In Australia the average man in the street has a rule for conversation in his home: "No religion and no politics"(even tough we have compulsery voting). This has probably come about to avoid conflict or to avoid boredom, I'm not sure which. In the churches though it's "no sex or politics!"
Tevita
Satan can sit around and drink tea (or coffee here) with you (people in general) all he wants to as long as you avoid him. Ignore him. Go ahead. He likes that. Did you know that Satan doen't care if you don't believe in him? He works easier that way.
But the church HAS to speak out! It was the Word that spoke and things happened. Jesus spoke and the demons fled. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. It doesn't say, ignore the devil. RESIST!!! Fight! Somewhere in the bible (need to look it up) it says, the Kingdom comes by violence. I think the better word would be, by force, by hard work, by resistance to outside forces, by not being "comfortable".
Too many people get comfortable in church. You need to speak up. Be the "thorn" in Pauls side. Don't let "Paul" get comfortable. God didn't let him get comfortable. The "thorn" in Pauls side was to keep Paul moving towards the Kingdom, towards Christ.
Is there a "thorn" in your side? Then get moving!
There was this old dog that kept howling on the porch. Eventually, the neighbor came over and asked the owner of the dog why it was continually howling. The owner said that the dog is sitting on an old nail and it hurts. "Then why doesn't the dog get off the nail?" the neighbor asked. "Apparently it doesn't hurt enough".
We are like that in this society. We hurt and howl, but don't hurt enough to do something about it.
Agreed. A comfortable church is a stagnant church! I have found that a church which grows the most consistantly has times of comfort followed by times of discomfort. Times of consolidation and times of challenge. Our church is going through times of challenge now and unfortunately has been doing so for the past 5 years. As a result we have had a split in the church over biblical interpretation and tranlating this into church action. Much has been over the issue of Homosexuality and leadership in the church.
What we are doing at present is to go through a program called "100 Days of Love". We hope this will support our people so they can give them more challenge and so have more growth.
Let you all know how this goes.
In the middle of this all my wife and I discuvered the enjoyment of social nude recreation! No small measures, eh?
Tevita
The vast majority of worldly churches emcourage their congregations to stay comfortable, by indocrinating them into believeing in self righteousness as the key to salvation rather than believeing in love and the Lord's righteousness.
They are bound by law rather than the freedom of the spirit, and hence do not witness to others, but witness only the law that binds. This isn;t Christianity nor what Jesus taught. And these vast majority of churches will NEVER accept nudity nor honesty nor GRACE. And because they won;t CHANGE, forget them, let them be and look for the true sheep of the Lord, who when found will give their whole lives and LOVE to the Lord in His SERVICE.
To them there are no man made bounds like clothing, to them that have honestly looked at the worldly churches and rejected them because they have rejected the Lord, these people are what we should be looking for rather than trying to change old church people into the Lord's people.
The greatest number of Christian nudists who will not be ashamed of the Lord's Name and Creation are, in my opinion, NOT in the church system. They have rejected it long ago, just like the Lord rejected them long ago. But if we can bring them into His fold of new life, new love and new honesty, then we will be making strides for the Lord and witnessing and being uncomfortable by going out into the streets, and beaches and byways and bringing them in.
In His Service
David
PS) I lived in Australia for two years, brisbane and Aldelaie, and the key to witnessing there is witnessing truths, rather than churchy dogma, witnessing Jesus love without mention about politics of right wing churches, but just the Lord's words and ideals.
Where I live, nudists have virtually little to no trust or respect for the Christian churches - especially the women.
From my experience, I was topssed out of three churches in the easrly 90's for trying to bring awareness of naturism to the others. That said, the church has developed a more charitable attitude to the homosexual community.
