Smallest Seed

Image from iStock. Here's Part 1 So Jesus went around preaching the Gospel to people and leaving them to make a decision on their own. He never encouraged or made it easy for people to believe his Gospel and follow him. He never visited people and checked if they were ready to believe in him. There were even times when he avoided crowds who were after him. Simon and his companions went to look for him, 37 and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!” 38 Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.” 39 So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons. [Mark 1] I can't imagine pastors doing this today. Ignore a crowd that's after you? Pastors would give anything to keep that crowd. They'd sacrifice themselves just to have lots of people in their churches. But not Jesus. He seems to be saying, "You want to join me? Pursue

Image from Leisure OneHowTo. Here's the first part.  You can never kick out Jesus from his church---unlike most pastors today. They're often at the mercy of their members, especially the influential ones, and one mistake gets them kicked out so easily. So they try to please these members. I've seen it happen lots of times. How did it come to this? Because they started out pleasing people. They invite them to church and try to be nice to them and plead with them to attend church regularly and be regular members. They beg them to come back next Sunday and so on. This surely builds churches (by pampering people) and can make them grow fast, but Jesus never did any of them. He always had this challenge---take it or leave it. "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." [Matthew 16.24] I don't see this principle working in church anymore. I mean, for instance, here's this guy who tries your church and

Image from HuffPost. I've seen it happen countless times since I was among young people in church. Pastors doing everything they could to get people in so they can start a church. They'd been doing it then, young pastors are still doing it now. And what do they have? A disaster that often starts out right but turns horrible (and more horrible) as time passes. No "ever-increasing glory"  which Paul talked about to the Corinthians. Jesus wants a glorious church, without spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. He won't settle for less. I can't imagine Christ settling for a semi-glorious church with stains and folds and creases. They always say church is a collection of imperfect, flawed people God has accepted by grace and mercy. And that's what church has been---flawed and imperfect and getting worse as time goes by because some preachers pointed church to that direction. They taught us there's no perfect church so just settle for messed up

Image from workstride. If you haven't read Ecclesiastes yet, you should now. The Teacher (King Solomon) experimented on life and found out that nothing really makes sense in this world, even things we do for God if he's not in it. It's amusing to find Solomon (whom God gave great wisdom) saying,  "Do not be overrighteous, neither be overwise-- why destroy yourself? In this meaningless life of mine I have seen both of these: the righteous perishing in their righteousness, and the wicked living long in their wickedness. 16 Do not be overrighteous, neither be overwise—why destroy yourself? [Ecclesiastes 7] But it wasn't Solomon alone who saw it. Many other Old Testament prophets also did. Jeremiah was so pissed off with his life at one time that he wished he were dead at birth. He even felt "deceived" by God. Elijah, after performing great signs and wonders against Baal's prophets on Mt. Carmel, wanted to die because he felt everything was

Jesus was dead serious when he told the people to  eat his flesh. He said it like it wasn't figurative in any way. He is really the Bread of Life, and as Bread we have to really eat him. Bread is food, after all, designed to be eaten. And eating him is the only way to have eternal life. Watch this: For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. [John 6] Before that, he said: Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. His flesh is real food . It's literal. But then, it's literal in a spiritual way. You really have to "eat him" in the spirit. I know smart Alecks will tell me it's figurative. But no, I believe it's literal, but in a spiritual sense, like how we true believers can see Jesus and the Holy Spirit, as Jesus said in John 14, which we'd tackle in another issue. The world cannot see him but we believer

Image from ZipRecruiter. One book author said it well. Most churches today lack love, especially for sinners. They may love each other in church but they often neglect non-Christians who sometimes feel left out or out-of-place because believers keep their church fellowships too tightly sealed---like an exclusive club. Non-believers find it hard to squeeze their way in. But what's the solution? The popular notion today is to give special treatment to the unchurched. I even read something about asking people what they want or expect from a church and build church from that foundation. In other words, go after people. They say that demonstrates "love" for sinners. Yeah, once upon a time I also thought so. I made sure I entertained visitors in church, made them feel welcome so they'd go back next Sunday. I thought that was how Jesus did it---until one day I sought Scriptures to confirm it. Sinners Should Pursue Jesus (That's God's Love) To my surprise,

Image from Daily Mirror. Thank God he is full of grace and mercy. With the same, we should be gracious and merciful to others as well. But here's the problem---most believers misuse them. They think it's a dole out, a grace and mercy spree. And they fondly call it "giving a second chance." They lack wisdom on how God uses these divine helps. I often see pastors giving another leadership chance to their leaders who fell into willful sin. Like that church leader who left his wife and did adultery with another woman. He was suspended from ministry for a while but the pastor later simply put him back to leadership roles even without repentance. The pastor reasoned, repentance was between the sinner and God. So, there he was, this erring leader, doing ministry again even if he continued with an adulterous relationship. And the pastor thought what he did was in line with God's grace and mercy. Second Chance? Give guys like that "second chance"? God

Image from Optimal. There was a time I tired of going to church. Really. I was excited about God but not anymore the church---I mean "church" as religious people have made it---the programs and activities and everything they do there "for God" which had all become meaningless to me. What they called "ministry." Since then, I've always looked for churches that look like Jesus' ministry and the Acts church. Especially preaching---I really tired of hearing about church growth and strategies and how to reach people out there and bring them in church---and inspirational preaching about them. These are important but NOT as important as the one thing that Mary chose and which Martha didn't see. This story has been there in the bible but the church has never really learned from it. They still prioritize what makes them worry and upset about many things and neglect the one thing that's really needed. I heard this preaching in church year i