Should we Christians be more transparent.... .vulnerable... humble and honest????? Should we Christians be FULL OF JOY???????????? I was in a church service today and I feel that the level of openness, honesty, humility, transparency and "taking the lowest seat in the room" was at an astonishingly high level!!! We are all interested in being JOYFUL... so... I cannot help but wonder if perhaps transparency, vulnerability, humility and honesty may perhaps be a KEY TO HAVING JOY??????? This is quite different than what I saw in the church that I was a member of from the 1970's to 1991. I left with the impression that the pastors there had been taught to give the impression of being nearly perfect.... and far above the ordinary members of the church. I am truly thankful for my old church because they got me out of Atheism and introduced me to the Messianic Jewish movement...... for that I am eternally grateful.... but wow..... this new approach of using our flaws and sins of the past to encourage others is extremely impressive to me. I feel that this is a rarely rare characteristic now in 2023! You may wish to skip to the 1:05:00 mark in the following video to go directly into the sermon that I feel is so different from what I was used to in the past. Live Joyfully out of our Identity - Murray Smith
