One Job To Do

 The world seems to know what the church's job is better than the church does. I regularly read how the church is supposed to feed the hungry and to clothe the naked and to house the homeless and to provide schools.  Many churches do food pantries and have meals for anyone in need.  This is not evil. This is just missing the point.

The modern church has only one reason to exist and that is to be salt and light in the earth. Our only excuse for existing is that we are a testimony to the world of Jesus Christ. We do that by preaching the gospel.

"And He said unto them, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will follow those who believe: in My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover." Mark 16:17-18

No where in this message from the Lord is there any mention of food or clothing or housing.

One more thought. Winning souls is important, but so is healing the sick. Pastor Mitchell was obeying God by conducting salvation/healing crusades.

Out Loud

Here is something that is puzzling to me. How is it that some folks in church are silent. Not as far as witnessing goes, but I am talking about in church. There are times when I walk into the prayer room before a service and I feel like no one is praying out loud. Often they are sitting with heads bowed, but no sound comes from their mouths. There are times when you must pray silently. But in corporate prayer before service it is a time to pray out loud.

Another thing that puzzles me is how some people do not sing or worship in church. They are not mad dogging the song leader or staring at the pastor. They just stand there silent, not singing or lifting their hands to God or speaking in tongues.

As a Pentecostal church, being silent in prayer and in worship is strange to me. Are these people not Spirit filled? Are they more Evangelical than Pentecostal?

On Saturday morning we have prayer. After praying we sing. That small group at Saturday morning prayer meeting makes more noise singing and praying and worshiping than our whole church does on Sunday morning sometimes.

"And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance." Acts 2:4

"we hear them speaking..." Acts 2:11

"Others mocking said, they are full of new wine." Acts 2:13

If you cannot speak in tongues or pray out loud or worship freely then maybe you do not have what I have. 

Things That I Was Reminded Of This Morning

 "...so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth."1Tim.3:15

Today our pastor reminded us that we become like the God that we worship. Or else we become like the gods that we worship. Your God is the one to whom you dedicate the best of your time, your talent, and your money.

I also was reminded how those people who worship false gods and idols hate God.

"You shall not make for yourself a carved image-any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me." Exod. 20:4-5

Finally I was reminded of the scripture in Psalm 9: 20 that says "put them in fear, o Lord, that the nations may know themselves to be but men."

Sometimes I wonder if we ought to pray for the leaders of our Fellowship, that the Lord would remind them that they are but men too.

See, after all these years, I still get something by being in church and hearing sermons.

Self-Evident Truths

 "We hold these truths to be self-evident..." US Declaration of Independence

Here are a few things that I find ought to be self evident in our Fellowship.

1.New converts are the life blood of any church. They add a dimension to our Fellowship that we desperately need. Without a stream of new converts we find ourselves just hanging on.

2. New converts and our youth are the keys to revival. Grandma and grandpa will pray and give and support the vision. But it is young people who see visions, not old people.

3. We always need to be reminded to only run with the runners. There are those on the cutting edge who need a challenge and an example. There are those who stay by the stuff. Remember that 80% of the work is always done by 20% of the people.

4. Everyone is valuable. Some for what they do now. Some for what they used to do back then.

5. Pastors never retire. Unless they are forced out by infirmity. Many ought to retire, but no one will.

Do these thing seem self-evident to you?

What Can You Do With A General

 "Now it came to pass, a long time after the Lord had given rest to Israel from all their enemies round about, that Joshua was old, advanced in age." Josh.23:1

By the end of Joshua's life it had been years since the fighting stopped and the land was divided and the people began to occupy their inheritance. Joshua had led the people after the death of Moses. He had followed the Lord faithfully. And by the end of this book Joshua had been long retired. His sermon in these final chapters was the final address Joshua would give publicly.

We think that we will live at our prime years forever. We think that we will never slow down. We think that God will sustain and support us and that we, if we are lucky, will die in the saddle.

"Old soldiers never die, they just fade away." is how Douglas McArthur said it in his final address to Congress in 1951. His war fighting was over long before he faded away.

"What can you do with a general, when he stops being a general" Bing Crosby sang in White Christmas.

Joshua had stopped being a general long before he died. He did nothing noteworthy after he retired. Could this be one of the reasons why pastors never retire, they are afraid of having nothing to do and becoming irrelevant? You can become irrelevant and still be in the pulpit.

Back in olden days men retired and then wrote books about what they learned. Too bad no one reads books anymore.

In Person is Best

 I am grateful to be in good health again. I am still taking several meds to deal with heart failure. But the meds are working. My doctor today told me that if it isn't broken, don't fix it. So I will continue the regimen ordered by my cardiologists and I will continue to take care of myself.

Much of what you read online covers such generalities as to be of little specific use for me. This is why I go for regular visits to my doctor. He knows me and he knows what I need to stay healthy. The pseudo-doctors online do not know me or my particular condition.

What is true of medical treatment is also true of spiritual treatment. There is no substitute for attending church services in person. My pastor knows me and he knows what I need. He has a stake in the outcome of my life, as one who must give an account.

Remember, it's the banana that leave the bunch that gets skinned.

The Bible Is God's Word. Period.

 I want to cast my vote for making the Bible the word of God. Period. Not the writings of any man or the thoughts and revelations of particular individuals. We use book, chapter, and verse to help us locate something in the Bible. But I think that by calling it by the authors name, we cheapen God's word to us.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Jn.1:1

Christ is the word of God made flesh. But He did not write his own biography. Yet since He is the Word we can rightly cite his teachings and quote His words as Gospel. Not so with Moses or David or Paul. 

I just think that we need to stop saying that this is what Paul said or this is what Solomon said. Let's let God's word be God's word and let God's word speak for itself. No matter what style of preaching you practice, it revolves around God's word. God anoints His word, not ours.

We are way past the time when the Bible was put together. We are way beyond the time when it first came to our attention who wrote what and why.  Let God be true, and every man a liar.