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Einstein was right when he said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” So why do we think that doing the same approaches to church over and over will suddenly produce  different results?  Probably for a mix of reasons:

1. Perhaps someone convinced us that what we’re doing should work for us, and so we just keep doing the same thing expecting better results.  What adds to the insanity is that we might have seen it work in a different place, and so the assumption is that it should work here too!

2.  Perhaps what we’re doing used to work for us, and so it makes sense to us that we just must be doing something wrong or it would work for us once again.  What further clutters our thinking is that we might be able to point out how our model (that used to work for us) is now working down the street, and so it’s perplexing to us why it doesn’t work now for us!

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I often chuckle when I read Paul’s words, “But we have this treasure in jars of clay…” (2 Cor. 4:7). I laugh because jars of clay sounds so elegant, but are actually the cheapest clay pots made in Paul’s day! Now he isn’t saying that human beings are cheap; but he is acknowledging that we really aren’t all that impressive on the outside. In fact, our outsides might even be ugly! The amazing thing is that God has chosen to contain His transcendent glory (God Himself) in fragile, unimpressive, even flawed and cracked human earthenware containers.

We could say that God (though omnipresent) has chosen to contain Himself and set up His address inside of fragile human beings. This is the truth about what we carry inside of us—it’s just easy to miss because our outsides are just so…distracting! In many ways we could say that the looks of a Christian are quite deceiving—what we see on the outside is not a fair representation of what we really are—we carry the transcendent glory of God Himself within us! We are just simply not what we appear to be. So how do we get past the distraction of the clay pot to see the glory within? It is really a matter of getting heaven’s perspective of things!

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As imperfect as it may be, the local church really is God’s best plan for reaching this planet for Christ!  In fact, planting New Testament communities of faith in new places is the most effective form of evangelism that exists.  The church exists as God’s chosen instrument for fulfilling His purposes on the earth and  is the center of His redemptive purposes on earth.  Christ calls us out of our sinful independence and isolation in order to baptize us into His Body, the Church (1 Cor. 12:13).  His plan is to transplant us from being alone, to being immersed into the people of God (Acts 2:42 & 47).  It is within the context of committed meaningful relationships in a local church that the fullness of Christ is revealed and we are brought to a place of maturity and service.  Thus, when it comes right down to it, there is no Christianity apart from life in the local church. What do you think about that statement?  Can you have Christ without His Community and His Cause?

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, “Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18  give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

Circumstances are a lot like the mattress on your bed:  if you are under the mattress, you will suffocate; but if you can get on top of the mattress, you can enjoy some rest! And one of the key things that helps us get on top of the mattress of difficult life-circumstances is our attitude in life!

Airplanes have something called an attitude indicator or artificial horizon which is an instrument used to tell the pilot the orientation of the aircraft in relationship to the earth.  Attitude is the term that refers to the relative position of the nose of the aircraft to the horizon. If the horizon is straight out in front of you and you pull back on the yoke of the plane slightly one degree up angle, you have an upward attitude. And with continued forward movement, you will gain altitude, and continue to go higher and higher until you change the attitude. The opposite holds just as true. With the nose of the plane pointed even slightly down, you lose altitude. You will continue to descend until you have a change of attitude.  A downward attitude lowers your altitude; and an upward attitude raises your altitude.  And so, your attitude determines your altitude!

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