End of year Reflections

I (Jim) wanted to share some of the things God has been teaching me throughout this year. I am completing my 4th year of serving with Back2Back here in Monterrey. It has been a year full of spiritual growth for me and I feel energized and excited about where God is leading in the upcoming year! 

During 2010, I was influenced most by the books that I read. They included:

The Hole in Our Gospel

Radical

Crazy Love

Outlive Your Life

The Poor Will Be Glad

I'm not sure how many of these books you have read, but I highly recommend ALL of them! I believe God is raising up a movement in many of our Christian Churches in America. The movement is calling for us to rethink who we are as the Church of Jesus Christ. I believe it is not only good but it is necessary!

In his book Crazy Love, Francis Chan gives us a detailed profile of "lukewarm people" in chapter 4. Then, in the beginning of chapter 5 he states,"As I see it, a lukewarm Christian is an oxymoron, there's no such thing. To put it plainly, churchgoers who are lukewarm are not Christians. We will not see them in heaven." Those are strong words! 

When I think about who we have become as 21st century Christians living in the most affluent country in the history of the world, I'm scared! The words of Jesus in Revelation 3:15-18 come to mind. In these verses Jesus says that He is about to spit us out of His mouth. That is what scares me! I don't think many of us take God seriously! We know that God's grace is free to all that believe, but we think "being good" is all that God requires of us afterward. 

I'm not sure yet what God is stirring up in me. I want Him to keep stirring it up though! Let's be RADICAL and have what others would call a CRAZY LOVE for God! Together, let's OUT LIVE OUR LIVES and close up THE HOLE IN OUR GOSPEL so that THE POOR WILL BE GLAD!

Happy New Year!