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Speaker: Jerry Cisar
Imagine a parent signs their 8-year-old up for music lessons. The lessons begin and the teacher talks a lot but isn’t having the students play or do anything. Eventually your patience runs out so you ask the instructor, “Are the students going to play their instruments?” To which the instructor responds, “No, your child is not good enough to play or read music. We won’t have them play until they are good enough.” You’d take your daughter and leave.
Musicians don’t practice over and over because they are good enough to merit perfection, they practice over and over because they aren’t good enough to merit perfection. They practice because in the very act of practicing they are formed; they are changed. In performance of the music, they are forced to conform to something other than their own nature, something outside themselves.
Many have envisioned the Christian faith much the same as the instructor described above. As if Jesus is only concerned that we talk about how he wants us to live, but it makes no difference whether or not we do what He says. We’re afraid that if we tell people they have to live God’s will that they will try to be good enough to be saved. But doing what Jesus said is not about earning salvation at all. It’s necessary for the transformed vision of the world, the kingdom of heaven that Jesus is proclaiming, to come!
Join us as we explore the dedication necessary for the culture-changing Kingdom of Heaven to be experienced.