The story of Amazing Grace, the prodigal son, and us.

Modern Christianity in one sentence - all talk, no action.

“No man ever believes that the Bible means what it says: He is always convinced that it says what he means.” -George Bernard Shaw

It is easy for us to create a rating system for sin. It’s unspoken, but it most definitely exists. 

 

All sin somehow in our minds exists on a goodness or badness scale. We call it a goodness scale when we are talking about ourselves, and a badness scale when talking about “them”

 

Our sins can range from small sins, all the way to XL sins.

“The plain fact is that the planet does not need more successful people. But it does desperately need more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers and lovers of every kind...It needs people of moral courage willing to join the fight to make the world habitable and humane. And these qualities have little to do with success as we have defined it.” // David W. Orr

There's a vast difference between the Christianity described by the Bible, and Christianity as many people know it. Paul says in Romans 12 to take our cues from Jesus, not culture.

For us, and for Jesus' audience, we are trying to make distinctions between who is and isn't our neighbor. And unfortunately for our prejudices, Jesus says even our "worst enemies" are our neighbor. How does that make sense?

The purpose of the Church isn’t to create a holy huddle, but to introduce people to Jesus and help them find their place. We don't try to comfortably hide away from everyone else, but run toward the messy, hurting people far from God – because that’s what He’s done with us