The church calendar tries to fit Jesus into seasonal categories, but the Bible says that Jesus is “the same yesterday, today, and forever.” Never make Jesus seasonal!

Jesus is the reason I stay excited about being alive! He’s the reason I’m forgiven. Jesus is the reason I “go tell it on the mountain.” He’s why I can’t be silent and passive–why I write, blog, post, and tweet all year long. He’s the reason I have hope in every season!

Jesus is the reason I write and say things to challenge people to directly connect their heart to Him and to obey His inner promptings. He’s the reason I want churches to be more than passive formalism and to let people personally obey His Spirit when they meet. Bodies in a church service do not equal hearts in love with and obedient to the risen Jesus.

The good news is that God is with us and ready to continually live inside us and empower us with His presence! Take Him up on His offer. Jesus is the God-man–the Creator of the Universe who became and a human being. He wants to be your everyday personal friend, not just a religious recipe to hopefully get you into Heaven someday.

Christians aren’t called to put our faith in church attendance, but to daily rely on the presence and power of the risen Jesus. Christ’s body has been falsely taught that it’s more important to hear a sermon than it is to obey Jesus’ inner promptings.

Church is too often a dry well offering people weekly talks about water but not training them to drink deeply from God’s Spirit. It too often ignores the living, present, and active Jesus and settles for a formalized, passive, and controlled Jesus. Jesus goes to those who are ignoring Him and knocks on their door. That may be the cause of the discomfort you feel in your heart.

When Peter saw Jesus transfigured with glory, he immediately wanted to build chapels. When spiritual awakening happens, people want to quickly organize it and fit it into churches and thus quench it. It’s time to set aside gimmie gimmicky religion and go all out for the risen Jesus!

Jesus is the reason I want to connect heart-to-heart with people and to “encourage one another” when I gather with other believers. When Christians gather it’s a great opportunity to encourage each other by allowing each person to openly express their faith.

Jesus is inside me continually crying out for expression. Church services expect me to sit quietly and quench His Spirit. Instead of breaking down the gates of Hell, church seems to shackle people to passive religious formalism.

Jesus wasn’t born so pastors can line people up in rows and lecture basically the same people each week until they die or leave. A pastor should be like a coach. Occasionally he lectures his players, but mostly he has them practice and then makes them active participants in the game.

It’s time for relationship not religion. The living Jesus can’t be controlled by religion whether by the ancient Pharisees or by the modern church. Instead of paying somebody to study the Bible and give us a weekly report, perhaps it would be better to read it for ourselves.

Never let Jesus be seasonal! Christmas hype and “Silent Night, Holy Night” are not the same thing! “Could we be perpetuating an image of Jesus that fits our pious expectations but does not match the person portrayed so vividly in the Gospels?” –Phillips Brooks

Instead of
Setting hearts on fire
Church seems
To merely require
Sunday attendance.