In earlier posts I mentioned a lot about my belief that God continues to reveal Himself in new ways despite the fact that He never changes. I referred to them as “wine skins”. I believe as we get nearer to the day of Christ’s glory we continue to get a better picture of the reality that the Lord has meant for us all along. It really seems that people have lived most of these out at all stages of History, but sooner or later they become a standard and even those who would not readily discover them can be taught them through discipleship. Until the stigma is removed the majority will tend to go with what “their pastor told them” and defend that quite adamantly. Once the Pastor stops preaching the lie the truth can flow freely through the congregation and new revelation can flow out on top of it. Let me give an example…

At one point in History the earth was considered to be the center of the universe. Many people during many periods of History likely lived out their faith without that idea ever playing a role. However, the Church had built its theology on that misinformation and when the time came to end the notion they didn’t let go easily. The fact was people before that time were being taught something at Church that they then had to unlearn in order to see the world accurately. After that lie was dismantled the Church finally accepted it and now teaches the truth in place of the lie. How many times over has this happened? How many more times will it happen?

It is funny to wonder but who really knows? Maybe Jesus will come back tomorrow…. or perhaps we are only a tenth of the way down the path he has planned. No matter how far along we are I wonder how many lies are still accepted and intertwined into our faith. It is astounding to think that perhaps we don’t know everything.

We started a study with some great friends on a book called “Velvet Elvis”. It struck me that the author is trying to convey the exact same points. Elvis was cool for a while, but for most of today’s generation he’s just tacky, even for many irrelevant. As we go through this book I ponder a lot on the possible “quirks” that mainstream Christianity may have yet to work out. There is a lot of talk nowadays about “The Emerging Church”… I’m sure glad “it” finally got around to “Emerging”. I’m going to try to learn how exactly we define this phenomenon. Is it something we can expect to find “emerged” in the next few years? Or is it, maybe, the Church that has finally realized that it must always be “emerging”?

Either way it ties closely with my conviction that God continues to do “Nu thangs” (sorry for that throwback to the 80s… I was a teenager then after all). Maybe when it finally “emerges” it will have hit a few more of the throwbacks. Or better yet, maybe it actually will be a Church that embraces change instead of rejects and condemns it. I hope to get the guts to throw on the table some of the possible misnomers that we have blindly accepted as prerequisites to knowing…. or more importantly… being known by Jesus. Maybe some day the church will be made up wholly by people who know (and are known) by Jesus. At the very least, we know that after He returns He will accept no less. (Matthew 7:22-23)

Stay tuned… or maybe if you have some guts throw some out as comments! C’mon, show me how it’s done.