Everything

This is great. I wish I knew who the original creator was...or even who did this version, but I couldn't find it. But it is really well done.

Modern Church

I was recently asked a question about some of the biggest social issues facing the church today, and there are many many issues facing the church, but the first thing that came to my mind saddened me a bit. Immediately I thought that the church is at a point now when it is going to have to take a stand and say, "Yes, we are different from the rest of the world." Yes, it says it throughout the Bible repeatedly, but now, with the goal of being "relevant" to the unbeliever there are many cases where the church is becoming so "relevant" that you can't really tell a difference anymore. Yes, I do believe the message of Christ if very relevant to todays society, and I do think that the love of Christ can be spread through modern and creative ways, but I don't think that the church needs to start leaving out pieces of the Bible because it may be offensive or because they believe that it may be flawed because of interpretations. I was talking with one of my friends in Florida about this, click here for his blog, and two peices of scripture came up.

1 Corinthians 9:19-23 (The Message)

^19-23Even though I am free of the demands and expectations of everyone, I have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: religious, nonreligious, meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated, the demoralized—whoever. I didn't take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ—but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. I've become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life. I did all this because of the Message. I didn't just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it!

This means contexualize the Gospel. It is key in reaching the lost. But often this next verse seems like it is often overlooked.

Jude 1:3-4 (New International Version)

³Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. ⁴For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.

I love the word "contend". We can't sway from the truth that we know in order to connect with those who are lost. The truth will make people uncomforable. We have to face it. It's going to happen. For us to say that we need to change the message in order for people to recieve it, is saying that we are able to communicate who God is and what He wants better than He can. Now we're creating our own truth, and changing the grace of God into a license for immorality. That doesn't mean have a fire and brimstone message every Sunday, but it means do not alter the truth to create comfort.

This is where the power of prayer comes into play. Anyone who has talked with me for more than 5 minutes about my philosophy of ministry has heard me say this: It is critcal for me to prepare as though the end result is up to me, but pray like the end result is up to God. I realize that the end result has nothing to do with me and my abilities, but is completely reliant on the power of God. I'm simply saying that we should prepare to the best of our abilities, but pray that God uses our ministry, and that God honors our obedience and diligence to reach the lost by breaking through and speaking to the core of their heart. Pray humbly that God takes our words and our actions, that are otherwise useless without Him, and speaks to their heart in ways that only He can.

We simply need to remember this:

As cliche as this is, it's true. We need to accept and love the sinner, but not the sin. Introduce them to a God who chose to carry the weight of their sins so they no longer have to live in it. Introduce people to a love that wants to make them perfect before the throne. Contend for our faith.

Grateful Expressions..

I must say, that I am guilty of being grateful for the wrong things on occasions. Well, let me take that back. Not grateful for the wrong things, but I have expressed more gratitude for the wrong things. Does that make sense?? Let me explain.

It's sometimes hard to hide your emotion when you get really really excited or are really thankful for something. For example, have you ever been able to go on a roller coaster you love, and not have a huge smile on your face (prior to getting sick)? Doubtful. Or how about opening a present that you really, really wanted, or really needed and possibly shed a tear because you were so grateful and happy? Rarely. I get really excited if there's a mistake when I go through the drive through and find I was given an extra order of French Fries!
My point is simply this. How easy is it to over look the best gift we have ever or will ever receive. I"m talking about the cross. It's almost as though we don't fully understand the Gospel. We no longer are under the same laws as old testament scripture. I mean, before they could even go and worship God they had to bring a sacrifice of some sort. That may sound simple, but it was a very complicated process. I could only imagine what it would be like.

Walking around one day, and wanting to repent of our sin and worship God. So, immediately I start to think, hmmm, what can I take to the high priest as a sacrifice. So after hours of the constant weight of my sin, and draining mental process of thinking of a sacrifice good enough. I take my sacrifice to the high priest only to hear...."oooohhh, I'm sorry, but this isn't going to work..Come back when you have something better" AAhhHH, WHAT! Get the crap out of here! Now out of anger I go and sin again, and THEN, I have to find a sacrifice to cover the first sin, and because of my jacked up first attempt, I gotta find TWO!

Ok Maybe it didn't look exactly like that, but you get my point. Here's the beauty behind the cross. We no longer have to go through the very narrow process to worship God! We can just say, "Hey!" and we're talking to God. Just say "I'm sorry"and God hears us. Actually no matter what we're doing, we're in His presence. We serve the God of Jacob! We can wrestle with God, we can listen to God, we can seek Gods face! Isn't that flippin awesome! Do we really understand what it means when we say, "The price has been paid!"? Do we understand what was paid when we say, "Jesus, paid it all"? So, if you visualize a cross before you worship, or if your church has a big cross behind the pull pit, do we just think of the name Jesus, or do we think of what Jesus did? Some may even overlook the constant reminder of what that means, and say, oh yeah that's just here cause it's a church. Some may say, "Yeah, Jesus died on the cross." OK, true, but that's wrong. We should say, "YEAH!!! Jesus died on the cross!!!" OK! Do you know what Jesus CHOSE to do for us because He loved us? He became our sacrifice that was taken to the high priest, so because of Him, we can actually worship freely! Because of Him, forgiveness is an easy thing to get! We're not under old testament laws, only though Jesus can we get to God! Look at what it says in John 14:6

"I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me."

Is that not a reason to get really excited! Is that not a reason to smile, laugh, weep tears of joy, even scream uncontrollably. Do you see it now? The Cross...A Gift! Freedom..A Gift! Repentance...A gift!
How are we expressing gratitude? What are we expressing gratitude in? Do we express more gratitude in free french fries than we do God? What about the gift Jesus chose to give us? Do we really acknowledge it? My grandmother used to threaten to take back my Christmas gifts if I didn't cry. She never did, but could you imagine if that's what Jesus did. Thank goodness our gratitude doesn't really have to look a certain way. We all have different expressions. The only thing we need to do is accept this gift, and be real in however we say thank you.