aliens among us

subtitle: a sound like a strong wind

If absolute power corrupts absolutely, doesn’t this also imply that absolute obedience succeeds absolutely? And if it does, what does it look like?

The church stretches through history from the first imperfect humans Christ told to follow Him, to anyone today who calls on the name of the Lord. The congregation has always been limited by the ability to meet and fellowship one with another, in one place, on a regular basis.

Until now. There is now in existence a church, a fellowship, a congregation, a body of believers, heck, we need a new label for this one, that meets every day. That’s right, 7 days a week. But wait! There’s more! They meet internationally. No geographical limitations. They meet at different hours of the day or night and, as far as I can tell, do all the things that every other LifeChurch.tv campus does. They even have small group meetings and MicroMissions.

LifeChurch.tv Internet Campus.

Go ahead. Name another church, ministry, mission, movement, etc., that even comes close to accomplishing this. I could say a lot more, both good and bad, but I don’t really need to. The internet has been around long enough for all of it to have been said before. Same goes for the Church. Heck, the same goes for LifeChurch.tv. Success breeds envy as well as admiration.

The reality of Christianity is that it’s suppose to confront the world with the evidence that it is different. It is better. It is Life that makes the world’s reality look like the living death it is in contrast. Light is the opposite of darkness, not a shade of it. In any reality, online or off.

If it’s not, why should I care? I can just go to FaceBook and be as social as you are. I can Twitter and be just as Interactive as you are. I can blog and be just as important as you are. I can even “attend” your online church and appear just as righteous as you do. We refer to the offline world as “RL” or “Real Life” for a reason.

The Internet provides me with all the same opportunities your electronic Christianity provides you. The challenge for the church is how to be transparently “not of this world” online. I’m not limited by that. I can be anything and anyone I want online. As real or any shade of limited “real” that I want.

So what is LifeChurch.tv Internet Campus? Is it the future of the church? Is it just another denominational branch or movement or sorry, but I just have to use the word here; “vision”?  The shiny new toy in the LifeChurch.tv family? Here today, gone tomorrow? Does LifeChurch.tv bring “Real Life” to the Internet?

What? You want ME to answer that? uh…only time will tell? Hey, it’s the best I could come up with. How many times do I have to say it; not an alien. (grin)

To me, the most interesting dichotomy of Christianity is that the only model of absolute obedience is the Savior. Not two or more, not a body of believers, not a congregation. And all He asks is that every single one of you be just like Him. Actually, didn’t He ask that you achieve more than He did? That can’t be right, because He’s God. We aren’t. Maybe it was just a rhetorical statement. My bad. (grin)

I know, not a lot of substance here. But this topic is a bit daunting. The only model I can find in the bible that looks like what is going on here is the church of the Book of Acts:

Acts 2:46-47 (The Message)
They followed a daily discipline of worship in the Temple followed by meals at home, every meal a celebration, exuberant and joyful, as they praised God. People in general liked what they saw. Every day their number grew as God added those who were saved.

Yes, the argument can be made that this isn’t exactly what is happening. Except for the last sentence. What say you?

Shut up already and show you a video? No problem. There’s this really cool church that creates a ton of content, puts it all online, and then lets anyone that wants to use it. So I stole, uh, I mean “reused” this from them:

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What? I know what yer thinking. Only 5? (grin)

subtitle: Replacing Judas

This will be the most critical part in the series. I’m hoping that isn’t what comes across. I’m not sure I’m supposed to care. How about you?

You can skip this one. Just go read the book of Acts. It should get what I’m trying to say across more clearly than I can. The Bible is the Inspired Word of God. But it’s also a book of stories. I’m gonna read Acts right now, before I continue this post.

Whew! I only made it to Acts 3:12. Hard stuff.

“What you’ll get is the Holy Spirit.”

Despite the above quote, this isn’t about the “baptism, infilling, gifts or fruits of the Holy Spirit, or the charismatic movement or the speaking in tongues, or any of that really interesting, cool and controversial stuff. It’s about the other part. What is the church supposed to be?

If you think Acts 1 is a hard read, just wait until you get to chapter 2. There have been a lot of attempts to recreate this part. I think the reason it doesn’t work this way is that the first thing that happens in chapter 2 can’t be recreated. All the other stuff can be, for the most part.

But without that “Sound Like a Strong Wind” kicking things off, the attempts of the church to recreate this chapter seem to have led to a modern day church service that goes backwards.

I have to pick on a church I’ve been to again. I can’t pick on the church I go to because, well, I go there regularly. Instead, I’ll once again have to pick on LifeChurch. Before I do, consider what I’m picking on and ask yourself if your church is even trying this much?

Guys, I’ve been to all of two of your campuses lately, and at both of them, you started the receiving of the tithes and offering off with the announcement that if you were in need of clothes or food or medical care, you could take money out of the offering instead of putting money in. The problem with that, is that you don’t tell people where they should sit to do this, or allow the time for those needy people to move to where they can do this with the most benefit.

Being a typical sinner who visits churches, the tendency is to sit in the back on the end of an aisle. Well, when you do that, that bucket is empty! At least at LifeChurch, you need to sit in the front on the right hand side, facing the stage. That’s where the buckets end up just before they get taken out of the sanctuary.

Try to be quick because it looks like they are trying to get that done and move on. And please, if people are still using checks, don’t take those. Just cash. You might have to go through some envelopes, so try to be quiet while your tearing them open. Tear carefully from the ends, just in case there is a check inside. I know it might seem like a good idea to just take a bucket out to the foyer where you can sort through it without disturbing the service, but the cops out there might get the wrong idea…

OK, that was fun. What’s my point? These guys are trying. I can see that. LifeChurch has evolved a lot from the beginning of it’s vision. I don’t think the vision has changed, but you can see them trying different things to meet that vision in the reality of today’s modern church. But even LifeChurch, whom I’ve come to like a lot, does church backwards. In my ever so humble opinion.

“Cut to the quick, those who were there listening asked Peter and the other apostles”. Yeah, I’m not Peter, or an apostle or even claiming to be an alien. But I’ll try to cut to the quick. Shouldn’t the invitation to salvation be one of the first things that happen? And the praise and worship the last?

And the small group meetings where the real getting to know each other and learning takes place, I bet all kinds of good stuff is happening in those houses. Do you ever wonder what’s happening next door while yer in there?

“When Peter saw he had a congregation, he addressed the people” I love that line. Talk about accidental church!

Nevermind. This is all written by a heathen, and quoted out of context, and the worse sin of all, specifically critical of people who have offered me nothing but the kindness that I’ve allowed them to.

I’m sure if I walked into your church in my jeans and t-shirt and tennis shoes, all bald and middle-aged, and nervous and giving off vibes of “leave me alone”, and sat in the back on the end of an aisle, making it hard for people to sit on the empty seats toward the middle, and then just wandered around your foyer after the service looking mildly bemused, you’d offer me more than they have! I’m imagining something like this:

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Yeah, I have no idea what’s going on there either. That’s my point. Doesn’t matter what church I wander into these days, it usually feels like I got on the wrong bus in Tokyo. I’m too old, I don’t dress right, and I definitely don’t speak the young, enthusiastic language. And I give off scary vibes.

This should make the lunch I’m having today interesting. Pastors are busy people, but one invited me to lunch. So I’m taking advantage of that today. Guess which church he’s from? Why I do this to myself for you people, I still haven’t figured out. (grin)

What? “why do you just stand here looking up at an empty sky?”

Isn’t the Bible fun?

Editorial update: There’s a reason I needed to do this post before I do the next one. I wanted to get this bit of humor combined with criticism of LifeChurch.tv off my chest before I post about what I consider to be THE most important accidental church of acts movement I’ve seen in the modern age. And it’s something LifeChurch is doing. No, it’s not At The Movies. Although that is cool. (grin)

subtitle: “The kids shared the love of Christ.”

Yes, I’m still carrying on about Rock Island. The thing that gets to me the most about this particular group of aliens is their persistence. Ministry outside the church environment is tough enough as it is. I know this is going to sound negative. I don’t mean it to sound that way. I’m just making this observation. Feel free to correct me where I’m wrong.

Church ministry generally consists of encouraging the flock to bring strays and strangers to the church to hear the message. Possibly some hear of your church and show up on their own. The call to salvation is given, hands are raised, people are prayed for, and then you hope they come back or even come to a bible study or small group meeting and get involved.

I’m not saying this doesn’t work. But it does feel as if the church as a whole is struggling with the desire to reach beyond this narrow demographic. To find a way to reach out to those who find the environment our comfortable church buildings too uncomfortable or challenging or whatever, for them to come back. Whether they raised their hand or not.

Cross & Crown, especially their Rock Island & Underground ministries, does it differently. I can’t help but wonder whether it’s working “better”. What’s their retention rate with these kids? Are their lives changing? Has the persistent presence of these aliens among them effected their environment in a transformational way? For the long term?

Is there quantity or quality in their results? Is that what matters? I’m sure these kids and their parents and all the sheep involved in this ministry are as imperfect and perfected in Christ as anywhere two or more of you are gathered. Denying the power and presence of God at work is like denying the existence of light or it’s absence when dark.

But what is coming out of the gathering together? Actually that last question wasn’t about Rock Island or C&C. (grin)

The reason I’m referring to this ministry as an accidental church of acts is the feeling I get when I’ve read their blogs or visited their church or ministry. It’s the same feeling I use to get from reading the book of Acts. A living, breathing presence of God, in nothing more than men. Who persisted no matter the cost. In treasure or blood. Or even perceived or noticed success.

Of course In my case, it’s just a feeling. (grin)

Or as Luke puts it so much better than me in the post I link to in the subtitle: “What more can you ask for?”

subtitle: everyday youthgroup.

Luke Whitmire started following me on Twitter, so I went and looked at his blog. I haven’t done so in awhile, which is weird, because I’ve ranted about these guys enough you’d think I’d keep track.

Instead of  ranting about what I think the body of Christ is doing wrong, I’m going to try looking at what I see it doing “right”. At least from my point of view. What? It’s the view I got. (grin)

These Rock Island kids are a good place to start. Instead of trying to become a church modeled after the Church in the book of Acts, they wound up that way by  responding to the needs they saw, in the area they were led to serve. It just happened. Because they were willing.

That’s all I’m going to say about it, go and check em out and see if you see what I think I’m seeing. The link is in the subtitle.

I’m going to look for this kind of thing. Aliens simply being obedient to the spirit of service they feel led to.  What us “charismaniacs” would might have referred to back in the day as the “leading of the Holy Spirit”.

Or something like that. (grin)

 What do you think?

The paravanes are going to Bella Vista Arkansas to care, I mean visit a family member who is under the weather. I’ll try to grace you with the wisdom and humility that is the paravane while there, but no promises. Please try to survive without us. It’s only 7 days. (grin)

Ms. Paravane is doing much much better, most of the time. We’ve been able to cut down on all her medications to an even lower level than what she was on before. The swelling in her feet and legs is subsiding. Her very wise and very alien Doctor spotted the cause and switched her back to Hyzaar combined with a diuretic from the Cozaar without that for whatever reason she was put on in the Hospital, and was causing water retention.

She’s talking coherently, sleeping normally and back to participating in her online forum and giving me grief when I rightly deserve it. My twin is back. I missed her.

Y’all take care and have a blessed week. Once again, I owe you all more than I can express for your prayers and kind words.

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Editorial Update: Man, I must have really been out of it. We’re actually only going to be gone until the 21st.

subtitle: open your eyes

Isaiah 6:8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”
And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

The winnowing has begun. Separation of the willing from the unwilling to sacrifice everything to answer.  You try so hard to shape yourselves into the instrument of God’s harvest. Silly rabbits, He doesn’t need your help, just your desire, your faith your urgent need to hear His voice through all the distractions of a world bent on stopping you.

All He “needs” to do is call the workers to the harvest. He already knows who will answer.

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Who do you see yourself as? In a world where self-realization, a purpose driven life and prosperity are the mantras of spiritual fulfillment, will you lay down your comfort, your worries, your fears, your goals even the safety of your family and answer the call? Do you even hear it? Open your eyes and see the harvest God has placed in front of you.

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Are you weak enough to be willing?

subtitle: “travel with us down the senile highway”

When you live in the margins, if you have digital viewable TV content access, you’re probably amused by all the talk about fresh and/or organic vegetables, much less all the fuss about what’s healthy to eat and what’s not. You know what’s healthy to eat to the poor? Food. The cheaper the better.

Can you say Always Save, Best Choice and Great Value? I knew that you could! Here’s a new one for you: Terry’s El Mariachi Supermarkets, baby! Mr. Yu rocks! If you don’t get the local Hispanic food market fliers in the mail, you should stop by one and pick it up. Avoid the U.S. brand names and you can get some really great values. Like 28 cents a pound chicken leg quarters! Uh, you just have to buy 10 dollars worth of stuff, and limit one bag per famalia. Excluding beer and tobacco products, ese.

Canned meats, canned vegetables, large quantity bags of frozen chicken, pork and hamburger patties, dried beans and huge bags of rice, discount bread stores on bargain days and various Dollar stores. You can really stretch a food stamp dollar a lot farther than you use to. And then there’s food banks. Did I forget government cheese? Tell me I didn’t forget government cheese! Y’all remember government cheese?

One of my criteria for attending church these days is that you feed. The church I go to on Saturday serves a full buffet after service. Hunger for the Word and fellowship isn’t the only thing keeping people around this church three hours after the service lets out. It’s called Gospel Celebration Fellowship.

And just for the fun of it, I go by Akin’s during the hours the juice bar is manned and get a fresh squeezed vegie drink, small size, for $1.50 plus tax. Or the same amount for a shot of orange juice and a shot of wheatgrass juice at Jamba Juice. Hey, something’s gotta balance out all the lard, fat, salt, preservatives, high fructose corn syrup and excessive carbs that come with eating cheap.

Just in case you health freaks are right. (grin)

Of course, the really really poor can always just participate in the low calorie diet that is all the rage in the news lately for keeping monkeys healthier and living longer than the other monkeys. Right? Let them eat Less!

(note: the following video is politically incorrect humor and is therefore rated M)

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I get so tired of that disclaimer. OK, for those of you who can’t watch a rated M video:

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That’s NOT the government cheese I was talking about!

You know something is out of kilter when a fast food meal cost can compete and even beat prepared at home food prices. So what did your neighbor have for dinner? I’m just asking. I hear dog food isn’t that bad.

But I can’t google a study on the nutritional comparison of dog food verses say, three 2pc. for 99 cents chicken only meals on Tuesday at…I better not say. I can’t afford the law suit.

(grin)

subtitle: “Wrong! It’s the most amazing, fabulous, sensational gum in the whole world.”

When I’m this tired, I get silly, but I still think Miles at LifeChurch.tv’s the Ed campus should have to wear this outfit during the ATM series. I’m just sayin…(grin)

I’m exhausted. Part of being 50 is learning your limits the hard way, sometimes. I was so intrigued by my reaction to NW Oklahoma City’s campus setup for At The Movies 2009 that I woke up at 11PM last night, and couldn’t get back to sleep. I twitted, I posted, I surfed, I ended up staying up all night, and even though I could feel the exhaustion trying to set in, I decided I’d get my second wind and go to the Ed to check out their setup.

The Ed’s setup was cute. It was based on Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. With the cutest kids dressed up as Oompah Loompas. Although, pulling the heartstrings might be cheating just a bit. (grin)

I still give the nod to NW OKC campus for set design and special effects based on the Jurassic Park movies. It’s been awhile since I walked into a church and my first reaction is “WOW!” Or as Miles at the Ed asked me; “was it a real jeep”? I can’t remember, but it looked real. Now that’s good set design!

Because of the still ongoing copyright content wars, LifeChurch.tv can’t reveal the name of the movies they use in the message series, at least not before the message.

I still don’t understand the logic behind copyright holders not allowing people who aren’t profiting off their content to promote it. I think they’ll lose out big time in the long term. But nevertheless, I’ll play it safe here and do the same thing after the fact.

It’s pure coincidence that the Paravane household will soon be moving The Bucket List to the top of it’s Netflix Queue. What? (grin)

I’ve referred to LifeChurch.tv as the “movie church” in a derogatory manner in the past. I’m going to be using it with admiration from now on. And I might even have to grudgingly admit that I’m beginning to understand their use of the term “anything but sin”. Like a lot of scripture, you can take something out of context and it sounds really bad, or just rubs you the wrong way.

I keep forgetting who it is that’s in charge of these young people. That’s my mistake, not theirs. I don’t think they ever do. I made a joke at Trevor Williams, the South OKC Campus Pastor’s expense in a comment response, about him not being very charismatic. I don’t know the guy, and decided that from one conversation. Maybe he is, maybe he isn’t.

I just don’t think it matters. One thing you can’t miss about any of these campus pastors is that when they get up on that stage in front of the movie screens and all the graphics and the movie theatre seating, and follow up on Craig’s call to people to surrender their lives to Christ, they don’t have to be.

Charismatic that is. Because you can tell, it’s not about them. It’s about what and who is behind all of this vision’s tools, graphics, settings, the security guards and off duty police that make any former street person like me squirm no matter how far off the streets I am now, all of it really does amount to “anything but sin”.

The light shines through. The desire for you to know who they know as Savior can’t be missed. I’ve said a lot of things in former posts on here about the people at LifeChurch.tv that make me squirm now that I’ve seen them in action more than a few times. Oh well, I’ll have to live with that.

What I don’t want to live with is not admitting how much I admire their persistence. That’s always something I admire.

Hot or cold, cause lukewarm just sucks. Now that I’ve got that off my chest, I’m gonna steal Scott Williams’ video walk through of their set design. It’s on youtube. That makes OK for me to use, right?:

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Great video Scott! Thanks for the content! (grin)

Seriously, go check out some LC campuses during the ATM series. It rocks. They do too. One thing I have to give LC, OK, another thing I have to give LC, they have some great young people performing their praise and worship portion of their services. I mean Experiences!

So, which campuses have you checked out, and who wins?

(grin)

Yes, another long post. I’m too tired to edit it. Deal. (grin)

subtitle: pay up or go someplace they take bums like you

We are getting ready for debt consolidation. We don’t actually have debt collection agencies coming after us yet, but it’s unavoidable in the near future. So we’re actually planning out how we will deal with it when it happens.

That seems oxymoronic, doesn’t it? I mean, if we have no debt now, why should we expect it to happen in the near future? Are we going to suddenly stop being fiscally responsible and go on a wild spending spree? In a sense, yes.

You see, we are old. My wife and I are both now past the half century mark. My wife can no longer work due to her diagnosis of Pre-senile Dementia, and I can’t get a job because I’m the only full time care provider service we can afford.

I made the mistake of taking a break from the job market after I earned enough for us to stop renting and start buying two houses for our family. One for us and one for the kids. I was going to start working again when my wife stopped. My turn to pay the bills and carry the health insurance and let her be the homemaker. Only now we are trapped by the disease, so that can’t happen.

In an interesting twist of fate, not 4 months after we could not afford to COBRA my wife’s employee health insurance, she was selected to participate in a health care study which came with $100,000 worth of health insurance. She received a health care plan participant card that works at health care providers, hospitals, doctor’s offices, medical testing companies, and with prescription medications, just like a normal employee health insurance plan card.

The main differences between this study’s health care plan, and a regular employee participant health care plan are threefold:

1. She doesn’t contribute any payments to the plan. No deductions are made from her income.
2. There is no Human Resources dept. to help with health care issues. I got to do that for her. Needless to say, OJT self-taught HR skills are not adequate. They just have to be.
3. There is a $100,000 cap on the plan. Once she reaches that magic number, the card stops working, and we get treated like me instead of her.

I don’t have any health insurance. What difference does it make? It’s simple really. No doctors will make appointments to see me unless I pay cash. In full, up front. No deductibles, no co-pay, and very little tolerance for partial payments over time. Same with testing facilities, pharmacies, you name it health care provider, for some odd reason they  want to get paid.

How this is effecting us? Even though my wife still has a small amount of that $100K left on the card, we haven’t gone to an ER or even a Quick Care clinic, or made an appointment with her personal care physician. Despite the fact that her legs and feet have been swollen and red for over 3 weeks.

We think we’ve figured out the cause, but we have no tests, no blood work, no examinations to back that up. We’re just going off of free conversations with her Doctor’s RN’s. I’m hoping they’re right. I mean, it’s going to suck if my wife loses the use of her legs completely because the costs of going to health care providers is causing us to hesitate to do it. As in not doing it.

It’s a bummer. I don’t get much health care because my first thought when I feel ill or bad or hurt myself is, how much is this going to cost? And can I just wait whatever this is out?

We’re not quite yet in the group that has to just go the Emergency Room where it’s illegal not to see you before referring you to someone else. And then doesn’t pay the $500 more or less ER fee or any testing, consulting, medication, transportation fees that come with it. Because if we did that, we’d get the bills. We’d be expected to pay them. If we didn’t, our credit record goes up in a little, white, barely noticed puff of smoke.

Which means we start planning for debt consolidation, or join those already in the margins of not paying bills, not having anything but a negative credit record and living only on cash, charity and necessity.

It’s an interesting point of view, from a position of no debt with a record of paying for everything with a credit card or electronic payment. And paying off the single credit card balance every month. And having enough to pay every electronic debit every month.

Zero debt, zero interest payment on debt, zero partial payments and a slowly building balance that gets drained every time there’s a home-owner or car related repair or unexpected maintenance.

But zero debt. For years. Even the car is less than 5 years old and paid off. We carry two mortgages, soon to be one as the kids can finally buy their mortgage from us. We pay all of our bills in full every month.

If we could just ignore those pesky health issues that keep cropping up, we could remain debt free! Oh well. I know, get sick and die already, you old farts. So, we prepare for debt consolidation. Even though, at the present moment, we have no debt.

How’s that whole prosperity thingy going with you guys? I’m just wondering if that old nugget about the rain falling on the just and the unjust alike is still holding water? Because, we’re starting to feel a bit parched here.

(note: this video contains vulgar language and is therefore rated M):

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I’m just sayin…

Editorial note: For those of you expecting this to be about food and hunger, it’s still technically today. That’s tomorrow’s. What? Don’t blame me! Blame twitter! That tweet was about what I was doing then, not now! (grin)

subtitle: there’s something happening here

Let me tell you a story. I’ll use a recent example:

And so it happened that Pastor Gary Lamb gathered his team together and confessed to them that he had committed the sin of adultery. He told the full truth in all humility and begged for their forgiveness with a broken and repentant heart. His team forgave him, wiped the tears from his eyes and took him into their bosom and comforted him in his time of need.

He then gathered his flock unto him and confessed his sin in full disclosure, asking nothing more than that they try to find it in their hearts to forgive him. And that because of his shameful acts he was unworthy to shepherd them. He was stepping down as their shepherd and wanted nothing more than to be assigned janitorial duties cleaning the church bathrooms. He was willing to serve in the most demeaning of positions just to remain in site of the beloved and his Lord, despite his unworthiness to fellowship with the true sheep.

And the whole flock gathered him into their bosom and anointed him with oil and fed him from the finest milk and honey and showered him with expressions of their love and acceptance and forgiveness. They washed him and dressed him in the purest white linens and walked him into the chapel and up to the podium and knelt before God in all humility. Professing the truth of God’s forgiveness they proclaimed him their brother and shepherd as God had so raised him up.

And he prospered in the work of God, and the flock increased and went forth into the world to gather the harvest in a magnitude that was tenfold to  that which had been gathered before. And it was made evident to the church that God is the Father of the sheep and restores tenfold to His children that cry out to him with a true heart of remorse and repentance. And the world marveled at the love and forgiveness of God. And many  entered into the house of God that day and were saved. And the Father looked upon his children and was pleased.

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But that’s not what happened. Gary Lamb believes that he must step down and work his own salvation. His team accepts, approves and believes it necessary for his restitution for betraying his wife, his team and his flock. His flock passively accepts all this and feels betrayed. The sheep of the internet weigh and measure his sin and remorse, and display his sin for all the world’s ridicule and judgment. The church condemns him. An eye for and eye and anger at him for holding the Bride of Christ up for the same.

Because it’s all about the image. If the church is not seen as infallible and completely without sin, it loses it’s brand in the eyes of the world. It costs the church in the world’s currency. And the church has bought into the lie that image is more important than acknowledging that men, even sheep, are sinners incapable of being sinless or working their own salvation without God.

Having taken the law into their hearts they cannot hear the voice of their Father, and suffer needless pain and fear and helplessness. They must wait for death before the Father gathers them into His loving arms to wipe away the tears and brush off the chains of captivity to the law they needlessly accepted.

Romans 7:21 ²¹So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. ²²For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; ²³but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. ²⁴What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? ²⁵Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

Luke 15:21 ²¹“The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.^[a]‘ ²²“But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. ²³Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. ²⁴For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.

James 5:16 ¹⁵And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. ¹⁶Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

Luke 18:9 ⁹To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: ¹⁰“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. ¹¹The Pharisee stood up and prayed about^[a] himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. ¹²I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’  ¹³“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

Luke 18:14 ¹⁴“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

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Why does it feel like the bride of Christ is proclaiming that the Good News only lasts as long as you don’t sin? Where is mercy, forgiveness and restoration? When men take judgment, retribution and restitution into their own hands, they do so out of fear and pride. Where is the Good News in that? Much less the fellowship of the Bride?

But be of good cheer! There is Hope, even for the saved(grin):

Romans 8:31 ³¹What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³²He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? ³³Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. ³⁴Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. ³⁵Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ³⁶As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”^{[l] 37}No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,^[m] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

What’s separating you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus your Lord?