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,
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,
posted by Lisa @Me and My House @ 7/10/2005 10:53:00 PM
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