Checklists, idols and loving God
A preacher said: “You cannot love the Lord if you do not do these things.” Paul wrote: “I tried keeping rules. It didn’t work.” Why checklists lead us astray.
Abusers like Ahab & Jezebel use one another
They’re eerily alike: Ahab and Jezebel, who ruled in Elijah’s day. Men and women in church leadership who use one another in order to control everyone else.
Obsession with power, in the church
You begin to see something distressing in the church. Can it, might it, be an obsession with power, eerily like the Baal worship of old? Whatever do you do?
Prayer of the Body, for the Body, of Christ
Would you pray with me “that, as the Bride of Christ, we will continue to learn to ‘walk in beauty’ with our fellow man and God." - Mark Charles
Toxic church? Healing promise: Real belonging
Long ago and still today, God promises his traumatized, grieving, scattered people: I will be a sanctuary to you. I will protect you. I will gather you back.
Masters of misdirection and mesmerizing fog
People like King Ahab spend their lives using and abusing others, to get what they want. They also mesmerize and misdirect us, so we won’t see them as they are.
Spiritual schizophrenia and the two-headed snake
"How long will you try to go both ways?" Elijah cried. Where people identified with God cling to deep double-mindedness, they empower a two-headed snake.
Christ alone: Counting the cost, going with God
The only way to walk free from the roles and expectations that abusive systems force upon you is to keep following Jesus as he gets the system out of you.
Sabotage, coerce, shame: Bullying in the church
It’s agonizing to be bullied – and it can happen to an adult, in the church. Supposedly godly people, seeking to control, plot to sabotage, coerce, shame.
Bucking the system: Shunning, submission, Jesus
Jesus grew up in a religious system God had instigated, and people had hijacked to use for their own ends. Jesus’ life shows us when and how to buck the system.
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