Yesterday, I wrote my 400th post on this blog. Wow. 400 seems like such a big number, and I guess it is if your talking about things like weight, or the price of a car repair. Now, if you're talking government spending, 400 is minuscule. When I started this blog almost three years ago, I had no idea where it was going to go. I also had no idea where God was going to take me.
The title of this blog is "On the Journey", because that's how I see life. I am on a journey following Jesus. Occasionally my journey has been on the highways, but most of the time I travel on the back roads. Sometimes the path gets narrow and hard to see, and sometime it goes through dark or deserted places.
In the past three years, Jesus has taken me into places that made me wonder what in the world was going on. Sometimes, when I thought we were going to be out in the sunshine on a nice straight road, our path veered into the woods on a trail so winding that I couldn't begin to see around the next bend. God has taken away dreams, and then given them back in a different form. My duties at my job have changed three or four times, and there have been times that I didn't think I could continue. God has always given me strength.
I have gone from a position of leadership in a church where I tried to influence the congregation toward a "relevant," attractional type of worship service, to a small fellowship that meets in a bagel shop on Sundays and homes, coffee shops, or pubs through the week. Like Anne Rice, I have left "Christianity," or at least what it has become. That doesn't mean I have left the Church, the Body of Christ. I'm not a big fan of amputation. I now believe that the church can gather in a pub and those gathered can grow spiritually more than many who gather in buildings called churches week after week.
I am being more and more, as Michael Spencer put it, reduced to Jesus. I see much of what has grown up around the Gospel, and have a hard time seeing the One we claim to follow. I believe that the church in the United States is coming to a fork in the road, where we must choose to follow King Jesus, or to continue in the civil religion that passes for Christianity.
A lot has changed since this blog began. I expect changes will continue to come, so I'll keep on writing. I have no idea how many actually read this, but I'm thankful for those who have stopped by, even if only for an instant. You have encouraged me with your comments, and I have been introduced to some great bloggers.
Enough ramblings for now. Thanks for reading.
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