As I shared with you last weekend, I am really being challenged and stretched in this area of my life.

Someone emailed me an article recently. It challenges many ideas about the church in American society. It makes me wonder what a successful church looks like.

We think a lot about what would Jesus do. But what about what Jesus would say to you, me, and us? In Revelation 2-3, Jesus speaks the hard truth to seven churches that are all across the map in terms of their effectiveness, awareness and faithfulness. To each church Jesus offers his insight and recommendation. We enjoy reading these other church's mail. It is a safe way for us to carefully learn from others mistakes. Jesus even challenges each church addressed in Revelation to listen and learn what he is saying to all the churches.

The bible teaches that when someone is united with Jesus in baptism, the receive the Holy Spirit (Acts 2). The bible also gives examples of people being led by the Spirit (Acts 8, 16, 20) in a very direct and discernible way.

I don’t believe this question was intended to be directed to me specifically. But, I will try to answer this question broadly enough that we will learn more about why people choose to follow Jesus.

During our last series on being a Disciple we dealt with this question on a regular basis. It seems like there are many followers that want to be faithful to Jesus and still be responsible to their family.

The short answer is this: there is so much resistance because there is only one way. But there's more to say...

I love the simplicity and honesty of this question.

Confrontation carries the risk of offending someone. There is no way to truthfully speak the truth to someone without the possibility of offending them. If the truth needs to be told, we must risk ruffling somebody’s pride. Sometimes people are offended by the truth. Sometimes our approach or attitude creates the offense.

I could never assume to know the full reason why the specific person you care so much about is still not responsive to God’s grace. I also would fall short of explaining why it appears that God has not answered your prayers. That said, here are some thoughts I have wondered about on this topic.