Perry Noble, pastor of NewSpring Church in South Carolina, has posted a list of “what ifs” about the early church. Answering these questions and realizing the importance of how we invest ourselves in these days is important for every disciple of Jesus to consider. If we are doing what Jesus said, there will be good fruit from it. My challenge would be for you to read this and pray that God would show you where you can better redeem the time and invest in the Kingdom of God.

Maybe soon, I will see God and Jesus. At least that is what I was told. Eternal life does NOT depend on works. If it did, we will all be in hell. Christ paid for EVERY sin, so how can I or you be judged BY GOD for a sin when the penalty was ALREADY paid. People judge but that does not matter. I was reading the Bible and The Integrity of God beginning yesterday, because soon I will see them.

These are the last recorded words of George Sodini, a 48 year old man who was the perpetrator on a very violent shootup in a Pittsburgh suburb Tuesday evening. These words were written Monday evening. I don’t ordinarily write about “news” and events that are well-covered by media outlets. But this was home territory for me. Even more, this man’s plight – lonely isolation and rejection by everyone he knew, except for very superficial contact – and the extreme violence that he committed in response, demands some consideration. Disciples of Jesus, the Man of Sorrows, ought to be like their Master, they ought to be acquainted with grief.

George was lonely. Incredibly so. He was not, as far as we know, a person with mental disorders or any typical predictors of socially destructive behavior. He had a steady job, had been promoted, made pretty good money, had two parents in the home when he was growing up, and nothing particularly different about his experience than anyone else…except the social world which rejected him. What Sodini did was wrong. Yes, he is responsible. But he was a man who fell victim, not just to the demons of the spiritual world, but also to the demons of loneliness and rejection that are assailing so many in our world today.

It’s brokenness. It’s the consequences of sin. It’s the ploy of Satan. This last paragraph in his journal contains a lot of true statements, but George did not have the whole story. He did not learn about repentance. He did not learn about turning his rebel heart over to the sovereign lordship of Jesus. The point is this: Satan’s work does not extend only to hiding the truth. It can also be with telling only part of the truth. And if you doubt Satan had anything to do with this…In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. (2 Cor. 4:4).

These words should both sadden us and drive us to the cross. We need mercy. We need courage. We need to speak up. We need to love people. We need to be a part of the healing that God has for these broken people – the brokenness that was part of our own lives before Jesus saved us. We need to do something. So let’s get going.

“I know what I call you in Bemba” Vincent said, “Umuntu! It means you’re like me!” Those were words that were told me on a recent trip I made to Ndola, Zambia to assist in the building of a school. In writing The Hole in Our Gospel, Stearns notes that the Gospel we preach has often left out the command to seek justice for the poor and oppressed, to love our neighbor. Stearns is right that we, who have received the mercy of God in infinite abundance, have so often failed to show and share that mercy with our fellow men around the world, who lay dying. So Stearns issues a prophetic, God-honoring call to action…but misses a beat.

His vision is somewhat dampened, I think, by the sense that it is Christians who will put all wrong to right in the world. We are the agents of redemption, but this redemption will be realized and consummated by Christ. I would heartily recommend reading The Hole in Our Gospel to anyone, only exhorting them to trust in the sovereign work of God and not depend upon their own actions, but the Holy Spirit’s effective power.

Blogs are ablaze with cries of freedom. Status messages on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and half a million other networking sites ring with liberty. Everyone’s celebrating and commemorating this day…and why not, right? From the perspective of most Americans, it’s well-nigh sinful not to. After all, millions of men and women have sacrificed their lives, have they not?

Mark Driscoll wrote a tremendous response to a question from FOX News about Newsweek’s recent report about the death of Christendom in America. It is important to realize that the Gospel does not belong to America, nor does the flag mirror the cross, but we are exiles in the world called to seek the welfare of the city where we have been placed, holding our citizenship in the Kingdom of Messiah.

Has Christian America Come to an End? – FOX Fan – FOXNews.com

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A recent Barna release revealed that the majority of American Christians don’t believe in either Satan OR the Holy Spirit. This betrays the necessity and dire need for discipleship and sound doctrine in our churches. As the study suggests, “Americans who consider themselves to be Christian have a diverse set of beliefs – but many of those beliefs are contradictory or, at least, inconsistent.” George Barna’s conclusion is, I think well-founded:

Most Americans, even those who say they are Christian, have doubts about the intrusion of the supernatural into the natural world. Hollywood has made evil accessible and tame, making Satan and demons less worrisome than the Bible suggests they really are. It’s hard for achievement-driven, self-reliant, independent people to believe that their lives can be impacted by unseen forces. At the same time, through sheer force of repetition, many Americans intellectually accept some ideas – such as the fact that you either side with God or Satan, there’s no in-between – that do not get translated into practice.

What are some practical steps that we as individuals and churches can take to stem this tide of unorthodox belief among those who claim to be orthodox Christians in this country?