Since the fall, the human race has allowed distinctions to cause division. That is all the old humanity knows to do, and it will continue to perpetuate distinctions as division. It is a part of the fallen mindset.  But we know that Christ did away with this by destroying in His body the enmity between any distinction and created in and with Himself One new humanity.

For a long time now, conformity has been the world’s answer to division caused by distinctions.

Times are changing…

But now the world is in a time of swinging the pendulum to allow everything and embracing every distinction to decrease division.

This pendulum swing is coming at the same time the church is coming into an increased understanding of needing everyone’s portion to express the fullness of Christ. So we are learning to embrace the differences in our brothers and sisters for the sake of the finding and seeing that fuller expression of Christ.

The church

We can fall into the world’s trap of accepting everything OR Making those differences/distinctions a “thing” to focus on instead of Christ to where those distinctions become ours and not the Lord’s.

There is some truth in conformity, we are as members of Christ being conformed to ONE image and expression: CHRIST. It’s His humanity that we are being conformed to, not our best version of humanity.

There is some truth, CHRIST allows and accepts everyone who is willing to be conformed to His image and expression. It’s His humanity we’re imaging and expressing

DIS·TINC·TION: a difference or contrast between similar things or people. Also, excellence that sets someone or something apart from others.

The mindset of Christ

You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though He was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up His divine privileges he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. Philippians 2:5-8

Rewritten:

You also must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had, he was willing to give up all rights and privileges that divine personhood afforded him in order to perfect humanity.

Though we are human, we do not regard our old humanity as something to cling to. Instead, we give up all rights to the advantages the old man afforded us, the ability to figure things out for ourselves, our knowledge and ways of thinking, our understanding of things according to the old mind. Also our emotions and our will.

SO we can take the higher position of a slave to Christ’s perfected humanity. We’ve been brought into Christ’s Humanity.  We can actively share in, participate and express Christ’s new perfected humanity. That is the only humanity that will change the world

Keeping this in mind…..We can avoid some pitfalls or the trappings of the world or the tendencies of the old man.

WE CAN FALL INTO THE WORLD’S TRAP OF ACCEPTING EVERYTHING

Problem: We can allow things that the Lord is not allowing which can lead to mixture and confusion.

Truth: We accept everyone who the Lord accepts knowing God has only one condition that that person is a willing, active participant in being transformed into the image and expression of His Son.

MAKING DISTINCTIONS THE NEXT “THING” TO FOCUS ON INSTEAD OF CHRIST

We can take a good thing like, fuller expression of Christ through all of our differences and make it something to focus on. We do not focus on our distinctions in order to express the fullness of Christ.

Problems:

* It like the “spiritual gifts inventory” idea- we can get obsessed in finding how we express Christ.

* Limit and pigeonholes people into only those expressions

* We only know the fallen versions of the distinctions

* Trying to express the fallen version by our own life

* We think we’re more spiritual than we really are

Is the Christian life only about me and my personal relationship with Jesus, or is there more the Lord desires? R.C., Andrew, Tyrone, Alison, Carrie and Bridget share on reframing and expanding our ideas about having our own personal relationship with Jesus.

This is a message from the To the Saints Conference that was held in Austin, TX in July 2017.

“The Church of Jesus Christ is a single-minded people.” What are you and I about? Are we about the One Thing? Or are we about many things?

In this episode, special guest Milt Rodriguez speaks to “The One Thing”. Christ is the One Thing, which is also the First Thing, which is also the Only Thing. Milt is a church planter, author, speaker, and all-around awesome brother.

This is a message from the To the Saints Conference that was held in Austin, Texas, in July 2017.

God has desired a New Humanity to fulfill His purpose. He has found His complete satisfaction in Jesus, the firstborn of this New Humanity and the One who is bringing many sons into glory. R.C., Andrew, Tyrone, Alison, Carrie and Bridget share on this New Humanity and what it means for our life in Christ today.

This is a message from the To the Saints Conference that was held in Austin, TX in July 2017.

What’s my passion? What’s your passion? We can become obsessed with our passions and the desires for our lives. But what about having a passion for what’s on Jesus’ heart?

In this episode, special guest Jon Zens speaks on having a passion for Jesus’ heart. Jon is an author, speaker, scholar, and theologian on Christian topics, and all-around awesome brother.

This is a message from the To the Saints Conference that was held in Austin, Texas, in July 2017.

Today we are talking about the Dones. Who are the Dones? Joshua Packard describes them as “people who are disillusioned with church. Though they were committed to the church for years—often as lay leaders—they no longer attend. Whether because they’re dissatisfied with the structure, social message, or politics of the institutional church, they’ve decided they are better off without organized religion.”

But we don’t stop there. We understand that many people have been called out of the institutional church. The question now is, what have they been called unto?

* A calling out

* Something is not right with how we “do church”

* Preserving our faith – many had to leave in obedience

* Detox

* A spiritual cleanse

* It’s not about being anti-IC

* Wandering in the desert

* Past licking wounds

* Past throwing spears at the church

* Past cynicism and negativity

* Past shame/guilt for not seeing it before or being a part of the system for so long

* Stripping down to Christ alone

* Toward Community

* Moving out of the desert

* Becoming desperate for the Lord

* His will, not mine: asking Lord, “What do you want?”

* Counting the cost

* This is not about your needs

* This will not meet your expectations

* This will not be impressive to the world

* Imperfect people / messy relationships

* Clearing your schedule

* Simplifying your life / freeing your resources

* Intentional Community meeting under the Headship of Christ

* Living in the wild/learning to rightly understand our instincts (lion analogy)

* There has always been a testimony of the Lord (some of these examples started out as such but became something else):

* Waldensians

* Anabaptist

* The Plymouth Brethren

* Open Brethren

* Exclusive Brethren

* Little Flock

* The Local Church

* Body Life

* Knowing Christ together

* Expressing Christ in Community

* Living out the True Identity

* Walking the way of the cross

* Bearing one another’s burdens

* Virtual Community and Real Community

* True identities

* The Cross

* Bearing burdens

* Keeping your schedule clear – doesn’t mean you can’t do anything but the church (ex: school and work)

* Simplifying your life / freeing your resources

* Being in the River of Life

* Building up the Bride of Christ

* Christ’s life together being built up into the House of the Lord

*

Resources:

Christ Alone: 5 Challenges Every Group Will Face by Jon Zens

Return to the Wild by Mary Rodriguez

The Torch and the Testimony by John Kennedy

The Secret of the Strength: What Would the Anabaptist Tell This Generation? by Peter Hoover

The Pilgrim Church by E.H. Broadbent

Today we are talking about the Dones. Who are the Dones? Joshua Packard describes them as “people who are disillusioned with church. Though they were committed to the church for years—often as lay leaders—they no longer attend. Whether because they’re dissatisfied with the structure, social message, or politics of the institutional church, they’ve decided they are better off without organized religion.”

But we don’t stop there. We understand that many people have been called out of the institutional church. The question now is, what have they been called unto?

* A calling out

* Something is not right with how we “do church”

* Preserving our faith – many had to leave in obedience

* Detox

* A spiritual cleanse

* It’s not about being anti-IC

* Wandering in the desert

* Past licking wounds

* Past throwing spears at the church

* Past cynicism and negativity

* Past shame/guilt for not seeing it before or being a part of the system for so long

* Stripping down to Christ alone

* Toward Community

* Moving out of the desert

* Becoming desperate for the Lord

* His will, not mine: asking Lord, “What do you want?”

* Counting the cost

* This is not about your needs

* This will not meet your expectations

* This will not be impressive to the world

* Imperfect people / messy relationships

* Clearing your schedule

* Simplifying your life / freeing your resources

* Intentional Community meeting under the Headship of Christ

* Living in the wild/learning to rightly understand our instincts (lion analogy)

* There has always been a testimony of the Lord (some of these examples started out as such but became something else):

* Waldensians

* Anabaptist

* The Plymouth Brethren

* Open Brethren

* Exclusive Brethren

* Little Flock

* The Local Church

* Body Life

* Knowing Christ together

* Expressing Christ in Community

* Living out the True Identity

* Walking the way of the cross

* Bearing one another’s burdens

* Virtual Community and Real Community

* True identities

* The Cross

* Bearing burdens

* Keeping your schedule clear – doesn’t mean you can’t do anything but the church (ex: school and work)

* Simplifying your life / freeing your resources

* Being in the River of Life

* Building up the Bride of Christ

* Christ’s life together being built up into the House of the Lord

Resources:

Christ Alone: 5 Challenges Every Group Will Face by Jon Zens

Return to the Wild by Mary Rodriguez

The Torch and the Testimony by John Kennedy

The Secret of the Strength: What Would the Anabaptist Tell This Generation? by Peter Hoover

The Pilgrim Church by E.H. Broadbent

It’s time to reframe again, and this time the To the Saints crew delves into contemporary and ancient views of scripture. Were the sacred writings always viewed the way they are now? Were any writings viewed as they are now? What about how we approach the Bible? What or who is “the Word?”

Things that people are taught that the Bible is supposed to be/do for us:

* It is our moral compass (how we know right from wrong)

* It is the answer to every question

* It is a “living” book

* Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth (it is our guidebook)

* “The United States was founded as a Christian nation on biblical principles!”

“Reading the letters of Paul is like listening to one end of a phone conversation.”

-F.F. Bruce

Excerpt from Pagan Christianity by Frank Viola and George Barna (pp. 229-230):

We Christians have been taught to approach the Bible in one of eight ways. See how many that apply to you…

* You look for verses that inspire you. Upon finding such verses, you either highlight, memorize, meditate upon, or put them on your refrigerator door.

* You look for verses that tell you what God has promised so that you can confess it in faith and thereby obligate the lord to do what you want.

* You look for verses that tell you what God commands you to do.

* You look for verses that you can quote to scare the devil out of his wits or resist him in the hour of temptation.

* You look for verses that will prove your particular doctrine so that you can slice-and-dice your theological sparring partner into biblical ribbons. (Because of the proof-texting method, a vast wasteland of Christianity behaves as if the mere citation of some random, decontextualized verse of Scripture ends all discussion on virtually any subject.)

* You look for verses in the Bible to control and/or correct others.

* You look for verses that “preach” well and make good sermon material.

* You sometimes close your eyes, flip open the Bible randomly, stick your finger on a page, read what the text says, and then take what you have read as a personal “word” from the Lord.

Jesus is the living, breathing Word of God. The Bible cannot be greater or more important than Christ Jesus.

2 Timothy 3:16-17: All Scripture is breathed out  by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be entirely suitable, completely furnished for every good work.

John 1:1-4: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.

The spoken word made flesh = His Son

Revelation 19:11-13: And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself. He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God.

Scripture points to Jesus (Old and New Testament).

John 5:38-40, 46-47: You do not have His word abiding in you, for you do not believe Him whom He sent. You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life…For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?

1 John 2:14: I have written to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong,