Double Take

Can the culture of the institutional church affect marriages? We take a look at “biblical” manhood and womanhood. We talk about what communication, what forgiveness is, and what it’s not. What about destructive or abusive marriages? What does it look like for a marriage living from the real Source?

After we had each written a book, we swore we’d never write another one. It’s time-consuming, overwhelming, and agonizing! But after counseling many couples, and creating marriage studies and events, we realized we hadn’t come across a book on marriage that was based on the New Covenant of Grace. So…we wrote one! Maybe it will be helpful to some of you.

When God speaks to us, in whatever way we hear Him, how do we not assign a time to it? What do we do when we misinterpret what we hear from God?

What do we do when someone says I have a word from God for you? How many times have you heard God told me to tell you, and then find it wasn’t necessarily for you?

I don’t know how many times I’ve said this, but it doesn’t make sense to me that Jesus would say I must go away so the Comforter will come, but then He does not talk to us. I believe that God is in perpetual communication with us. And the reason I believe that is because He lives in us. I also believe that listening is a developed skill. How do we learn to listen and respond to Him?

How are we as believers told we ought to use our God-given gifts and talents? Who is our audience? God or fellow Christians? Do we feel pushed to fit a particular religious role? How do we find our purpose?

Every one of us is born with a deep need for purpose. At the most basic level, our birth fulfills the continuation of our kind. But as we grow and begin collecting experiences, something deeper begins to stir—we want those experiences to mean something.

You may be asking – what is the point of all this cow tipping we’ve been doing? Is it just to pick on the small “c” church? We must admit there has been a bit of truth to that. We are pretty sure we aren’t the only ones who have been discouraged – or worse – by all the twisted meanings and added-on traditions. But right there, you have our reasons. Believers have been damaged by man-made rules. What positives can we take away from taking those sacred cows out to pasture?

More “unmixing” of the Covenants. Just like oil and water, they do not mix.

The mixing of Law with Grace is in our opinion the most damaging theology for believers. In Grace there is no Law. To add it is like adding a drop of poison to a cup of water. Law isn’t just the Old Testament Mosaic Law – it is anything we do to try to please God or look good on the outside. It’s doing to be rather than being which results in doing. How do we unwittingly try to make the two work together? By adding our own works to what Christ has already done.

More Bessies to tip over today!Perfect will vs permissive will, God wants our holiness not our happiness, and more.

Welcome back to language class. How many of these phrases have you heard before? And have you ever wondered about any of them?Being "in the word," staying on fire for Jesus, and more!(audio only)

Do you speak Church? Call it Church Speak or Church-ese, but we bet you are fluent in this language. This is our next series of sacred cows to topple.

Can we add just a few more to our list?The Sinners’ Prayer. Baptism. Rededication. Revivals.

Have you ever wondered about any of these sacred cows?The Great Commission. Don’t forsake the assembling of yourselves together. Altars in church. Communion customs.

There are beliefs and customs within organized religion which must not be tampered with or criticized. They are to be given respect and reverence, and not to be examined too closely. The “rules” about these things are either clearly spoken or silently implied. To do otherwise is sacred cow tipping. (If you’re not from around here, that’s sneaking up on a sleeping cow and pushing it over for fun.) We love the (big C) Church and it’s because we do that we dare to tip over some of these sacred cows that we find in (little c) church. Some of them may seem harmless, but they can and do lead to confusion at the least, and heavy burdens at the worst.

You’re driving, minding your own business. Then you notice the car in front of you is straddling both lanes. You can’t get around them because they are taking up all the available space. Don’t they know how to drive? How did they even get a license? You wish they would just pick a lane already! How many believers have gotten their “license” but still can’t make a decision as to whether they are a sinner or a saint? Some believe they’re both at the same time – they’re straddling two identities. But you’re either one or the other – there’s no other choice. 

While watching a TV show years ago, a scene came on that just wrecked me. It brought me to tears and stayed with me for a long time. I couldn’t put my finger on why it affected me so much. Then just a few months ago I could finally identify the emotion: rejection. That took me in a direction of seeing the rejection in my life that I couldn’t identify at the time.

Religion would teach us that we need to focus on our sins. The Law of Moses demands that we behave in a way consistent with the law of Moses and keep all the laws all the time. In Matthew and Mark we read that John the Baptist tells us to repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand. So are we saved sinners or are we saints?

Picture trapeze artists performing a death-defying act. We are amazed and maybe a bit scared for them. But then we notice there is a net below them. They will be caught by the net if something goes awry. Knowing there’s a safety net frees them to try even more daring tricks. Without the net, their act would likely be more conservative. It would be less fun for them, and for the audience. In fact, falling may not even cross their minds – because they know the safety net will always catch them. 

Sometimes Christmas gets lost in the commercialism and religiosity all around us. We have some thoughts on this Christmas Eve.

Sweet little baby Jesus in the manger, calm and quiet, halo around His head, with arms outstretched. That’s how we see Him portrayed in every nativity scene. It’s beautiful and peaceful and we get the point. But every mother knows how unrealistic that picture is.

We know her story well. And because the verses are so familiar we tend to tune out as they are recited each Christmas. But today we take another look at this innocent young woman who loved God with all her heart.

The shepherds and the wise men are mentioned in another very familiar passage about the birth of Jesus. Here is a bit of storytelling about those nameless but favored people that were chosen to be major players in this supernatural event. 

Obscurity is the fate of most men. Some travel a road that’s level and predictable, well posted with directions and destinations. Some build roads that cut through mountains of solid rock, and build bridges that span canyons and rivers, with nothing but determination and calloused hands. Some men travel roads up mountainsides carrying backpacks filled with dreams and hopes, up lanes with a promise that will heal blistered feet and tattered answers. Some men find contentment with where they are and treat inconspicuousness as confirmation of purpose not measured on any scale. One such man was Joseph from the lineage of David - destined to be the earthly father of Jesus. 

Have you ever heard someone say “Pray to God. He said He is everywhere, He fills the whole earth, so He is there with you and will hear you if you pray according to His will.” It’s true He is everywhere. He is omnipresent. Is getting closer to God about what you should or could do?

When a health scare ends well, the promotion happens, a big tax refund arrives, we say God is so good! To be honest, we often judge God’s goodness by our circumstances. When things are going our way it’s easy to say God is good, all the time! But when the opposite happens, is God not good? Was He not paying attention? Or was He trying to teach us a lesson? Maybe God’s goodness is different than we think. 

We’ve been talking about what it means to stand. In Ephesians 6 we hear about putting on the full armor of God and after that we read “and having done everything, stand.” What is everything? And how does this relate to the armor? Did it fall off overnight?

We are told continuously “now is the time we must stand up for what we believe”. I recently did a podcast on standing against something. It’s been called spiritual warfare, and what was determined is that we get to stand in something which is Christ. But what does it mean to stand up for what you believe? 

Eventually, every one of us will come to a place in our lives where we say I have had enough, and I just can’t take any more. Not just a simple bad day, but real tragedy. Even tragedy is somewhat relative, but if you are impacted deeply, it’s a tragedy to you. We want an answer.  We can’t help but ask why.

We are creatures of time. We measure everything we do by the second hand on a clock. There can be a great deal of pressure in keeping up with schedules. When I was a child, time seemed to stand still. But now that I’m older the days, weeks, and months whiz by at a dizzying, confusing pace. Regardless of the speed of passing time, it makes relentless and unavoidable demands. One of which is the uncompromising necessity of choice. 

Have you ever been warned against following your heart. It’s partly because of Jeremiah 17:9 - The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? But also because following your heart is equated with acting on your emotions. But is that the same thing? Do we have evil, wicked hearts? Are emotions and desire the same thing?

I think that we as believers sometimes get trapped in our belief systems, and we defend them with a lot of determination. Some would have us think that we must purge our emotions and desires. That is just not true. God wants us to desire Him and He made us emotional creatures. You can have emotions and desires, but you just can’t live in them. So let’s talk about these two things.

How’s life going?  A little busy? Kind of crazy? Maybe that’s an understatement. There are family responsibilities, relationship problems, work issues. And then there’s the news - politics, wars, crime. We get bombarded with all of it. It’s easy to get distracted, and depressed, and even hopeless. We can easily get stuck there.

We live in a time when it seems there is so much pressing against us. I got into an argument with a very dear friend recently about how people in a third world economy are suffering more intensely than we do. I contended that suffering is relative, that my suffering was just as inconvenient as theirs. As I thought about this statement it occurred to me that my attitude was indeed that of an arrogant, entitled, and privileged American.

Today it’s Rick’s turn to share the character traits of God that he’s seen in his life.

We are part of a house church with a small group of good friends. One of the women came up with what we call a “Grace Box.” She composed questions, statements, verses, etc. and wrote them out on note paper. We pull one out for topics to talk about.  One of those topics gave us the idea for this podcast. (apologies for the camera malfunction!)

If you have listened to us very often, you know that we believe that you cannot earn God’s love, His righteousness, or get any closer to Him than you are right now. This is foundational to our ministry. God has always wanted to be in relationship with what He has created.

What did we get when we got Jesus? Salvation, yes. Forgiveness of sin, absolutely. What about wisdom and the freedom to use it? What else is ours?

Last time we talked about our original catchphrase, “free the saints” and what that means to us. From time to time we reevaluate why we do what we do, and make space for God to change our direction. One of those times is when we landed on “what Jesus do you know?” What do we mean by that?

When we founded Oneness Ministries, we used the catchphrase “free the saints.” It was a hashtag on all our social media, and a slogan on our website. It hasn’t been used much in a while, but we think it’s time to bring it back. Let’s flesh out what it means and why it’s so important to us.

Lydia and Priscilla – they were anything but hidden in the early days of the church. These women were well known among believers. They were students of Paul, and valuable partners with him in fostering the growing church.

For a series about Hidden Women, the story of Junia reveals her as the opposite of that. Her life shows she was determined, bold, fearless and well known through her ministry. Paul refers to her as an apostle, and someone he greatly admired. She was tireless in spreading the gospel, likely by planting churches, and caused enough of a ruckus to be thrown into prison for a time. 

What do we mean by hidden women? There were many women mentioned in the New Testament that were deeply involved in the early church. Even those that are named tend to be easily forgotten. Some because they are mentioned in passing, and some because it’s difficult to find teachings about them if you don’t know where to look.

Judas Thaddeus was one of the original twelve disciples of Jesus Christ, a pioneer of the gospel who worked quietly to establish the early church. Thaddeus is often neglected by the church because Scripture does not mention him a lot nor is much written about him. Yet this quiet, gentle soul spent most of his ministry in obscurity observing the more outspoken apostles. Thaddeus nonetheless became a bold outspoken witness for the gospel Jesus Christ. 

Paul’s letter to Philemon is his shortest and most personal. It contains no doctrinal statements, no warnings about false teachers, and no mention of apostolic titles. The reason for writing was extraordinary. We look to author Paul Ellis for insight into this quiet voice.

Scripture is not given to us, I believe, as a guidebook for behavior modification. The Bible teaches us about the character of God. The Bible give us glimpses into the lives of ordinary men and women who followed Christ. How He changed them and used them, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to bring the message of the Gospel through time to us. We are currently working on a series of those quieter voices. This one is about Jude, the half-brother of Jesus.

We’ve talked about Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Jesus as part of the group of women following Jesus. Lazarus’ sisters, Mary and Martha were also included. So many of the other women remain unnamed, but we choose to remember that they existed and were essential partners of His earthly ministry. Today we focus on three more whose names we know: Joanna, Susanna, and Salome.

Mary was the young woman chosen by God to be the mother of Jesus. She must have felt the great weight of this, as much as she could understand at the time. She obviously had a great love for and trust in God.

Jesus engaged with women. He listened to them. He SAW them. Women weren’t part of the Twelve, but they were part of His group and ministered with Him. How Jesus loved and valued women is an example for the church today! For the next few weeks, we focus on the women who followed Jesus. Today we take a second look at Mary Magdalene.