“I have long since come to believe that people never mean half of what they say, and that it is best to disregard their talk and judge only their actions.”  ~ Dorothy Day

Actions speak louder than words.

I’ve learned this in my personal and work life.  The people I count on are not the ones who tell me what they can or will do, but the ones who actually do it.

We all learn to count on those who consistently follow through.

I’m sorry if this doesn’t sound very spiritual, though I’m sure there are spiritual applications.

In reality, when some people are faced with self-sacrifice in order to serve someone else, they choose themselves, letting the other person down.

I’ve learned in life to adopt a wait-and-see attitude when folks tell me their great plans for something.  Of course, I’m hopeful that these things will actually pan out, but many times it is just talk.

And here’s a spiritual application: God’s dreams aren’t fulfilled, His house isn’t built, just by talking about it.  At some point, we have to give up our time, our comfort, or whatever, and give ourselves over to spending time with and developing relationships with the Lord’s people and with Jesus Christ Himself.

The Apostle James said that faith without works is dead (James 2:14-26).

It is not meant to be all talk.  The Lord’s life leads us to action – to act on behalf of the good of others.

Please know that I don’t want to make anyone feel guilty – but following Christ will tend to take us out of our comfort zone if we allow it.

As we enter the Christmas season, we also remember and celebrate God’s defining action on our behalf – coming to us as a human being to define and express an invisible, misunderstood God. 

Follow the Life!

Photo Credit

These are some of the best books that I have read and they have challenged, pushed, and enlightened me.

The books here are focused on living a deeper life in Christ, knowing and experiencing Christ through fellowship with Him and others in community, and God’s eternal purpose.

This list does not equate to an endorsement of everything that is in all of these books, or everything each author has ever written or spoken.

Please feel free to leave your suggested best books in the comments and I’ll check them out!

The topics are:

• Blogs and Websites (I know, they’re not books… but still good reading)
• Knowing Jesus in a Deeper Way
• Walking in Christ Daily
• God’s Eternal Purpose
• Body Life
• Living Missionally
• Marriage/Relationships
• Church Practice
• Understanding The Early Church
• Devotional Books
• Specialty Topics

Blogs and Websites

House Church Resource

Beyond Evangelical

The Rebuilders

Searching Together

3rd Race

The Unexpected Journey

The Rocks Will Cry Out

Church Anarchist

Odres Nuevos (Spanish blog about organic church called New Wineskins)

The Online Library of T. Austin-Sparks

Knowing Jesus in a Deeper Way

Walking in Christ Daily

God’s Eternal Purpose

Body Life

Living Missionally

Marriage/Relationships

Church Practice

Understanding the Early Church

Devotional Books

Specialty Topics

**Disclaimer** The links in this post are affiliate links, which means I may receive a tiny profit if you purchase one of these items from these links.  Take heart, I only recommend items I believe in and have personal experience with.

Credit: Darnok from morguefile.com

That’s the new tagline I’m using on the blog, and I thought I would give a little explanation.  (I’m still toying with it, so please feel free to offer suggestions in the comments.)

I felt that the previous tagline was more about my own journey, and I wanted something that would connect more with potential readers. In other words, I want the blog to be about helping others more than just journaling my own thoughts.

As I’ve done some reflecting on this, I really feel a burden for those who have left “church” (the typical American version, anyway), and/or want to follow Jesus in a deeper way. So those two topics will be my focus at this time.

I’ve also found, at least in my experience, that many people following Christ do not know who they are in Him. There is a spiritual identity crisis in the church today. So many people are trying discover who they are and what they are supposed to be doing with their life. And without the understanding that our true identity is in Christ, many people are left to struggle in their own power to try and answer these questions.

What I’ve experienced is that walking away from religion and pursuing Christ as All in All results in discovering who you really are. Not only that, I’ve found a new source from which I live my life.

WARNING: Learning to live by the life of Christ will be deadly to religion in your life. In fact, all things will begin to appear pale in comparison to Him.

I’m planning to write more about all of this here on the blog, and I hope you will find it helpful and join in to the conversation. Until then…

Follow the Life!

*****

If you liked this, please share it using the links below.

Sign up for new content at top right to receive future posts by email.

Leave a comment below.  I’d love to see your thoughts and interact with you.

Frank Viola has described organic church as this:

By “organic church,” I mean a non-traditional church that is born out of spiritual life instead of constructed by human institutions and held together by religious programs. Organic church life is a grass roots experience that is marked by face-to-face community, every-member functioning, open-participatory meetings (opposed to pastor-to-pew services), non-hierarchical leadership, and the centrality and supremacy of Jesus Christ as the functional Leader and Head of the gathering.  (Full article here.)

The following illustration is how I have tried to describe what happens when an organic church meets together to express Christ with every member functioning:

Paul says in Ephesians 3:8 that there are “unsearchable riches” in Christ.  Imagine with me that the Louvre Museum in Paris is a picture of all of the riches that are in Christ.  The Louvre has approximately 35,000 exhibits in its massive museum grounds, not to mention the architecture alone is stunning.  Many of the most famous pieces of artwork in history are housed within these walls.

Now, imagine a group of people setting out to explore and experience the riches of this museum.  To give 5 minutes to each of the 35,000 pieces of art would take 243 twelve hour days!  Picture this group entering the museum in awe of its beautiful architecture.  They gather around a famous art display and take in its beauty and uniqueness.  After some time, they share with each other what aspects of this piece of art stood out to them and how it affected them.  As they go around the group taking turns sharing, they find that no one saw quite the same thing, even though they were all certainly looking at the same piece.  Some were astounded by the colors.  Others were captivated by the fine detail in the work.  Some were focused on one particular aspect, such as the expression on a face.  Some wondered about the meaning of the painting.  Others pondered the artist’s motivation for the piece.  As the group shared their varied insights, everyone saw much more of the artwork than any one person saw themselves.  As the group moves through the museum, gazing upon the beautiful art and sharing with each other, they grow closer as they share together, and even begin to see the artwork from other people’s perspective.

Additionally, the group may decide to disperse in random directions to search out some artifact that catches their interest.  They may ponder this piece alone or with just a few from the larger group.  Later, the group comes back together and shares with each other what they have found.  Many times, a very discernable theme will appear as they share, even though there was no intention to seek a common theme.  (I’ve been in meetings where this happens and it is truly electrifying!)  As each person shares about the treasure that they found, many different aspects of this massive museum may be revealed.  The group may decide to venture together through some of these areas and behold together the treasure that some have brought to the group.

It is much the same as this when a group of people gather to express the Lord Jesus Christ together.  Rather than getting only one view (such as from a pastor), many people bring many various views that are woven together into a beautiful picture of Christ that is much more rich than only one person’s view.  In other words, Jesus Christ is the art piece that this group beholds.

Imagine if the same group went to the Louvre Museum, but when they made it into the foyer, they elected only one person to go in and view the artwork and then come back and share with the group what he alone saw.  Without entering in to the museum together, the group’s ability to fully understand what the one person saw is difficult and limited.  Week after week, they gather in the foyer and listen to this one person describe more of what he has seen.  As the weeks and years pass, this person appears to be so much of an expert in the Louvre artwork, the group is intimidated to think about going inside themselves, lest they be expected to come back and expound on what they saw as well as the expert does.

In my view, this is similar to what happens in a church that depends on a select few clergy to minister Christ.  Certainly, there are many pastors and clergy members who have a great depth of knowledge of Christ and a rich relationship with Him.  But when the duty of exploring Him rests completely or mostly on the clergys’ shoulders, the rest of the body becomes passive and underdeveloped.  In an organic expression of the church (as I’ve defined here), this duty is shared among the priesthood of ALL believers.

You may read this and not believe that Christians can live in this way together with each other.  I can affirm by experience that they can, but only when their focus is learning together how to live by Christ’s indwelling life.  But that, of course, is another story for another day.