Taking Jesus literally

One of my favourite ‘podcast pastors’ is Francis Chan, or Cornerstone Community Church in California. The Church Relevance website quotes Francis Chan from his recent talk at the Verge conference.

It is so weird how we change everything in church. We don’t take Jesus’ words literally. We act like if Jesus says it, we don’t have to actually do it but just memorize it. How many churches are actually making disciples?

If I tell my daughter to go clean her room, she knows better than to come back later with her room still messy and say:

I memorized what you said.?
I can say it in Greek.?
A group of friends and I are going to get together and study what you said.

We need to take Jesus literally and do what He says.

You can read more here. I was challenged by this call to obedience, which is much more difficult than discussion and speculation. It also reminded me of James 1:22-25 -

22Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror 24and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.

Steve Kryger
Media and Communications Pastor