The previous post on grace sparked off another issue that I've been thinking a lot about for a long, long time already.

It's something that Jesus talked about, but the church hasn't been talking very much about nowadays. And maybe that's why the Church isn't considered radical enough to be relevant to this generation. Not following Christ and His radical teachings.

Dietriech Bonhoeffer, too, was burdened by the same issue back in his generation, when the Church in his increasingly Nazi-fied Germany had become increasingly irrelevant. And he realised it was because the Church had lost sight of her true calling: to be the very Body of Christ on earth.

*pondering* Thank God for brothers like Robert, Weizhu, Peter, Yanjie, Huaqiang and so many others, like Jason and Marcus too. Their sharings are helping me deepen my thinking, to see beyond the usual system of doing things. And slowly, but surely, I've been starting to see that if we really want to see a revival, a revolution, a riot... a Reformation, then we need to go back to the Word of God as it really is. To follow Christ and obey His commands totally and wholeheartedly.

And when another bro told me the other time that if we love only those who love us, then we should be ashamed to call ourselves Christians... it struck me deeply, because it's so true - if we claim to be Christians, are we even following what the Lord Jesus Himself taught?

Every generation needs to be taught to return to the Word of God as it really is. To examine and taste the word of the Lord for themselves. Not, as Jon quipped, to eat second-hand pre-chewed food.

If we want to be relevant to this generation, we need to start becoming radical again. And the only way to true radicalness is to listen to the One who told us to deny ourselves, take up our crosses daily and follow Him.

So we can't depend on human wisdom alone. No to hollow and deceptive philosophies. We need to be disciples of Christ ultimately. Our mentor is to be Christ Himself, and the role of our spiritual mentors is to help draw us to start sitting down at the feet of the Lord Himself. To be covered with the dust of the Rabbi.

I am becoming increasingly convinced that there's simply no other way to win this world for Jesus. We need to, first of all, be disciples of Christ. To be filled with the Holy Spirit. To become little Christs. Literally, Christ-ians. :)

After the discussion with the other bros, I was stunned to realise just how bad our Bible illiteracy is in our own church. How many of us have read the whole Bible at least once? And how many of us can quote even Psalm 23 from memory? And so on.

Just some things for more thought.

No wonder the Church's becoming increasingly irrelevant... it's not putting the Word of God fully into practice! Because if we really did put all the Lord's teachings into practice... God'll be so pleased to unleash His mighty works through fully-surrendered and dedicated disciples, to turn an upside-down world upside-down! :D "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth."