Positively Church

Friends,

This is part two of a sort to the message from a couple of days ago. To a degree, the irony is not lost on me as I share this message...providing a negative contrast in order to make a positively stated point. :-) It seems inevitable...that it is not possible to get away from the monthly bulletins of a few brotherhood yayhoos who have all of the answers, who set themselves up as the thought and action police for the brotherhood. In fact, not nearly a week goes by where one does not hear or have to deal with/sort out negative statements from people, some of whom are well-meaning, but miss the point in relationship to Christ and His church. It is easy for us to have an elevated view of ourselves...as if Jesus does not just need to use us, but that He somehow needs us to defend the fort, as if He is not big enough to sort things out for Himself. And the thing is...we're not in a fort -- we are a temple, individually and collectively.

There are many good people who care about positive principles, but who have long grown so weary of negatives...wrangling over words and concepts. A lot of these same people look for Christians to worship and fellowship with who positively affirm Christ as supreme. They know that the doctrine points to the doctrine maker and not to self-righteousness. For a long time, people may not have known what we, as a fellowship of Christians, would stand for in our many of our churches…but they certainly knew what we would stand against. Thankfully, this is changing. In the course of life and listening to many messages along the way, one of the significant things that still disturbs me is to hear negative preaching or teaching. Some people spend a majority of their precious time accusing and defaming other believers, rather than preaching and living Christ. I don’t care what or who people are against…most discerning individuals understand these matters. We do not have to define and promote the negative in order to affirm the positive — it simply is not necessary. There is certainly a time and place for a productive contrasting illustration, but it should be wisely used, wisely stated.

I am far more interested in wanting to know what Christians stand for. If we spend our time positively preaching Christ, building "the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace," we have no problem letting the chips fall where they may with regard to the negatives…to the things that just do not matter in the grand scheme of things. Also, we are truly going to be able to live with the fruit of the Spirit of love, joy and peace, knowing that we are proactively striving to be like Christ and not reacting to some other group or individual. This is not tickling itching ears...but positively, forthrightly, passionately proclaiming the truth in a way that people will understand and want to learn more about the Savior. People want to be fed positives…they grow tired and weary of negative preaching -- don’t do this, don’t be like them, don’t think this way, don’t, don’t, don’t…let’s just be doers! Do live proactively, do preach and teach positively, do exemplify the Fruit of the Spirit...and see what the Lord can do. Blessings,

Don