I've been trying to get, and keep, my finger on the pulse of what the larger movements within the church are thinking and doing. What I keep finding, and have found for sometime, is this continuing presentation of culture change. There are so many catchy slogans that preachers and churches use. So, I took a really hard look at this idea.
Here's what I think. Culture never really has changed. And, culture rarely will change. A change in culture can only occur when there is a different spiritual approach to life. There must be a change in nature. Since the day Cain killed Abel people have remained steady in their selfishness, greed, violence, envy, etc. Don't buy into the idea that culture is "constantly changing." Just because our toys are becoming more advanced doesn't mean that culture is changing. Ed Young Jr., the preacher at Fellowship Church, says that culture is constantly changing. Therefore, we must constantly find "new" and "creative" ways to keep up with the culture change. This absolutely false. Any Christian can walk right up to another person, whether it's at work, school, or wherever and tell them about Jesus. We don't need "creative" ministry ideas. Why do preachers push "new" and "creative" ideas? Because they don't have the guts to teach solid Biblical doctrine. They don't have the guts to challenge their congregations to carry their crosses. They don't have the spiritual backbone to demand what the Bible demands, to be born again. They don't have the spiritual muscle to challenge their own congregations to read, study, know, eat, sleep, breathe, and devour the Word of the Living God. We have whimps in the pulpits today who couldn't start a fire in their own congregation even if they were carrying a flame-thrower.
Do you want a culture change? Then start telling people about the Love of the Holy, Almighty God who is Jesus Christ. Start telling people how He died for their sins. Start telling people what the Bible says: The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. Start falling in love with chasing after the very heart of God. Start desiring a knowledge of God's Word. That's how the culture will change because when the Church starts becoming serious about the Great Commission then there will be revival! And that's changing the culture!
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Friday, January 22, 2010
The Weirdos
Rich Mullins once said: "The thing I like about the Bible are all the weirdos in it." After going through the Old Testament again I am finding that to be really true. What's really mesmerizing, and what most Christians would call weird, is the gutsy attitude that these Old Testament people had when praying/talking to God. Take Abraham for instance. When God is sending his angels to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah Abraham says: "Far it be from you to destroy the righteous with the wicked. Far be it from you!" He yells at God who is standing right there! And Moses. When God wants to wipe the Israelites out Moses tells God he will have to take him out first. Are you nuts!!! On and on these prophets and people had this crazy relationship with God. They spoke with him like they actually knew him. They spoke with him like they actually believed him.
So, what is going on with Christians today? There are those who have an amazing and powerful relationship with God. However, for the most part most Christians have either no or little interaction with God. Why? I don't understand it. They don't read the Bible. They don't pray. They don't witness to the lost about their need for Jesus.
After a lot of life experience the only conclusion I come to is that people are either ashamed of what they say they believe or they don't really believe the Gospel.
Are you going to whither away? Or, are you going to overcome the world by the power of the Gospel? "He that winneth souls is wise."
So, what is going on with Christians today? There are those who have an amazing and powerful relationship with God. However, for the most part most Christians have either no or little interaction with God. Why? I don't understand it. They don't read the Bible. They don't pray. They don't witness to the lost about their need for Jesus.
After a lot of life experience the only conclusion I come to is that people are either ashamed of what they say they believe or they don't really believe the Gospel.
Are you going to whither away? Or, are you going to overcome the world by the power of the Gospel? "He that winneth souls is wise."
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Obedience vs. Application
How many times do we go to church, hear a preacher read a verse of scripture, and then want to tell us how to "apply" it to our lives? There is a lot to be said for wanting people to apply the Bible to their daily lives.
What if, instead of application, preachers and teachers started telling people what the Bible really says? The Bible teaches obedience and obedience alone. Because the Bible is of the nature that it is it does not allow for anything such as application. It allows, and demands, either obedience or disobedience. There are no other options. "This is love for God: to obey his commands" says 1 John. When a person obeys what the Bible teaches then that person is pushing far beyond application. It's all about obedience. It's all about reading the teachings of Jesus and simply acting upon them.
When a person wants to apply the Bible to one's life it becomes less about the command of God, which is where life comes from, and more about that individual. Application takes the focus off of God. Obedience to the commands of God keeps the individual in the right relation to Jesus and His cross.
Application of the teachings of God bring about a form of superficial religion. Obedience to the teachings of God brings forth life and more life. Obedience is the standard. We human beings will either obey or disobey. In being obedient to the Bible people grow in knowing God. Often times, when people try to teach others to apply the Bible, they are reduced to a religious formula. It is easy to apply a Hail Mary. It is far more difficult to obey the commands of a rigtheous Creator.
What if, instead of application, preachers and teachers started telling people what the Bible really says? The Bible teaches obedience and obedience alone. Because the Bible is of the nature that it is it does not allow for anything such as application. It allows, and demands, either obedience or disobedience. There are no other options. "This is love for God: to obey his commands" says 1 John. When a person obeys what the Bible teaches then that person is pushing far beyond application. It's all about obedience. It's all about reading the teachings of Jesus and simply acting upon them.
When a person wants to apply the Bible to one's life it becomes less about the command of God, which is where life comes from, and more about that individual. Application takes the focus off of God. Obedience to the commands of God keeps the individual in the right relation to Jesus and His cross.
Application of the teachings of God bring about a form of superficial religion. Obedience to the teachings of God brings forth life and more life. Obedience is the standard. We human beings will either obey or disobey. In being obedient to the Bible people grow in knowing God. Often times, when people try to teach others to apply the Bible, they are reduced to a religious formula. It is easy to apply a Hail Mary. It is far more difficult to obey the commands of a rigtheous Creator.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Kierkegaard
So, I had to post this becase it has long been one of my favorite excerpts by Soren Kierkegaard. Jesus wasn't living in jest. He really meant what he said and did.
"Since we found that the union between man and God could not be brought about by an elevation it must be attempted by a descent. Let the learner be x. In this x we must include the lowliest… In order that the union may be brought about, God must therefore become the equal of such an one, and so he will appear in the likeness of the humblest. For this is the unfathomable nature of love, that it desires equality with the beloved, not in jest merely, but in earnest and truth. To sustain the heavens and the earth by the fiat of his omnipotent word, so that if this word were withdrawn for the fraction of a second the universe would be plunged into chaos – how light a task compared with bearing the burden that mankind may take offense, when one has been constrained by love to become its savior!"
Kierkegaard, Philosophical Fragments
Sunday, October 4, 2009
The Church
The Church belongs to those people who have dared to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. It belongs to them because it is them. Only believers in Jesus can be the Church. No person who does not believe that Jesus is the Son of God can be a part of it. What can a person who does not believe offer the person who does believe?
Our idea of church today has run off its tracks, and it did so long ago. Our Christian leaders, preachers, and teachers have crippled the Church. They have wanted to make the Church a place where unbelievers, sinners, feel at ease. Our preachers have made the Church a place where the unbeliever can come and not be offended. Many church services today try to incorporate something secular that may have some "spiritual" element to it. Let me give you a couple of examples from music. I went to a large church in Texas for two and a half years. One morning service one of the musicians sat at the piano and sang "The Scientist" by Coldplay. I sat there totally confused. Of what relevance was that song in a church service, A place where Christians gather to worship the God of all Creation? Just a few weeks ago I visited a church here in Tallahassee. As I walked in the band was singing its first song. It was the big hit "I'm Not Gonna Write You a Love Song." I thought, what is going on? And just what I thought would follow did. A bunch of announcements and a weak talk.
Have we forgotten what the mission of the Church is? The Church doesn't allow the world to dictate how it operates. It doesn't allow the world to shape the way it conducts its church services. It doesn't allow for one breath of the world to be whispered in its ears. Enough is enough.
The mission of the Blood-bought Bride of Jesus Christ the Son of the Living God is to ovetake the world where it stands. The light exposes the darkness, and it penetrates the world and slays the dead sinner in his world to bring him to life. There is no other way. The Church is the most powerful group of people in all the earth, yet we belittle our mission. When the Church incorporates any secular component when it worships together it is finished. It is immediately rocked back on its heels waiting for the fatal blow to strike it and do away with it. It has failed to meet the world in the midst of its own misery, sin, and death to set it free. The Church is commanded to go into the very middle of the lost, sinful world and preach the gospel. Most preachers today have reversed that. Church leaders think that they have to get the sinners to their church services to hear the Bible and to see how Christians live. That's the farthest thing from what God demanded that Christians do. If the world doesn't see the Church living what it says it believes in the middle of its own lostness, then it will not care to come to any service and see a momentary display of something superficial.
Church is not for the unbeliever! Are they welcome to come? Yes. I deeply wish that more of them would. But, church is for Christians because the Church is Christians. It is where Christians come together to worship the Holy, Living God. It is where Christians are to be encouraged, convicted, and challenged. Here's the point. If Christians are being challenged by their preachers to live the way Jesus demands, then the lost will come to church. If Christians are being the light of the world, then sinners will be confronted with their own sinfulness. We must stop trying to get the sinner to church in order to save him. Instead, we must do what Jesus demands. We must save him from his own world, in his own world.
Our idea of church today has run off its tracks, and it did so long ago. Our Christian leaders, preachers, and teachers have crippled the Church. They have wanted to make the Church a place where unbelievers, sinners, feel at ease. Our preachers have made the Church a place where the unbeliever can come and not be offended. Many church services today try to incorporate something secular that may have some "spiritual" element to it. Let me give you a couple of examples from music. I went to a large church in Texas for two and a half years. One morning service one of the musicians sat at the piano and sang "The Scientist" by Coldplay. I sat there totally confused. Of what relevance was that song in a church service, A place where Christians gather to worship the God of all Creation? Just a few weeks ago I visited a church here in Tallahassee. As I walked in the band was singing its first song. It was the big hit "I'm Not Gonna Write You a Love Song." I thought, what is going on? And just what I thought would follow did. A bunch of announcements and a weak talk.
Have we forgotten what the mission of the Church is? The Church doesn't allow the world to dictate how it operates. It doesn't allow the world to shape the way it conducts its church services. It doesn't allow for one breath of the world to be whispered in its ears. Enough is enough.
The mission of the Blood-bought Bride of Jesus Christ the Son of the Living God is to ovetake the world where it stands. The light exposes the darkness, and it penetrates the world and slays the dead sinner in his world to bring him to life. There is no other way. The Church is the most powerful group of people in all the earth, yet we belittle our mission. When the Church incorporates any secular component when it worships together it is finished. It is immediately rocked back on its heels waiting for the fatal blow to strike it and do away with it. It has failed to meet the world in the midst of its own misery, sin, and death to set it free. The Church is commanded to go into the very middle of the lost, sinful world and preach the gospel. Most preachers today have reversed that. Church leaders think that they have to get the sinners to their church services to hear the Bible and to see how Christians live. That's the farthest thing from what God demanded that Christians do. If the world doesn't see the Church living what it says it believes in the middle of its own lostness, then it will not care to come to any service and see a momentary display of something superficial.
Church is not for the unbeliever! Are they welcome to come? Yes. I deeply wish that more of them would. But, church is for Christians because the Church is Christians. It is where Christians come together to worship the Holy, Living God. It is where Christians are to be encouraged, convicted, and challenged. Here's the point. If Christians are being challenged by their preachers to live the way Jesus demands, then the lost will come to church. If Christians are being the light of the world, then sinners will be confronted with their own sinfulness. We must stop trying to get the sinner to church in order to save him. Instead, we must do what Jesus demands. We must save him from his own world, in his own world.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
The Cross
It's always been about the Cross. Ever since God said "Let there be light" it's been about the Cross of Jesus. What's really incredible is that in Proverbs chapter 8 wisdom speaks as if it were a person, and wisdom is remembering how it was with God in the very beginning of time. It reflects on all that it is and how it works, what it's for, and it's own crying out for people to find it.
Then, we jump into the future and find a far deeper definition of wisdom. "But we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God." The very wisdom of God is the Cross. It is where God's ways totally overtake our own. It's where God's thoughts are completely unlike our own. It's where God shows the entire universe and the heavens His wisdom. I've tought and described human history before the coming of Jesus as a freight train headed to Calvary. Every single second of history was running down the tracks at break-neck speed to where God's wrath and His love would collide. The death of God Himself on a cross is His own wisdom. Try and wrap your head around that! It's amazing, wonderful, scary, and full of life.
So many preachers never mention the Cross when they preach. I think that if a preacher isn't going to bring it back to the Cross every single time , then he should stay home. It's the very wisdom of God that destroyed the power of sin at the Cross. It's the Cross. It's the Cross. Woodrow Geier said this: "In the Cross, God descends to bear in his own heart the sins of the world. In Jesus, he atones at unimaginable cost to himself." How can we not preach that ever time we open our mouths to the lost?
Remember, it has always been about the Cross. It will always be about the Cross.
Then, we jump into the future and find a far deeper definition of wisdom. "But we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God." The very wisdom of God is the Cross. It is where God's ways totally overtake our own. It's where God's thoughts are completely unlike our own. It's where God shows the entire universe and the heavens His wisdom. I've tought and described human history before the coming of Jesus as a freight train headed to Calvary. Every single second of history was running down the tracks at break-neck speed to where God's wrath and His love would collide. The death of God Himself on a cross is His own wisdom. Try and wrap your head around that! It's amazing, wonderful, scary, and full of life.
So many preachers never mention the Cross when they preach. I think that if a preacher isn't going to bring it back to the Cross every single time , then he should stay home. It's the very wisdom of God that destroyed the power of sin at the Cross. It's the Cross. It's the Cross. Woodrow Geier said this: "In the Cross, God descends to bear in his own heart the sins of the world. In Jesus, he atones at unimaginable cost to himself." How can we not preach that ever time we open our mouths to the lost?
Remember, it has always been about the Cross. It will always be about the Cross.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Just thinking.....
What am I thinking? I'm thinking that I'm 30 years old, and this life has been a wierd one. It's had some serious ups, and man have there been some serious downs. I've met and become friends with some really amazing people, and I have met some major league turds. I try to put it all in perspective. I come from an interesting family that knows how to love deeply, and at the same time I learn more and more that those closest to you will always be the ones to hurt you the worst. But, I've learned that the only way we ever really know anyone is to view them, not in the light of what they do or don't do, but always in the light of what they suffer.
I'm getting married in two weeks. In Rome no less! It's a blessing. I'm ultra private about my relationship, and that's the way it should be.
I'm thinking that there are way too many people in the world who give even a fleeting thought to what anyone else thinks about them. My dear friend Joshua used to have a sticker on his mirror that read "God is my only audience." Think about that for a moment. What God thinks of you is all that matters. There are far too many people living in some keep up with the Jones mentality, spending money they don't have, to buy things they don't need, to impress people that they don't care about anyway. I want to know something. Who is the Jones family? And what makes them so special?
I'm thinking that not enough people are truthful with their own lives. We are scared out of our minds to be honest with ourselves, muchless any other human. Why? What are we hiding from? Better yet, what is it that we have to hide? I've had to make some really hard decisions in my life lately. They were decisions that I had to make, and they hurt. But, I had to make them in order to be honest with myself after trying to be honest with another.
I've learned that most people don't really care what you have to say. So, I'm learning to listen a whole lot more. I went back to school and graduated at the age of 29. In my opinion it was so much better than being a 22 year old with not much life experience under one's belt. I listened to what my much younger classmates would say and think that they have a long way to go before they ever understand what it was that just come out of their mouth.
I'm thinking that most people don't think about God much. Why is that? Why don't most people care about the one that created them? It's so strange to me. Most never think about the devil. I don't undertand that one either. Why don't people care to be aware of an enemy so vicious that he will do whatever it takes to warp, manipulate, and twist our minds.
I'm thinking that most Christians don't really have the guts to talk about Jesus, listen like Jesus, feel like Jesus, care like Jesus, and to live like Jesus. I'm thinking that most people who say they are Christians can't even tell you why they are. I'm thinking that most Christians can't even tell you what the Bible teaches on much of anything. I'm not saying that Christians have to be perfect because they aren't. Are Christians hypocrites? You bet they are. Just like every other person on the planet. I'm thinking that I'm tired of most preachers in most churches who preach weak sermons that will never challenge anyone, convict anyone, or ever change anyone's life. I'm thinking that most preachers don't have the backbone to bring it week in and weak out. Most preachers were never called to be preachers anyway!! I'm tired of church looking, sounding, smelling, tasting and feeling like the world. Someone call a spade a spade. I'm tired of of preachers not preaching like it was the last time they were ever going to get to the chance to stand in front of people and proclaim the most powerful message EVER.
I want my deepst desire to be Jesus. I want my deepest longing to be Jesus. I want the most cavernous part of my existence to scream out to Jesus. I want to live and love like Jesus. I want the mercy of Jesus to triumph over my judgment. I want Him. I just want Him. Will I ever be perfect? No. Will I ever be good enough? No. It's not about that anyway. I am a man who is crazy enough to believe that Jesus really was God and that He really did die for me to save me from hell because He loves me that much. I just want Jesus.
I'm getting married in two weeks. In Rome no less! It's a blessing. I'm ultra private about my relationship, and that's the way it should be.
I'm thinking that there are way too many people in the world who give even a fleeting thought to what anyone else thinks about them. My dear friend Joshua used to have a sticker on his mirror that read "God is my only audience." Think about that for a moment. What God thinks of you is all that matters. There are far too many people living in some keep up with the Jones mentality, spending money they don't have, to buy things they don't need, to impress people that they don't care about anyway. I want to know something. Who is the Jones family? And what makes them so special?
I'm thinking that not enough people are truthful with their own lives. We are scared out of our minds to be honest with ourselves, muchless any other human. Why? What are we hiding from? Better yet, what is it that we have to hide? I've had to make some really hard decisions in my life lately. They were decisions that I had to make, and they hurt. But, I had to make them in order to be honest with myself after trying to be honest with another.
I've learned that most people don't really care what you have to say. So, I'm learning to listen a whole lot more. I went back to school and graduated at the age of 29. In my opinion it was so much better than being a 22 year old with not much life experience under one's belt. I listened to what my much younger classmates would say and think that they have a long way to go before they ever understand what it was that just come out of their mouth.
I'm thinking that most people don't think about God much. Why is that? Why don't most people care about the one that created them? It's so strange to me. Most never think about the devil. I don't undertand that one either. Why don't people care to be aware of an enemy so vicious that he will do whatever it takes to warp, manipulate, and twist our minds.
I'm thinking that most Christians don't really have the guts to talk about Jesus, listen like Jesus, feel like Jesus, care like Jesus, and to live like Jesus. I'm thinking that most people who say they are Christians can't even tell you why they are. I'm thinking that most Christians can't even tell you what the Bible teaches on much of anything. I'm not saying that Christians have to be perfect because they aren't. Are Christians hypocrites? You bet they are. Just like every other person on the planet. I'm thinking that I'm tired of most preachers in most churches who preach weak sermons that will never challenge anyone, convict anyone, or ever change anyone's life. I'm thinking that most preachers don't have the backbone to bring it week in and weak out. Most preachers were never called to be preachers anyway!! I'm tired of church looking, sounding, smelling, tasting and feeling like the world. Someone call a spade a spade. I'm tired of of preachers not preaching like it was the last time they were ever going to get to the chance to stand in front of people and proclaim the most powerful message EVER.
I want my deepst desire to be Jesus. I want my deepest longing to be Jesus. I want the most cavernous part of my existence to scream out to Jesus. I want to live and love like Jesus. I want the mercy of Jesus to triumph over my judgment. I want Him. I just want Him. Will I ever be perfect? No. Will I ever be good enough? No. It's not about that anyway. I am a man who is crazy enough to believe that Jesus really was God and that He really did die for me to save me from hell because He loves me that much. I just want Jesus.
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