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?"

The other half of Brian's message, "What are you doing about the poor?" It's so easy to get stuck on the "stewardship" issues of "is this wise," "are these people playing the system," "how do we know they really need help," "can we trust them..."? Well... we talk about it.

As always, we treasure your feedback. If you like the show, tell a friend about it! If you don't like it, tell someone you don't like! In either case, you can send us feedback at feedback@opendiscipleship.org

Ephesians 5:21

Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

1 Corinthians 16:15-18

You know that the household of Stephanas were the first converts in Achaia, and they have devoted themselves to the service of the saints. I urge you, brothers, to submit to such as these and to everyone who joins in the work, and labors at it. I was glad when Stephanas, Fortunatus and Achaicus arrived, because they have supplied what was lacking from you. For they refreshed my spirit and yours also. Such men deserve recognition.

We seem to get a lot of feedback condemning the Church or condemning the people that go to church, or condemning the reasons people go to church, or just condemning people because "those people" [blah, blah, blah].

Well, I'm tired of it! Listen up, people! "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." If you've got a problem with that.... you've got a problem

"Dear Lord, bless this food.... and ... uh ... thanks for the ... uh ... great life .... and the kids ... and the wife .... .... and ... uh .... bless the .... uh ... those who are traveling ... and .... uh .... " (*pssst! the food's getting cold!*) " .... Amen!"

So, everything we have is from God, and he provides it to us in his time. What's his, what's 'ours,' and when does he provide it....

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Disagreeing with someone you love over something that's important to you is the hardest thing. It's often the thing that causes friction in families and churches. If we, as Christians, can learn how to disagree in love, we can learn from those disagreements. We need to learn that there's a big, important difference between 'unity' and 'uniformity.' We are called to unity -- not uniformity. That means we are going to disagree, and that's a good thing!

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Do churches pass over the people God has planted in our congregations that could or should be ministering because they don't have a Bible College degree? Are we hiring people who have a Bible College degree who aren't called to be our ministers while we overlook gifted, qualified people who are already established to minister to our churches and communities?

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What's in a name? Everything! We build a lot of walls around our understandings of Christianity, but Jesus told us that if we believe in him, or as the Apostles put it, "in the name of Jesus," we will be saved. Amen! Powerful, powerful truth.

So, I expect that you'll disagree with us.... we both disagreed with this not very long ago....

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God speaks to each of us. He speaks to each of us in unique ways. Sometimes those words are sharp and striking, sometimes sweet and subtle. When and where does God speak to you? When does he call your name? How does God tell you, "I love you"?

Dan interviews Tom Micheaud of Valley Christian Academy in Roswell, NM.

Well... how, exactly, do you introduce the topic of world views? Since so many people aren't even aware that world views exist, and even fewer aware that they have one.... Put most simply, "Our worldview is our framework for viewing reality." (wikipedia) It's a very difficult idea for some people, but the place to start is in identifying that we have a world view. Once we've cleared that, we can start identifying what's broken in our world view and figuring out how to fix it.