Wade Poe

Whenever I read Ecclesiastes, I feel sorry for Solomon, the wisest man who'd lived up until that point, according to lore and tradition. I mean, he has anything and everything you could want and he still found it to be just so-so at best on many occasions. It would be like a person who won the lottery everyday and never had to worry about resources - that's roughly the same as what Solomon's situation was. He had all the food, houses, servants, music/musicians, military support, entertainment, books, women/sexual partners in the world he could want and then some.  And he still found it to be, "Meh".  When he was young, God told him he could have anything he wanted and he asked for wisdom. And God gave it to him. I don't know that his wisdom was exceptionally deep, mysterious, or wise by the standards we think of today - it was just basic, profoundly true things that no one we know of had seen, acknowledged and recorded before - and it blew people away. I try t...

Knowing God and interacting with God in a different way has been an amazing and surprising part of the journey over the past few years. I've known about God because I "grew up going to church" and I'm sure God was showing himself to me in ways through that and people and more, but it's different now. __________ Fear is gone.  For the most part. In one of the John letters, the writer says that perfect love casts out fear. I think I used to say that I wasn't afraid of God, but I see there's a difference between mentally knowing I don't have to fear God and being in a different kind of relationship where I don't fear God. In Job 13:15, he says, "even if God kills me, I will trust in him". Wow, that's big. I heard that in a song years ago and struggled with the idea and I think I get it now.  At least more than before. Fear of the Lord IS the beginning of wisdom. It is the start of understanding things, but it’s not the place we stay with...

Is it even possible to share Jesus to make yourself look good?  I've read about it & thought about other people doing it, but was never sure.  One of those revelations you don't necessarily want entered my mind recently & pointed out this passage of scripture from Paul in Philippians 1... "It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill.   The latter do so out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel.  The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains.  But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice." __________ People have different motives for doing things that even they are unaware of because of the way things work. I remember hearing a fellow minister years ago share with a larger group of ministe...

For a lot of people who are "outsiders" church is like a timeshare that you buy, but you still have to go sit through the sales pitch for it every week. Church people will often respond with, "Well, those without the Spirit can't understand the things of the Spirit" , but are just talking past outsiders, not realizing "church" sometimes has little to do with Spirit. It's a conundrum I've been wrestling with over this past year since quitting a career in full-time ministry as a minister/pastor and "deconstructing" and rebuilding. How do you get outsiders who don't "get" the actual Good News message of God through Jesus to hear that message without some of the unrelated baggage that "church" tries to attach to it? How do you get insiders to see that the whole package deal of "church" as we often think about it is a mixed bag that often includes things that have little to nothing to do with the Good News...