November 2021 Ambassador

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November 2021

by Eugene Park Joseph Solomon, a poet and musician with a large Christian following, recently announced his departure from Christianity on his podcast Flights & Feelings. Responding to Christians who were in dismay about his announcement, he said, “Whatever you believe, you have to own it. You can’t lease it from anybody, you can’t rent it If you borrowed it from someone else, now is a good time to see what truly belongs to you.” There is something to heed in Solomon’s honesty. Do we truly own our faith in Christ or lease it from elsewhere? Because a lease, no matter how efficient or beneficial, always ends.

Don’t Lease Your Faith I have no vendetta against leasing or renting property (I get it, I live in Silicon Valley), but I fear we’ve taken a similar posture with Christ. Many of

If you’re like me, you give leased property much less upkeep than if you actually owned it. A crack in the walls or a rattling heater is fine as long as you get your security deposit back. Yet

Whatever you believe, you have to own it. You can’t lease it from anybody,... us don’t work out our salvation (Phil 2:12) but instead rest on the laurels of pastors, authors, institutions/tribes, or even publications like TGC to work it out on our behalf. When we lease our faith, it’s easier to pay less attention to our spiritual health.

as Jesus warns, when the storms and floods of a broken world come crashing in, a leased faith will often struggle to stand. For those living on a leased faith, deconstruction is inevitable. But what’s really happening is less deconstruction

Being Thankful... No Matter What

Audacious Prayer

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than a complete reconstruction of spirituality because there was nothing there to begin with. Who Are Your Landlords? When you lease any property, it can give the appearance of something owned. Just as Jesus warns that houses built on rock and sand may look similar externally (Matt. 7:24), we have to read the deed to our souls to see if Christ’s name is there. Don’t Lease Your Faith to Celebrity As John Mark Comer noted at a conference I recently attended,

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By Brian Elliff

by Pastor Dave Peterson

The Ambassador

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