(With Denver Blue and Gregory Smith - Revival, First Baptist Bronte TX. - November 2006)

   Earlier this year, I attended a conference in Dallas led by popular author and professor Dallas Willard.  I was deeply struck when he made the following comment: "What we really need in our churches is not more money & not more people.  What we really need in our churches is more people that are Christ-like.  That will be enough to set the whole bundle on fire."

   Dr. Willard hit the nail on the head.  We don't really need more of anything in our households of faith except to start living up to the example set before us by Jesus.  We need that more than 40 days of purpose.  What good is purpose if our aim is not grace.  We need that more than the prayer of Jabez.  What good is that mantra if all it does is feed our selfishness.  We need that more than experiencing God.  What good is such a heavenly experience if we don't share some of it with those caught up in the hell that surrounds us.  Our children don't need to have the Bible taught to them in school as much as they need to see the Bible lived in us in all we say and do.

   Two-thousand years ago, Jesus sat down on a hillside and preached the greatest sermon ever heard.  We know it as "the Sermon on the Mount."  It is found in Matthew 5-7.  It is such volatile stuff that believers are still stumbling all over it.  It is as controversial as Hitler's Mein Kampf and Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto.  Jesus dared to issue such commands as "love your enemies" and "do not judge."  He dared to place conditions on God's forgiveness by stating we would receive (from our Heavenly Father) as good as we give (to our fellow man.).

   Jesus meant just what He said.  His admonitions are not open for debate.  And to prove He meant it, on another day He climbed another mount and died just what He lived!  Right before His death, He gave us a new command - "Love one another."  And then he added, "By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." (John 13:35)  Strange.  He didn't say they would know by the doctrine we fastidiously keep.  Nor did He say they would know by our piety.  He said they would know by our love.  That is what those outside the church are desperately seeking.  And unfortunately, when they examine our fellowships, they are finding little to draw them in.  But if they ever saw in us what Christ intended them to, look out!  Such a church will go up in holy smoke, and our Father will be pleased by the aroma.