Florida Bound

Ok, I am out of here. I am heading to Orlando tomorrow with my wife and oldest daughter. We are going to Disneyworld, but I didn't win the Superbowl (ok that was stupid). While, I am down there I am going to hook up with some people from PINGETC (check out the link). I am looking forward to the whole trip. Meeting new people, but most importantly hanging out with my family.

I have a current pet peeve. Ok, so I have a lot of them, but this one has been sticking in my head for a few days. My father-in-law has been coming to church with us and investigating his purpose in life. He is also wondering a lot about God. We have had some great conversations. Ok, so my approach to that is to be honest with him and to allow God to move in his life if that is His desire. Why is it that a person is investigating the faith, some people move in on them and start bombarding them with information that is not even THAT important. Some (and I have been guilty of this too), immediately give the impression that you have to have everything worked out (by this I mean, hold the same views that they do) and you need to get saved before it is too late. There is this whole pressure thing. We push and debate and pound with things that are secondary to the faith. In my experience, it pushing people has done exactly that, pushed them away.

Why can't we tell people the plain truth? God expects perfection. We don't measure up to it. We never will measure up to it, but because He loves us so much, he has provided perfection for us in Jesus? In order for that perfection to apply to us, we have to respond to what he is calling us to do. Repent (by that I mean change our minds about who we are, how we live, and who God is) and follow. That's it. It is not about saying the right prayer or having the right views of baptism, or eschatology, or the Lord's supper. We cannot discipline ourselves into a relationship with God. We cannot force people to come to Christ through saying a prayer (no matter how sincere we are in our heart we are when we say it. no matter how many tears we shed when we do). I know that our motives are good and I don't blame people for trying. I just think that we need to sometimes wait for God to move people instead of trying to move people for God.

J...