Relevance

So, if you have read my blog for a minute, you should be able to read that I am in love with grace. I just am in awe. I am also dense sometimes.

When I started this...whatever it is...I was reading this book, All is Grace. I picked it for its title because, well, I am a fan of grace. Anyway, it was so relevant and joyous. I didn't know this author but since I came from more of a Catholic tradition, I figured I would just google him. To my surprise, dude was OLD! He lived in like the 1830-1890s. Not even old, long dead.

Makes me think about what the word "relevant" means. Sure, I prefer a more contemporary style music. I like going to church in jeans since I am supposed to be with God everyday, what does getting dressed up for 2 hours on Sunday mean? I believe in caring for Jesus in the poor-clothing, feeding, sheltering. But, Spurgeon probably never went to church in jeans. He looks a little dusty really. And what is with those whiskers? He had a mega church. Do those things change hearts tho?

Relevant defines something that touches me, that means something to me, that is of value. We talk about making the Gospel more relevant to people. Will that really happen? Of course the Gospel is valuable, but it hasn't changed. Something inside me changed, my heart softened and was able to respond so that I could finally hear this Good News.

I am skeptical. Sure, I pray that God reaches our missing brothers and sisters and touches their hearts, but I wonder how much is OUR packaging and how much is just the Holy Spirit doing what only the Holy Spirit can do.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Christ in His Distressing Disguise

Image
When I was much younger, I learned about this remarkable woman, Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, then simply known as Mother Teresa. As a teenager herself, she had chosen to serve God by leaving her home in the former Yugoslavia to go practically around the world to India and become a nun. There she taught school, but she was distracted by the poor on the streets. Longing to care for them, she needed to be released from her teaching duties. Eventually a new religious order, the Missionaries of Charity, was formed by Mother Teresa to serve them, the poorest of the poor. I wonder today what attracted me to her. I didn't know much about India. The pictures of the suffering, the cachetic bodies that barely resembled humans, puzzled me. Growing up with movies and air brushed photographs, as well as a skepticism of news and government organizations, it can be hard to believe. How can there be such incredible suffering in my world? Mother Teresa was doing God's work; I know that was exciti
Read more

Blog Carnival-Seasons

Image
It was all so much simpler in my spring.  I suppose it is for everyone.  That is why babies and puppies and newness are squealed over.  I have been struggling.  Spring has long gone.  The leaves are falling. I loved what I had, what once defined me. Without it now, I feel like a crab without a shell-              vulnerable...                            homeless...                                           dry in spirit. I know, that all is not lost. I know, things change. I know, that God,              who brought me from there to there once,              will bring me from here to there again. I know, the story is not over. I know, the season will change, again. I wish my heart knew all this as well. Check out more blog entries on Seasons at the Carnival .
Read more

Blog Carnival: Community

Image
Blog Carnival: Community Community is getting to be a buzzword that hardly seems recognizable.  It has become permanently connected with a metrosexual worship leader at the hip church which has an outreach into some impoverished place.  But is that community? Yesterday I wrote about Facebook's social networking site.  Did you know that there are more than 300 million active users and that 50% of their active users (returned to the site in the last 30 days) log on to Facebook in any given day and that the average user has 130 friends on the site? Is that community? Do we really have a community or do we talk so much about it and request friends by the busload because we desire it intensely? We were made for community.  Creator said it was not good for that first man to be alone.  Even Creator was not alone.  We need to walk with others.  We need our village.  We need them to not only walk with us and love us and share our burdens, but to challenge us, to force us to grow.
Read more