Check it Out - Homeboy

Check out this great blog posted yesterday by Nicholas Jackson of Reform America.

Jesus is My Homeboy?
By Nicholas Jackson

At Jesus' feet,
Lisa

Count it all Joy!

Greetings from Me and My House,

"Count it all joy when you fall in various trials." Has that always been your favorite verse? I really don't see many Christians applying this one - me included. But this I know, God wrote it; it is truth; I need to do it.

I wrestle with God's Sovereignty and man's sin. Although I know that God works all things for good for those that love Him and are called according to His purpose, I don't believe that sin is God's design and plan. But this I do know, God allows sin, and the good that He wants to bring out of it is the conforming of my character to the image of Christ.

Clay that I am, I don't like being pushed and squeezed. I don't like being in the heat of the fire. But...

He works good for those that love Him and are called according to His purpose, so when others sin against me, and I am in the midst of various trials, I can - WILL - count it all JOY, because He is conforming me to the image of His Son, as I submit to His work in my life.

At Jesus' feet,

Meeting People's Needs

Greetings from Me and My House,

I'm having a "no brainer" moment. So if you get offended by reading "no brainers" just skip today's blog.

It is said that if you tell people they are sinners, they won't "come to church". Duh!! People that are unregenerate don't need to "come to church". The Church is the Body of Christ, therefore unregenerate people aren't part of the Church - so why do they need to "go to church"? Why would they want to?

They are totally opposed to it and its ways. Duh!! They are at enmity with God, why would they want to gather together with Christ's Body to worship Him? So tell me, just why is it that the gathering of the saints for corporate worship would want to conform to the world to appeal to the unsaved? They aren't gathering together for them. They are gathering to worship God. It isn't about the sinners or their comfort. It is about the saints worshipping, praying, and feeding for growth on God's Word. The 'natural man' (unsaved) cannot understand spiritual things. Period. It is only by the drawing power of God's Holy Spirit that man has any interest in the things of God.

Man-made, especially pragmatic humanistic, methods cannot draw man to God. They can draw man to "church" and programs that the 'natural' man may think can meet his needs, but he will be left in his uncomfortable sins, sitting in a comfortable church, without the drawing, saving power of God. Filling the "church" with unregenerated people and trying to help them feel good? Why?

What unregenerate people need is to be saved, not "go to church". They are lost and need to be found. They have problems that need to be fixed. Duh!! They have no hope of anything else, without the Truth. They need to realize that they are in rebellion to the Almighty God, their Creator, and that their need is to repent, and be converted. Then and only then will they want to gather with the saints to worship God, to learn the depths of His Word. Only then will they not be offended by the message of the Cross. Then and only then will they have any hope for their true needs to be met.

"Church" is not somewhere for unregenerate people to go to, to feel better about themselves. Church is someone, the Body of Christ, and their assembly together, not to stir and please their flesh, but to strengthen their spirit, giving them the grace to crucify the flesh.

It is said that Jesus met people's (sinners') needs. Duh!! Of course He did. He met their physical as well as spiritual needs. What He did not do was stroke their carnal self esteem (ego).

This message is not callous to sinners' needs. Quite the contrary; that is exactly my concern. I'm not advocating that we walk up to people and tell them they are sinners and going to hell unless they change their ways. Though that is certainly Truth, it must be told in love. No, I have a really novel idea, when people recognize/ admit they have a need, how about we introduce them, not to 'going to church' so they feel better through pop pyschology, but to Jesus the Messiah? How about we tell them of the Almighty, Holy, Righteous God who made everything including them, who loved them so much he came to earth as a sinless man to take the punishment for all of their sins, IF they believe in Him, repent for their sins, turn away from them that they may be truly changed into an entirely new creature. That they put all their trust in Jesus and lay down their life for Him, denying their flesh and picking up their cross to follow Him. Its a radical idea, but hey it's worked for thousands of years and God Himself thought of it. How about we give it a try?

Perhaps we might even have evangelistic meetings for those that God is drawing, that want to learn more of Him and the different life He will give them - the Full Gospel message for those that are truly seeking and have ears to hear. Whoa, what a concept! Perhaps we might even talk to them ourselves and lead them to a saving knowledge of and relationship with the Lord.

I just started a new book I got. (Yes, in the middle of writing this.) I'm not even to the end of the first chapter, so I don't know how good it is or isn't yet. But it sounds promising. It's called Set Apart. A quote from the first chapter says what I'm saying, so much nicer: "A worldly church cannot and will not reach the world. The church must be distinct from the world to reach the world. We must set ourselves apart to God if we hope to reach the world. In a word, the only hope for us and the lost world is a holy church.
"From the onset God's plan for reaching the world has been to create a people distinct from the world who would then minister to and reach the world." Novel idea for meeting people's true needs.

At Jesus' feet,

4 'W' Churches

There are several kinds of churches in America. I'm not talking about different denominations, or different religions. I'm talking about aspects of "Christian" churches. I can sum up 4 kinds with 4 W's.

Many of the most common ones today - found throughout a WIDE difference of doctrine and denomination backgrounds from one another, dead, alive, whatever - is the Worldly church. These are "market driven", denying the sufficiency of Scripture (perhaps not vocally or consciencely) adding much psychology, pragmatism, and entertainment to make the gospel appealing to the masses. Now I'm not against reaching the world, just justifying pragmatic methods that compromise the Gospel to do so, and I question the true and lasting "fruit" of such.

Then there is the Weird church. They have taken Bible truths of freedom and power and left the ones of holy living and reverance behind. They're usually pretty pragmatic too, attempting to justify anything by "God told me so." Now I'm not against "God told me so", nor freedom in Christ, nor the power of the Holy Spirit alive and active today, only when the "word from God" is against clear Scripture commands and principles, and freedom becomes a license to sin, and power is man-constructed.

Then there is the Wasting church. The ones that are both dead and dying. They follow a ritual with no life in it. Make a check list of the few things they should do, and if they're done it doesn't matter what else they do. I'm not against Disciplines, only when they replace a transforming relationship with God.

What I'm wanting to see is a WOW church. One full of passion, purity, power, and purpose. A church based wholly on His Word, walking in the power of the Holy Spirit, trusting in the redemptive blood of Jesus. A church that loves God with all its heart, soul, and mind. A church that is set apart to be holy. A church that proclaims the Word in power with signs and wonders following. A church that has a mission calling from God that they pursue wholeheartedly for His glory alone by His prescribed methods. Many of the above churches may claim to be this, but ... I just don't see it.

At Jesus' feet,