog posters out and then blast them with their spiritual sniper rifles. When is is not possible to get the blog owners (officers) to reveal their positions and expose themselves to the sniper fire, the sniper then moves to those bloggers who undoubtedly will come to the defense of their friend the blog owner. Attempting to draw one of the foot soldiers out of his cover and thus weaken the "enemy". <br />
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I think that the most troubling thing about these spiritual snipers is that they really do in every possible way view people with different theology as the enemy. Even when a they teach the same faith, in the same God and Saviour, even those on the same side of debates can be seen to act in this way. My own experience with the "free grace"/"Lordship salvation" controversy is rife with examples of this. At first the different free grace camps were allied with each other against the Lordship crowd, but in time, they began to attack each other. Bloggers allied with the FGA came to GES allied blogs and attacked the bloggers as Heretics and "false teachers", often not revealing their true intentions until they launched their sniping attacks. <br />
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So whose side are we on. <br />
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I have come to understand from personal experience, as well as from careful study of many passages that God is willing to use even people with radically flawed theology to fulfill His eternal mission of redemption. I have seen unquestionable conversions that came from Oral Roberts, from alcoholics anonymous, from pentecostal churches, and even from the Catholic church. While I do not agree with the theology of these groups, I know that God has worked in spite of their flawed teachings. I also have seen God save people through the ministry of Southern Baptist churches steeped in the theology of works salvation, and universalist churches who really had no theology at all. <br />
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My point I guess is that I am not really called to declare myself a hunter of false teachers and set up my sniping position outside of the other Christian camps that may not have all the same beliefs as me. I am called to be a minister of reconciliation, a person who brings those around me closer to their originally created purpose, relationship with God through Christ. I cannot effectively be helping to reconcile those around me to Christ if I am busy sniping away at them and weakening those who should be my allies.<br />
<br />
FedEx,<br />
President, <br />
Men of Praise Motorcycle MinistryPastor FedExhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04000708319207515343noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-430923815665521346.post-23681793851646357252011-06-29T12:11:00.000-07:002011-06-29T12:28:18.889-07:00Blogging is HARD!!!!Well, blogging itself is not actually hard, but when I started this blog a few months ago, I had high hopes of keeping up on it a little better. I have discovered that it is sometimes difficult to blog regularly. I have a tough work schedule, a busy ministry, schedule, and a wife and kids that want to see me. I also find that it is difficult to always have something to say that I feel will be valuable to those who read this blog. <br />
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I guess this is just a quick post to remind myself (mostly), that like many things in life, blogging is a discipline that needs to be cultivated. I could choose to just stop blogging, but I feel that there is value in it, just like there is in Bible reading, and prayer, and journaling. My goal will be to set aside one to two hours each week during which I can hammer out my thoughts and post them here. <br />
<br />
FedEx,<br />
President, <br />
Men of Praise Motorcycle MinistryPastor FedExhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04000708319207515343noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-430923815665521346.post-38599751032929825682011-03-23T20:42:00.000-07:002011-03-23T20:42:50.560-07:00Rider Down, But OK UPDATE"Double D" Had a doctor's appointment this week and he is healing well. He is now able to bend his knee some, although he is still not able to stand or put weight on it. The doctor is still saying that he will be in recovery for another 8 weeks, but "Double D" is praying that God will heal him more quickly and prove the doctor wrong. "Double D" would like to thank all of his brothers and sisters who have visited, helped, and prayed for him during this time, and asks that you continue to pray for his recovery . <br />
<br />
FedEx,<br />
President, <br />
Men of Praise Motorcycle MinistryPastor FedExhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04000708319207515343noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-430923815665521346.post-33019664742532042522011-03-17T15:20:00.000-07:002011-03-17T15:34:28.278-07:00Developing True Community (Part 4)<span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: #999999;"><strong><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat;">Part 4 </span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat;">Interacting Like Jesus</span></strong><br />
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<span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat;">In our previous discussion, we talked about how God sees people in general. This is a little different from what God sees when He looks at a believer, or someone who is IN CHRIST, but it is important to start here, as God's mission starts when we are still His enemies (Rom 5:10). Now, God's mission does not end with us simply being no longer His enemies, but rather its goal is the complete restoration of relationship. So as we move deeper into this discussion of community we will need to look at our identity IN CHRIST, but for now, lets look at How Christ demonstrated God's view of people who were not yet in relationship with God. </span><br />
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<strong><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat;">Nicodemus </span></strong><br />
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<span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat;">So here is this religious leader, someone who was raised knowing the answers to how to get right with God, at least that's what he thought. Obviously, Nicodemus did not have all the answers, because he comes to talk to Jesus at night in secret. Even before Nicodemus has the chance to ask his question, Jesus gets right to the point and Nicodemus has to admit that he really does not understand at all. </span><br />
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<span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat;">We can see from other interactions with the Pharisees that Jesus did not agree with their teaching and here is one of them, a teacher of the law who has led God's chosen people away from relationship instead of towards it. Here is the interesting thing though, Jesus didn't blast Nicodemus for teaching a false way to get right with God; He instead opens up for Nicodemus the true Gospel message. It is as if Jesus is saying "you are a teacher of religion, but you really don't even understand what it is that you are teaching, here let me show you the true heart of God". </span><br />
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<strong><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat;">The Samaritan Woman</span></strong><br />
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<span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat;">The interaction between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well is probably one of the best glimpses into what God sees when He looks at messed up people. Jesus encounters a second class citizen of second class citizens, a woman whose life reflects one failed relationship after another, and person who has no hope of ever living a fulfilled life. </span><br />
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<span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat;">Now Jesus addresses her life, but not like religious people expect Him to. He doesn't tell this woman to repent of living with a man outside of marriage, or of having been divorced multiple times. Again, Jesus addresses the very core of the issue; He tells her that if she "drinks of His water" she would never thirst again. So what is this about? Think of it like this, Jesus says to her "I see you life, and your thirsty, thirsty for fulfilling relationship, I am offering you the one thing that you most desperately want, true, fulfilling relationship". Jesus does not judge her for trying to fulfill her God given need for relationship; instead He points her to the only true source of fulfillment and reveals once again the true heart of God. </span><br />
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<strong><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat;">Conclusion</span></strong><br />
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<span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat;">In the interest of brevity, we will not address any of the many other interactions of Jesus with messed up people, but I have chosen these two with good reason. You see Jesus dealing with a religious leader, one who guarded zealously God's own law, and a woman who had spent her life failing to keep God's law. They represent both ends of the spiritual spectrum. The pattern of Jesus interaction though was not very different, in fact, you see the pattern repeated in so many of His interactions with the disciples, the rich young ruler, the woman caught in adultery, Levi, Simon, Mary, Martha, and scores of others. </span><br />
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<span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat;">Jesus chose not to judge or to condemn, even though, as God, He had an absolute right to judge a false teacher or a woman who lived an adulterous life. He chose instead to address the real issue; both the Pharisee and the Adulterer were trying to fill the God shaped hole in their lives with something other than relationship with God. Jesus pointed out the futility of their own attempts at fulfillment and pointed them toward the true source of true fulfillment. This is the very heart of God, the ministry of reconciliation that we are told of in 2 Corinthians 5:17-20 being lived out by God's very first Minister of reconciliation. The second part of that passage is that we have also been given that ministry. </span><br />
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<span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat;">FedEx, </span><br />
<span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat;">President, </span><br />
<span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat;">Men of Praise Motorcycle Ministry<span style="background-color: #999999;"></span></span></span></span></span>Pastor FedExhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04000708319207515343noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-430923815665521346.post-14487608462931651742011-03-06T21:33:00.000-08:002011-03-07T13:04:21.486-08:00Developing True Community (Part 3)Part 3 <br />
"God" Colored Goggles<br />
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We ended our last discussion with the idea of seeing people the way that God sees them. So what exactly does that mean, well lets go back to our goggle illustration. Just as allowing our lives to be shaped by external or internal expectations tints the rest of our world with those "expectation goggles", when we allow our lives to be shaped by the truth of God's perspective, this perspective begins to affect the way we view others. So in gaining a better understanding of what God sees when he looks at us, we begin to replace the "expectation" tinted lenses with a set of "God" tinted lenses. <br />
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So with this principle in mind, lets look at some verses that give us a glimpse of God's perspective. <br />
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In Genesis 1:27 we see that man was created to "in God's image". The idea here is a little more than just that of being similar to God in some aspect of our being. Man was created as a unique being, nothing like man had been seen in all creation to this point, and the specific God intended purpose of man's creation was to reveal some parts of His being that had not yet been revealed in all of the rest of the creation. In fact, while all the rest of creation was declared to be "good" by God, only after the creation of man did God look at all that was made and declare it to be "very good". So first of all, when God sees us, he sees His own unique creation and in that creation aspects of His being that are revealed nowhere else in the created universe. <br />
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Next, we see that God values us. In Mat 10:21, we hear directly from the mouth of Jesus that we are of more worth than other created beings. David echos this sentiment in Psalm 8, where he mixes the dominion of man over creation, with marvel for God even taking thought of man, and a foreshadowing of mankind ruling over all creation, including the angels, through the man Jesus Christ. God values man because he has a purpose and a plan for man that is singularly unique among all the created beings, even spiritual beings. <br />
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When God looks at us, He sees a broken relationship that He would do anything to restore. We see from the very beginning of revelation, in Gen 1:26 a quote from God. "Let US make man in OUR own image". We see a God who exists in eternal perfect relationship within the trinity. Additionally, we see that one of the aspects of God that man was created to reflect was relationship. This was most clearly revealed through the creation of man and woman (Gen 2:24). As a result of the fall, the relationship of man with God and the reflection of God's relational nature was damaged. After all of this, we see that God chose to sacrifice His own Son to save His enemies (Rom 5:10), and why, because His business is fixing that broken relationship (2 Cor 5:18-20). <br />
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Now, this is not an exhaustive list of what God sees when He looks at mankind. Nor does this list look at some aspects of what God sees that change when a person believes in Jesus Christ for their eternal destiny. But these are some very key things that we can see from the bible are true of all mankind. I would even argue that they are the very heart of God's being, His purpose for creating mankind, and His current mission of restoring a broken world. <br />
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In our next installment, we will explore how our example of living with "God goggles", Jesus Christ, interacted with people.<br />
<br />
FedEx, <br />
President, <br />
Men of Praise Motorcycle MinistryPastor FedExhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04000708319207515343noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-430923815665521346.post-52384875191524561682011-02-26T21:05:00.000-08:002011-02-26T21:05:33.698-08:00Developing True Community (Part 2)<strong>Part 2</strong><br />
Why True Community Starts With Individual Identity<br />
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It may seem a little odd to begin a discussion of what life in true community looks like with a discussion of our individual identities. My point here, however, is that without a proper, biblical view of our own identity it is impossible to live in unity with other people. To illustrate this, lets think about a pair of motorcycle goggles. When a person is wearing a pair of goggles with a colored lens, the whole world appears to be colored the same tint. No one would argue that the world is in fact the color of the lenses, but to the person wearing the goggles, the whole world appears in that color. <br />
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Just as the motorcycle goggle lens lends its tint to the whole world in the perception of the biker, our own ideas about identity color not only our own life, but also the way that we look at our entire world. This is probably most easily seen on the concept of expectation as we discussed in the previous chapter. As an example, lets say that you have spent your whole life being told that good Christian men do not have long hair. It is not only difficult for you to grow your own hair long, but it is also difficult for you to accept that anyone with long hair could be a good Christian. So you see, these "expectation goggles" not only affect your view of yourself, but also your view of everyone else.<br />
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So how does this affect community? Well the problem with these "expectation goggles" is that they by necessity create a barrier to true community. If true community is a place where we are free to be real, in spite of our shortcomings, then expectations are deadly to true community. When we believe that we are expected to be a certain way, and we are not, then we are really only left with two options. We either put up the facade of being OK when in reality we are not, or we can give up the hope of ever measuring up and withdraw from community altogether. Either way, the possibility of growing deeper in meaningful relationship is prevented and we are left with the choice between superficial relationship or no relationship at all. <br />
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In our next installment, we will explore how being secure in our identity allows us to remove these "expectation goggles" and begin to see others as Christ views them. <br />
<br />
FedEx, <br />
President, <br />
Men of Praise Motorcycle MinistryPastor FedExhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04000708319207515343noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-430923815665521346.post-72814756377105851962011-02-24T10:16:00.000-08:002011-02-26T08:56:07.928-08:00Developing True Community (Part 1)My family and I just returned from the Community Class Family Retreat in Sedalia, CO, where we had a wonderful time. My wife and I lead the discussions and study time this weekend and our focus was on developing true community within the church. My intent is to post a mini-series of topics based on some of the discussions from our time at this retreat.<br />
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Part 1<br />
Expectation VS Identity<br />
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<strong>Living up to Expectations:</strong><br />
What does it mean to live our lives based on expectations? The churchy answer is of course that we should not live our lives based on other's expectations, then we give a list of things the bible tells us that we ought to do. But I think this goes deeper. From childhood, we have expectations placed upon us by our family and friends. Our parents want us to get good grades, grow into responsible adults, make a profession of faith, go to college, get a good job; the list could go on. Our friends want us to fit in, to act cool, to spend time with them, and so on. The fact is that we are pretty much conditioned from our birth on to live according to the expectations of others so that we can grow into "Good People". <br />
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Our spiritual lives are really no different. From spiritual birth, we have pastors, Sunday school teachers, and other Christians who all give us a list of things that we need to do (their expectations) in order to be "Good Christians". We are told that we need to cut our hair, remove our earrings(for men), dress a certain way, go to church, pray, read our bible, and once again the list is almost infinite. Just as in our physical life we find ourselves making decisions based on what we think will please our parents or friends, in our spiritual lives, we can spend all of our time and effort trying to <strong><em>do</em></strong> things that we are lead to believe please God. <br />
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Lest there be any misunderstanding, I am not saying that these things are bad. Most of them are in fact taken right out of the pages of the Bible. What I am saying is that we often have the wrong idea about how these things fit into the Christian life. <br />
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<strong>Living out of Identity</strong><br />
How do we live out of our identity? Before we can discuss living out our identity, we need to look at what that identity is. In John 14 Jesus tells His disciples that they can know the Father, because Jesus is <strong>in </strong>the Father, and the Father is <strong>in</strong> Him. In Verse 20 Jesus then states that the disciples are <strong>in </strong>Him, and He was <strong>in </strong>them. Jesus is telling His disciples that those who believe in Him are <strong>in </strong>Him, just as He is <strong>in </strong>the Father. So what does is mean to be "<strong>in</strong> Christ", lets look at some verses that discuss this. <br />
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Romans 8:1 tells us that "there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are <strong>in</strong> Christ Jesus". In 1 Cor 1:30 Paul says "But by His doing you are <strong>in</strong> Christ<nasb_strongs num="G5547"> Jesus,<nasb_strongs num="G2424"> who<nasb_strongs num="G3739"> became<nasb_strongs num="G1096"> to us wisdom<nasb_strongs num="G4678"> from God,<nasb_strongs num="G2316"> and righteousness<nasb_strongs num="G1343"> and sanctification,<nasb_strongs num="G38"> and redemption". Lastly, we see in 2 Cor 5:17 that "if anyone is <strong>in </strong>Christ he is a new creation". Notice that all of these verses are talking about the present state of things. There is <strong>now </strong>no condemnation. Christ <strong>became</strong> wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. We <strong>are</strong> a new creation. All of these verses talk of things that have already happened or are already true, not things that will be true in the future. <br />
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These things that are already true of the person who has believed Christ for everlasting life, therefore these things comprise our true identity in Christ. In Christ, we are a new creation, one that is without condemnation because Jesus Christ has redeemed and sanctified us, and has imparted to us His wisdom and righteousness. <strong>THIS IS WHO WE ARE</strong>, right here, right now, and living out of our identity is simply living as though these things are already true, not living as if we can make them true. We will develop this idea further in later verses, but we are talking about community, not individuals. This discussion is simply to give us an idea of what is already true on the individual level in each and every person who has believed in Christ for eternal life. <br />
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FedEx, <br />
President, <br />
Men of Praise Motorcycle MinistryPastor FedExhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04000708319207515343noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-430923815665521346.post-10504881640101061622011-02-23T13:13:00.000-08:002011-02-23T14:07:14.015-08:00WelcomeWhen I decided to start a blog, I never thought the first post would be about an accident involving one of my riders. Praise God it was not more serious.<br />
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Anyway, the second post will have to be the one to welcome everyone who will read this to our new blog. We will be posting information about upcoming ministry opportunities, motorcycle events, and community happenings as well as some reflections from myself and other leaders of this ministry. Thank you for visiting and be sure to check back regularly. <br />
<br />
FedEX, <br />
President, <br />
Men of Praise Motorcycle Ministry<br />
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<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh23Sg9ZzHR0KIODrvrYEzpGMm9jogDXAa3FJKCu0a_TNmUv0lMHa_hDpNJryIX2o_Ghwqr3UbKTwRS7JI1B66JE4otuajDyjxyL520rAs2nXCaGvq2ne4jMzPQpsLp4bN_5PRz8gWFF8I/s1600/MOP+PATCH.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="289" j6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh23Sg9ZzHR0KIODrvrYEzpGMm9jogDXAa3FJKCu0a_TNmUv0lMHa_hDpNJryIX2o_Ghwqr3UbKTwRS7JI1B66JE4otuajDyjxyL520rAs2nXCaGvq2ne4jMzPQpsLp4bN_5PRz8gWFF8I/s320/MOP+PATCH.gif" width="320" /></a></div>Pastor FedExhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04000708319207515343noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-430923815665521346.post-51954413162666842872011-02-23T11:38:00.000-08:002011-02-23T20:53:12.742-08:00RIder Down, But OKYesterday one of our ministers, Danny "Double D" Diekman was riding on north Academy in Colorado Springs when the car in front of him stopped suddenly. Double D was unable to stop in time and hit the rear of the stopped car. Double D suffered a broken knee and has a sprained shoulder. He also has some bumps and bruises on his head and face, but overall his condition is very good all things considered. He will be in recovery for the next 6-8 weeks, so please lift our brother and fellow minister up in prayer. <br />
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Also, praise God that Double D's bike, "Angel Baby" was not seriously damaged in the accident. It will need some repairs (mostly cosmetic), but it still started and ran. Music Man and Little Dawg were able to ride it onto a trailer after the accident. We will post periodic updates here on Double D's condition, as well as opportunities for our brothers and sisters in the motorcycle community to minister to Double D as he recovers.Pastor FedExhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04000708319207515343noreply@blogger.com0