Churches that Thrive

A lot of time and energy is spent trying to get people to come to church to hear God's Word and to celebrate but if I understand the early church correctly the coming together was a culmination of all that was happening during the week. Acts 2:42-47 makes it very clear that salvation was occurring daily and that the believers were the ones who were doing the witnessing and the work of bringing salvation. There is nothing wrong with salvation happening at church but if that is where all Christians believe it is supposed to happen and that it is the pastors' job to do it then the Christian misses out on what God originally intended. The way the Christians spent time together during the week and ate together and opened the Word of God together was enough to bring about a lifestyle of outreach and mission. There are four things that were present that I think we need.

1) They were committed to the teaching of the Apostles. This is a challenge to those who are given the responsibility to teach the Word. What are we giving out that is worthy of someone being devoted to. It has to be so much more than stories and feel good sermons that do very little to create a workable faith that sustains during the week. It has to be sermons that create an "awe" in those believers who listen intently and are committed to sitting under our spiritual teaching. This is a task that is so deeply important to the spiritual growth of the believers in our churches.

2) They were devoted to the fellowship. This is an area that I think we have missed. We have tried to convince people for years that their "church attendance" is what God uses to measure their devotion to Him. The Bible tells us that they were devoted to the fellowship, the body, not he building. How many Christians come to church and totally miss this because they have fulfilled the job of church attendance but are not devoted to the body. Devotion to the body means that we do everything within our power to make sure the body is healthy and maturing. There are a lot of ways that we assemble as believers that shows our devotion to the body but wherever it is it must bring life to the fellowship not harm.

3) They were also devoted to relationships with one another outside the walls of the church. Christians lived with a sense of community that involved communal living which involved confession and Lord's Supper together. Real Christianity involves getting involved in the spiritual development of one another.

4) Finally they prayed together. When we pray with and for one another together, it just does something healthy for the body. Obviously when the church lived this way people came to Christ. We need more of that.

The rest of that passage really gives great insight into the results of Christians who live for God and are devoted to the things that please God, not the things that please us.

A church that lives together in community and devotion is a church that will stay together and impact the world for the sake to the Kingdom.

Waiting to go...

I love the way Luke follows up in his 2nd book in Acts 1:1-5. Jesus gives the command to his Apostles not to leave Jerusalem until God had given the okay by empowering their mission with the Holy Spirt.

I wonder how often I get ahead of God's timing by trying to attempt something that I am not empowered to do. Without the Holy Spirit going with me then there is no heavenly power to accomplish the task. There are many noble tasks that need to be done and it seems that they need to be done now, but without Holy Spirit empowerment then the results will not be what God intended.

So waiting until the Lord says go is just as important than the "going." Going under our own power and influence will make for a discouraging journey and for a less than desirable results. So the key to success in the work of the Lord is:

1) Living under the power of the Holy Spirit and

2) Not doing anything that is not ordained by God and fueled by the leadership of the Holy Spirit.

What have I been trying to do that God never told me to do? I have a feeling that there are a lot of things that I attempt that He never intended for me to do. If they were of Him and empowered by the Holy Spirit then there would be no doubt that they were His because there would be no human explanation for the results. The Apostles waited and when they went there was a huge explosion of Christian growth that can only be explained by Holy Spirit power.

Understanding Which Battles to Fight

I always have admired Peter. He seems to represent so many of us who claim to be followers of Christ. One of the most revealing stories about Peter is the story of his denial of Christ. I have always admired the boldness of Peter. He was the one who seemed to be the most fearless of the disciples of Christ. He knew exactly what to say when the questions came up about loyalty but when the tests came his actions often came up short of his words.

We can quickly criticize someone like Peter for his denial of Christ but we are not so unlike him. Here are some things that I believe we need to understand about Peter's denial of Christ so that we will not fall victim to the same failures.

Luke 22:47-62

1) Peter was willing to kill for Jesus but he was not willing to die for him.

I can't tell you how many times I have heard Christians fight about beliefs in Christ but have not been willing to get out of the ring with other Christians and get on the front lines of battle where the real fight is. We love to talk about how we would do something if we were in someone else's situation but never put ourselves on the battlefield for Christ. Peter was trying to fight a battle that Jesus didn't approve of and failed to fight the one that mattered. We have to be careful about what battles we fight. Make sure they are approved by the Commander in Chief and that they promote the kingdom and not hinder it.

2) Peter followed Christ from a distance.

Following Christ means to follow Him when His popularity is waning. Peter loved it when he was present for the healing and miracles but when Christ was taken prisoner he began to distance himself from the radical teachings of Christ and denied that he even knew him. The days of Christianity being popular are fading and there may be a time in the not so distant future that following Christ closely will mean that we are treated cruelly. We can't distance ourselves from Biblical teaching and standing close to Christ.

3) Peter hung out with those who opposed Christ and tried to blend in.

Finally, Peter tried to distance himself so much from Christ that he sat with those who opposed Christ, not for the purpose of telling them about Christ, but for the purpose of self preservation. He didn't want to be associated with Christ if it meant an unpleasant life for himself.

Too many of us are more interested in fighting about Christ and not enough of us are fighting for Christ. Get on the front lines and let's do battle where Christ has commanded us to.

Questions from Jesus

In reading in the Gospels today of the account of Jesus feeding the 5,000 a question that Jesus asked of Philip really provoked some thoughts in my brain so I just had to write this stuff down. In John's account he wrote, "Jesus said to Philip, 'Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?'" Why would Jesus ask Philip a question that He already knew the answer to? Well he said it to test him. How often has Jesus asked me a question to test me and I didn't even realize it? How many questions have I had that Jesus allowed me to ask just to to test my faith in Him and His abilities? There are so many questions that stir around in my heart and mind even today that Jesus already knows the answer to and He just wants me to trust Him and His provision. Philip had the mathematics figured out but he didn't completely understand the provision of Jesus to overcome the mathematics and financial shortcomings that Philip was worried about. So while we are busy trying to figure out math and finances, Jesus is wanting our trust and faith to be placed in His provision. How relieving this is to know that whatever Jesus sees and knows is needed He is going to take care of through our willingness to trust His provision. Philip was looking at the situation and seeing what the minimum would be to get by and Jesus provided plenty for everyone and then enough for leftovers. How often have we just tried to get by with the minimum and Jesus wants to provide an overabundance to show how faithful He is to those who have faith to trust Him?

Good Friday

The term seems to be a misrepresentation of the gruesome act that was committed to Jesus. It seems a bit morbid at times to "celebrate" what this day represents and call it "good." But in another sense "Good Friday" seems appropriate because of the accomplishment. As we remember the brutal beating that Jesus took on on our behalf how can we be anything but committed to the cause for which He suffered?  Imagine the emotions that the disciples of Jesus went through on that day. The man whom they had been with and walked with was now unjustly arrested, beaten beyond recognition and then treated worse than a murderer as He was nailed to the cross. His suffering was willful and not forced (John 10:18). He was willing to die for me. There were choices (Matthew 26:53) and He chose to sacrifice. 

I guess the challenge for me is to live a sacrificial life for Him. There are choices that I can make each day that will never be equivalent to the sacrifice He made but it is the sacrifice that so many Christians before me have made. The daily sacrifice of dying to my comforts and convenience in order that the message of the Gospel will be known to those I have contact with. God did not save us to live a life of Christian conveniences but a life of self sacrifice so that His name will be known and others will understand and accept the sacrifice that was made on our behalf.

Reflection and thoughts on Outreach

What an incredible youth service we had last night! I have to say that seeing four students boldly stand up to confess they they had just received salvation was something that never gets old. 

Here is what I have been wrestling with lately. I have been concerned that Christians (this includes myself) have just become content to have a great worship service and bring friends to church (who used to go to some other church) and we have neglected those who are unchurched and who don't know Christ. Have we just been rearranging Christians into different churches or are we being Great Commission Christians who are out-reachers as God has instructed us? God told us to go into the world and compel people to come (Luke 14:23). He never said go into other churches and compel them to transfer membership. As long as there are imperfect churches membership transfer will happen without much help but our instruction from God is to go into the world with the Gospel. 

Luke 5 records the story of the paralytic who had some friends who knew that Jesus was the answer to his paralysis and they did whatever it took to get him before Jesus. They ripped a hole in the roof of a home in order to find a way to get him in touch with the one they knew could heal him. Jesus not only healed his physical ailment but He also healed His spiritual ailment. Faith in the Healer motivated these men to bring their crippled friend to the place where he could be touched by Jesus. 

There are so many dads and moms and children that need to be in the presence of the Savior this Sunday. They are paralyzed by so many things that they think are more important than a relationship with God through Jesus. I say we use whatever method is necessary to get them to church on Sunday where they can hear the message of the Gospel of Jesus as we celebrate Resurrection Sunday. 

My son turns 13 today

Well it just doesn't seem like it was 13 years ago that God blessed Tracy and me with our son. Time really does go by so quickly and that is so much more than a cliche, it is reality.  Tracy had a lot of difficulties during her pregnancy with Luke so we should have known that all the pain would be a foreshadowing of someone great in our lives. We knew we were having a boy but once his little life was crying in my arms there was such a feeling of love and responsibility that I knew was going to be different from what I had experienced with my daughters. It was going to be my responsibility to train him and teach him to be a man of God. That is a bit overwhelming. 

Luke has grown to be a very handsome young man (his sisters will disagree) and he has proven to be quite the hunter this year. He killed his first and second deer this year and will constantly remind me that I got none. He is a fan of the LSU Tigers and the Dallas Cowboys and we enjoy going to the games together. He is 100% boy from deer hunting to pestering his two older sisters. He definitely adds so much to our family and I am thankful to God that he gave me a son to enjoy life with.

Today he turns 13 years old and I feel the weightiness of the responsibility like never before. I was reading in Proverbs today about a fathers' responsibility to his son and Proverbs 4:1 is where God landed me for meditation. The verse says, "Hear , O sons, a father's instruction, and be attentive, that you may gain insight." If God is instructing my son to listen to me for instruction and insight then I have a HUGE responsibility to make sure my instruction is sound and my insight is meaningful. I know the struggles that he will face and I know that my relationship with him must be strong enough to withstand the weight of the instruction and insight that I am responsible to give to him. I must understand his gifts and strengths in order to "train him up in the way he should go." I must train him on how to respect young ladies and treat them in a way that he would want the future love of his life to be treated. I must teach him to be strong in the LORD and to depart from evil. It is my responsibility to give him insight into Scripture. If God tells him to listen to me I better have something worth listening to. 

These next few years should be very adventurous for us as he develops into the man that God has called him to be. I just pray that God leads me and helps me be the father with the instruction and insight that my son needs.