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Published: 24 August 2017

We’re having a conversation on the inside all day long.  It’s been called “our inner narrative.”  In this conversation we rehearse things, mull things over, assess situations and make decisions.  This is why Solomon warned us to “guard our heart” because our lives are lived out of our narrative.   Sometimes the narrative has been given to us by others.  For example, if someone close to you tells you that you are a loser or stupid, that identity can become imbedded in your narrative.  People often spend their whole lives either trying to prove that wrong or living it out!  Sometimes we write our own narrative.  For example, people develop a “victim narrative.”  They spend every day mulling over their “short end of the stick.”  They begin to look for ways that they are being victimized and marginalized by their boss or co-workers.  The only way out of a broken narrative is to—gulp—invite God into the conversation.  I will warn you up front, He will not put up with a broken narrative because God tells the truth and a broken narrative is built upon lies.  For our good, God seeks to correct our broken narrative.  We call this invitation to the narrative “prayer.”  Once we invite God into this inner conversation we’ll have a choice to make about who we are going to believe.  I know from experience that allowing God to abide in this narrative is hard.  The devil wants Him gone.  Our culture thinks prayer is a joke.  You’ll try to kick God out of your conversation from time to time.  He wants to abide in our narrative more than we want Him to and thankfully He doesn’t quit as easy as some.  If your narrative is stuck in a rut, the best advice I can give you is to add the Scripture to your narrative.  Your inner conversation may be stuck like a broken record (remember those?) and you need some fresh material.  An interactive conversation with God using His Word is the best way to overcome a broken narrative.   If the Word is not part of your inner conversation, what will you do to get started?

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Published: 18 August 2017

Since the birth of the church there has been persecution; somewhere, somehow, for some reason, someone has been attacking the Bride of Christ.  We all “feel” it to some extent because when “one member suffers they all suffer.”  As we’ll study on Sunday, the persecution was intense in Jerusalem just after the stoning of Stephen. The political and religious climate created a perfect storm.  It’s remarkable the church even exists today.  Gerald Bray wrote, “How likely is it that a discouraged group of disciples, scattered and diminished by the events of the crucifixion, would have rallied behind a man like Peter and established a movement that would quickly gain a large following?”  It’s one of the proofs of her Divine origin and preservation that the Church has existed for almost 2,000 years. Persecution has never been the undoing of the Church, it has almost always been a catalyst for growth.  John Stott wrote, “In 1949 it seemed like a disaster when 637 China Inland Mission missionaries were forced to leave.  Today, the underground church is 30-40x larger than when the missionaries left.”  If persecution doesn’t kill the church, what does? There is more than one answer as Revelation 2,3 reveal.  But, if I had to boil it down I would say the ruin of the church is the pride that follows success. Self-righteousness and arrogance is the undoing of God’s people.  It always has been.   I do not wish for persecution in this country—though it may come whether we want it or not.  If it does come, it will purify and extend the reach of the Kingdom as we wait for the Blessed Hope.   In the meantime, let’s remain humbly His, filled with gratitude and eager to bring glory to God and God alone!