What do Baptists, Catholics, Lutherans, Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Seventh-Day Adventists, Jews, and the Greek Orthodox have in common?
Tradition.
On the one hand, beautiful, and on the other hand, detrimental.
I love traditions. I grew up with them, and I’ve started my own.
One of my favourite traditions is our family’s annual December trip to Kentucky to visit the Creation Museum and the Ark Encounter to immerse ourselves in the Christmas lights and Christmas programs that they host.
I am the oldest of 12 children, and I have 7 brothers.
It has been 7 years since I last lived in my parents’ home, and I now have a family and a house of my own.
As with almost every home with children, bedrooms become messy and need cleaning at my home. It’s not unusual for parents to tell a child to clean his room.
The morning of May 18, 1980, started off like any other for Harry Truman, the 83-year-old owner of the Mount St. Helens Lodge. Truman had lived near the mountain for over 50 years, and he refused to leave his home despite increasing signs of volcanic activity in the weeks leading up to the eruption.
As he sat in his cabin enjoying his morning coffee, Truman noticed that the mountain was emitting an unusual amount of steam and ash. He shrugged it off, confident that the mountain was simply blowing off some steam, and went about his day as usual.
I said in a previous post “that I do believe that some people will spend eternity apart from Christ even though a ‘revival’ at some church gave them confidence that just the opposite would happen.”
An unhealthy emphasis on spiritual awakening among unsaved people and a failure to define terms has no doubt led some people to believe that they had a relationship with Jesus Christ because they attended a church service, walked an aisle during an invitation, and prayed a prayer asking Jesus to come into their heart and be their Lord.
“Please tell your church that we thank them for letting you come and minister to us.”
The Ghanaian man who translated for me as I preached thanked me profusely for coming to his church while the congregation nodded their heads in agreement. It meant so much to them that my church in Minnesota would share me with them for a Sunday, one-third of the way around the globe.
What should I write about next? Are there issues that you are facing or that the church is facing today that need to be addressed? Take 15 seconds to let me know!
