Last night Brooke and I started going over this notebook that I have to say I was quite skeptical of at first. But It led us to some very good discussion. For hours we talked about church history and how the church ever ended up in the place it is today. She wanted me to post some of the thoughts we had so that she could "live vicariously through my blog." (forgive me brooke I have added to them a little) The following is my meager attempt to discuss some pretty large topics that Brooke and I disussed last night. If they make sense to you it's a miracle.
It seems like church has been off-track for the last 1700 years. We have forgotten the simple commands of Jesus for so long. All along God has been directing us in our induvidual lives showing us what it is to love and give as he has, but herd us all together and we are pretty dang stupid. Christians as a group forget the almightiness of God and rely simply on our logic. We try so hard to figure out what church is supposed to be like and how we are suppossed to live we miss out on God revealing his way to us. If we rely too much on our logic we lose God completely and we no longer have a church led by listening to the almighty God of the universe. Instead we have a group of people who are nice and very moral led by guys with God degrees (I'm going to school and I know there ain't nothing special about a degree). On the same hand God gave us brains and desires for us to seek out his will with our logic. But never can we forget about him. He will reveal to us how he wants his church to be. In the end he will be the one who has written the best book on ministry strategy. This is a quote from Tom and Felicity Dale from the notebook, "God is progressively revealing (bringing new light from the timeless scriptures) truth so that He will have His way in His church, and on that day His bride will be without spot or blemish." God is in control, and the best thing for me to do is to make sure I am connected with him and acting upon and putting my all into his revelations to me. That is how I can best be the church for now.


-sidenotes: ironic that the US is ahead in everything except in our relationships with God. It seem that our stuff has taken the place of God. Do countries that face more hardships have more faith in God? And did the hardships Christians faced in the first hundred years make them stronger ? Did the widespread acceptance and regulation kill god's work? How can we make sure not to get in the way of God when he acts?