Day 16: Confession

We in the church have got something to confess.  And it’s pretty ugly.

 

But ugly things have to come into the light in order to be transformed.

 

Evangelism has been used by some to be an answer to church growth.  Not a good news offering, but doling out good news in order to receive something else in return.  More buts in the pews.  We hunger for bigger and we need to be validated and we try to build our kingdoms into the clouds.

 

Small churches fear their doors being shut, their bank accounts have dwindled and so they start searching for the lost sheep, not to bring them home to Jesus, but to build their future.

 

And the church has adopted a marketing mindset as if it went to business school.

 

And can I raise my hand?

 

Can I confess that I too so desired to tend to the future of an institution and that I lived frustrated when people I loved came into God’s Kingdom but found another Body of Christ to call home?  I was building my own kingdom, my own tower of Babel.  And I have looked the disappointment in the face, called sin, sin and stood at the foot of the cross.  Cross-shaped evangelism is never about “me.”

 

I am called to be a good news flinger regardless of outcome.

 

I am called to love and give Jesus without strings attached.

 

I too confess.

 

Tim Keller in the short book The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness (the best 99 cents you could spend today) says this, “It is quite possible to do all sorts of morally virtuous things when our hearts are filled with fear, with pride or with a desire for power.”

 

Ouch.

 

It is nearly impossible to be free to love when we are carefully concealing motives behind our backs.

 

It’s Lent and it’s time to sit in front of the cross.  It’s time to confess.

Dear friend, we’re such a mixed bag, aren’t we?  Today we can lift our faces up to our Abba and thank Him for grace and ask Him to show us ourselves in the mirror.

 

Pretending perfect shields us from the throne room of Truth where resurrection happens.

We’re on a journey to Cross-Shaped Evangelism this Lent.  Would you like to come along?  Put your email in the “Connect” box and press subscribe.

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Linking with the raw and wonderful Emily Wierenga here: