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How Central is the Cross of Jesus to your Life and Theology?

By Jeremy Myers
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How Central is the Cross of Jesus to your Life and Theology?

Do you understand everything that occurred in the crucifixion of Jesus, and how central it is to your life and theology?

Whether you think so or not, let me introduce you to the cross of Jesus and how truly significant it really is.

For me, the death and resurrection of Jesus is the foundation to how I read and study Scripture. The cross is at the center of my theology. What Jesus did on the cross provides the pinnacle example of how Christians are to live our lives. Without the cross, there is no Gospel. And as Paul says, if Christ is not raised, our faith is in vain (1 Cor 15:17).

crucifixion of Jesus

I have written a lot on this blog about the death and resurrection of Jesus, and some people have asked that I make these posts more accessible to readers. So to help you see the same thing, I have decided to make several of my central blog posts about the death and resurrection of Jesus available to people by email.

If you want to receive my posts on the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus in your email inbox for you to read at your leisure, I have now created a way for you to do just that. To get started, add your name and email address in the form at the bottom of this post.

redeeming JesusThe crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus forms the foundation for everything I write on this blog. Everything.

What Jesus accomplished on the cross and through His resurrection is central to everything else. The death and resurrection of Jesus are not only central to Scripture and the Gospel, but are also central to learning (maybe for the first time) what God is like, and how we are supposed to live our lives as followers of Jesus.

By reading these emails, you are forming a firm foundation for understanding Scripture, theology, church, and life. You are gaining what I like to call “crucivision.” You will learn to see everything through the lens of Jesus Christ on the cross.

Fill out the form below to get started. I cannot wait for you to start fully understanding the significance of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.

There are about 26 emails in this series, and you will get one every Friday, which means that by getting these emails, you can spend the next six months focusing your mind on “Jesus Christ and Him Crucified.” This will be revolutionary for you. See you soon!

The cross of Jesus is CENTRAL to everything!

Transform your life and theology by focusing on the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus:

Fill out the form below to receive several emails from me about the death and resurrection of Jesus.

(Note: If you are a member of RedeemingGod.com, login and then revisit this page to update your membership.)

God is Featured, Redeeming Theology Bible & Theology Topics: cross, crucifixion, cruciform, crucivision, death of Jesus, hermeneutics, Jesus, resurrection, Theology - General, Theology of Jesus

What I Appreciate About Pagans

By Jeremy Myers
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What I Appreciate About Pagans

This post is part of the March Synchroblog, in which each participant writes what they appreciate about another religion. I chose to write what I appreciate about Pagans.

Who are the Pagans?

Christians often refer to any non-religious person as a โ€œpaganโ€ or a โ€œheathen.โ€

Odin
This is a drawing of Odin, the Pagan deity who hung on a tree and sacrificed his eye to gain wisdom so that he might rescue the world from evil giants.

But did you know that there really is a โ€œPaganโ€ religion? And no, they donโ€™t worship the devil, cut themselves with knives, or sacrifice virgins in the woods. They do often worship out in nature, and tend to follow the ancient beliefs and practices of Nordic mythology. Donโ€™t know what that is either? Think โ€œVikings.โ€ They have various gods and goddesses, among which are Odin, Thor, and Freya. They use runes to help them make decisions and understand the times. Many of their stories can be found in The Poetic Edda.

If you have heard of Paganism in the news, it might be in connection with racism. It is true that some white supremacists call themselves โ€œPagans,โ€ but most members of the Pagan religion denounce the beliefs and behaviors of this racist fringe, and have nothing to do with them. Just like certain radical, hate-filled, and violent people claim to be โ€œChristian,โ€ but have nothing to do with the teaching of Christ, so also, some racists claim to be Pagan but are not representative of the entire group.

pagan christian calendarNow that I live in the Pacific Northwest, I have come to know many people who consider themselves โ€œPagan.โ€ They are not atheist, godless people, but are quite devout, religious people. As I have had various conversations with them, I have come to respect many things about them and their religion, and believe that there is much that Christians can learn from Pagans. (If the truth be told, Christians have already borrowed a huge chunk of Pagan beliefs and practices. Most deny that this is so, but denying the truth doesnโ€™t make the truth disappear. But this is a topic for another post.)

Here are three things Christians can learn from Pagans.

1. The Rede (or Rule) of Honor

Pagans have a great sense of honor. They understand the importance of honor, how to gain honor, and how to pass it on to their children. They have rules, or guidelines, about how to treat others with dignity and respect, and how to preserve freedom so that all can live a joyful, productive, and vigorous life.

I believe that there is very little honor left in many forms of Christianity. To a large degree, Christianity has become a materialistic, consumeristic religion, which values money, wealth, possessions, power, and position above honor.

world tree

2. Many people connect with God in Nature

I love nature. I love being in nature. I have always felt closer to God when I am in nature. I can pray better, think better, and listen better when I hear the wind in the trees, the bubbling of the brook, and the call of the squirrels to one another in the branches.

I so wish that Christians would feel the freedom to get out of their stained-glass sanctuaries with professional choirs and padded pews, and get into the wild of nature where God builds His own stained-sunset sanctuary every night, orchestrates his own music, and pads his fallen logs with moss and the ground with pine needles.

Why is a man-made building an โ€œapprovedโ€ meeting place for Christians, but the God-made house of nature not? Why is the music of man to God considered worship, but not the music of a bird welcoming the morning or the sound of snow falling in the woods?

paganism I think many in Christianity would greatly benefit from a move into the woods. Not so that we can destroy the peace of nature by singing our songs and listening to sermons there (God forbid!), but so that we can listen to the songs already being sung, and see the sermons already being preached. Yes, see. I never go into nature without seeing sermons everywhere I look.

3. No required or mandatory services.

While many Pagans have certain prayers they say or practices they observe on a regular basis, there is no hierarchy of priests and pastors who tell everybody else โ€œThis is the right way. Do it this way, or else.โ€ There is great flexibility and freedom for each person or group to believe and practice how they feel best.

This sounds scary to most Christians, because if we just let everyone do what they want and believe what they want, wonโ€™t people believe and practice all sorts of crazy, heretical, outlandish things?

Yes, they will. And how does that differ from the way things already are? The way things are (and have always been), Christians believe and practice all sorts of crazy, heretical, outlandish things, but people feel like itโ€™s โ€œokayโ€ because they have priests, clergy, and seminary-trained pastors who teach them to believe and do these things.

Nevertheless, one group argues with and condemns another group. They point fingers at each other, call each other nasty names, and condemn each other to hell. (Which is one of the beliefs we borrowed from paganism, by the way. They call it Hel. I find it SO ironic that the same Christians who condemn Christmas and Easter as being โ€œpaganโ€ religions, condemn to hell anybody who observes these holidays, when most Christian beliefs about โ€œhellโ€ are also borrowed from paganism!)

When one Pagan encounters another Pagan who believes and practices Paganism differently, they might argue a bit about these things, but in the end, they both just shrug their shoulders and decide to โ€œlive and let live.โ€ I love this, and am trying to follow Jesus this way in my own life as well. Just as I believe Jesus is leading me to live a certain way, I trust that He is able to lead and guide others also, and I have to believe that He may lead them in a completely different direction than He is leading me.

Do you have any โ€œPaganโ€ friends? Have you ever encountered people who are part of the โ€œPaganโ€ religion? Let me know through Facebook or Twitter by sharing this post below.

Here is a list of the other participants in this monthโ€™s synchroblog:

  • Mark Votava โ€“ How Christianity Can Learn from Buddhism
  • Justine Steckbauer โ€“ Christianity and Other Religions: Many roads or exclusive path?
  • Glenn Hager โ€“ The Thing About Labels
  • Clara Ogwuazor-Mbamalu โ€“ What I Appreciate about Islam
  • Bram Bonius โ€“ย What can Christians learn from neo-pagans and โ€˜magickalโ€™ traditions?
  • Mictori โ€“ Buddhism Reshaped my Easter
  • Pastor FedEx โ€“ 3 Things Christians Learn from Other Religions
  • Leah Sophia โ€“ Land, Sun, Community, Crops
  • Kathy Escobar โ€“ Why I Love Interfaith Conversations

God is Redeeming Church Bible & Theology Topics: Christianity, church, pagan, religion, synchroblog

Redeeming God Redeeming Me

By Jeremy Myers
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Redeeming God Redeeming Me

redeeming GodWelcome to the new website: RedeemingGod.com

“Redeeming God” is still under construction, and will be for quite some time …

I was going to write a post about all the changes you can expect to see and what plans I have for the future, but then I realized that I simply don’t know what is going to happen to me or this blog next week, let alone next year.

However, here are a few things to note for right now (though these also may change):

Redeeming God? What’s that about?

Remember when Drew Marshall made fun of my blog name “Till He Comes“? I laughed it off because he said what I had been thinking for quite a while.

I never switched the name of my blog because I never had a better title. But a while back I realized that redemption is a huge theme in my life, and redemption is what God is calling me to call people to.

You may notice that “redeeming God” is a play on words. The word “Redeeming” can be both an adjective and a present participle. It can describe God (He is a Redeemer) or it can describe the action of seeking to redeem God. Which way do I intend it? I intend both. God is redeeming us, but he also needs to be redeemed. I hope to invite people into both arenas through this blog.

Read my “About” page for more.

redeeming God on the cross

Here are a few other things about RedeemingGod.com

Posting Frequency

On the Till He Comes blog, I tried to post 5-6 times per week. On this blog, I may occasionally post that frequently, but I might only post 5-6 times per year. This time around, I will publish posts, not because I have to, but because I have something to say. I will publish posts only when I have fire in my bones (Jer 20:9).

Old Content Cultivation and Curation

One of my short-term goals is to edit/cultivate/curate a lot of the old content on this blog. I want to correct various things on some of my old posts and sermon pages. I want to make some series of posts more accessible to readers. Some of my content might even get converted into a podcast.

Since I have well over 2000 posts and pages on this site, this process could take quite some time…

If you want to follow along with some of the changes that occur, you won’t actually see much of it here on the blog. Most of it will get posted on my Facebook page and on Twitter. So if you want to observe some of these “behind the scenes” changes, make sure you join me on Facebook and Twitter.

Wait! Did you Mention A Podcast?

Yes, I might start a podcast.

One problem I had with my old blog was that it consumed me. I don’t want that to happen again. A podcast is a huge undertaking, so if I start one, it might be something I do instead of publishing blog posts.

Maybe.

Hey, where are the comments?

You may notice that I turned off the comment section. Read the black box at the bottom of the page for a brief explanation.

And again, I might turn comments back on in the future. But I might not.

Are you still sending out free eBooks?

Maybe.

Skeleton Church by Jeremy MyersFor right now, people can still get Skeleton Church for free by subscribing to my email newsletter. This might change in the future, but it might not. I don’t know if I will publish more books in the future or not. I suspect I will, but I don’t know when, I don’t know what, and I don’t know how. If I do publish more books, and I am able to send them out for free to people who get my blog updates, I will do so.

I am also working on a way for subscribers to get many of my older books for free through email. But again, this might happen and it might not. (Are you seeing a theme here?)

What happened to the forum?

Nobody really used it, so it’s gone.

If enough people complain, maybe I will bring it back. But maybe not.

Did Adam have a belly button?

Of course he did, silly!

Well, maybe not… ๐Ÿ˜‰

God is Redeeming Theology Bible & Theology Topics: Blogging, redemption, writing

I am Dying … (So I Can Live Again)

By Jeremy Myers
48 Comments

I am Dying … (So I Can Live Again)

One of the themes of my life is that death precedes resurrection.

I firmly believe that many people hold on to personal goals and pet projects long after they should have let them die a natural death. If we would let these things die, this would enable God to raise up something new in our life from the dust and ashes of the past.

I am dying

I wrote about this in The Death and Resurrection of the Church. Churches often keep programs running for many years after they have ceased contributing anything to the life of Jesus in the church. If a church would remove programs from life-support, they would see God raise up new leaders with new ideas for new ways to reach new people.

But talking about letting things die is one thing. Actually letting things die is quite another.

I have recently begun to feel God calling me to let a lot of things in my life die.

What things?

dying to my blogSpecifically, most of the things related to my โ€œonline presence.โ€

This blog.

My publishing company.

My books.

My writing.

My web design work.

My Twitter account.

My Facebook account.

I feel that God is calling me to allow everything that makes me โ€œmeโ€ to die.

Why? Because my online presence has consumed the real-life me.

When I first started my website over fifteen years ago, I wrote just for the fun of writing.

But in the last year or two, writing has become a burden, a chore. It has become something I must do so that I can maintain everything I have built up to this point. Rather than being excited about some new insight from Scripture or idea about theology which I get to pass on to others, my writing has become more about pageviews, backlinks, ad revenue, email subscriber stats, book sales, and comment counts. And as I have come to focus on these, the thrill and joy of study and writing has disappeared.

So I feel God wants me to just let it all die.

This is terrifying for me.

I have spent countless thousands of hours building my website and getting it to the place it is now. Can I just let it all go?

I generate money every month from advertisements and books sales which I have come to depend upon for monthly bills. What will I do without that money?

I have made some good online friends through online blogging and writing. Will they now disappear?

I do feel, however, that if I let everything die, God will raise something up from the ashes. I feel that God has something more for me than the tiny little blogging and book publishing empire I have built for myself (Which is not an empire at all, but more like a cool-aid stand on the corner…)

But at the same time, I wish that before I let everything die, God would tell me what He is going to resurrect. That would make the dying so much easier.

Yet I know that God does not work that wayโ€ฆ Every time I have seen death lead to resurrection in my life, I have never, not once, known what the season of resurrection was going to look like during the time I was going through the season of death.

So I am going to let things die, and then see what God raises up in His own time.

Here is what this looks like for my blog and books:

I am not actually “killing” anything. I’m not going to delete this blog or cancel my Facebook account. I am just going to step back from it all. I am taking a break from online activity.

For the most part, I will not be very active on Twitter, Facebook, or on this blog. For how long? I do not know. It may be a month. It may be a year. It may be forever. I just donโ€™t know.

Nothing that is currently online will be taken down. I am leaving up all my blogs and websites. I just will not be adding content to them regularly (if at all).

I do, of course, have some commitments to tie up. I have agreed to publish some books through Redeeming Press. This will get done. Those authors who are already published will continue to receive royalty payments.

I am blogging once a week in preparation for the โ€œAll About Eveโ€ conference. That will continue as well.

But thatโ€™s about it.

I think one reason God is calling me to die to all this is because very little of it is me. Over the past two years, I have come to see that God does not want us to be like Him, nor does God want us to be like Jesus. God calls us to be fully us.

We most glorify God and we most reveal Jesus only when we live up to who God made us to be and where Jesus is leading us to go.

As long as we try to be like God and point people to Jesus, we are hiding from and even denying the person God has made us to be.

As I look back over my research, study, and writing from the past several years, I see that I have been doing everything I can to not be me, but to be someone else instead. This is not all bad, because we learn by imitation, but God has recently been calling me to be me.

new lifeSince I am not sure I know what that means, the me I have become must die so that the me God desires can rise up refreshed and renewed.

So until God raises up something new in my life, or gives me direction on what He wants me to do, or maybe just gives me permission to pick back up where I left off because I needed a Sabbath rest, I will not regularly publish new blog posts, write new books, respond to comments, or interact with people much on the various social sites. If you send me email, I cannot promise I will respond to that either. I just feel God calling me to die.

And when resurrection comes โ€ฆ as it always does โ€ฆ it will be in Godโ€™s timing, in Godโ€™s way, and for Godโ€™s purposes.

See you on the other side!

God is Redeeming Church Bible & Theology Topics: death, Discipleship, dying, new life, resurrection, synchroblog

The Day I Met Jesus

By Jeremy Myers
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The Day I Met Jesus

The Day I Met JesusFrank Viola and Mary DeMuth have written a fascinating and insightful book about five women from the Gospels. The books is titled The Day I Met Jesus. If you enjoy seeing Jesus from a new perspective, gaining insights into Scripture, or have an interest in how Jesus interacted with women during His ministry, I highly recommend this book.

Here is an interview with Frank Viola & Mary DeMuthย aboutย The Day I Met Jesus.

Why did you write this book?

Frank: Back in 2007, I got an idea to create a new genre of Christian literature. I call that genre “biblical narrative.”

The new genre would contain autobiographical fiction closely based on the Scriptural narratives and faithful to first-century history. It would also contain a nonfiction section that practically applies the narratives to our lives. Finally, it would include a discussion guide so that readers could better digest and apply the content.

God’s Favorite Place on Earth (2013) was my first book in this genre. In it, Lazarus tells the story of when Jesus came to His hometown Bethany and all the amazing things that took place there.

The Day I Met Jesus (2015) is the second book in this genre. I wanted it to tell the story of five women whom Jesus encountered, allowing each woman tell their own story. I also wanted to draw out practical lessons and critical insights from each narrative.

Because I’m not a woman, I couldn’t do justice to the stories on my own, so I asked the top female Christian fiction writer of our time — Mary DeMuth — to coauthor it with me.

Mary: I wrote it because I love stories, and I felt that some of these encounters with Jesus didn’t get the air time they deserved. By doing careful research and weaving more of a story arc into the five women’s encounter, I hope to show people that the “characters” of the New Testament are actual, breathing people with stress and dysfunction and hopes just like us. Frank pioneered the idea of this book, so all credit goes to him for imagining it. I’m grateful he asked me to be a part.

Tell us the story of how you two came to coauthor it.

Mary: Frank wrote God’s Greatest Place on Earth and had long wanted to do something similar with five women of the New Testament. He approached me about writing the fiction side of The Day I Met Jesus after he found out I wrote fiction as well as nonfiction.

Frank: When I began to think about a female coauthor for the project, I wanted it to be someone who (1) writes fiction (2) is a remarkable writer, and (3) believes in the classic tenets of the Christian faith (Jesus is divine and human, He rose again from the dead, Jesus is Lord and Savior of the world, etc.)

As I investigated authors who fit the bill, I quickly thought of folks like Francine Rivers and Karen Kingsbury. But then I discovered that Mary DeMuth wrote fiction. I had known that she was a non-fiction writer, but had no idea that she could “switch hit.”

I also discovered that she was an outstanding writer of fiction as she was of nonfiction. (I regard Mary to be the Mickey Mantle of Christian literature — she has enormous power from both sides!) So Mary ended up being the only name on my “short list.”

You feature five women from the Gospels. Why pick women in particular as your subjects?

Frank: Some of the most gripping, instructive, inspiring stories in the Gospels involve women. The longest recorded conversation that Jesus ever had was with a woman. And some of the most amazing things He said and did related to women. So I thought that a book in which some of these women told their own stories about Jesus would not only bring the Gospels to life in our minds, but it would also bring Jesus alive in our hearts.

Mary: Women had significant, personal encounters with Jesus, a fact that we sometimes miss, particularly since so many stories revolve around the 12 disciples (who were men). I love that we’re elevating these stories, helping people reimagine just how radical it was that Jesus so beautifully interacted with these women.

Which one is your favorite and why?

Mary: For me, it’s hard to say. I love them all in different ways. This week, I’ll say it’s Mary of Bethany. She didn’t have a blatant “need” for Jesus. She was just downright faithful and often misunderstood. I think a lot of people can relate to that.

Frank: Mary of Bethany is my all-time favorite disciple of Jesus. This came home to me when I wrote God’s Favorite Place on Earth. (Mary was the sister of Lazarus, so she gets ample airtime in that book.)

I love Mary because she knew Jesus better than most, anticipating His reactions and even His impending death. She also paid the price for loving Him, for she was falsely accused by both her sister and the other disciples (on two different occasions), mostly out of jealousy. In both situations, Mary embraced the spirit of the Lamb, refusing to defend herself. But Jesus Himself rose to her defense on both occasions. He also gave her an enduring honor that He gave no one else.

Why would someone want to read the book?

Frank: If someone wants a good story to get tied up into . . . or if they want to see the Bible come to life in a compelling way . . . or if they want to experience Jesus Christ anew and afresh . . . or if they want to identify with people who were far worse off than they are, and see what Jesus did for them . . . or if they want to be given hope and encouragement in their situation . . . or if they are lacking love for the Lord and want that love to be rekindled . . . or if they want new motivation and fresh inspiration to follow Jesus more closely . . . or if they want to increase their faith and expectation in the Lord, they’ll want to read The Day I Met Jesus.

Mary: Someone would want to read it because it’s truly unique. It’s biblical narrative, but in short story form, but it doesn’t end there. After you’ve been absorbed into a page-turning story, Frank exegetes the wisdom from each encounter and helps you apply it to your life.The Day I Met Jesus

Tell us about the course that supplements the book.
Frank: The Day I Met Jesus Master Course is designed for those who wish to delve deeper into the themes set forth in the book. It includes a workbook and 20 audio messages delivered by Mary and I. In addition, it includes 8 bonus eBooks from Mary and I. It also includes a closed forum where people can access us both directly for Q&A and dialogue. People can check it out at http://www.thedayimetjesus.com/course

God is Redeeming Books Bible & Theology Topics: Books I'm Reading, Christian books, Frank Viola, women

Thanks for helping Rescue Girls from Sex Slavery

By Jeremy Myers
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Thanks for helping Rescue Girls from Sex Slavery

If you had lived back during the days of slavery, would you have helped slaves gain freedom?

If you answered “Yes!” then keep reading…

First, I want to thank those of you who donated to help me rescue girls from sex slavery.

I said I would cut off one inch of hair for every $100 dollars raised. I raised almost $600, but went ahead and cut off over 10 inches of hair anyway. I didn’t get enough to shave my head though!

Here are the Before and After shots:

Jeremy Myers hair

Hair of Jeremy Myers

That second shot was with my webcam, which obviously as terrible color….

Anyway, if you would have helped rescue slaves from slavery, you still can. There is more slavery today than at any other time of history, and most of these slaves are young girls. How much more dire could it get?

If you are somehow still not aware of the crazy epidemic of slavery in our world (and here in the United States!) RIGHT NOW, go see some of the stats on this page about Forced Prostitution.

And just think about this: Current estimates say that about 12 million Africans were shipped across the Atlantic for slavery from the 16th to the 19th centuries.

But according to Human Trafficking Statistics, there are CURRENTLY 12.3 million slaves RIGHT NOW. Yes, this year.

Human Trafficking

And many of them are children who are forced into prostitution. The average age is 12-14 years old. Most are girls. California has 3 of the 13 highest child sex trafficking areas. Some of them are raped 30-40 times EACH DAY.

Human Trafficking and child slavery is more common today than it was during the 300 years of slavery of our past.

There are more slavery victims this year than the total number of slaves during the entire 300 years of slavery in the past.

If you want to help, our favorite organization is the International Justice Mission.

To learn more about Human Trafficking and sex slavery, check out some of these posts:

Human Trafficking Posts

  1. Sex Slaves
  2. Would You Fight Slavery?
  3. Rescue Russian Sex Slaves
  4. Rescue Russian Girls from Sex Slavery
  5. Stop Her Nightmare
  6. Another Girl Rescued Today
  7. Girls for Sale
  8. Goal Reached!
  9. I Want to be a Prostitute
  10. $52,000 raised!
  11. 31 Million Sex Slaves
  12. Renting Lacy
  13. More Than Rice
  14. Human Trafficking Ring Busted
  15. The Other Big Game
  16. Sex Slavery, Planned Parenthood, and Your Tax Dollars
  17. How to Minister to Prostitutes
  18. Wisconsin Woman Held as Sex Slave in Brooklyn
  19. Coked-Up Whore
  20. Human Trafficking has Many Faces
  21. Into an India Brothel
  22. You Need a Girl?
  23. Human Trafficking Media
  24. The Son of God is Selling Children
  25. My Girls Raised $300 to help stop Human Trafficking
  26. Rape for Profit
  27. Human Trafficking Statistics
  28. Help Rescue Girls from Forced Prostitution

God is Redeeming Theology Bible & Theology Topics: Discipleship, human trafficking, prostitution, sex trafficking, slavery

How to Raise Children When Not “Attending” Church

By Jeremy Myers
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How to Raise Children When Not “Attending” Church

When parents seek to follow Jesus by being the church in their communities (rather than by simply attending church), one of the questions that often comes up is “What about our children? How will they learn about the Bible? How will they discover Jesus? How will they learn to worship God?”

First of all, here is what it DOES NOT look like. Ever. At least, not in any family I have ever seen:

parenting outside of the church

So how do we raise children if we don’t “attend church”?

I don’t have all the answers to these questions, but note, first of all, that the prevalence of such questions reveals how broken “church” has become. I mean, according to Scripture, it is the parent’s responsibility to raise up their children and teach them about God, but our modern way of doing church relinquishes these things to 45 minutes on Sunday morning and Wednesday night, in a building with a (generally) controlled environment, and to a person we don’t really know.

Isn’t that crazy?

How did we go from “Train up a child in the way he should go” (Prov 22:6) and “Teach these things to your children … ” (Deut 6:7; 11:19) to asking, “So what did you learn in Sunday school today?” on the drive home from church?

I sometimes think that the simple act of sitting in a pew on Sunday morning gives our children a terrible misconception about what it means to worship God and follow Jesus. The activity of “attending church” rather than being the church in our day-to-day lives can give the impression to our children that loving God and following Jesus is a “Sunday morning in the pew” activity, rather than a minute-by-minute awareness throughout the day.

Anyway, again, I don’t have all the answers … in fact, I don’t have ANY answers.

But here is my basic approach: We teach and train our children by loving them. Your children will not learn about God if you “go to church” but then treat them like crap the rest of the week.

Children learn to imitate what we do; not by what we say or what we tell them to do.

raise children outside the church

Remember that raising children to follow Jesus “outside the institutional church” is not at all the same thing as raising them to follow “outside the church.” If you are seeking to follow Jesus with your life, you are still raising your children within the church, and may be doing a better job of it than if you sat in a pew on Sunday morning and hoped that your children were learning something downstairs.

Over at the “All About Eve” blog which I am writing for, Eve asked these questions about parenting, and I proposed a bit of an answer. Here is an excerpt from what I said:

So while parenting might be the โ€œgoodโ€ you focus on right now, this does not mean you cannot get a job, write a book, care for the needy in your community, or do any of the other โ€œgoodโ€ things available for you to do right now. You might do any or all of them. But if you do, and if you have chosen to focus on loving your children, then these other things can be done in light of loving and training them. Take a job, for instance. You could show your children love through a part-time job by showing up for work on time, not bad-mouthing your boss or coworkers at home, and wisely using the money that you earn. This is just an example, but you probably get the point.

Go read Eve’s question here, and the rest of my response here.

Recently, I also heard a pretty good podcast about this. It was called “The Wild Ones.” You can listen to it here: The Wild Ones by Darrin Hufford.

Certainly, as we follow Jesus into the world, other people speak into the lives of our children, but raising and loving our children in the ways of God is not something we pass off to the youth pastor or the Sunday school teacher. It is a day-in and day-out way of living life before our children with Jesus by our side.

Do you have children? Are you seeking to teach them to follow Jesus outside of the “four walls” of institutional Christianity, and into a moment-by-moment relationship with God and others? If so, what ideas can you share? What challenges have you faced? What are your fears and how have you dealt with them?

God is Uncategorized Bible & Theology Topics: All About Eve, being the church, Discipleship, institutional church, parenting

Help Rescue Girls from Forced Prostitution

By Jeremy Myers
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Help Rescue Girls from Forced Prostitution

Rather than write a bunch of words about the dire problem of human trafficking and forced prostitution, I decided to just post some pictures and infographics. Sex slavery and forced child prostitution a bigger issue than most realize, and it is is huge problem right here in the United States. You most likely have human trafficking and child prostitutes right in your own town.

forced prostitution

Human trafficking

human_trafficking_awareness_6_by_andreawaldrop

forced prostitution

Human Trafficking and Drug Trade 7-06-2014A 10271147_727945063933005_7918263557732447964_o-1

forced child prostitution

sex slavery

Human trafficking

forced prostitution

Invite others to participate by using the sharing buttons below. Thanks!

To learn more about Human Trafficking and sex slavery, check out some of these posts:

Human Trafficking Posts

  1. Sex Slaves
  2. Would You Fight Slavery?
  3. Rescue Russian Sex Slaves
  4. Rescue Russian Girls from Sex Slavery
  5. Stop Her Nightmare
  6. Another Girl Rescued Today
  7. Girls for Sale
  8. Goal Reached!
  9. I Want to be a Prostitute
  10. $52,000 raised!
  11. 31 Million Sex Slaves
  12. Renting Lacy
  13. More Than Rice
  14. Human Trafficking Ring Busted
  15. The Other Big Game
  16. Sex Slavery, Planned Parenthood, and Your Tax Dollars
  17. How to Minister to Prostitutes
  18. Wisconsin Woman Held as Sex Slave in Brooklyn
  19. Coked-Up Whore
  20. Human Trafficking has Many Faces
  21. Into an India Brothel
  22. You Need a Girl?
  23. Human Trafficking Media
  24. The Son of God is Selling Children
  25. My Girls Raised $300 to help stop Human Trafficking
  26. Rape for Profit
  27. Human Trafficking Statistics
  28. Help Rescue Girls from Forced Prostitution

God is Redeeming Life Bible & Theology Topics: Discipleship, haircut, human trafficking, sex trafficking, slavery

“The Re-Justification of God” is now on iTunes, B&N, Google

By Jeremy Myers
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“The Re-Justification of God” is now on iTunes, B&N, Google

I know that many of you have already purchased my newest eBook from Amazon, but if you don’t have Kindle (or the Kindle app for a different device), I am happy to announce that The Re-Justification of God is now available on the following platforms:

Google Play
Google Play
Apple iTunes
Apple iTunes
Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble
Amazon
Amazon

So if you haven’t bought The Re-Justification of God already, but want to get it for your Apple or Android device (or whatever else you have) feel free to get it from one of the platforms above.

And hey, if you have already bought and read the book, would you mind leaving a review of it on Amazon? (#AmazonAdLink) Go here to leave a review. Even 2-3 sentences would work. Thanks!

God is Redeeming Books Bible & Theology Topics: Books by Jeremy Myers, Calvinism, election, justification, predestination, Re-Justification of God, Romans 9, TULIP

Do We Suffer from the Illusion of Control?

By Jeremy Myers
16 Comments

Do We Suffer from the Illusion of Control?

Illusion of ControlI wrote the second post for the “All About Eve” blog, and as I was writing it, I was pretty sure that most of what I was writing was … well … not quite what I wanted to say. But I published the post late last night anway, and went to bed.

When I woke up this morning, I knew where I had gone wrong, and am now writing this post…

It is not that what I wrote was wrong; it just was not helpful. “Eve” was grappling with issues of control, and I basically told her that she needed to get in control of her desire to control.

That doesn’t make any sense does it?

When we try to control our desire to control, all we do is amplify our sense of control.

We often call it “letting go of control” but really, all we are doing is trying to gain more control over our life.

Here is the vicious cycle that happens: A person recognizes that they are trying to control others. They see this as bad and feel guilty about this control. So they try to “let go of control,” but when they fail at this also, they now feel guilty about the control AND feel guilty about failing to let go of control. Now they have a double whammy of guilt, which only exacerbates the problem.

You see? When we try to let go of control, we are trying to control control, and since we can neither control people and events, nor let go of control, we walk around in an ever-increasing state of guilt about how we are always trying to control others and how we wish we wouldn’t do this.

What is the fix for our issues with control?

Well, this is where I don’t have many answers. I know for a fact that I am still trying to exert great control in my own life, and I become quite fearful when I see that I cannot.

However, these wise words from Master Oogway to Shifu were helpful:

But here is what is interesting … If you have seen the movie, you know that when Shifu trained Thai Lang, he did exactly as Master Oogway has suggested. He believed in Thai Lang. But Thai Lang’s lust for power led him down a path toward darkness that Shifu never wanted nor intended. This is partly why Shifu is now trying to control the situation. But he cannot.

And I think that this is my problem as well. In the past, when I have believed in God for my future, and believed in the best of others, it has only led to great heartache and pain. Since I do not want to experience that pain and heartache again, I try to exert control over others in my life, and over life itself.

And lest we think we can disregard Master Oogway because he is only speaking some sort of Eastern mysticism crap, the Bible pretty much says the same thing. Passages like James 4;13-17, Proverbs 16:9, and Proverbs 19:21 all reveal that when it comes to control of what happens in our life, control is an illusion. Sure, as Shifu points out in the video clip above, there are a few things we can control, but in the grand scheme of our life, these few things are so insignificant, they amount to having hardly any control at all.

Illusion of control Calvin

controlling othersAs Perry Noble has written:

It is amazing when we sit back and begin to understand how little control we actually have in the world.

  • I did not control the day I was born! /li>
  • I did not control who my parents were!
  • I did not control where I was born!
  • I did not control the color of my skin, eyes and hair.
  • I will not control when and where I step into eternity.
  • I cannot control other drivers on the road.
  • I cannot control what other people think about me.
  • I cannot control my daughterโ€™s future. (I can try to direct itโ€ฆbut I canโ€™t control it!)
  • I cannot control the weather.
  • I cannot control how fast (or slow) my food gets to me in a restaurant.
  • I cannot control how fast (or slow) the person in front of me is driving.
  • I cannot control whether or not someone I know and loves prays to receive Christ.
  • I cannot control the fact that my body is breaking down (I heal/repair MUCH slower at 40 than I did at 20!)
  • I cannot control God by my religious performance.

Freedom, TRUE freedom, is understanding how out of control we are and then placing our faith in a God who has NEVER ceased to maintain control over what He has created.

Soโ€ฆ to everyone who feels like you are out of controlโ€ฆitโ€™s because YOU ARE!!! And, the more we try to control the more likely we are to live in complete rebellion to the one who is in control, who has all things in His hands and who constantly calls us to surrender to Him so that we can experience the joy of living under HIS Sovereignty rather than having to constantly discover that we have none of our own!

So If Control is an Illusion, How Can We Live Without Fear?

I don’t have all the answers on this, and as I stated above, this is all new to me as well. But I am learning, to the best of my ability, to just “enjoy the ride.” Life, it seems, is little more than a wild roller-coaster ride and nothing we can do will control the twists and turns of the track, the slow climbs up the hills or the terrifying plummets into the valleys. We may scream. We may cry. We may even throw up.

But after a couple time around the track, you begin to just enjoy it. Throw up your hands and laugh every time your stomach jumps into your chest.

How can we learn to do this? Because we know a few things:

  1. God is the builder of this roller coaster called life. No matter what, we won’t fall off the track.
  2. God loves us, our children, and our spouses MORE than we ever can.
  3. Jesus is riding in the seat next to us, and He’s hootin’ and hollerin’ with hands raised to the sky.

Based on these three things, we can KNOW that God will guide us and take care of us, and He will do the same for our children as well. Our life (and theirs) may not look the way we wanted or last as long as we think it should, but trying to control life or even trying to control our sense of control only causes us to lose all the enjoyment of life with God.

So don’t simply try to stop controlling people. Also stop trying to control your sense of control. Simply recognize that there is no control, and then sit back and enjoy the ride.

Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior โ€ฆ Fear not, for I am with you (Isaiah 43:1).

God is Redeeming Theology Bible & Theology Topics: All About Eve, children, control, Discipleship, faith, fear, life, marriage, parenting

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