Hillbilly Theology

If you find yourself trudging through the Christian Life out of a sense of duty or morality, without love and joy, something's wrong. It's not just a simple matter of "something might be missing," this should be a matter of alarm for you. If Christianity is rules and duty and morals and obligations for you, you may very well have missed the boat from the beginning. The Christian Life is Life More Abundant, overflowing, a joyous celebration. It might be time to check your pulse.

This time, the  title pretty much wraps up the description....

Tell someone about the show:
- If you like the show, tell a friend about it!
- If you don't like it, tell someone you don't like!

We got a little feedback from 'person who will remain nameless' about our use of the word "Shutup." Then we talked a little about what we tell the world about our relationship with Christ by the way we set our priorities.

Tell someone about the show:
- If you like the show, tell a friend about it!
- If you don't like it, tell someone you don't like!

For the most part, when we read the parable of the "Prodigal Son," we focus on the beautiful image of the "lost/dead" son coming home, and the great party. When the "other/elder" son is referenced, usually it's as an illusion to the Jews. We would like to disagree. We think that the older son is the type of the Church. It's a funny kind of paradox. When you're on the outside, or just grafted into the family, you're the younger son. Once you're on the inside/grafted in, you immediately become the older son.

Dan enlightens us a another bit of his colorful family history.

Christians need fellowship.... But we can also give fellowship. Think about it. We can fellowship with the world, in the World without being of the World.

Is it easy? No. Is it effective in ministering to the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of lost people? Yes!

When we say, "I do," there's more than the commitment we're making to our spouse. There's more than the commitment we make before those witnesses. When we say, "I do," we make a commitment to God. When we say, "Come into my heart," we're not just making a commitment to God, but we're also making a commitment to God to care for our brothers and sisters.

There are things in those words we will never understand, but we need to understand what we can. We need to take our commitment to the Church (fellow believers) seriously. The commitment we made to each other before God, and in His name.

Great men can have a great influence in our lives... sometimes without a word.... A tribute to the late Ernie Ladd

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernie_Ladd

Five times, I've almost skipped over this short discussion, and just made #42 out of the next. Five times I've been brought back to the fact that a disciple needs to hear this... needs to know this can happen. Sometimes, some people are going to just stop loving you. Sometimes it's going to be because you've become unlovely, and we have to face that fact, but sometimes it's because they can't accept that you're right and they're wrong. Always, it hurts.

One of our listeners and friends wrote us asking about the Trinity, "I heard a sermon on this subject; I would like to hear a discussion by you. Some sermons even say, 'Forget the Trinity - they are all "Jesus."' So what is your take?"