The best writer I’ve ever known once told me his secret: Less is more. An ordinary writer fills his story with meaningless words. An extraordinary writer can tell a story with a single word.

Without a doubt, God is the most extraordinary writer in existence. In just a word or two, he expresses a concept that our humanity needs chapters and chapters to explain.

With all my heart, I wish that the church today would listen to God’s words. They make Christianity so much more difficult when they clutter it with their words.

Actual titles found on Amazon.com’s “Christian Living” book shop:
God’s Master Plan for Your Life
God’s explanation:
“Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” Matthew 28:19-20

Title:
Become a Better you: 7 Keys to Improving Your Life Every Day
God’s 1 key to improving your life every day:
“Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 18:3-4

Title:
You Can Heal Your Life
God’s plan for healing:
“For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.” Romans 6:6-7

Title:
Love and Respect: The Love She Most Desires, The Respect He Desperately Needs
God’s command:
“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” Galations 18:22-25

Title:
The Purpose Driven Life: What On Earth Am I Here For
God’s command:
“The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,
because the LORD has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,
to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn”
Isaiah 61:1-2

Title:
Wild at Heart: Discovering the Secret of a Man’s Soul
God’s secret revealed:
‘You have stolen my heart, my sister, my bride;
you have stolen my heart
with one glance of your eyes,
with one jewel of your necklace.”
Song of Solomon 4:9

Title:
Captivating: Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman’s Soul
God says:
“Place me like a seal over your heart,
like a seal on your arm;
for love is as strong as death,
its jealousy unyielding as the grave.
It burns like blazing fire,
like a mighty flame.”
Song of Solomon 8:6

Titles:
Boundaries in Dating/I Kissed Dating Goodbye/I Gave Dating a Chance
God says:
“So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.” Galations 5:16-18

Title:
Battlefield of the Mind: How to Win the War in Your Mind
God says:
“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.” Romans 8:18-21

Title:
Activate: An Entirely New Approach to Small Groups
God’s “old” but highly proven approach to small groups:
“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love… if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.” 1 John 4:7-8, 12b

It’s time for us to stop talking and start listening.

It’s nearly 2am. Can’t sleep tonight.

A quick preface: It’s 2am and I’m ranting. I consider myself to be guilty of everything I accuse. Just let me rant.

I can’t fully explain it, but I am filled with anger tonight. I am unbelievably angry with the organization known as the “church”.

I am a Christian. Sometimes I am ashamed to be a member of this organization known as the church. Sometimes I am ashamed to be associated with other members of this quasi-religious organization. I believe I can honestly say that my belief in Jesus and my faith in God exists in spite of the actions of this organization.

In my life, “the church” and members of this organization, calling themselves “Christians, have seemingly gone to great lengths to drive me away. They have pointed out my flaws. They have convinced me of my worthlessness. They have taken advantage of me - emotionally, financially, and spiritually. One of these “Christians” encouraged me to commit suicide. Two leaders of this organization, calling themselves “pastors”, told me that God had given up on me, and that I was not one of God’s “chosen ones” who could enter heaven.

I am not a Christian because of the “church”. I am a Christian because of God. I had a very private, intimate experience with God that changed my life. Based on that experience, I choose to believe in Jesus.

Not surprisingly, when I tried to tell some of these “Christians” about my experience, I was mocked and ridiculed.

These experiences were horrible. However, I am oddly thankful, because those experiences have toughened me and shaped me. I wouldn’t wish this on anyone, but I have grown because of those experiences. Today I am strong and confident in a way that I have never experienced.

I wish I could tell you that the church has changed. I wish I could tell you that today, experiences like mine have gone the way of the Spanish Inquisition, that the church has been reformed in the same way that the Protestant Reformation reformed the Catholic church.

I cannot.

In fact, today I fear that the church is taking actions far worse than those of the Spanish Inquisition. We judge, we abuse, we punish, all in the name of Jesus. We commit unspeakable atrocities, seek divine forgiveness, then resume our path of terror.

I have seen and heard so many injustices in the name of Jesus. It would be easy for me to name names, to give you photographs and to outline the sins of each person. But that wouldn’t accomplish anything.

“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”

I am so tired of looking at an organization filled with weak, fearful individuals, people who need to ridicule me in order to boost their own fragile egos. I am so tired of seeing people who forget that God created the very same science that they deny. I am so tired of seeing people who scream hate in the name of the God who created love. I am so tired of a religion that is muddied with personal opinions and propaganda. I am so tired of a religion that fears individuals with unique ideas.

I am so thankful that God reached out to me when the church would not. But oh, how I pray this will change. I am so thankful that God reached out to me; yet, no one will ever know what it would have meant if one of God’s “christians” had brought me to God. Meeting God personally was a precious and irreplaceable experience; yet, if only one of my fellow mortals had first introduced us - sometimes I cry because I never had that experience. I did not experience unconditional love from the “christians”, and I never knew that love until God came to me. Today, I can’t help but feel that I missed something wonderful, that I lost an incredible experience because the church was too selfish to touch me.

Thanks for listening. I needed that.

It’s Sunday, and for me that means church. Today I went to church with my parents, which was definitely… an experience.

I witnessed two different events, different in every way, but equally alarming.

First, I watched a grandmother disciplining her grandkids. All three of them, all girls, had been kind of teasing and tormenting each other. The grandmother first reached down and shook her finger violently. When the children did not respond to her immediately, she drew her hand back as if to hit them - right in the middle of church! This didn’t look like a smack-on-the-rear spanking either. Grandma had this angry look in her eyes that frightened me! I can’t imagine how the kids felt. Needless to say, I was quite stunned.

A few minutes later, during the worship, I saw a girl from a different family dancing. I think this girl is seven years old. She wasn’t being disruptive - just bouncing around and really enjoying the music. Her father reached down and put his hand on her shoulder, indicating she should be still. How sad this made me! I wish we could all have the joyful abandon to dance for Jesus. Such love should never be stifled!

I will be praying for these children. I know it’s cliche, but children are our future. We owe it to them to teach them to live life with abandon.