Don't Pretend To Care If You Don't

There is a lot of emphasis on our personal place in the Kingdom. It's a lot of "me" stuff. The Church markets itself as a great place to be with all the various services that we offer. In many ways church is big business and so it is marketed as big business. The seats have to be just right, the music too. Success depends on how many parking spots we have and whether our building has just the right number of seats/people ratio to promote growth. It's all about formulas and systems and no one sees anything wrong with it.

I didn't realize we were responsible for church growth. I mistakenly thought it was the responsibility of the Holy Spirit.

I really thought that we were just responsible for spreading the gospel, telling people about Jesus and helping them grow in the Lord. I thought salvation and all the other stuff belonged to the Lord. Well, of course it does and it is the reason we have cheapened the Church and faith with all this marketing stuff. How do we handle what Jesus taught:

The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how. For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head. But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come. (Mark 4:26-29)  

Does this not clearly tell us who is in the driver's seat? We scatter the seed. We go out and tell as many people as we can about Jesus. Anyone who will actually give us a few minutes we tell them about the greatest news ever. Our testimony is a seed. The Spirit is going to do something with that seed. He is going to grow it until the heart is ready. Then another worker will come in and that person will enter into the Kingdom.

Now you can complicated it if you want but I don't see why you would try to improve on what Yahweh is doing. You can attend as many evangelism classes as you want. You can learn as many techniques as you want. You can take as many psychology courses as you want. You can write as many books as you want. It still comes down to us going out and talking to people about Jesus. But we don't.

We are quickly losing our love for telling others about Jesus. It is more the attitude of "live and let live" or perhaps it is more accurate to say "live and let die". We have lost the sense of urgency that so many generations before us had. I think it's because we either don't believe it any more or we just don't care what happens to anyone else. We don't care that people are going to hell and we have the answer. We don't care enough to put ourselves out, to take a risk, to show love and compassion by scattering seed; telling others about Jesus.

I think we should at least be honest with ourselves. We go to seminars and take training to deflect the attention from the fact that we aren't doing it. We appear to be doing it by going to training but we show our lack of compassion by not doing anything with the knowledge we have gained; knowledge that complicates that simple task of talking to people. Jesus said the mark of genuine relationship is to "hear" and then "do it". There is no getting around Jesus. Either we obey or we don't. We either scatter the seed or we don't. We either believe he will do something with our testimony or we don't.

So either go back to what you were doing (I am sorry for disturbing you) or start flapping your gums about Jesus. We talk about what we are excited about. I hope you are more excited about Jesus than anything else, so you talk about him more than anything else. Just don't pretend that you care if you don't.

Christ Is All, And Is In All

Looking at the history of the Church it is not hard to tell that transformation was not always understood. For far too long the Church was used by powerful men to get what they wanted. It was a tool used to hold power over the masses. Much of our history is a thing of shame. Remnants remained but the vast majority of people had no idea what it was to be alive in Jesus. This is seen in the dark parts of our history when men and women were judged because of their nationality or the colour of their skin.

I think one of the most beautiful, poetic and truly wonderful verses of the Bible is this:

Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all. (Colossians 3:11)

I think Jesus demonstrated this fact when he chose Matthew, the tax collector, and Judas, the Zealot, to be his disciples. When we are in Jesus, it does not matter our trade, nationality, skin colour, education, financial situation or position in society; we are all his disciples and all that matters to us is Jesus.

There are really only two groups on the face of this planet: those who are a new creation and those who are enslaved to their sin nature. That is all that we should see as a people alive in Jesus. We should know God's heart for those who are enslaved and we should share that heart. All of our focus and desire should be to see the enslaved set free because that is all our Father desires and it is the reason Jesus died. It is why you are where you are right and our desire should be to see everyone come to the same place of freedom.

We accept and believe with all our heart what John 3:16 says, that "whoever" believes will be saved. There is no prejudice in the Body of Christ. There is no judgement. There is no special or select group of people. Everyone has been called to repentance. Everyone has been called to Jesus. He was lifted up that all eyes would look upon him and be saved. Salvation is for everyone and to everyone we must bring it.

You don't need to go out of your country to find those who are enslaved; they exist on your street. In my province 0.3% of the population are born again Christians. There are a lot of people enslaved on my street, in my town and I have been given the responsibility to lift Jesus up to them. It doesn't matter the language they speak or the religion they belong to. It doesn't matter their age or sex. It doesn't matter if they are rich or poor. They need Jesus and I have to tell them about him.

What is your focus? Where is your heart? What is your mind set upon? Do you possess the mind of Christ? Do you share God's desire? Have you been transformed or conformed? Are you on a mission? Do you want to see the captives set free? Then go, make disciples of everyone.  

Fighting For The Walking Dead

Sometimes it can be frustrating to have unbelieving friends and family. They face so much and go through so much, suffering in their unbelief yet believing that this is all normal. For those of us with eyes to see, God's presence and desire to rescue is plain and visible, but for our friends, whose minds and hearts are clouded by sin, God does not exist. Sometimes we just want to shake them but until they are willing to consider the possibility of God they are blind and deaf to God's love. The psalmist called them fools:

The fool says in his heart, 
   “There is no God.” 
They are corrupt, their deeds are vile;    there is no one who does good. (Psalm 14:1)

It is hard for people to understand that we are born with this rebellious nature and because of it we were born as enemies of God. In contrast to his goodness we come off looking evil. Even the wisest, kindest, most compassionate human being comes across as evil in comparison to God's holiness. The psalmist writes:

The LORD looks down from heaven 
   on all mankind 
to see if there are any who understand, 
   any who seek God. 
All have turned away, all have become corrupt; 
   there is no one who does good,    not even one. (Psalm 14:2-3)

For the sake of our family and friends we need to make sure we do not get lolled into a false sense of security for our friends. Sometimes, because they appear to be good and we love them so much, we create this false idea that they will be okay, that God will understand. We need to remember that we were all born evil, rebellious and are in need of rescue from our sins. Jesus is that rescue. We may be kind to one another but it's our relationship with God that determines our salvation. The evil we perpetrate may not be against each other but when we deny God we are showing the evil content of our heart. Paul explained in his letter to the church in Rome:

For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. (Romans 1:20)

God has been revealing himself since the beginning of time. Those who decide to seek him will find him; God will not hide himself from those who seek. This means that we are without excuse. There is no acceptable excuse for denying God. Such denial leads only to a worsening of our condition:

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. (Romans 1:21)

This is the story of the history of man but it is also the personal history of each unbeliever. The more God reveals himself, his love, goodness, mercy and grace the more the rebellious dig in their heals. They become more determined in their rebellion. Those who are the most under conviction can become the worse type of sinners as they fight against God. But something happens in this struggle. Either they give up the struggle and allow themselves to be rescued by Jesus, or they are allowed to sink even deeper into the depravity of their thinking:

Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. (Romans 1:24-25)

Again, this is the history of man but also the history of each unbeliever. Perhaps you have met some people like this who spew hatred toward anything to do with God, including his people. It almost appears like they go out of their way with their sin to show just how much they are against faith in God. Paul writes a list of behaviours as an example and then he states:

Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them. (Romans 1:32)

That's what really hurts, when people who are so far gone in their attitude and behaviour try to entice others to join them. It is like the atheist movement spending millions of dollars on advertising trying to convince others to turn away from God. It is like the parades held throughout the world encouraging people to celebrate rebellion against God's holiness. We see it all around us every day, in TV shows, movies, music; the invitation to join in the rebellion. Unfortunately it is working just as the Word said it would:

But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. (2 Timothy 3:1-5)

So understand the times in which we live and wake up to the danger facing your friends and family. What is reputation compared to eternal damnation? We know the world has shifted and now we are hated more than ever but let's make sure we are hated for the right reasons. Let's be hated because we speak the Word of Life and not because of indifference. Let's be passionate again about those who are on the road to destruction. Let's pray and fight for them, even when they spew hatred back at us. Let's not give up but instead be inspired by Jesus' love, the love that never gave up on us.

Do not allow the enemy to loll you to sleep with a false sense of security with your friends. If you truly love them you will continue to press upon them the truth of their condition and never give up, making the most of every opportunity. Be patient and kind, remaining consistent in the application of Jesus' love for the lost. It is what we have been called to do.