Could it be that I’ve been reading Matthew 16: 18 wrong all these years? The full verse says:
“And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”
I’ve always thought that this means that the church will be in the defensive, that hell and the entire force of darkness will try and attack the church to destroy it.
Joshua 1: 8
KJV: This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.
NLT: Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do.
The definite authoritative sense in the phrase “book of the law” has been weakened into a “book of instruction.” When men open a box of a new gadget, they just switch it on without looking at the instruction manual. Some people think they don’t need instructions but everyone knows they have to obey the law.
In the book Simple Church, Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger talked about four elements that characterize most vibrant churches: Clarity, Movement, Alignment and Focus.
My local church has no problem with clarity so let’s just skip that for now and let’s tackle the second element- movement, or the fluid hand-off of people from one step to another. It seems to me that we while we have no problem moving people from the worship service to small groups to Training for Victory, everything just kind of stop right there.
People graduate and go back to whatever it is they were doing. After we trained three batches, we have yet to see new small groups opening up. The truth is that we are still struggling to birth second generation leaders. Our small groups are still being led by people who have been leading these groups for years. After taking the Training for Victory, we’ve lost our momentum.
He hears us when we pray in solitude or a crowd;
He misses not a word whether whispered in out hearts
Or spoken out loud…
—Chris Christian
When there is no direction, people assume a direction or invent one. The church then moves aimlessly and off course. And there is no course in which to return.
By confining your child to blameless stories of child life in which nothing at all alarming ever happened, you would fail to banish the terrors, and would succeed in banishing all that can ennoble them or make them endurable. For in the fairy tales, side by side with the terrible figures, we find the immemorial comforters and protectors, the radiant ones; and the terrible figures are not merely terrible, but sublime.
It would be nice if no little boy in bed, hearing or thinking he hears, a sound, were ever at all frightened. But if he is going to be frightened, I think it better that he should think of giants and dragons than merely of burglars. And I think St. George, or any bright champion in armour, is a better comfort than the idea of police.
—CS Lewis, On Three Ways of Writing for Children
Jojo Agot 