LP's LampPost

 Yesterday, we started talking about what we, as the church, do.  Namely, Jesus gave us the mission of making disciples.  Though we didn't talk about it directly, we need to remember that we are disciples if we are going to successfully make disciples.  You can check out the message here  and see the outline of stages of spiritual growth that we used to think about what marks spiritual maturity.  As I said in the message, the specific stages and characteristics do not come from a specific passage in the Bible.  Rather, they are a system developed by Jim Putman and others from the New Testament as a whole. I believe the hardest part of using this outline, or any other for that matter, is accurately evaluating our own level of spiritual maturity.  A word of warning here: we must ask questions from time to time and consider how we have grown, are growing, and need to grow but we can easily get lost in self-examination and miss many opportunities we have been given to make disciples an

This might turn into a regular thing!  Those few of you who have followed my blogging habits over the years already know that consistency has been an issue.  Yesterday I preached on the Church being an army sent out and empowered by God.  I was pretty clear that our objective was not taking over land, culture, or government but, if you're concerned, you can check the whole thing out here.   The thought that Jesus' army cannot lose has caused me some further thought. What does winning and losing look like?  Jesus said that the gates of hell would not prevail against the church.  This led to my statement of invincibility for the church as a whole.  Individual members are vulnerable to Satan's attacks but the Church is sustained by and empowered by God.  As such, our ultimate victory is already secured.  Jesus wins.  Satan is defeated.  We will live forever with God.  When we think of casualties in war, we think of soldiers wounded and lost.  Spiritually, we might suffer wound

 As with most Sundays now, I got to preach yesterday.  In a series on the Church, I took up the image of the vine and the branches from John 15.  If you're looking for extra credit, or even just curious, you can check it out here .  There seems to always be more to say and today it occurred to me that I could write it down and share it.  You might forgive me for forgetting.  It would appear that my last post was a day or two before the 2016 presidential election! Back to pruning.  In the sermon, I called attention to the fact that the passage says that God prunes every branch that produces fruit (every Christian) but I didn't have much time to explain what that looks like.  Three areas of pruning jump to mind: sin, pursuits that steal our attention from God, and good and godly things that distract us from God's main purpose for us. Sin.  Our base nature is selfish.  I want what I want and I want it now.  This will always draw us away from God and others.  As Christians, we

Election day is looming which means that about half the ads on TV are about what how horrible political opponents are and what each candidate will do to change what the "other side" has messed up so badly.  Usually, these come in pairs that oppose each other.  While I wouldn't trade our system of government for anywhere in the world, it sure makes me want to keep my finger on the mute button for the next few days.  Of course, the follow up will start next Wednesday or the day after inauguration, at the latest:  the near-constant game of pointing out what (insert elected official here) is doing to mess up the country/state/city and what they should do differently. Before, I devolve into complete cynicism or completely contradict the point of this post, I should point out that most groups are pretty good at this game regardless of political involvement.  We are all adept at figuring out what "they" need to change to make things better.  Poor people need to get a

"Membership has it's privileges."  So says American Express and such is usually the case.  Being a member carries a sense of belonging and acceptance into the group if nothing else.  In fact, some groups get members by way of the privileges.  AmEx, AAA, country clubs, and timeshares convince us to pay a fee just to receive the privileges that membership provides.  Other groups are composed of people who join up to support a cause and the benefits are just a consequence of that, they are not the reason people join.  Still others are more like fan groups, the group come together to extol the virtues of a particular person or thing.  For these, membership is about shared love.  Membership might lead to a shared cause if the object of adoration champions a particular effort but this is a secondary item; certain group members might take it up while others do not. Not so long ago in the U.S., church membership carried a certain amount of the first kind of membership.  To be a

Have you been following Izaic Yorks?  Yeah, me neither.  Not being a big fan of NCAA track & field I had no idea who this young man was until I heard about him on the radio.  Seems Mr. Yorks ran the fastest mile ever by an American collegian in a recent meet.  At just under 3:54, Izaic ran a mile at about the speed I bike a mile.  The real surprise, however, is that he did not run the mile at the NCAA championships which he qualified for.  Why not, you ask?  You can read about it here , but the upshot is that he had already committed to running the Distance Medley Relay with three of his teammates.  The qualifying heat for the mile is right before the DMR so Izaic had to choose which one to run.  Running the mile would effectively ruin their chances to win the DMR.  Izaic had promised his teammates he would run the relay and he evidenced no hesitation in keeping his word. Now here's the thing, his teammates, his coach, and everyone aware of the story would have understood i