Progressive Christianity

Why do we love the church? Why do we even attend church?

Acts 20:28 tells us this: Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, he bought with his own blood.

Christ bought the church with His own blood.

The people do not make the church; church makes the people. People come from different socioeconomic backgrounds to come to church to engage in corporate worship. What binds us? They say that blood is thicker than water and it's true. It's not the water in the shower that helps us to be clean nor the washing of our sins that binds us together. It is the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Yet, many Christians do not engage in progressive or substantive Christianity. This is not about being a Democrat or a Republican; it is about the continued work of the Living Gospel in each of our lives. As Paul illustrates in the first chapter of Romans, the Gospel is a continued way of life and not just a good news story. We deem this a term called sanctification.

However, the saints that we are supposed to be, we are not. We do not pray, we hardly read the Bible, and yet we contend ourselves to be mature enough Christians. We claim to know but the act of truly knowing is knowing that one does not know enough. With knowledge comes humility because the more knowledge one obtains, one must realize the depth to the degrees that is out there.

Christianity is like a guitar. When one first starts to play the guitar we believe it to be just about memorizing a few notes here and there. However as one continues to learn there is not only a mastery of notes but different chords, patterns, and rhythms to learn. Pretty soon, when one understands or delves deeper into this realm, he\she understands that to say one knows is completely and utterly meaningless.

Now this is not to get confused with 1 Corinthians 8:1 which states that knowledge puffs up. In that regard knowledge is taken in a different light and ultimately is insufficient if one believes that they truly truly know all.

Yet where has this sense of urgency gone with Christians? We should be the 3 H's.

Hungry.
Humble.
Holy.

1. We should be hungry always moving purposefully and living with a sense of urgency understanding that "we should give ourselves no rest until Your kingdom comes".
2. We should be humble because we know that we are insufficient without the love, grace, and mercy of Jesus Christ.
3. We should be holy because once we have accepted Christ as Lord and Savior then we are no longer sinners, we are saints. There is a reason why the believers at the beginning of each of Paul's letters are referenced to not only as believers but interchangeably called saints.
   

Christians have become complacent and flat. Not bold in the least bit. Our souls should be grieved by the fact that we have lost it. Our souls should be grieving for the Church which is the bride of Christ. Yet this bride is not doing her job. In each relationship, the man and woman have roles and responsibilities to adhere to. This is no different.

So the question to end with today is this: Why do we do this?

Let's not merely ask ourselves and deceive ourselves with talk. Talk is cheap. Let's truly reflect and from deep remorseful repentance can true progress come for it is done with Christ and Christ alone.