Saturday, April 19, 2008

The Church is Looking for the golden calf again

When times get tough, when the church gets cold and boring, when God's people are prospering and have plenty to eat, they begin to look for a golden calf.

In the book of Exodus, Moses had just led his people out of bondage. They were free. They were blessed with the wealth of Egypt. God was with them protecting them with a pillar of fire at night and directing them with a pillar of cloud by day.

Their leader was asked by God to take some time away to commune with Him. The leaders left in charge of the "congregation, " Aaron and Miriam, suddenly had a revelation. We needed something tangible that the people can see, touch and feel to point them towards god.

You know the story! God has furious and he threatened to annilhilate them in the wilderness - save the pleadings of Moses on their behalf.

Today in the 21st century, the church in America, having endured the growth of mega churches and ministries and the prosperous years of the 1990's are once again as was the Church in Laodicea - sick and tired of their blessings and are now looking Christ in all the wrong places.

Colossians 2 (Read this passage carefully)
For I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh; that their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ; in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words. For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the stedfastness of your faith in Christ.

As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.

Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power: In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.

And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; and having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.

Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.

Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels (New agers) , intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,and not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God.

Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances, (Touch not; taste not; handle not; which all are to perish with the using); after the commandments and doctrines of men?

Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body: not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh.

Colossians 3:1-3
If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth. For yet are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.

From the Life Application Bible:

The problem Paul was combatting in the Colossian church was similiar to gnosticism (from the Greek work for "knowledge"). This heresy (a teaching contrary to biblical doctrine) attacked Christianity in several basic ways. 1) It insisted that important hidden knowledge (revelation) was secret from most believers. Paul, however, said that in Christ we see all we need to see of God's provision for us. 2) It taught that the body was evil; Paul countered that God himself dwelt in a body - that is, he was embodied in Jesus Christ. 3) It said that Christ seemed to be human, but was not. Paul insisted that in Jesus we see one who is fully human and fully God.

In verse 2:8 Paul writes against any philosophy of life based only on human ideas and experiences. Paul asserts that when we know Jesus Christ, we don't need to investigate other religions, cults, or unbliblical philosophies as the Colossians were doing. Christ alone holds the answers to the true meaning of life, because Christ is life. He is the unique source for the Chirstian life; therefore, no Christian needs anything he has not provided. (End of comments from Life Application Bible)

When man's philosophies and traditions start to trickle into the church, we should remember the words of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior and see what he thought of that particular idea.

Matthew 15:1-9
Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem saying, why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread.

But he answered and said unto them, "Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your traditions? For God commanded, saying, Honour thy father and mother: and He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death.

But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, it is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; and honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free? Thus have ye made the commandent of God of none effect by your tradition. Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you saying, "This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me." But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandents of men.

Let's continue to look at what Paul said in Galatians 5:1-4

Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Behold, I, Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. For I testify again to every man that is circumcised that he is a debtor to do the whole law.

Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.

There is a danger to go back to the traditions of man looking for the reality of a relationship with Jesus Christ, because it isn't there. Paul said the traditions of man, which in his case was from jewish traditions, were only a shadow of things to come.

Once Jesus Christ came he fulfilled those traditions and even so stated on the cross when he cried out, "It is finished." The heavy veil in the temple that separated mankind from a holy God in the Jewish tradition was rent in two.

Let's be careful as we intercede and pray and gain more wisdom and knowledge of natural and supernatural things that we don't forget the last commands of both Jesus Christ before he ascended to the father and of Apostle Paul before he was execute.

Jesus Christ: "Wait for the promise of the Father which year have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence...But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth." Acts 1:4b,5, 8

Paul: "I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kindgom; Preach the word, be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of they ministry."

The Church needs strengthening. The Church needs Jesus Christ, the author and finisher of our faith! The Church needs revival.

The message of the gospel of Jesus Christ has endured centuries of attack, of compromise, of tradition, of heresy! But the genuine message of the Gospel has withstood every attack from the enemy.

What is the gospel: "For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotton son, that whosoever would believe in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."
John 3:16

It's that simple! We don't need a golden calf if we have Jesus!

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

It's Elementary Watson

What makes a good cup of coffee?

Good coffee beans!

What makes a bad cup of coffee?

Too many good coffee beans!

God must have a good chuckle when He looks down from heaven and watches His children run to and fro trying to improve on His message, His methods and His means.

I was once listening to a conversation between two seminarians and truthfully although they were discussing a biblical topic, I had no idea what they were speaking about. They used the latest language of seminarians. New words. New vocabulary. New definitions. New trends.

There is a wonderful old movie called "Ten Gentlemen from West Point." It is the story of the founding of this famous mlitary academy. The commandant was a crusty old professional solider who believed that you learn by suriving the battles. And because he had survived that made him an expert.

One of the cadets a young gentleman believed that you are successful because you are born into a family of means and position. Therefore, you are automatically light years ahead because of your background and breeding.

In the mix there was a great teacher who studied strategy and war. And although he had himself never literally fought in a battle, you would never know it as he recounted battle after battle - strategies that were successful and strategies that failed.

The commandant would have none of this. For, he believed that war cannot be taught, it must be fought.

Then there was a good ol' boy from the backwoods of Kentucky. He was neither educated nor affluent. But he was raised on good old fashioned commen sense and decency. He listened to the teacher. He relied on his common sense.

These cadet soliders were called to assist in a battle against wayward indians. When they were out of the classroom onto the field of action and the field of battle, guess what happened?

The seminarian dialog vanished. The aflluence and breeding were of no help. The poor commandant was captured by the indians because he was still fighting war the old way. Who was the hero?

The man who had the commen sense who could speak the language of the people and who used his common sense in battle. When giving commands to the soldiers he simply cried, "go and get them."

It's elementary Watson. To build a solid foundation you need concrete and steel. To build up you have to go down deep. To enlarge you have to stremgthen the stakes.

There is nothing new under the sun and when we as human beings try to elevate ourselves above others in our thoughts, our words, our trendy ideas and revelations, it only takes one stroke from the hand of fate to bring us back down to earth again.

True greatness comes from knowing that we are nothing without Him.

In conclusion, it's okay to make Him laugh - let's be sure we don't make Him cry.

Friday, April 4, 2008

The Blended Church

Pastor Harry Jackson has an excellent op/ed piece through Christian Breaking News. He speaks of a shaking of the "black" church and "white" church and time of God's chastening and chastisement.

True Christianity has no color line. It doesn't matter whether it is a black church, a white church, a brown church or a yellow church. True Christianity reflects only one color - a red Jesus church. A black man would be more than welcomed in a white Jesus Church. A white man would be more than welcomed in a black Jesus Church.

It's time that we stop talking about color and talking about Jesus.

Jesus would be welcomed in any "Jesus" church regardless of his color. He would preach the same message with a different flavor or style. He would vote the same way on important moral social issues no matter what color.

I welcome black churches that keep their spirited singing and enthusiasm in preaching and praise. I welcome blended churches that have worship in many different cultural areas. I welcome conservative white churches who sing traditional songs and keep the fires aglow of long past reformations.

If Christians would stop looking at the past and start looking towards the future and the difference they could make in the next generation - we wouldn't need to have any discussion about Jeremiah Wright, a man who lives in the past and holds on to unforgiveness of the past.

True Christians will recognize one another regardless of the color. They will accept one another. Carnal Christians will evaluate a man or woman based not only on color, but on status and affluence. The church, sadly has both types of Christians.

A Jesus Church has only one color - red that stands for His blood that is in our veins that unites us as brothers and sister in Christ.

We have never felt discriminated against from a true brother or sister in Christ!

Time for the church to be blended not physically, but in their heart.

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Are We Losing More than We are Gaining.

Dr. Ralph Winter, President of Frontier Missions asked this question in the March - April 2008 Issue of their international magazine, Mission Frontiers. This magazine is on the cutting edge of missions and thought provoking emerging trends in Christianity.

For the past 29 years we have had the privilege to work with Pastors of smaller churches here in the US and overseas as well. Some of those small church pastors grew to mega church pastors and we had the privilege of being an eye witness to the evolvement.

This article is especially poignant because it takes an honest look at the results of the church's work in the past 10-20 years. The great charismatic movement (1970-1980's) that birth so many exiting and vibrant ministries evolved from soulwinning and evangelism to entertainment and kingdom building.

The passion and the sacrifice the early founders made for the sake of souls and the gospel was replaced by the 2nd generation of professional ministers who's idea of success was a membership to an exclusive golf course and a BMW all purchased by the church.

I have some reasons why we are losing.

1. The church has lost it's passion for souls. The church has become a looky lou plethora of people who go from pillar to post, running around from ministry to ministry. Not solidly grounded in the word, not looking for the prophetic voice that is found in the pages of God's word, but for a prophet to give them their prophecy of the day. The church has lost the prophetic voice of God and has been running after the prophetic voice of man.

2. The call of the MISSIONARY in many cases is being replaced. Instead we send professionals to the mission field who teach at a seminary of some sort, who live in grandeur and the "green zones" of the mission fields sending their children to the best schools and living in the best homes with maids and servants. The sacrifice is that they no longer have 170 channels on the cable TV or the wonderful supermarket to shop at. Instead the example they pose to the indigenous people are affluent, arrogant, and unapproachable. (Watch two good movies: Inn of the Sixth Happiness the Gladys Alyward story and Keys to the Kingdom. Both are true and both show a genuine missionary call one protestant and one catholic and it also shows the hypocrisy of the organized church. I didn't know Gladys' story and I was so touched)

3. The indigenous church is becoming more literate. With literacy comes more questions. They are not interested in long discourses and sermonizing. However, if they have a need, physical or personal and God intervenes in a miraculous way that does catch their attention. How many of today's missionaries are able to say that "signs, wonders and miracles follow them."

4. The church has lost its love for one another. The church has become a business in America. And that spirit has traveled to the world. Rather than passion and sacrifice for our own fellow laborers such as missionaries who did serve overseas in the humblest of manners to the poorest of people, they come home and rather than being loved and honored for their sacrifices, they are treated like second class citizens (poor people ) because they naturally do not have the retirement income necessary to live even modestly they have to succumb to sharing a home or a room because their landlords are more interested in the bottom line than caring for one of God's unsung heroes. Too many pastors who served 25-35 years in their denomination and who cannot afford to retire are being "let go" without a retirement party, without another assignment to go to, without any retirement. And who cares? Younger pastors don't want those "old guys" around. But it is the old guys that blazed the trail for these younger pastors - they endured the hardships of planting, watering and reaping in the early days so that this generation of leaders could enjoy the harvest.

5. The church has allowed the leaven to invade our land. I Cor. 5:6, "Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?" The church has allowed the leaven in our society. Less than 5% of our population are gay or lesbians and that number may include sympathizers, and yet because of their influence we see orgies on TV, little boys in school now being taught to be more like little girls and children questioning their gender at tender ages because of the influence these small group has had on our society. Even the next generation of McDonald's leadership is allegedly promoting the gay agenda! Ray Kroc would roll over in his grave?

That leaven caused the church to go to sleep when they took prayer and the Bible out of primary education and we have produced several generations of agnostics and atheists and a new generational of heartless, godless people.

When asked if they needed additional Chaplains to bury our great generation of old soldiers, I was told that not really, because families are not giving them funerals. They just ask the mortuary to take the body away, cremate it and dispose of it without a funeral, because "the younger generation" doesn't want to be reminded or made to feel sad or they are too busy. How sick is that? No God, No Christ, No Church.

6. The Church is living in a dream world and very naive. I'm ok. So I trust by faith you're okay too.

In Kenya and Africa, if a small group of radial Islamic Muslims decide its time to kill all the Christians in a village, what do you think the average Christian family will do? Sit around and be slaughter. They will fight back. I remember the Watts riots in 1965. Good Christian families had shotguns in their living rooms. If the church doesn't wake up and realize that this religion is not of God but of Satan, we will have a slaughter than is so huge it will be unbelievable. It's happened over and over in Africa. The non-Christians kill.

Real Christians don't kill Christians. We are naive to think that there is a moderate muslim. Moderate muslim can only be moderate until the "jihad" is called then they have to join or else they will be part of the slaughter. (Watch how muslims are killing muslims in Iraq. If they can do it to their own brothers, how much more to people they consider dogs and people of the Book.)
There is a master plan for the radical muslims - 1) breed as many muslims as possible.
2) Marry white girls and convert them to Islam 3) rise in the ranks of business, military, politics and medicine to positions of power including law enforcement. Do not let a heathen (anyone other than a muslim) rule you 4) get rid of people of the book: Israelis and Christians.

There is a final reason why the church is losing?

Because God who is in control of this world is allowing this to happen. He has a reason why. It's just up to us now to be sure that we are not the cause of this loss. And if we are, perhaps this is the time to take an introspective look at our own lives to see how we can rekindle that passion and ignite the fires that once caused us to do the impossible - to dream the unthinkable and to accomplish the miraculous!

George Barna's forte is watching church growth. He has had the opportunity to meet our best pastors etc. And I think maybe what he is seeing is making him sick. They need to take a look at the small church pastors. They have stayed true to the task.

So we promote these guys and build them up and then they are discovered tapping in bathroom floors or secret meetings in hotel rooms. How sick is that? Rather than lifting up the name of Jesus - they were lifting up their names and look what happened.

The only person we can truly have confidence in not to embarass the church is Jesus!

If we allow Jesus to be Lord of our lives again and Lord over America we can starting winning again.