Sharing, Giving, Sacrificing

By this we know love, that he laid down his life

for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for

the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods

and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart

against him, how does God's love abide in him?

Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but

in deed and in truth.

1 John 3:16-18

The Good News

I've started reading a book titled Revolution in World Missions by K.P. Yohannan.  I didn't get very far into it before I found my head in my hands.  We have gotten it wrong, so wrong in this country.  Our Father must be sad that once again His children have taken matters into their own hands and messed it all up.  He never intended for us to take our blessings and turn them into material gratification for ourselves.  He never intended for us to hoard our wealth and invest it in material possesions, big houses, fancy cars and lavish vacations.  We have become gluttonous in everything we do - eating, work, play, entertainment, even church.  Yes, even church.

Here are some facts that might interest you:

* Church buildings in the U.S. have become extravagant.  One built years ago in Dallas actually cost $74 million!  And less than a minute away from the $74 million church was one that cost $7 million.   But here's the REALLY horrific part - The same $74 million would be enough to guarantee that the Good News of Jesus Christ could be proclaimed to a whole Indian state - or even some of the smaller countries of Asia.

* If we earmarked 10 percent of our Christian giving in the U.S. for the cause of world evangelism, there would be more than $10 billion available for Gospel outreach.

* "Many churches have gymnasiums and fellowships that cater to a busy schedule of activities having little or nothing to do with Christ.  The orchestras, choirs, "special" music - and sometimes even the preaching - seemed to me more like entertainment than worship."  K.P. Yohannan

* 85% percent of all Bibles printed today are in English for the 9% of the world who read English.  80% of the world's people have never owned a Bible while Americans have an average of four in every household.

* Besides books, 8,000 Christian magazines and newspapers flourish.  More than 1,600 Christian radio stations broadcast the Gospel full-time, while many countries don't even have their first Christian radio station.  A tiny 0.1 percent of all Christian radio and television programming is directed toward the unevangelized world.  Little, if any, of this media is designed to reach unbelievers.  Almost all is entertainment for the saints.

* The U.S., with it's 600,000 congregations or groups, is blessed with 1.5 million full-time Christian workers, or one full-time religious leader for every 182 people in the nation.  What a difference this is from the rest of the world, where more than 2 billion people are still unreached with the Gospel.  The unreached or "hidden peoples" have only one missionary working for every 78,000 people, and there are still 1,240 distinct cultural groups in the world without a single church among them to preach the Gospel.  These are the masses for whom Christ wept and died.

God did not shower such great blessing on this nation for the Christians to live in extravagance, self-indulgence and spiritual weakness.

Maybe that's enough for today.  It's a lot to take in and think about.  I hope your head is in your hands by now, too.  We have a lot of work ahead of us.  Let's pray about it.

Heavenly Father,
  Please forgive us, Lord.  We have gotten it all wrong.  Just like the Israelites did time and time again - when things are good, we turn away and take the credit.  We don't listen to You, we think we know better.  Help us to change, Father God.  Help us to become the salt and the light of the world.  Help us to give up our selfish ways, our extravagant ways. It won't be easy, Lord, but you are a patient God, otherwise we would have been wiped out long before now.
  There are so many people in this world who have never heard of you, Jesus.  How selfish are we to keep the Good News to ourselves?  And why?  Because we are "nervous" or "afraid" of witnessing to others?  What will they think of us! Or what if we say the wrong thing!  We also claim we don't know where or how to find nonbelievers.  Or maybe we think we need more money to travel somewhere when there are nonbelievers right outside our door.  All pitiful excuses, aren't they Father God?  We should know by now that with You all things are possible.  That you will put the people in our path and You will give us the words. You promised us that and You never lie.
  Praise You that we still have hope!  It isn't too late!  With your strength and perseverance we can change our ways.  We can repent and start to make a difference.

  Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few...... Matt 9:37

Help us to change that, Father God. 

In Jesus Name, Amen

Power Over

Do we really believe God is as powerful as He says He is?  That He is as holy..... as mighty ...... as loving and caring as He says He is?  That He will fulfill all the promises He has made to us?  If we do believe these things, then why are we always trying to handle everything on our own?  Why do we think we know the better way of solving problems, the better way of being the salt and the light, the better way of convincing others how to live? 

 

You might wonder where this is going, so I'll just come out and tell you.  I have a problem with Christians and Christian organizations boycotting and signing petitions like the AFA is constantly doing.  Not only do I feel it's not really accomplishing anything, I feel it's downright destructive to the Christian mission - that is to spread the Gospel and make disciples out of the nations.  When we use our collective power to force an outcome in this country, it doesn't do anything to promote true Christianity nor does it help to bring the lost to the Kingdom.  In fact, it may very well do the opposite by driving people away in anger and disgust.  We may think we've done a good thing to shut down a company that supports homosexuality, but what do the thousands of people that work for that company and now have lost their job feel about Christians?  How about the vendors that sell their goods through that company? How do you think they will view our efforts?  Perhaps they will feel that once again the Christian community has flexed it's mighty muscles and forced their own belief system on the rest of the country.   Do you think any of these people or their families are going to want to join a community that wields power over others while all the while making claims of being loving?

 

Instead, what if all Christians got on their knees and asked their Heavenly Father to deal with the problem.  What if we collectively pleaded with the only One who has all the answers, who knows how to solve all problems and loves us enough to grant our desires?  Do we think we know better than Him?  Do we think the only way to solve the problem is with a petition or a boycott?  God's ways are not our ways (Isaiah 55:8-9) so we cannot begin to know how He could and would deal with the situation.  Perhaps He would convict all the Christians who work for the company to voice their concerns.  Or convict the CEO of the company to have a change of heart.  We don't know, that's the point.  So we take things into our own hands and we usually make a bigger mess of it.  Yes we are called to be the salt and the light (Matthew 5:13-16) however that doesn't mean we do it by strong-arming the rest of the world.  I believe we are to be the salt and the light through example - by living not a perfect life, but a Christian life.  Which means we allow the love of Jesus to come through us and shine onto others and that we repent not IF we sin, but WHEN we sin. 

 

A couple of good books to read on this very subject are by Gregory Boyd - Myth of a Christian Nation and Myth of a Christian Faith.  In them he explains the premise of 'power over' versus 'serving under' and why Christians and the Church have gotten it all wrong in this country.  We may have good intentions, but our intentions aren't what matters - only God's intentions are pure and righteous.  We, as humans, want to solve problems overnight and in a big way.  We love to take credit but not blame.  We aren't satisfied with small victories for the Kingdom, we want to make a big splash and see our name up in lights.   The enemy loves that.  He is waiting for the next Christian outrage so he can convince us it's a worthy cause and something we need to spin our wheels trying to solve.  To convince us our heavenly Father would be pleased with us if we could just defeat the enemy at his own game.  Oh what a game it is! 

 

It's like that game where you hit the head that pops up and then it pops up somewhere else so you hit that one and then it pops up somewhere else - you end up spending all your time and energy trying to hit all the heads but they just keep popping up somewhere else and then you are exhausted.  And what have you accomplished?  Nothing.  The "game" will always win.  We are being duped by the enemy to spin our wheels, exhaust ourselves and then collapse because we can't win the game.  The enemy then wins because he has succeeded in keeping us from our true mission.  WAKE UP PEOPLE!  The war has already been won!!!  Hallelujah!  We need to stop worrying about each and every battle - ask the Lord to take care of those.  All we need to do is what our assignment is - to spread the Good News!   Amen. 

Rock Concert

 I don't know if you are familiar with HALO - it's a local Christian ministry for the homeless.  They do great work - serving meals 365 days a year, offering shelter for homeless women and children and even taking meals to homeless on the streets.  Our church, Harvest Baptist, is organizing a Christian concert on June 11 to benefit HALO and we're looking for sponsors to help with the cost.  We have booked a Christian rock band - JJ Weeks -  from Georgia who has opened for groups like Mercy Me and are really good.  Our goal is to get sponsors to completely pay for the concert so ALL the proceeds and donations can go directly to HALO. If you are interested in being a sponsor or just coming to enjoy a good concert (there will be food, face painting, bake sale), check out Becky's blog:

Concert of Hope: A Hand Up For Homelessness

Thanks and God bless!!

Prosperity Gospel

This video may offend some - or many - of you.  But guess what -- I don't care.  Jesus didn't come here to promise us a life full of stuff.  He didn't come here to fulfill OUR dreams.  He didn't come here to satisfy all our desires, promise us good health and a cushy life.  And for those who believe that, well, you are deceiving yourselves.  But it doesn't end there because you aren't just deceiving yourself, you are deceiving others - and that is not acceptable.  If you want to believe lies, fine, go ahead, but stop taking others down the path of unrightousness with you.

Costly Grace

Having just read The Cost of Discipleship by Bonhoeffer, I found this article to be interesting and so true!  I dare say if Jesus were walking this earth today, his message would still shock many.  We like to think we are following him, but his message has been watered down, diluted and popularized for the masses.  Time to get back to true discipleship!

REAL DISCIPLES OR NOT?? - The Big Question-by LibertyWorld."Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring
repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without
confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace
is grace without discipleship, grace without the Cross, grace
without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.
Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it
a man will gladly go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great
price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the
kindly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye
which causes him to stumble, it is the call of Jesus Christ at which
the disciple leaves his nets and follows him."
-Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship.

(Hitler had Bonhoeffer shot because he chose to bow to Christ
rather than to the Gestapo.)

Matthew 28:19 reads "Go therefore and make disciples of all
nations..." R.S.V., and most versions. The Greek reads, "To
become a pupil." "Enroll as a scholar."Christ did not say to make
"converts," but rather to "make disciples." "Followers." In verse 20
He says, "Teaching them to 'observe' all things whatsoever I have
commanded you..." Again the Greek reads to "hold fast." How
very imperative it is to hold fast the teachings of the Lord Jesus
Christ!

The 'gospel' of our Lord Jesus Christ is not the gospel that is being
preached in most pulpits today! Today's gospel is "another gospel,"
it is not the gospel of the Scriptures! Generally speaking, the church
that provides the best and the most entertainment is the church
that garners the greatest number of attendants.

Much of today's gospel is a false gospel, built on false premises,
built on false teaching! Should any sincere Christian question this
statement, let this individual read Matthew chapter 7:13-28 and
verse 29 which says that those who heard Christ's teachings were
astonished. Can you imagine the astonishment of people today
also, if His message were being preached and taught in our pulpits!

And they of the church
And they of the world;
Walk hand and heart,
And only God who knoweth all
Can tell the two apart.

Hear what Dr. A. W. Tozer has to say on this matter, "Any
objections to the carrying on of our present golden-calf Christianity
is met with the triumphant reply, 'But we are winning them.' And
winning them to what? To true discipleship? To cross carrying? To
self-denial? To separation from the world? To crucifixion of the
flesh? To holy living? To nobility of character? To hard self-
discipline? To love for God? To total commitment to Christ? Of
course the answer to all these questions is 'No'." John Fletcher
said, "More is said from our pulpits in favor of sin than against it."

"No longer is the thundering message of the prophet of God
heralded from the sacred pulpit, warning against the wrath of a
holy and just God against sin" - Wesley Duewel.