I guess I can't help myself. I read two articles in our local paper that clearly demonstrate why this country is in such dire straits. The first writer uses the most obvious reason to have no gun control by quoting an old statistic about how many people get confronted by a bad guy with a gun, suggesting that more gun control might mean that bad guy wouldn't have a gun. Can anyone over eight years old be so incredibly naive. Since when did criminals obey laws. That's why we call them criminals. They ignore the laws good citizens do their best to obey. Disarm the good buys and the bad guys will own the streets. Obviously, someone caught her next real humdinger. In the printed version of the paper she argued that she understood those who wanted to argue about their Fourth Amendment right to bear arms. Of course, "everyone knows," she meant the Second Amendment. Then she proceeds that bad guys don't get guns legally anyway, so gun laws are not working. Finally, as if she hadn't shown sufficient ignorance of the facts, she wrote about how much she appreciated Michael Moore's movie on violence in America, (Bowling for Combine)as if she thought his work would be an accurate, definitive presentation on the topic. How airheaded can one brown haired female reporter act. She closed her article by stating, ". . .if it was (sic) up to me there would definitely be heavy restrictions."
I rest my case.
The second article was by a guy who began by suggesting conservatives had a bad week. I'm really curious what kind of kool-ade he's drinking. He applauds Bill Clinton for doing his wife's job by going to North Korea and rescuing two people who were taken captive by North Korean troops who should never have been where they were to begin with. Of course this was a political ploy by the North Koreans, and they worked it to perfection. Now, our other enemies like Iran, have learned how easy it is to make us look stupid worldwide. The good news is that conservatives in this two horsepower town where I live ate this radical left wing ideologue alive. The comments made to both of these extreme liberal writers about their miss informed rantings were just more evidence conservatives in America are rising up in force to turn this foolishness Obama's adminstration is attempting to perpetrate on free citizens of a heretofore free country around. God bless America and those citizens in it who are, once again, on the move.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Ten Reasons I Believe the Church is Failing to Fulfill Its Mission
The church in America is sputtering around rather impotent and listless. I would like to humbly suggest there are at least ten reasons for this lackluster presentation it is making to a lost world.
1. It is filled with luke warm people. I suggest it’s not appropriate to call these people disciples of Christ (aka true believers) because it seems Revelation 3:14-16 makes it clear God does not tolerate a lukewarm attitude when it comes to the things of the kingdom.
2. It is filled with people whose lives are out of balance. I have discovered in my 37 years as a Christian that most people’s lives are completely out of whack. People like Arnold S. spend way too much time lifting weights so their body becomes their idol. Actors spend enormous segments of time pretending to be something they are not, so they end up with an inability to deal with real life. Industrial moguls work twenty hours a day, so they have no private or family life. Entire families regularly miss bible studies and other important church activities when their children are involved in local sporting activities. Many professing believers get overly involved in non church activities so they stop growing spiritually. There’s nothing inherently wrong with lifting weights and exercising, being an actor, working hard at one’s job, or having a child in sports, but when any of those activities replace bible studies, worship times, personal devotional time, prayer time, church services, or congregational meetings, someone is too busy doing the wrong things.
3. Churches do not make it a condition of membership to be actively involved in ministry. There is no such thing as a born-again believer who doesn’t have a gift or several gifts. Thus, it is incongruous to allow members to be fed without working for their feed. Following Christ is work and the church that doesn’t teach and require its members to work in ministry is not being faithful to the clear teaching of scripture.
4. Churches tolerate known sin in their midst. I am currently working in a church that addresses this problem, but I believe we sometimes fail to follow through correctly. The lesson to Ai as recorded in Joshua 7 should cause us to sit up and take notice. Thirty-six people died unnecessarily because of the sin of one family in Israel. That incident teaches us the sin of one can drag any associated with that one into the consequences of that sin. That’s why it is critically important to promote ministries like small groups where brothers and sisters in Christ can be intimately acquainted with each other's needs and help when one or two get temporarily off track.
5. Pulpits across America are being filled by men and women who don’t have a clue what the bible says and they know even less about what it means. Some of the teaching I have heard spewed from these unregenerated heathen claiming to be Christians is almost unbelievable. The most significant example of utter foolishness I have ever heard came from two pastors who taught one can fast from such things as their favorite television program or their favorite dessert. Of course one can fast, in principle, from anything I suppose. Those two preachers just failed to point out that such fasts have absolutely no connection to the biblical reason for, or act of fasting.
6. There is no accountability. The church I currently attend has about 100 people attending each Sunday. Less than ten attend the midweek refresher bible study. There are four or five who attend my Monday night study off and on. When we have things like back yard bible clubs less than ten volunteers show up to help. The senior pastor mows the lawn because no one else is willing to take on the task.
7. Few preachers preach that one who is really saved will, because his spirit has been regenerated, produce fruit. In other words, if one’s life is fruitless, he is dead in his trespasses and sins; and unless he repents, he’ll spend eternity in hell.
8. Preaching is to often unsound biblically regarding Christian stewardship. I have written an entire book on this topic, so all I will say in a few words here is that tithing is an Old Testament practice intended for a nation that used the tithe to pay for its entire legal, medical, and religious operations. For Christians living in the church age, the bar is much higher. There is so little understanding about Christian stewardship today I’m amazed Churches function at all. Most of what must be done for the kingdom requires two things: 1. people committed to ministry; and 2. money for that ministry. In most churches one or the other, or both are scarce.
9. Ordaining of ungifted pastor/teachers is both a cause and an effect. Bible colleges and seminaries are graduating and ordaining thousands every year who have neither the gift nor the call to be pastor/teachers. The implications of this one are so far reaching it is impossible to calculate their impact.
10. The final and most significant problem with today’s churches is that they are spending millions of dollars on programs that are doing little to further the kingdom of God. Most churches in America are only interested in filling pews with tithers so they can make the church bigger so they can seat more tithers. The health, wealth, and prosperity preachers tell us if we give sacrificially to whatever it is they are doing, God will give us more things, keep us well, and make us happy as little bunny rabbits. "Buy a prayer cloth and you will be blessed." In contrast, the bible teaches one must carry his cross daily, expect to be persecuted and most often poor, our joy comes from a deep, personal commitment and relationship with our Lord, and that we are to rejoice when persecuted for our faith. "Whoopy ding!" you say. "I attend a church where 5,000 attend each Sunday morning and there are bible classes for every age group." God bless you brother. The next time you want to tell the world how holy your church is, check the statistics for the crime rate in your neighborhood. That just might wake you up to the possibility that the doors of your church aren’t open to the poor, orphans, widows, and aliens who are residing in your own community.
This list is certainly not exhaustive. I just picked the number ten because it’s a significant number and makes the point. The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few. God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah because there weren’t ten righteous people in it. Some estimate it had about 120,000 residents. By extrapolation, one can surmise that America has about 330,000,000 citizens. If there aren’t at least 39, 600,000 born-again, bible thumping, turned on, God lovin’, sacrificial, cross bearing followers of Christ He may destroy these currently Un-United States like He did Sodom and Gomorrah. I think we would do well to ask if there are 40 million born-again disciples of Christ, would they be sitting around, letting this country sink into the dregs of the sin in which it currently resides? Sodom and Gomorrah’s sin pales when placed along side the sin of this country. We murder babies, promote freedom of speech and religion, hire aberrant sexual deviants to teach our children in the public school system, preach that drunks have an incurable sickness, grant licenses to strip clubs, gambling casinos, and businesses that serve nothing but alcohol whose sole reason for existence is to get people drunk and make a few bucks in the process. Murderers and rapists walk the streets, or spend their entire lives in prisons that are often more luxurious than many homes in America because we are fearful we might improperly convict one person out of a million. For decades we spent millions of dollars yearly taking illegal aliens back to Mexico while farmers, ranchers, and sweatshops spent millions bringing them back.
I fear if we don’t get the message soon, it will be too late. Nine-Eleven, Hurricane Katrina, floods, tornadoes, earthquakes, mines collapsing, volcanoes erupting, Iraq, Afghanistan, and rising, out of control, crime rate are all signs meant to call us to repentance; and so far they aren’t working. God’s patience is not endless. The land of Canaan (Gen. 15:16; Joshua), Pharaoh of Egypt (Ex. 7-14), and Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen.19) learned that lesson the hard way.
Thus says the Lord,
Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent.
Repent, or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of My mouth.
Indeed, I will cast her on into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds. I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts. And I will give to you according to your works.
Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent.
Therefore if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you.
So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will vomit you out of My mouth.
The church in America is sputtering around rather impotent and listless. I would like to humbly suggest there are at least ten reasons for this lackluster presentation it is making to a lost world.
1. It is filled with luke warm people. I suggest it’s not appropriate to call these people disciples of Christ (aka true believers) because it seems Revelation 3:14-16 makes it clear God does not tolerate a lukewarm attitude when it comes to the things of the kingdom.
2. It is filled with people whose lives are out of balance. I have discovered in my 37 years as a Christian that most people’s lives are completely out of whack. People like Arnold S. spend way too much time lifting weights so their body becomes their idol. Actors spend enormous segments of time pretending to be something they are not, so they end up with an inability to deal with real life. Industrial moguls work twenty hours a day, so they have no private or family life. Entire families regularly miss bible studies and other important church activities when their children are involved in local sporting activities. Many professing believers get overly involved in non church activities so they stop growing spiritually. There’s nothing inherently wrong with lifting weights and exercising, being an actor, working hard at one’s job, or having a child in sports, but when any of those activities replace bible studies, worship times, personal devotional time, prayer time, church services, or congregational meetings, someone is too busy doing the wrong things.
3. Churches do not make it a condition of membership to be actively involved in ministry. There is no such thing as a born-again believer who doesn’t have a gift or several gifts. Thus, it is incongruous to allow members to be fed without working for their feed. Following Christ is work and the church that doesn’t teach and require its members to work in ministry is not being faithful to the clear teaching of scripture.
4. Churches tolerate known sin in their midst. I am currently working in a church that addresses this problem, but I believe we sometimes fail to follow through correctly. The lesson to Ai as recorded in Joshua 7 should cause us to sit up and take notice. Thirty-six people died unnecessarily because of the sin of one family in Israel. That incident teaches us the sin of one can drag any associated with that one into the consequences of that sin. That’s why it is critically important to promote ministries like small groups where brothers and sisters in Christ can be intimately acquainted with each other's needs and help when one or two get temporarily off track.
5. Pulpits across America are being filled by men and women who don’t have a clue what the bible says and they know even less about what it means. Some of the teaching I have heard spewed from these unregenerated heathen claiming to be Christians is almost unbelievable. The most significant example of utter foolishness I have ever heard came from two pastors who taught one can fast from such things as their favorite television program or their favorite dessert. Of course one can fast, in principle, from anything I suppose. Those two preachers just failed to point out that such fasts have absolutely no connection to the biblical reason for, or act of fasting.
6. There is no accountability. The church I currently attend has about 100 people attending each Sunday. Less than ten attend the midweek refresher bible study. There are four or five who attend my Monday night study off and on. When we have things like back yard bible clubs less than ten volunteers show up to help. The senior pastor mows the lawn because no one else is willing to take on the task.
7. Few preachers preach that one who is really saved will, because his spirit has been regenerated, produce fruit. In other words, if one’s life is fruitless, he is dead in his trespasses and sins; and unless he repents, he’ll spend eternity in hell.
8. Preaching is to often unsound biblically regarding Christian stewardship. I have written an entire book on this topic, so all I will say in a few words here is that tithing is an Old Testament practice intended for a nation that used the tithe to pay for its entire legal, medical, and religious operations. For Christians living in the church age, the bar is much higher. There is so little understanding about Christian stewardship today I’m amazed Churches function at all. Most of what must be done for the kingdom requires two things: 1. people committed to ministry; and 2. money for that ministry. In most churches one or the other, or both are scarce.
9. Ordaining of ungifted pastor/teachers is both a cause and an effect. Bible colleges and seminaries are graduating and ordaining thousands every year who have neither the gift nor the call to be pastor/teachers. The implications of this one are so far reaching it is impossible to calculate their impact.
10. The final and most significant problem with today’s churches is that they are spending millions of dollars on programs that are doing little to further the kingdom of God. Most churches in America are only interested in filling pews with tithers so they can make the church bigger so they can seat more tithers. The health, wealth, and prosperity preachers tell us if we give sacrificially to whatever it is they are doing, God will give us more things, keep us well, and make us happy as little bunny rabbits. "Buy a prayer cloth and you will be blessed." In contrast, the bible teaches one must carry his cross daily, expect to be persecuted and most often poor, our joy comes from a deep, personal commitment and relationship with our Lord, and that we are to rejoice when persecuted for our faith. "Whoopy ding!" you say. "I attend a church where 5,000 attend each Sunday morning and there are bible classes for every age group." God bless you brother. The next time you want to tell the world how holy your church is, check the statistics for the crime rate in your neighborhood. That just might wake you up to the possibility that the doors of your church aren’t open to the poor, orphans, widows, and aliens who are residing in your own community.
This list is certainly not exhaustive. I just picked the number ten because it’s a significant number and makes the point. The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few. God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah because there weren’t ten righteous people in it. Some estimate it had about 120,000 residents. By extrapolation, one can surmise that America has about 330,000,000 citizens. If there aren’t at least 39, 600,000 born-again, bible thumping, turned on, God lovin’, sacrificial, cross bearing followers of Christ He may destroy these currently Un-United States like He did Sodom and Gomorrah. I think we would do well to ask if there are 40 million born-again disciples of Christ, would they be sitting around, letting this country sink into the dregs of the sin in which it currently resides? Sodom and Gomorrah’s sin pales when placed along side the sin of this country. We murder babies, promote freedom of speech and religion, hire aberrant sexual deviants to teach our children in the public school system, preach that drunks have an incurable sickness, grant licenses to strip clubs, gambling casinos, and businesses that serve nothing but alcohol whose sole reason for existence is to get people drunk and make a few bucks in the process. Murderers and rapists walk the streets, or spend their entire lives in prisons that are often more luxurious than many homes in America because we are fearful we might improperly convict one person out of a million. For decades we spent millions of dollars yearly taking illegal aliens back to Mexico while farmers, ranchers, and sweatshops spent millions bringing them back.
I fear if we don’t get the message soon, it will be too late. Nine-Eleven, Hurricane Katrina, floods, tornadoes, earthquakes, mines collapsing, volcanoes erupting, Iraq, Afghanistan, and rising, out of control, crime rate are all signs meant to call us to repentance; and so far they aren’t working. God’s patience is not endless. The land of Canaan (Gen. 15:16; Joshua), Pharaoh of Egypt (Ex. 7-14), and Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen.19) learned that lesson the hard way.
Thus says the Lord,
Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent.
Repent, or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of My mouth.
Indeed, I will cast her on into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds. I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts. And I will give to you according to your works.
Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent.
Therefore if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you.
So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will vomit you out of My mouth.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
It's been quite some time since I have entered notes on this blog. A lot of things have been going on that have prevented me from taking the time to do this. At 64 years of age I have been trying to slow down my life so I can do those things I believe are much more important than making money to pay bills. I have been admonished, quite gently, by both Jordan and Mike to quit my job and be what God has called me to be, a pastor in His local church. I am honored to think that two godly men have come to the same conclusion about my gift or, more specifically, my calling. I believe He has called me to be a pastor/teacher, caretaker of His local church here in Sidney, Mt., so I may be turning in my resignation soon. Sharon and I have had the incredible privilege this week of counseling two dear young believers in Christ about how to make a "Christian" marriage work. Wow! What an unbelievable privilege and opportunity to put 37 years of communion in marriage t0 work helping others. Sharon is an unbelievable specimen of a godly woman. She has stood by my side through good and questionable leadership I have provided for all of those years. She has bitten her tongue trying so desperately to let God's Holy Spirit speak to me without the her input so many times that I'm fairly confident her tongue is raw.
Through all of this, all I can say is, "Thank you Lord Jesus, for knowing what woman I needed to be my helpmate through the trials and tribulations of this life." She left me f0r eighteen days this summer to visit her family in Southern California. The last time she did that was three years ago and it was only for two weeks. That was too much, but it was significantly less than the 18 days she left for this year. I trust you are all getting the point. The older I get, the more I need her at my side, arguing, questioning, challenging, and discovering our purpose in this life. I truly must say, "I don't know how pagan men do it. How do they manage the daily problems life brings to a marriage?" Having a godly woman at my side makes it all so incredibly bearable.
I know I must resolve two agonizing questions in the next few days, weeks, or months; and I would greatly appreciate your prayers for me to administer God's wisdom in the process: 1. Should I immediately quit my current employment? and 2. Should I return to graduate school and get a MA in Divinity or take Cross Cultural Studies for missions. Some may think, Whoa dude, who cares? But I assure you, this is a decision I have wrestled with for decades. I desire to spend my waning years doing all I can to further the kingdom of God. I falter daily because I haven't the energy to do all each day's needs brings. I try to rise at 3 AM to read God's word because my current job does not allow me to read in between assignments like my last one did. But, my current job gives me all weekends off, so I can always be at church on Sundays. But, there is so much more to do at Fellowship Church where I currently attend. I know I could work twelve hours a day doing things for the kingdom of God and still fall far short of all that needs to be done.
Please pray for me to be faithful to implement God's will for Sharon's and my life.
Thanks and God Bless,
Brother Dave
Through all of this, all I can say is, "Thank you Lord Jesus, for knowing what woman I needed to be my helpmate through the trials and tribulations of this life." She left me f0r eighteen days this summer to visit her family in Southern California. The last time she did that was three years ago and it was only for two weeks. That was too much, but it was significantly less than the 18 days she left for this year. I trust you are all getting the point. The older I get, the more I need her at my side, arguing, questioning, challenging, and discovering our purpose in this life. I truly must say, "I don't know how pagan men do it. How do they manage the daily problems life brings to a marriage?" Having a godly woman at my side makes it all so incredibly bearable.
I know I must resolve two agonizing questions in the next few days, weeks, or months; and I would greatly appreciate your prayers for me to administer God's wisdom in the process: 1. Should I immediately quit my current employment? and 2. Should I return to graduate school and get a MA in Divinity or take Cross Cultural Studies for missions. Some may think, Whoa dude, who cares? But I assure you, this is a decision I have wrestled with for decades. I desire to spend my waning years doing all I can to further the kingdom of God. I falter daily because I haven't the energy to do all each day's needs brings. I try to rise at 3 AM to read God's word because my current job does not allow me to read in between assignments like my last one did. But, my current job gives me all weekends off, so I can always be at church on Sundays. But, there is so much more to do at Fellowship Church where I currently attend. I know I could work twelve hours a day doing things for the kingdom of God and still fall far short of all that needs to be done.
Please pray for me to be faithful to implement God's will for Sharon's and my life.
Thanks and God Bless,
Brother Dave
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
