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I hardly need to add to the last post about pumped up disciples but I fear I have to! We know God's kingdom is much greater than the church but we belong as kingdom people within church where we continue to pray: Your kingdom come on earth, as in heaven.' We are very close to speaking about church here.
All my life I have spent in churches. Before we joined our latest church I had first-hand inside experience of four churches. And the painful truth is that all of them had examples of pumped up disciples and sometimes I was one of them. Because, sometimes, absurd though it is we see ourselves bigger than other people in Jesus' group. And you only need one person to assert themselves as bigger, whose views are more important, for others to respond in kind. Indeed, I don't think it is possible to find a Christian community without some pumping up somewhere. There's a Baptist joke about Harmony Baptist Church which divided over pumped up division with a group moving down the road to form Deep Harmony Baptist Church. It was only a matter of time before another split occurred as another group formed Deeper Harmony Baptist Church. Actually, it's not a joke, is it?.
How much we need to see ourselves as God sees us and to realize how much help we still need to grow as disciples. We never graduate from needing God's help and grace. How dare we think we are bigger than someone else. Talking with a friend after my preaching we agreed what a difference it would make before Deacon's Meeting and Church Meetings if we began with the warning: NO PUMPING UP TODAY!
This rather negative point is not, happily where the beatitude ends......
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