MY GIFT TO YOU

As a faithful follower of the [Subversive Underground] e-newsletter, it's my honor to share with you a free e-book version of "This Is My Body:Ekklesia as God Intended".

This book reveals the radical difference between church as we know it and ekklesia as God intended.

You can download a free e-book version for Kindle, Nook, iPad or other e-book reader, or the free PDF version at this link
HERE

The book features a foreword by Jon Zens. I hope it blesses you.

You can also read more reviews of the book and find out more about it at
www.WeAreTheTemple.com

Peace,
Keith

End Transmission

[Subversive Underground]
Article #180

End Transmission
By Keith Giles

A few months ago I hinted that the [Subversive Underground] would be ending at the 200th article post, which would be sometime in August of this year. However, as I continue to hear from God and evaluate where I'm at right now, I have to confess that I cannot imagine continuing that distance with the energy I have left within.

Honestly, my desire to set these things aside is growing stronger every day. I'm feeling that maybe it is time to lay down the tools of the trade and lie still for a moment so that I can hear God's voice more clearly.

Looking back, over my shoulder, down the road behind me where I have travelled and meandered these last few years, I can count victories, savor a handful of joys like crumbs that have fallen from the table, and I know that this is where I needed to be. This is where I was going. Now that I am here, I need to rest along the path, take a deep breath, allow my soul to be restored in this valley, beside this green grass, near enough to touch those still waters and be renewed.

I find I have no patience anymore for any of this. I am so weary of being accosted for holding opinions which differ from the status quo. I am weary of endless comment wars between people who should be working hard at loving one another and who, instead, take great delight in tearing one another apart from the soul to the heart, inside and out.

In the future you can read my thoughts and articles over at my main blog. I will keep this blog open as an archive for anyone who wants to go back and read what has gone before. After all, there are 180 articles here on the subject of the Gospel of the Kingdom, Discipleship to Jesus, Compassion for the poor, and House Church. If you're reading this via email you can reach the [Subversive Underground] archives HERE.

For now, I want to close up the shop here and be done with this for a time. Maybe a year, maybe a week, maybe forever. I don't know just yet. It's possible that, in the future, I may decide to re-launch the [Subversive Underground] and this may restart again somewhere down the road. For now, I need to lay this aside and take a break.

I've felt like something needs to die before the new life can flourish within me again. In many ways I think the death has already begun. I cannot stop it from coming. I have to release my tired grip on this thing and lay it down into the ground. I have to bury it. I have to let it go. I think it has already released its grip on me. I must return the favor.

If there was ever any doubt, let me assure you that all I have written here over the years has been out of a sincere love for God's Bride and out of a burning, irresistable desire to see the people of God rise up and live it out. I still have that same desire, thankfully. Although my attempts to turn the ship have been largely unsuccessful, I take heart that there are new voices ringing out the same call to awaken the Body. Maybe it is because of this great cloud of witnesses that I can give myself permission to let go of the wheel and rest a while.

These voices are stronger than mine. Their reach is greater. Their passion is the same. They are trustworthy men and women who will run this race faithfully.

Brant Hansen
Alan Knox
Lionel Woods
Mark Main
Daniel & Heather Cosby

I gladly point you to them for encouragement and inspiration along your journey to follow Christ and live a more subversive life. Perhaps one day I will resume the chorus and join them again? I sincerely hope so.

It has been a joy to share my heart with you. I am so thankful to God for blessing me in this way. You have been a significant part of my own spiritual growth over the last three years and I am grateful that you have stood with me this long. Many have not. Perhaps you wanted off the merry-go-round but couldn't find the spot to jump off? I don't know. But, I am thankful that God allowed me to speak to so many of you for so long and to encourage you to take up your cross and follow Jesus.

Please, don't let me stop you. I'll catch up with you soon.

"There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:
a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace." - Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

**
If you want to keep up with me elsewhere online I'll be here:
PovertyInTheOC.com
OCHouseChurch.com
MissionHouseChurch.com
KeithGiles.com

My email contact is at "elysiansky" at hotmail.

Thanks for the encouragement and support you've given me over the years.

"Conversatio Morem!" (Death to the status quo/Constant Conversion)

Peace,
Keith
**
[END TRANSMISSION]

ONE MAN'S STORY

I want to share a story with you about a pastor who had the courage to put his convictions ahead of his career.

It was just bout five years ago that God opened his eyes. He started to see that the way the modern American Church was doing things had very little to do with following God. As he began to learn more he realized that his new beliefs and convictions were at odds with his job as the lead pastor of a local church.

After a lot of agonizing soul searching and praying he made a hard decision. He went before his church one Sunday morning and told them that he thought the church as a whole, himself included, had been doing things all wrong. He even said he was to blame recognizing that he himself had been their leader.

After doing his best to provide a brief explanation of what God had been putting on his heart, he also communicated his understanding that this would mean the end of his tenure as their pastor and he would expect them to start searching for a replacement. In the meantime he promised to fulfill his duties, as he had promised when he took the job, if they wanted him to do so. He even told them he wouldn't show up for service that night to give the church a chance to talk about what they wanted to do.

As he finished speaking that morning there was only dead silence. Although he felt liberated that morning, he knew he had just sacrificed his only means to earn a living for his family.

The next morning their head deacon and one of their more prominent church leaders walked into his office. He was prepared to hear the worst, but he was informed that they wanted him to stay on until the church could find a new pastor. It was what he had expected and he was honestly a little relieved since it gave him a paycheck while he tried to find another job.

A month went by and during that time there didn't seem to be any progress made in hiring a new pastor. Their congregation just didn't seem to like any of the candidates. Another month went by and still no progress. During this waiting period he began to share sermons that explained his newfound convictions regarding what the Biblical Church should look like. Week after week he shared as much as he dared with his congregation, careful not to provoke them, but simply to share from God's Word the things he had become convinced of over the last few months.

Finally one morning he was sitting in his office when the same head deacon and church leader walked into his office again. He knew his time was up. What he heard next shocked him to his very core. They told him that the church had voted and they wanted him to stay on. They told him they couldn't promise what would happen, but the people in the church had been convicted and moved by his sermons. For the time being they wanted to try and walk this new path alongside him.

Even though he had communicated his intentions to find another source of employment, the church decided to continue to pay his salary. That was five years ago. These days his role has changed. He is more of a discussion leader. Their services are more informal. Everyone is allowed to participate. As their pastor his time is largely spent leading discussions on Sunday mornings and ministering to people around town, wherever God directs him. He rarely invites any of the people he serves to attend his church because he doesn't want them to think that's his goal. He simply wants them to see Jesus.

Today the church is active in the surrounding neighborhoods. They actively serve others and take time to love people. They don't invite them to church. They just demonstrate the love of Christ to them.

When another friend recently spoke to this pastor about wanting to start a house church in his home, this pastor gladly referred a few people from his congregation to come alongside him.

The fact that I'm blogging about this person is only possible because I have agreed to honor his wishes to remain anonymous. Much of it wasn't even written by me, but by another friend who sent me an email about this man's story. Once we convinced this pastor that his story was certain to inspire many other pastors who were in the same boat as he once was, he agreed to allow us to share his story. By his request we have withheld his name, the name of his church, and even the name of the State in which he lives.

I found his story encouraging. Hope you do as well.

Peace,
Keith
www.KeithGiles.com


**
MUST READ THIS
by Lionel Woods
An excellent post on the difference between being right and being loving. Or something like that...
HERE

CHRISTIANITY OR PAULIANITY?
by Brant Hansen
Another one of those "I wish I'd written that" articles by the always amazing Brant Hansen.
HERE


[END TRANSMISSION]

BUSINESS AS USUAL?

[Subversive Underground]
Article #178

BUSINESS AS USUAL?
by Keith Giles


On Tuesday of this week I received an email from someone who had a question for me regarding the mounting debt issues at their church.

The email read:

"Our church is in debt. We owe the bank thousands. We now need the debt to function. We have become dependent on it. My spouse challenged the finance person, in private, about this and got no where. We suggested we stop doing stuff and paying so many people to run the church. These suggestions feel on deaf ears."

Now, my perspective may be different than most in this situation, but since the question has been asked, and since I believe that many other Churches will soon find themselves in the same boat very soon, I wanted to take the time and respond here on the [Subversive Underground] newsletter.

For a bit of background on my personal situation, let me make it clear that my wife and I have fairly radical views when it comes to the Church, and especially when it comes to church finances, offerings and tithes. For our family, it is our conviction that the offering belongs to the poor and not to the Church to spend on herself and her own comforts. This is why, 3 years ago, we left our on-staff, paid pastoral positions and started a house church where 100% of all offerings could go to the poor in our community. I do not take a salary. We use every penny received in our basket to buy groceries for needy families and to help people in need.

However, many churches, if not most, do not operate in this way. Most churches in America today are operating as a business. Because of this, these churches, like every single other business, are suffering financially and facing economic hardships that force many to make difficult decisions about staff, expenses and programs.

Like every other business, Churches around the nation are laying off workers, cutting back on programs and down-sizing to make it through these uncertain economic times.

Could it be that God might be allowing the Church as we know it to go out of business so that she can realize that He has never intended her to operate as a business in the first place?

Most Christians today cannot imagine Church without a paid professional clergy, a large building, a state-of-the-art sound system, and programs for youth and children. However, the historical evidence is that people have been operating without these things for literal centuries. These churches have been making disciples and preaching the Gospel and serving the poor and worshipping Jesus just fine, thank you. All without a building, a paid professional clergy, or programs or a thousand dollar sound system. Seriously.

Furthermore, the New Testament tells us that Jesus refers to His Church as a Family, a Body, an Organism and a Bride. He never treats her as a business and, in my opinion, the Scriptures reveal a very different DNA for Church than we've adopted here in the West.

One pastor friend recently shared that he had approached his board of directors at his church about not continuing to take a salary for his services. He wanted to take a job in the real world and not be a burden to the Body financially. This, I thought, was a wonderful idea. However, they wouldn't allow him to work for free or to take his salary elsewhere. This response puzzles me in many ways, but sadly, most cannot conceive of running the Church in any other way than as a business.

Over the last few years I have met three different pastors, here in California, who have found it necessary to let go of their church building and their paid staff due to financial hardships. In each case, these pastors made the decision to re-organize as a series of house churches. All of them have since discovered the joy and the freedom of "Being the Church" rather than asking their people to attend one. None of them would ever go back. None of them would have taken the step towards House Church if their bank accounts were bursting either.

Now that they have made the leap towards organic forms of "being Church" these three pastors have also discovered that, instead of shrinking in size, they are growing, in maturity and in numbers. Instead of hurting for money they cannot help but generate money, because they have little to no expenses. Instead of spending thousands of dollars a month on utilities and bills, they now spend hundreds of hours in community and in fellowship with one another and have discovered what it means to really be the Family of God.

Our house church, The Mission, has been together for just over 3 years now. I have been very blessed to grow alongside others who share our passion for living outward-focused lives of love. My family has been blessed to open our home and discover true Koinonia fellowship and community with people who have a sincere desire to follow Jesus. We've all been blessed to encourage one another in our faith and to spur one another on to do good works which God has prepared in advance for us to do.

We've been blessed to share our finances with one another, and with those we encounter in the community, who are in need. We've been amazed to connect every dollar we give with actual people whose lives are blesssed because of what we share.

Of course, this is no way to run a business, and that's the whole point. Our passionate desire is to live our faith and share what we have been given without allowing profits or corporate strategy or ROI to muddy the waters.

Perhaps God has other reasons for allowing financial pressures to put the Church out of business? Perhaps our economy will rebound soon and all of this will go away? Who knows?

I just cannot help to see God at work in all of this, especially when I hear joyful reports of pastors who are seeing growth and maturity in their church as the walls come down and the people discover what it means to be the Church they were always meant to be.

My hope and prayer is that the people of God here in America would really begin to fully understand what it means to operate as a family, and to share what they have, and to embrace one another, and the poor, no matter what the cost.

Peace,
Keith
**

[END TRANSMISSION]

THE CULT OF CHRISTIAN PERSONALITY

[Subversive Underground]
Article #177

The Cult of Christian Personality
by Keith Giles

"For when one says, "I follow Paul," and another, "I follow Apollos," are you not mere men? What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building." - 1 Cor 3:4-9


One thing that concerns me was I see this growing house church movement flourish is the celebrity effect.

When I first stepped into this there were a few books out there to help me get my bearings and for those books, and to those authors, I am grateful. Some of them even made themselves available to me and those who were local even took time to meet me for coffee.

Now I see us selling books on organic church that are topping best-seller lists, and our annual house church conferences are selling out early (better get your tickets now before they're all sold out), and our spokesmen and women are now becoming minor Christian Celebrities.

I suppose I fear that, if we're not very intentional about all of this, we risk becoming the thing we're raging against.

I was reminded of this when reading Lionel Wood's excellent interview with author and house church leader Jon Zens over on his blog this week. Zens urged those who are new to the movement to remain humble to not allow people to cluster around them.

If we really believe in this peer-led, leaderless concept of "being Church", and if we really are convinced that God's Spirit is active in each of us just the same, then I would love to see us model something different at the highest levels of our movement...something really unique and refreshingly inclusive.

Each of us can also check our own hearts and do our best to avoid hero worship and the fan-club mentality around our favorite author or speaker or blogger.

We would do well to heed our own advice, and the commands of Jesus when he instructed his disciples:

"But you are not to be called 'Rabbi,' for you have only one Master and you are all brothers. And do not call anyone on earth 'father,' for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. Nor are you to be called 'teacher,' for you have one Teacher, the Christ. The greatest among you will be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted."- Matthew 23:8-12

If we put our hope and our faith in men, they will let us down. They are all as weak and as fickle as we are. None of us is righteous. No, not one.

Instead, let us place our hope and our eyes on Christ alone. Let us consider one another equals, and brothers, and let us not exalt one over the other in the Body of Christ.


Peace,
Keith
www.KeithGiles.com

THE HUMAN TEMPLE

[Subversive Underground]

Article 176-
"The Human Temple" by Keith Giles

"In those days, when your numbers have increased greatly in the land," declares the LORD, "men will no longer say, 'The ark of the covenant of the LORD.' It will never enter their minds or be remembered; it will not be missed, nor will another one be made. At that time they will call Jerusalem 'The Throne of the LORD', and all nations will gather in Jerusalem to honor the name of the LORD. No longer will they follow the stubbornness of their evil hearts." – Jeremiah 3:16-17

In this passage from Jeremiah, God speaks of a time that is coming when no one will speak the name of the ark of the covenant, nor will it be remembered or missed or rebuilt. Why? How? What could possiby bring such a thing to pass?

The ark of the covenant was the place where the Holy Presence of God rested. Behind the thick veil of the tabernacle, and within the temple in Jerusalem, it was placed. Only the priest could enter in at specific times to offer the sacrifice for God’s people. No one else was permitted to stand before the ark of the covenant, and even the priest who stood near it was in danger of falling dead if he failed to deal with his own sin accordingly.

Yet, God tells us that the day is coming when the ark, and all it represents will be forgotten, and never remembered or spoken of again among God's people.

This is the significance of the tearing of the veil at the crucifixion. Because of the finished work of Christ upon the cross, the Holy of Holies where the ark of the covenant sat was suddenly wide open to any who would receive Christ and allow Him to enter in and dwell (tabernacle) with them.

In 1 Chronicles 28:2, we read, "King David rose to his feet and said: "Listen to me, my brothers and my people. I had it in my heart to build a house as a place of rest for the ark of the covenant of the LORD, for the footstool of our God, and I made plans to build it."

The ark was considered the footstool of God, the place where His presence rested.

However, God clearly says in Isaiah 66:1 - "Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build for me? Where will my resting place be?"

God's response to David regarding the need to build Him a temple is:

"I have not dwelt in a house from the day I brought the Israelites up out of Egypt to this day. I have been moving from place to place with a tent as my dwelling. Wherever I have moved with all the Israelites, did I ever say to any of their rulers whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, "Why have you not built me a house of cedar?" - 2 Sam 7:5-7

Clearly, God never asked for a temple to be built for His presence. He wants to be "the God who is with us", Emmanuel. Not kept in a structure built by human hands.
Yet, we continually insist upon building great structures and temples for God.

In Daniel 2:44-45, King Nebuchadnezzar's dream about the future is interpreted for us:

"In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever. This is the meaning of the vision of the rock cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands—a rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold to pieces."

This prophecy reveals that God's Kingdom will be established, first as a small stone, cut from the rock "but not by human hands" and that it will grow to destroy every earthly kingdom and it will "never be destroyed" but "it will itself endure forever."

Jesus came as a stone, a small child that grew and became "the stone that the builders rejected" (Psalm 118:22). The Gospel that Jesus came preaching was about God's Kingdom, and Jesus gave rise to a nation of people who were once not a people, but through Him would become a "chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God," who "were once not a people but (who) now (were) the people of God." - (1 Peter 2:9-10)

The prophecy of Jeremiah is in harmony with God's promise to David; that God Himself would build the house of God, and that this new temple would be one "not made by human hands" but made up of "living stones (who) are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." - 1 Peter 2:5

The Temple God has always dreamed of is the one He Himself is building. It is a building of living stones, it is a spiritual house. His resting place is within the human heart.

As Dr. G.K. Beale writes, concerning the Jeremiah passage:

"The reason the ark in the temple is not remembered is that a greater temple than the more physical one will encompass no only all of Jerusalem (Jeremiah 3:17) but the entire world. This future temple will be so incomparably greater than the former that God’s people will not even "remember it nor shall they miss it" (Jeremiah 3:16). Furthermore, a physical ark within a small temple will "not be made again" because everything to which it pointed has been realized.

In this light, the verse in Jeremiah 3:16 is affirming that once the greater glory of the eschatological temple comes, one will not focus on the lesser glory of the earlier temple, much less should one ever desire to rebuild it."
-(From the book, “The Temple and the Church’s Mission”, page 140, InterVarsity Press)

As Jesus said, "I tell you that one greater than the temple is here." (Matt 12:6) and when Jesus had fulfilled the role of the High Priest and offered himself as the final Lamb of God, and the veil in the Temple was ripped in half, from top to bottom, He made a way for us, the people of God, to become the new temple, not made with human hands, but spreading out over the whole earth, and living as the new priesthood of believers, to make known His Glory among the nations.

We do not need a temple because we are the temple. We do not need a priest, or a pastor, because we are all priests of God, empowered and filled by His Holy Spirit. We do not need an animal sacrifice to be made, because He was our final blood sacrifice, and we are now the living sacrifice, daily dying to ourselves and carrying our cross to follow Him.

Let us not return to the rubble and rebuild the man-made temple. Let us not take up needle and thread and repair the veil that was torn. Let us not commission special priests and clergy who will stand before God in our place.

Our identity, as followers of Jesus, runs deeper than brick and mortar. It transcends a building. It goes beyond ceremony. Our identity as disciples of Christ is defined by a relationship between a Loving God, and a Living Temple made of people who love God, and love others.


-kg
**

[END TRANSMISSION]

SEVEN MISTAKES EVERY CHURCH SHOULD AVOID

[Subversive Underground]

Article # 175

Seven Mistakes Every Church Should Avoid
by Keith Giles

1) Embracing the building - Regardless of the fact that the New Testament emphasizes a Church made "not by human hands" but composed of people (who are themselves the Temple of the Holy Spirit), many churches in America today get very distracted by the need for a building. In fact, most christians couldn't imagine the possibility of church without one.

More on this topic HERE

2) Misrepresenting the tithe - Nearly everyone who finds out we lead a house church asks me if we at least make sure everyone tithes. When I say we don't they usually begin to cock their heads to one side and look at me funny. However, the Biblical mandate for tithing is purely an Old Testament concept intended to maintain the Jewsish Temple system and support the Levitical Priesthood. The New Testament church neither taught it, nor practiced it. In fact, the Christian Church didn't mandate a tithe until the 7th Century. Imagine, over 700 years with no tithe? How could that be? To begin with, offerings in the early, New Testament church were voluntary and freely given out of love. In fact, most gave more than a tithe, they sold everything they had and shared it with those around them who had need. Still, this offering wasn't a law or a command of the Church, it was freely shared out of love. Tertullian, in his "Apology" (2nd Century) affirms that no offering was taken out of compulsion but says:

"Even if there is a treasury of a sort, it is not made up of money paid in initiation fees, as if religion were a matter of contract. Every man once a month brings some modest contribution- or whatever he wishes, and only if he does wish, and if he can; for nobody is compelled; it is a voluntary offering…to feed the poor and to bury them, for boys and girls who lack property and parents, and then for slaves grown old." (Read the entire quote HERE )

Under Constantine, the clergy were paid for their services (for the first time in Church history), but that payment was provided by the Roman Government, not by the Christians themselves.

3) Ignoring the poor - There are over 2,000 verses of scripture in the Bible about God's heart for the poor and His expectation that we, the people of God, should also love and bless their poor among us. The strongest verse, in my opinion, comes in Matthew 25 where Jesus tells us that, at the Judgment, He Himself will separate the sheep and the goats based on how much they cared for the poor and the outcast they encountered in their life. A few other verses include:

"There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land."
- Deut. 15:11

"All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do." (Paul being sent out as the first missionary by Peter, James and John in Galatians 2:10)

God is speaking of King Josiah and says: "He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?" (Jeremiah 22:16)

Much more on this subject HERE

4) Over-emphasizing the role of the pastor - Contrary to popular opinion, and American culture, the pastor was not the head of the church in the New Testament. The word "Pastor" only appears once and none of the epistles to the churches are addressed to the pastors, they are addressed to the church; the people themselves.

In the New Testament Church, no one could point to a single man and say, "There is my Pastor" even as none of them could say, "There is my priest". Why? Because everyone understood from Peter, Paul and the rest of the Apostles that THEY THEMSELVES were the Priesthood.

No Christian today would think it was Biblical to start offering lambs for sacrifice as part of Sunday morning worship, would they? Why not? Because Christ fulfilled that upon the cross and became the sacrificial lamb once and for all. Why then do we so easily embrace a priest and a temple? Didn't Jesus offer the sacrifice as our High Priest? Didn't Paul and Peter tell us that we were the Temple of the Holy Spirit?

Certainly, the temple and the priesthood and the sacrifice are all important to the worship of God, however in the New Testament Christian Church the people themselves are the temple, the priesthood and the daily sacrifice.

More on this hot topic HERE

5) Yearning for political power - Nothing underscores the frustration of the American Church more than the current lust for political influence and power. Because "Plan A" has failed to create the result we desired, we have now reverted to "Plan B" which is to attempt to Christianize the society around us and to legislate our Christian values.

The New Testament Christians lived under an oppressive pagan government. They were killed for sport and persecuted horribly. Instead of attempting to reform their government, they obeyed Jesus and loved their oppressors. They did not take up the sword and fight back. They did not verbally abuse the pagans for their sinful lifestyle. They did not attempt to form a coalition or a lobby group to force legislation that aligned with their views. Instead, they simply loved the people around them, shared all that they had with others and, in time, they turned the world upside down by imitating Christ Jesus our Lord.

We should do the same.

More on this topic HERE and HERE

6) Business-minded ecclesiology - Nothing has gotten me in more trouble than this topic, but it is something I feel passionate about. The New Testament never refers to the Church as a business. That's not my opinion, it's just the plain fact of the matter. The Church is described as a Body, a Bride, a Family, a Spiritual House, and an Organism where Christ is the head.

More on this HERE

7) Conversion-focus instead of disciple-making - So many Christian Churches today are focused on making converts with elaborate Easter dramas and Christmas Pageants and Outreach events that gather large crowds, ask for a show of hands from those who do not wish to burn in hell forever. Ask them to repeat a prayer and then count raised hands of those who repeated it.

One Church I visited recently did this exactly and cheered on Sunday morning that 500 people had surrendered their lives to Christ. This same church spent over $40,000 just to produce this event. Yet absolutely zero time, money, energy or thought was placed into making disciples of those 500 people.

For me, and I believe for those who follow Jesus, conversion isn't the touchdown, it's the whistle that starts the game. Jesus commanded us to go and preach the Gospel of the Kingdom and to make disciples and to teach them to obey all that He commanded. He didn't tell us to go out and make converts and count hands.


My sincere prayer and hope is that every Christian Church in America would repent of these seven failures and return to a more Biblical, New Testament form of Christian life.

Many of these practices above involve repairing the veil that was torn at the crucifixion and returning to an Old Testament form of religious worship where an elected priesthood offers spiritual guidance within an elaborate temple on behalf of the common people.

This is why the church we read about in the New Testament bears little to no resemblace to the church on the street corner, or the one we attend.

Can we hope to return to a Christianity based on freedom? Can we hope for the day that every believer is a priest of God? Can we pray that followers of Jesus begin to embrace the idea that they are actually the temple of the Holy Spirit, and that they are the ambassadors of Christ to the world?

Yes, we can hope, and we can pray.

And I do...

Peace,
Keith

**
[END TRANSMISSION]

And They'll Know We Are Christians

[SUBVERSIVE UNDERGROUND]
Article # 174

And They'll Know We Are Christians
by Keith Giles

"If any of you has a dispute with another, dare he take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the saints? Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases? Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life! Therefore, if you have disputes about such matters, appoint as judges even men of little account in the church! I say this to shame you. Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers? But instead, one brother goes to law against another—and this in front of unbelievers! The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers. - 1 Cor 6:1-7

The church in Corinth was rebuked by Paul for a litany of failures. They had failed to love one another, they tolerated gross sexual misconduct in their fellowship, and they abused the Lord's Supper table.

In the passage above, Paul is rebuking them for taking one another to court and airing their disagreements publicly. His appeal to them is to consider their witness to the world around them, and to prefer being wronged and mistreated over tarnishing the Gospel of love and peace.

"If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you." - JESUS (Matthew 18:5)

Over the last year I have been saddened to see Christians spew hatred and bitterness towards one another on public forums like Facebook, blogs and message boards. One brother in Christ recently called me a swine on my Facebook page simply because I suggested he read something for himself rather than accept a cut and paste quotation at face value. My attempts to respond in love were rebuffed with more name-calling and public attack. This is not the first time I've been the target of such venomous dialog, obviously, but the ongoing, relentless stream of hatred from brother to brother has started to wear me down.

"But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment." - JESUS (Matthew 5:22)

Can we not see what this sort of behavior is doing to the Bride? Can we not pause for a moment and consider how our hateful words are damaging the Gospel, our witness, and especially, our own brothers and sisters in Christ?

I would rather be wronged, and wrong, than to continue this sort of online dialog any further. We, as ambassadors of Christ must return to a posture of humility and respond in love to anyone and everyone (whether online or in person) for the sake of Christ and in obedience to our Lord's command to be known by our love.

There are several people who I know read these words of mine and feel that I have been the one who is guilty of speaking hateful words here, and in my articles about God's design for His Church. Let me respond to this in advance by saying that my motivation for writing about the church has always been to share what I've learned with others. I will confess that at times I have intentionally crafted a headline or a paragraph to provoke a response, but my hope was to provoke a response which was thoughtful, not hateful or angry.

For those who have read my articles and felt offended I sincerely apologize. My desire is to teach my brothers and sisters in Christ (whom I love) about the exciting things I am learning about God's plan for His Church and how the New Testament reveals something many of us (including myself for many years) have missed.

I have done my best to take Scripture at face value and study and teach what it says to anyone who will listen. My aim has not been to offend or to attack or to harm anyone. I have also done my best, both in the articles and in my response to detractors, to avoid insult and refrain from name-calling. If anyone can show me where I have failed at this I will respond to their rebuke and repent publicly.

"Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift." - JESUS (Matthew 5:23-24)

In the last several days I have also attempted, to the best of my ability, to make peace with those who have something against me. Some have responded favorably to my attempts to make peace, others have not, and some have simply ignored me.

My hope is to communicate the truth without harming anyone. I pray that I can shed far more light than heat and, in the future, I will go out of my way to avoid public arguments on this blog, or in response to my articles. If a brother or sister in Christ begins to publicly insult me or to become abusive I will end the conversation publicly and seek reconciliation privately.

I do understand that a discussion of ecclesiology can be difficult between brothers in Christ. Last week I went to lunch with my dear friend Bill and over lunch we had a spirited discussion of this very issue. He had many of the same questions and objections that many others have brought up and we had a very stimulating dialog together. Afterwards, Bill and I prayed for one another, blessed one another, embraced one another and made plans to meet together again soon.

Therefore, I know it is possible for brothers to discuss these issues without resorting to bitterness or name-calling or personal attacks. It is possible if we do our best not to forget that we love one another and that we are part of God's Family.

"How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!" - Psalm 133:1

Peace,
Keith

**

ARTICLES TO SHARE:
LET'S JUDGE EVERYBODY
by Brant Hansen

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[END TRANSMISSION]

I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO THE KINGDOM OF GOD

[Subversive Underground]
ARTICLE # 174

I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO THE KINGDOM OF GOD
by Keith Giles


"Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. For it is God's will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men. Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God. Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king." - (1 Peter 2:13-17)

More and more I find that there is a blurred line in American Christianity between "The American Way" and "The Kingdom of God".

The Kingdom of God and the American Dream are not the same thing, and in fact, they are two opposing viewpoints which are in conflict on many levels.

The American Dream is founded on the concept of every person's right to the pursuit of happiness. Whatever you can imagine would make you happy you are free to pursue it with all your heart. That's your right.

The Kingdom of God is founded on the concept of laying down your life, your idea of what will make you happy, in favor of receiving what Jesus knows will really make you happy.

Following Jesus involves laying down your life and giving up your rights. It means full and complete submission to God because you recognize that His perfect will for your life is a million times better than anything you could ever dream up, or pursue, on your own.

Jesus didn't ever instruct any of his disciples to fight for their God-given, "Inalienable Rights", and neither did Paul the Apostle. In fact, they both encouraged their disciples to live humble lives, serving others and not demanding more because they deserved more. Paul even specifically told those followers of Christ who were slaves to remain slaves, even if they were being mistreated.

Historically, the early Christians didn't fight for their rights as citizens, they took it on the chin, and in the Lion's den, and in the arena. They literally would rather die than to take another person's life.

Simply put, they followed their Lord and Savior, Jesus and they followed His example of non-violence and submissive service to those who hated and mistreated them. Does that sound like the American Dream to you?

STAY FOCUSED
We cannot afford to become distracted by nationalism or led astray by politics.

As followers of Jesus, He must be our one and only priority and influence. This is what it means to make Jesus our Lord.

As Christian pastor and activist Jim Wallis has said, "God is not a Republican or a Democrat. God is not partisan. God is not ideologically committed to our Left or Right. God's politics challenges all of our politics. It includes the people our politics regularly leave out; the poor and the vulnerable. That's God's politics."

OUR WITNESS
It would have been virtually impossible for an unbeliever living in those first three hundred years of Church History to ever reject Christianity on the grounds that it lacked compassionate people or failed to teach loving kindness.

In fact, we have testimony from many of the most hostile pagans who lived during the first three hundred years of Christianity who were put to shame because of the overwhelming generosity of the Church. Julian, the Apostate wrote of this frustrating situation when he said, "..The godless Galileans feed not only their poor, but ours also."

Christian philosopher Aristides (125 AD) wrote about the radical charity of the early Church also, recording the fact that, "…if there is among them a man that is poor and needy and they have not an abundance of necessities, they fast for three days that they may supply the needy with their necessary food."

For a Christian, killing our enemies is not acceptable.

If being a good American citizen means you need to cheer on a war that kills innocent people then you must lay aside your Christianity.

If being a faithful member of a political party trumps over 2,000 verses in the word of God about caring for the poor, then you need to make a choice.

A few years ago I had an opportunity to speak to Jim Wallis on this very subject and his response has stayed with me ever since. He said:

"The Church today is more American than Christian. The Kingdom of God is not the same as the American Empire. When we are more American than Christian we confuse the meaning of the Body of Christ with any nation state. This notion of the Church as a counter-cultural movement is Biblically obvious. There's no doubt about that. We're in the world to transform the world for the sake of this new order that has come in Jesus Christ. If Jesus' vision of the Kingdom was so threatening, why is our vision of the Kingdom so safe?"

The Gospel of the Kingdom is not the American Dream.

It saddens me to see Christians more passionate about their political party than they are about the Kingdom of God.

Conversatio Morem!
(Death to the status quo/Constant Conversion)

-kg
**
26 ARTICLES REMAINING
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[END TRANSMISSION]

And The Winner Is...

[Subversive Underground]

And The Winner Is...
by Keith Giles

Spiritual epiphanies can sometimes come from the most unexpected sources. For example, after watching the Golden Globe awards last weekend I realized that I am a Pharisee at heart.

I've known for quite a while that my "Love Language" includes Words of Affirmation, so in a way it really all makes sense. But as I sat watching Steven Spielberg tell stories about filming the demolition of his Lionel train set I realized how much I crave recognition. In my heart of hearts I really do want people to honor me and give me awards.

I confess that there are times when I wish people would celebrate my great achievements (whatever they might be) and beg me for my expert opinion. On the positive side, my desire for words of praise does inspire me to work hard and strive for excellence in my work, but I must admit that there is still a part of me that does things so that people will see it and take note of my artistry.

That's when I realized that I am, at heart, a Pharisee.

Jesus pulled his disciples aside and made a point of discouraging the sort of behavior I am confessing to you now.

""Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you." - Matt 6:1-4

So, I am condemned by my own sinful heart. I admit I carry the gene for pride and I struggle with selfishness. However I also realized something else this week as I continued to reflect on this disease of mine. Do you want to know what it is?

I realized that, for a long time now, I have thought of this sort of behavior as being a Pharisee. However, I now realize that this behavior is actually just part of being a human.

My humanity is what makes me selfish, and sinful, and hopelessly pathetic, not my "Pharisee-ness" (whatever that might be).

Realizations like these keep me humble and small. I cannot escape the truth. I must admit that I am not an expert on anything except sin and pride and selfishness. Without God, I am worthless and hopeless.

To the degree that I am in touch with my humanity, my weakness, my failure, I can appreciate the wonder and the majesty of God's amazing love and grace.

So, from one human to another, please join me as I kneel on the ground and submit myself to our awesome savior and king. He alone is good. He alone is worthy of praise and recognition.

"And now I know the secret that only losers keep, and I wallow in the hopeful tears that every finder weeps."

-kg

[END TRANSMISSION]

I'M BRINGING JESUS BACK

I'm Bringing Jesus Back
(with apologies to Justin Timberlake)
by Keith Giles

Let us stop making Jesus in our own image. Let us embrace the Jesus who washed feet, and turned the other cheek, and forgave his torturers. Let us lay aside the false "Kick Ass Jesus" who could beat us bloody in a full-contact Ultimate Fighting Tournament (See Mark Driscoll quotes).


Let us put away the cash-minded, wealth-obsessed Jesus who wants us to be rich and embrace the Jesus who urged his followers to sell everything in order to get the Kingdom.


Let us burn our "Wild At Heart" books with the gun-slinging, bare-knuckled adventurer Jesus and go back to the Red Letter Jesus of the Gospels who was "Mild At Heart" and loved people until it killed him.


Let us lay aside the Republican Jesus who seeks to give us political power instead of leading us to love our actual neighbors, no matter who they vote for.

We need to stop making the version of Jesus we are more comfortable with and accept the Jesus who makes us uncomfortable and asks us to love and forgive and share like no one has ever seen before.

Those who mock Jesus for turning the other cheek have never realized how much strength and courage it takes to actually fight your own flesh and allow Jesus to crucify your ego for the sake of others.

I'm bringing Jesus back. Who wants to join me?

-kg

"May the tame God of relevance be replaced by the God whose very presence shatters our egos into dust, burns our sin into ashes, and strips us naked to reveal the real person within. The Church needs to become a gloriously dangerous place where nothing is safe in God's presence except us. Nothing-including our plans, our agendas, our priorities, our politics, our money, our security, our comfort, our possessions, our needs."
- Mike Yaconelli

**
[END TRANSMISSION]

PEACE ON EARTH

[Subversive Underground]

Article # 167

Peace on Earth
by Keith Giles

I know a great many Christians today who are full of anguish and frustration as they survey what's occuring in our world today.

A Democrat has been elected president of the United States. Gay marriage has been legalized and currently pending review by the Supreme Court in California. Israel has retaliated against Palestine with a devastating military response leaving hundreds dead in Gaza.

As a result I hear these Christians express varying degrees of emotion. Some cheer when they hear that Israel has blown up entire city blocks in response to rocket attacks by Hamas. Some wring their hands in anguish over Obama in fear that he will turn our nation into an Islamic state and introduce a socialistic government. Others wag their heads over the gay marriage issue and say, "Please Lord, just come back soon and judge this Nation and take me to heaven."

These responses are quite far away from what the Word of God instructs.

When I read Romans, chapter 9, starting in verse 2, I hear the heart of Paul the Apostle as he looks upon a nation that has turned its back on God and rejected His Gospel and their Messiah. He does not call for God to come down and judge them and to take him home to Glory. Intead, his prayer is the exact polar opposite. He says:

"I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen." - Romans 9:2-5

Paul actually desires for God to judge himself so that his Nation might be saved. He doesn't ask God to save himself and judge those hard-hearted sinners. He is so filled with love and compassion for these hateful, stubborn people that he is willing in his heart to loose his own eternal salvation in order to see them come to Christ.

Where are the Christian leaders of today who are expressing a similar heart for the lost? Why are Christian TV and Radio stations filled with the refrain "Come soon Lord and judge this evil Nation and take your Bride home to be with you."?

It's no secret that God's people have forgotten to be known for their love. It's no secret that the Church in America is known more for what she is against that what she is for.

Our hope is in God alone. He is still in control of time and history. The Gospel of the Kingdom is our salvation.

God will not hold the sinners accountable for the judgment our nation receives. He will hold us responsible.

"If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land." - 2 Chronicles 7:14

Our response to the distress in our world is to humble ourselves and pray and confess our own sins to God and cry out for people to be healed and saved - not judged and condemned.


In I John 2:6 it says, "Whoever claims to be in Him must walk as Jesus did."

This means that we, as representatives of God's Kingdom and as followers of Christ, are called to respond as Jesus would respond.

We are called to be peaceful and peace loving. Why are there no Christian churches, schools or universities teaching courses in peace making? Why isn't this one of our primary values? "Blessed are the peace makers for they will be called the sons of God" - Jesus, (Matthew 5:9)

As those who walk as Jesus did we are called to be forgiving. Jesus forgave those who were in the act of murdering him saying "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." Most of us have never had to forgive someone for attempted murder, and yet we find forgiving those who have insulted us or hurt our feelings difficult, even though we have freely received forgiveness for our sins - sins which put Christ on the cross in our place.

We are called to humble ourselves as Jesus did. "Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking on the very nature of a servant..." - Phil 2:6-7

We are called to be like Jesus and to serve those around us in love. Jesus wrapped a towel around His waist and took on the role of a slave and washed the feet of His disciples. Then he instruced them, and us, to do the same. "Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you....Now that you know these things you will be blessed if you do them." - John 13:14-17

We are also called to touch the poor and the needy around us. Jesus told us that whatever we did for the least of these was the same as doing it to Him. (See Matthew 25:35-46)

When it comes to people suffering in war, whether at the hands of Israel, or America, or anyone, our response as followers of Christ should be to weep and to pray for peace. We are called by our Lord and Savior to be peace makers, not war mongers. Peace is our goal. Reconciliation is our ministry.

When it comes to issues like Gay Marriage, let us remember that we're all sinners and we all need the same Jesus and the same mercy and grace. Let us be dispensers of grace, mercy and love, not hate, judgment and bitterness. God is still in control and our calling is still to be people who are filled with the radical love of God.

Peace,
Keith
www.KeithGiles.com

**

[END TRANSMISSION]

THE TIME IS NOW

THE TIME IS NOW
by Keith Giles

What is Subversive?

It’s a systematic overthrow of one system or power by those working from within. Jesus said the Kingdom of God was immediately accessible to all who follow Him. This is the Gospel message. This is subversive.

Since this is the final [Subversive Underground] for 2008 I thought I'd take a moment to bring everyone up to speed about the newsletter and provide a bit of background on things, as well as offer up a few hints about what's in store for 2009.

This is the 166th edition of my weekly e-newsletter. Some of you on this e-newsletter subscription have been here from the beginning, some of you have only recently jumped on board. There are approximately 276 of you on the Underground signal. Welcome.

THIS NEWSLETTER
My reason for starting this e-newsletter in December of 2005 was so that I could create an audience for my various articles on faith, discipleship, social justice, spiritual transformation and missional life.

For me, all those things are wrapped up into one interconnected glob. I can't think of discipleship to Jesus without confronting the need to love and serve the poor, and this is part of my ongoing spiritual formation and an attempt at an outward-focused life.

This newsletter also provides me with a reason to write something every single week. I hope it has been a blessing to you in your walk with Christ.

WHAT'S NEXT?
A few months ago I felt like God asked me a question: "What would you do if you didn't write the Subversive Underground each week?"

It was a question that I am still grappling with. As I've struggled to answer this question one thing that has intrigued me has been the idea of ending this newsletter at the 200th issue which will be in August of 2009.

What happens after that? I don't know. Will these weekly newsletters end completely or will they take on a new focus and direction? Again, I am not yet sure.

This newsletter and my main blog have always been about inspiring others to become subversive. Largely I have attempted to do this by writing about my own attempts at being subversive, freely sharing ideas, provoking the comfortable, asking hard questions and stirring up the waters as much as possible.

I've done my best these last three years to challenge the status quo and to encourage you to do the same. What I don't know is if I've been successful in this or not.

I've written a series of articles about how to start a ministry to the poor in your community, but I have no idea if anyone actually took these ideas to heart or implemented any of them.

I've written at length about our journey into house church, but only a handful of you have written to me about your own desire to do the same. For those who have I am blessed beyond words to hear your stories and to encourage you on your way. Thank you for allowing me cheer you on.

I've written about the importance of standing against the false security of the Christian Subculture but I have no idea how many of you have actually taken steps to do this in your own life.

For the last 3 years I've written an article each week to inspire and encourage Christians to resist the culture, be the Church and touch the poor, but has it done any good? I have no clue.

As I've considered what to do after the 200th article, one possibility I've entertained has been to shift my focus from sharing what I've been doing to live a subversive life and start reporting on others, perhaps even on your attempts, to live a subversive life. Maybe reading about how others are being subversive in their own community and workplace will inspire the rest of us to step out and make a difference?

Another idea is to write articles aimed at those who do not share our faith. Instead of writing to inspire the Church to be the Church, maybe I could write articles to engage the culture directly and find avenues for addressing Christianity in contemporary America by speaking to those who oppose or misunderstand our faith?

Honestly, I still don't know what to do. Perhaps when we reach the 200th article in August of '09 I will simply decide to turn out the lights on this weekly newsletter and take some time off to listen to God's voice?

It's taken me 3 years to build this list up to over 275 subscribers. It's such an honor and a blessing for me to be able to speak to a group of people like this via the Internet about the Gospel of the Kingdom, Justice, Discipleship to Jesus and the Church. The idea of wadding it all up into a ball and tossing it away is very frightening for me, and yet, at the same time, it's also very exciting. Letting go of this could actually be the best thing possible in the economy of the Kingdom.

As much as I love telling my stories about being subversive, none of it means anything if you, the reader, doesn't also decide to live your life outside the box and engage your culture in a subversive way with the tangible, living power of Christ.

We have to do more than intend to be subversive. We have to actually live our lives in such a way as to provoke action, inspire others and engage the poor. We have to become agents of change in a world desperate for an end to the status quo. Reading about it will not bring change. Thinking about it will not bring light. Talking about it will not make others thirsty for living water. We must be the change we hope to see in our world. We must fulfill our God-given calling to change our world, even our small part of it, so that the subversive Gospel of the Kingdom can take root and grow.

For the last 3 years now I have written an article a week to inspire you towards that end. Now I am asking each of you to discover your own calling. I am asking each of you to live a subversive life in your neighborhood. I am asking each of you to creatively use your talents to make people consider the Gospel message. I am asking you to take up the torch and run with it.

Will you start your own blog? Will you use your talent to engage the culture? Will you organize others to serve the poor? Will you take that step that you know God has been calling you to take?

Now is the time. We can't afford to just talk about it any longer.

For now I will continue to pray about what our next steps should be, but August is a long way away and I know that God still has a lot in store for each of us in the meantime.

Thanks so much for each of you who have faithfully read this newsletter and encouraged me over the last few years.

We're not finished yet.

Conversatio Morem!
-kg

**

FEEDACK:
I'd love to hear your thoughts. You can email me here:
"ELYSIANSKY" (at) "HOTMAIL" (dot) "COM"

**
MY GIFT TO YOU
My first two books are currently available for free download over at my main website and you can also purchase the actual print versions there too.


Happy New Year!

Peas (on Earth),

Keith

***

[END TRANSMISSION]

The Church of One Another

[Subversive Underground]
Issue # 165


The Church of One Another
by Keith Giles

As I've studied the New Testament Church one thing that overwhelms me is the fact that the Body itself was always encouraged to minister and serve everyone else within the Body.

In the book of Romans Paul exhorts the community of believers to:

"be devoted to one another" - Romans 12:10

"honor one another" - Romans 12:10

"live in harmony with one another" - Romans 12:16)

"love one another" - Romans 13:8

"edify one another" - Romans 14:19

"accept one another" - Romans 15:7

"instruct one another" - Romans 15:14

"greet one another" - Romans 16:16

What is also amazing is that Paul never instructs Pastors to do these things.

In the New Testament Church the ministry to the Body was done by and through the Body, and in the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit.

Todd Hunter recently said that "In the early church the Holy Spirit was not a controversial subject. It was simply the continued ministry of Jesus being released to the Church."

As we, the people of God, begin to embrace the notion of being a priesthood of believers, we can start to use our God-given gifts to bless and serve and instruct and edify "one another" for the Glory of God.

Perhaps part of what's wrong with our churches today is that we've shifted the "one another" aspect of Church life into a system where one man, or one team of people, is expected to perform all of these various functions alone. Clearly, this isn't the way God intended His Church to operate, and yet we've become complacent with a man-made system of church that allows many to opt out of ministry and sit back to be fed by the chosen few.

If we look through first and second Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians, and all the other new testament epistles we'll see a continuing list of "one anothers" where the Apostles spurred the people of God onward to be the Church that God always dreamed of.

I would echo that same encouragement to all of us today.

Let's become the Church that actively and enthusiastically embraces our calling to be the people who minister to, and love, one another.

"Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue, but with actions and in truth" - 1 John 3:18.

Amen.

-kg
**
Only 35 issues remain. What's after that?

We all find out on 8/28/09

**

[END TRANSMISSION]

UNREST

[Subversive Underground]

UNREST
by Keith Giles

For the last several weeks I have struggled with an inner sense of unrest that I cannot quite shake or define. I'm not sure if it's related to my own personal "three year itch" or if it's something deeper, more psychological or even spiritual in nature.

Every three years something changes in my life. In the 15 years we've lived in California I have changed jobs approximately every 3 years. People who look at my resume can discern the pattern for themselves. It's nothing I've done of my own volition, but certainly God has established an almost circadian rhythm in my life where every three years I change jobs, or a door closes, or an opportunity arises.

Our house church, "The Mission" is in its 3rd year now. This makes me wonder if changes aren't around the corner, although I cannot anticipate what those changes, if any, might entail.

I also can't discern whether my sense of unrest is related to this or if it's something God is doing in me, or to me, or in spite of me.

Our house church is very strong. Everything continues as it always has, and people are continuing to grow and mature and learn to love one another as we move along. It's not a sense of dissatisfaction with any person or any aspect of the house church at all. Yet, it is a sort of dissatisfaction within myself that I cannot quite name.

This afternoon I had some time to myself to pray about this and allow God to search my heart on this matter. I tried to hear God's voice on this and trace the feelings of unrest to their source, but all I came up with was this- Maybe the empty feeling I have is God?

Maybe I've been looking for people, or experiences, or activities to feed my soul when I should have found my sustenance in Christ alone?

The more I meditated on this the more it seemed to resonate. In fact, it was the only thought that brought me any sense of hope or comfort or relief. The empty feeling inside me is God.

Or better yet, the emptiness I feel is the gaping hole where God longs to find His home and settle within.

I've been working hard lately to finish up my book about God's heart for His church and His vision from the beginning to have intimate fellowship with His people. I've marvelled at verse after verse where God promises that a day will come when no one will ever refer to the Ark of the Covenant again, or even remember it again, because all of creation itself will be the place where God dwells.

I've been astounded to see God's plan to tear down the Temple made with human hands in order to build for Himself a new temple made of people who love Him and embody His very Holy presence throughout the Earth.

Even as I've studied and pondered and considered these amazing things, God has been whispering to me in a deeper, almost imperceptable voice - "I am here"

If there's one thing I've learned over the last few years it's that there's a great difference between knowing something is true in God's word with your mind and knowing that something is true with your life.

Practicing the astounding truth of God in your actual life is so much more amazing than knowing that same truth in your head.

Now that I know these things, I know that I will be blessed if I do them, and live them, and declare that they are true by the way I put them into practice.

"Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build for me? Where will my resting place be?" - Isaiah 66:1-

The only cure for unrest is rest and I long for God to find His resting place in me.

Shalom.

-kg
**

THE END IS COMING. WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

We'll all find out on 8/28/09

[END TRANSMISSION]

FOR THE RECORD

[Subversive Underground]

FOR THE RECORD
by Keith Giles

I am the victim of my own convictions. I hold opinions that most do not agree with. I am often insulted and ridiculed for my positions and attitudes.

Do not feel sorry for me. I have made my own bed and so I must lie in it. I fully understand that if I write the things I write and if I say the things I believe that many will not like what I have to say. I say these things anyway.

Still, I do struggle within myself on many of these issues. It seems the more I learn about church history and the more I discover about God's Word the more painfully I suffer outside in the cold.

The other day I was having coffee with a friend and I told him that, in my opinion, I am a fundamentalist. The things I believe about Church and the Gospel and God's heart for the poor are the most foundational and Biblically supported views possible. For me it's everyone else who is "emerging" or "creative" in their practice of faith. Yet many look at me, and at our house church, as if we were the "new" form of Church. To me we are the most ancient and Biblically authentic form of Church possible.

My struggle comes mostly when I consider how many good friends and family members are still involved in traditional church. Not because I feel that they're wrong and need correcting, but because I don't want to damage my relationship with them because of my views. In other words, I hope that they will love me even if I don't agree with them.

Yesterday I had coffee with a local Presbyterian minister. He was writing a book on the emerging church and he wanted to interview someone who was doing the new "house church" thing. As we spoke together and shared our different viewpoints he said something to me that blessed me deeply. He said, "You and I have very different opinions about Ecclesiology. You think you're right and I think I'm right, but that shouldn't prevent us from being friends or loving one another as brothers in Christ."

I wish that everyone felt the same way as this man did. However, I am also cognizant that many who hold me in contempt do so because of the articles that I write. I suppose if I stopped being so vocal about my convictions they might accept me. Or if I kept quiet about what I've learned they might embrace me more as a brother in Christ and love me. Maybe. Maybe not.

As I have affirmed numerous times in this weekly newsletter, and on my main blog (www.KeithGiles.com) the traditional church is still a place where God's Kingdom is advanced, the Gospel is preached and lives are transformed by the Holy Spirit. Many who criticize my articles respond to me by itemizing for me all of the wonderful things that their traditional church is doing for the Kingdom. These are all awesome works of God and I take nothing away from the ways that these Churches are reaching out and using their resources for the good of others. I also have no contempt for pastors who have responded to God's call on their lives and serve faithfully seven days a week.

However, just because those churches and those pastors are filled with love for others and are motivated to share their resources with the poor and serve the Body faithfully (all very good things), says nothing about how much better their ministry could be if they empowered every believer to be a priest of God and allowed every member to fully use their spiritual gifting for the entire Body, and disposed of the professional clergy who is expected to do most of that work in their place.

Again, these are not my ideas. If they were I would fully expect everyone to dismiss me and turn away and have nothing more to do with me. However, these grand ideas are not my ideas. They are God's ideas. It was God who created Adam and Eve to walk in fullness of fellowship with Himself. It was God who spoke directly to the people of Israel out of the cloud. It was God who told Israel that He would be their King. It was God who told Isaiah and David that no man could build a house for Him, but that He would build a house for Himself and that it would be the heart of man.

It was Jesus who destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem. It was Jesus who tore the veil of the Temple. It was Jesus who became the ultimate sacrifice so that no further blood sacrifice would be required.

Jesus made each of us His Holy Temple. Jesus called each of us to be priests of God. Jesus called each of us to become the daily, living sacrifice. Not me.

So, when I see us rebuilding the Temples, and I see us reconstituting a priesthood, and I see us returning to an Old Covenant system of tithes to pay for a place of worship and support a priestly hierarchy I cannot help but scream and cry and shout - "This is not what God wanted for His Church!"

Because it's not.

So, I will continue to speak and to shout and to cry and to write these messages to God's Church, for as many who will listen, that God's plan for His Church is something radically different and profoundly more astounding than anything mankind has dreamed up on its own over the last few thousand years.

God has a plan for His Church. It's a good plan. It's the best plan. It's the only plan that fully realizes His long-standing dream for His people to encounter Him personally and know Him intimately and relate to Him as a Father and to one another as brothers and sisters in the Family of God.

"But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy." - 1 Peter 2:9-10

-kg
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THE END IS COMING. WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

We'll all find out on 8/28/09

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[END TRANSMISSION]

The Glorious Now

[Subversive Underground]

The Glorious Now
by Keith Giles

What if you knew you only had a few months to live? Are there any people you'd call one last time to apologize to? Are there any places you'd travel to see before you passed away? What are the things you would do that you always intended to do but never got around to? Maybe you'd paint a picture or finish your novel? Maybe you'd teach your children a story, or take a vacation with those you love and soak in every last ounce of their presence while you could?

Wouldn't food taste more exquisite? Wouldn't laughter be deeper than before? Wouldn't color and sound and simple moments take on new significance?

Just holding a dear one's hands in your own would resonate with meaning. Just looking into the eyes of your children would bring you to tears. Just drawing a breath deep into your lungs and exhaling slowly would seem like drinking in the universe and exhaling your soul into the sky.

But what if you really only have one more week here on this Earth before you're gone? What if tomorrow you discover a lump, or get sick, or suffer a heart attack or a stroke? Do you know for certain how many days you have left upon this Earth?

None of us does, of course. So, we try not to dwell on the thought because it makes us uncomfortable to pause and listen to the clock over our head as it ticks down the remaining hours of our life. We are happier, more at ease, when we imagine ourselves to be invulnerable to the effects of entropy.

Yet, this is not the truth. We are not immortal. We are not immune to time. Death may have lost its sting, but death still retains its bite and every one of us alive this very moment will one day breathe our last.

"Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom."
- Psalm 90:12

When we face the reality of our own mortality and accept that we are finite and limited, it gives us freedom to love and to forgive and to share with glorious abandon.

If we really understand that nothing we have will come with us to the grave, then we can open our hands and share what we have with those in need.

If we truly understand that in a few days our time here will be over, we can freely forgive those who have offended us and set ourselves free to enjoy the time we have left on this Earth.

All things created by God have a beginning and all things created by God have an end. Our time here is limited. Every one of us will come to the moment when we know our life is done. What matters is that we accomplish what we have been placed here to accomplish. What matters is that we live today as if it were all we have to live.

Our focus should be, not on yesterday which is over and done, and not on tomorrow which may never come, but on this glorious gift of now we call "today" where we live by the grace of Almighty God to love and share and reflect His Glory.

"Show me, O LORD, my life's end and the number of my days;
let me know how fleeting is my life. You have made my days
a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you.
Each man's life is but a breath. Selah
Man is a mere phantom as he goes to and fro:
He bustles about, but only in vain;
he heaps up wealth, not knowing who will get it.
But now, Lord, what do I look for?
My hope is in you." - Psalm 39:4-7


Peace,
Keith
www.KeithGiles.com
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ALL GOOD THINGS MUST COME TO AN END. BUT WHAT COMES AFTER?
8/28/09 - "Behold, all things are made new!"

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[END TRANSMISSION]

FROM EDEN TO EDEN

[Subversive Underground]

FROM EDEN TO EDEN
by Keith Giles

In the beginning God revealed His pefect will for mankind by creating a universe where every man and woman could walk with Him in the cool of the day and have intimate communion with one another.

We know that sin entered the heart of mankind and that this original plan had to be scrapped and a separation between God and man was formed because of this sin.

As God blessed Abraham and his descendants, the chosen people of the Earth, He again revealed His perfect will for mankind and loved them and led them as their King, leading them out of bondage to slavery, appearing to them in a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.

But the people rejected God's intimacy and hands-on approach. They asked if Moses could be their go-between. They were frightened whenever God spoke to them directly out of the cloud. So, God allowed another degree of separation to come between Himself and His children because of their sin.

Later, the people grew tired of being unlike all the other nations around them and asked if God would give them a King to rule over them. Again, God's people rejected Him and so God allowed another degree of separation because of the sin of man's heart. He gave them a King to rule over them as they had asked, but even in doing so He was grieved.

When King David, a man after God's own heart, wanted to build a house for God to rival his own palace, God's response recalls his word from Isaiah, "Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build for me? Where will my resting place be?" and in fact He takes it a step further and says, "When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son." - (2 Sam 7:12-14)

God made a promise to David that a King would come from his own seed who would build a house for God not made with human hands, where once again He would be our God and King and we would be His people.

When the angel announced the birth of this Messiah, he called his name "Emmanuel" - the God who is with us. When Jesus came he opposed the man-made religious systems of the day. He threatened the status quo and he fulfilled the promise by building a temple not made by human hands; a people who were themselves the living stones of an eternal household of God.

Jesus restored God as the King of every human heart and invited all who wanted to live under the rule and reign of the Father to come. The doors of God's Kingdom were now open wide.

Jesus fulfilled God's original desire to have intimate, daily communion with Him. He tore the veil of the man-made temple and made it possible for the Holy of Holies to spill out into every human heart and to encompass all of planet Earth with the tangible presence of God.

Because of the work of Christ upon the cross, all of the Earth is now potentially the Eden of God where mankind can walk with the Creator and know His presence and hear His voice. Because of Jesus, God's new temple has a heartbeat, and hands that can help and feet that can travel and a voice that can proclaim His goodness a million times each day to hundreds of millions around the Globe.

God has broken ground on a new temple for His glory, one not built with human hands. We are that temple. We are the house He has built for Himself. His Holy Spirit is within us. We are carriers of God's Presence.

The Good News that Jesus proclaimed announced access to God's Kingdom. We know that this Kingdom is still growing. We know that it has not yet been fully embraced by every heart and mind, but we have received the Good News that the door to this reality is now wide open. Every single person who has the desire to enter this Kingdom, and to live under the rule and reign of a loving, intimate God and Father can do so at any time.

Today the door to the Kingdom of God stands open. The opportunity to return to Eden is available. God wants to be your God. He wants to be your King. He wants to walk with you. He wants you to become the Temple where His Holy presence will rest and breathe and find a home.

"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!" - 1 John 3:1

This is the Gospel. This is Subversive.

-kg

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MORE ARTICLES BY KEITH GILES ONLINE NOW

READ "More Love, Less Politics" over at Next-Wave Magazine
HERE

READ "Women as Pastors, Elders, Deacons and Overseers" over at TheOoze.com
HERE

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BLOGS YOU SHOULD BE READING

*Mark Main's "The Untried"
HERE


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THE END WILL COME. WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

We'll all find out on 8/28/09

**

[END TRANSMISSION]

What Is An Apostle?

[Subversive Underground]

What Is An Apostle?
by Keith Giles

As I've been studying the early church the question came to me, "Where did the word 'Apostle' come from?" Looking at the New Testament the word simply appears out of nowhere as the twelve disciples are suddenly, without explanation, referred to as apostles. I started to wonder, "What was the origin of this word? What did it mean to those first century followers of Jesus who heard the word? Was it foreign or strange to them? Did it carry the same meaning for them that it does for us today?"

A quick search online revealed the following over at Wikipedia:

Apostle - Ancient Greek: (ἀπόστολος) or "apostolos", which is translated as "someone sent out", or "missionary".

According to the Bauer lexicon, Walter Bauer's Greek-English Lexicon of the NT: "Judaism had an office known as apostle (שליח)". The Friberg Greek Lexicon gives a broad definition as one who is sent on a mission, a commissioned representative of a congregation, a messenger for God, a person who has the special task of founding and establishing churches. The UBS Greek Dictionary also describes an apostle broadly as a messenger.

With this we can understand a little more about how the early church viewed the apostles. They were church-planting missionaries who preached the Gospel of the Kingdom and continued the ministry of Jesus, the Messiah.

When we look at the New Testament we see plenty of evidence to support this. Peter, James, John, Paul and the other apostles were primarily concerned with traveling to share the Gospel, plant churches and establish a framework for what it meant to be a follower of Jesus.

Christians today seem to hold the apostolic gifting as one above and beyond the common persons of Christendom. Many even go so far as to suggest that there are no apostles in today's church Bbody, which is to suggest that there are no longer church planters or missionaries who are called by God to evangelize the nations and establish the Church of God in the community.

When we read passages like Ephesians 4, verse 11-13 with this in mind it should give us a new perspective on the term "apostle" and the way the early church thought of these people within the Body itself - "It was he (Jesus) who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ."

Apostles (church-planting missionaries) were necessary to communicate the Gospel of the Kingdom and establish the Church in Jerusalem, and Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the Earth. They were "first" in a chronological sense because, unless there is someone to go out and preach the Gospel and do the work of an evangelist or missionary, the Church couldn't be established. Once the Gospel is preached, people respond, groups are formed and the Church is established within a community, THEN the Holy Spirit provides for some to become their teachers, their shepherds, and to do the works of service.

NOT A HIERARCHY
I've been involved quite a bit lately defending the idea that the early church had no hierarchical form of leadership and this practical understanding of an apostle further solidifies the position that hierarchy wasn't part of the original Christian experience. Instead, we see Jesus commanding the disciples (future apostles) not to be like the secular Romans or the religious Pharisees who love to "lord it over" their followers. Instead, Jesus both commanded and modelled a bottom-up form of servant leadership, not a top-down form of CEO leadership. (SEE NOTE BELOW FOR MORE)

MORE THAN 12 APOSTLES
Another surprising discovery in the New Testament is that the apostles are not limited to just "The Twelve" we usually hear about on Sunday morning. These additional Apostles (or "Missionary Church-planters") include Barnabas (Acts 14:14), Andronicus and Junia (Romans 16:7), Silas and Timothy(I Thessalonians 1:1; 2:6, Acts 15:40), and Apollos (1Corinthians 4:6; 4:9; 3:22; 3:4-6).

It's quite fascinating also to consider that many scholars believe that the apostle Junia was female (see Romans 16:7) which gives further weight to the idea that the apostolic gifting was simply about doing missionary work and planting churches.

Even more interesting is that Jesus himself is named among the apostles in Hebrews 3:1 where he is referred to as the "apostle and high priest of our professed faith". In this passage Jesus is identified as the first missionary church-planter who called the twelve disciples to follow him so that he could teach them to be "fishers of men".

While there is a special and unique connection between the original twelve disciples who walked and talked with Jesus personally, and even Paul who encountered the risen Christ in a vision, the actual functional position of an apostle is nothing special. Apostles were very simply and practically the ones who did the work of missionary evangelism and planted churches, and God is still calling His people to be missionaries into the community and plant churches that interact with the culture.

Apostolic succession, then, is simply a continuation of the traditional preaching of the Gospel of the Kingdom, making disciples, planting churches within the community and raising up others who will continually do the same.

-kg
www.KeithGiles.com

**
NOTE: For an extensive exploration of the subject of church hierarchy please read the following articles and the resulting commentary found within.

Here:
"Where Are The Pastors?"

Here:
"First Century Pagan Talks to First Century Christian"

and Here:
"Biblical Scholarship in Support of Non-Hierarchy in the Church"


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RUNNING THE NUMBERS
The PDF version of my book "The Gospel:For Here Or To Go?" has been downloaded 506 times so far, and my second book, "Nobody Follows Jesus (So Why Should You?)" has been downloaded 424 times.

You can still get them both free of charge
RIGHT HERE

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THE END IS NEAR?
Stay tuned to this channel for news and updates.

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[END TRANSMISSION]

A BIBLICAL PERSPECTIVE ON THE RECENT ELECTION

[Subversive Underground]

A BIBLICAL PERSPECTIVE ON THE RECENT ELECTION
By Keith Giles

Our Christian faith was born under the world's most violent, immoral and pagan flag- The Roman Empire. Jesus, our Lord and our example, did not spend any time teaching his disciples to oppose the pantheistic government of the day, nor did he ever cry out against their political policies, their unjust use of force or their sexual deviancy. Not even once.

After His crucifixion and resurrection, the Church that Jesus inspired endured 300 years under this same oppressive, anti-Christian Government. Even as this Empire of Evil arrested them unjustly, tortured them to death, confiscated their property and created an entertainment industry around their public executions by sword and wild animal, the Christian Church remained full of love and continued to preach and live out the Gospel of the Kingdom.

After 300 years of such oppression, these faithful followers of Jesus overcame the darkness - not by violence, not by revolution, not by free elections or political pressure, but simply by the hand of God alone and the power of the Gospel to change hearts and transform lives.

If our DNA was founded under such darkness, and if those first Christians remained hopeful, rejoicing in their sufferings, and living out their faith on a daily basis, how much more should we, in this free country, take a positive outlook on our future and live lives of hope no matter who is in the White House?

Over the last few months I have received an inbox full of email telling me to "Vote Like A Christian" and suggesting that I must pray for God to work a miracle and defeat the "Baby-killing, closet Muslim" who opposed our conservative, Republican values. Since the election I have heard Christians around me saying that "America is being judged by God" and moaning about the horrors of living under the oppressive rule of the Democratic party.

But our faith was founded under oppression much greater than this. We still live in a country where everyone is free to worship, free to speak, free to protest, free to sing and pray and read their Bible without fear of being arrested or killed for sport or thrown into jail. Our New Testament brothers and sisters would hardly be able to contain their joy at living in a nation such as ours where our freedoms abound and our faith is not a death sentence.

Is it really so horrible to live under a Democratic President? If our hope is in politicians, then perhaps I could understand this sense of gloom and defeat among God's Church today. But we do not place our hope in men, or in the political systems around us. Our hope is in Christ. Our God is still in control. The Kingdom of God is still advancing. The Gospel of Jesus is still true. We still have cause to shout and praise and celebrate.

Our New Testament is a story of believers who lived such extravagant lives of love among their pagan neighbors that slowly they turned the world upside down- one life at a time, one family at a time, one household at a time, one community at a time.

"Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us." - 1 Peter 2:11-12

My advice to us is not hang our hopes on any political candidate, party platform, or governing body. They will always fall short of their promise and they will never bring the deep, lasting sort of change we all so desperately need and hope for.

Politicians are people who have placed their hope for a better tomorrow in the political system. They believe that progress will be made primarily in the political arena and therefore they place the majority of their time, passion, energy and hope in effecting change from that vantage point.

I am not a politician. Nor am I primarily focused on a political solution to the problems and challenges that face our communities, our nation, or mankind.

Instead, I have placed my hope for mankind in Christ Jesus and in the Gospel of the Kingdom. Because of this, I do not believe that politics will ever bring about real and lasting change in this nation, or in the hearts and minds of mankind.

I believe that our problems, society's problems, are deeper than any law or policy or proposition or measure can touch or effect. We can change laws but those laws will not change hearts. In fact, every year our nation writes thousands of new laws, and yet we do not see any improvement in our society due to the ever-increasing laws being passed by our legislature.

Does that mean we don't need laws? Of course not. Does it mean we, as followers of Jesus, should not participate in the political process? No, it doesn't. We should vote and speak out wherever necessary, however we should be careful not to forget that the hope for mankind isn't to be found in politics. It's only found in Christ Jesus and in the Gospel of the Kingdom.

This means that God is not a Republican or a Democrat. It means that, although we may continue to be proud citizens of America and participate in the democratic process, our ultimate focus is not politics, our hope is not in politicians or laws. No, our hope is in the Gospel of Christ. Our desire is to bring change to one person at a time, and to campaign for hope in the lives of the broken, the poor, the outcast and the forgotten in our society.

Our participation in the campaign for hope and change does not end at the polls, nor does it express itself in the forwarding of partisan e-mail messages endorsing a specific candidate for office. Our participation begins at sharing our lives with those around us. It begins with loving people as we have been loved. It begins with learning to relate to people; not as a Christian to a Non-Christian; not as a Republican to a Democrat, not as a Liberal to a Conservative, but simply as one human being to another human being.

"Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. For it is God's will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men. Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God. Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king." - 1 Peter 2:13-17

Our calling is simply to love others more than we love ourselves and to demonstrate the power of God's love to transform us from the inside out.

If our faith was birthed in the crucible of oppression and persecution, I believe American Christians can certainly endure four years of unfettered religious freedom to proclaim the Gospel far and wide without fear of attack.

This is a day of rejoicing. Let us give thanks to God that He is still on His awesome throne.
Amen,
-kg
www.KeithGiles.com

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MY BOOKS ARE STILL FREE
If you haven't yet downloaded the free PDF versions of my books - What are you waiting for?

Both are still available as free, downloadable PDF's
RIGHT HERE

-The Gospel:For Here Or To Go?
-Nobody Follows Jesus (So Why Should You?)


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MORE FREE ONLINE RESOURCES
*The Mission House Church
*Poverty In The OC
*OC House Church Network

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