Our Christian walk is our responsibility, in the fact that we are to walk by faith and work diligently toward our goal of salvation. We are saved by grace as stated in this verse; "God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can't take credit for this; it is a gift from God," Ephesians 2:8?. But the Bible also states faith without works is dead. I am not saying that by your works you can earn your own way into heaven, Jesus told him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. John 14:6.
I'm just simply saying that keeping your Christian walk on the straight and narrow will be something you have to work at to achieve. To break it down further we can start by saying we are saved by grace in the fact that Jesus Christ died in our place. He was buried for three days and was resurrected. He was God's perfect lamb; the Holy, one that the prophets of the Old Testament refer to. It took that sacrifice, that perfect spotless without sin sacrifice, from God to save us. If you read in, Gen.-?, you will see that God is making a way for us even after the fall of the first man and woman.
Here are just some things we are called to do:
To love God
To love each other as ourselves.
To be Holy because He is Holy.
I believe what the apostles are saying is don't just get saved and sit around like so many, myself included. Get up and go out among others and show them what God has done for you. The thing is that no matter what excuse you can come up with it will not hold water against the things that the Lord has asked us to do concerning this topic. It will be a priority to you if you want it to be. If we read in our Bibles Jesus was always amongst the people sharing God with everyone he encountered along the way. He did not sit idol.
We should be examples. And those examples should far exceed our homes and the workplace. How do we expect new believers to do these things if it is not modeled for them? Verse Spread the good news? If called is telling you to do something then I encourage you to be courageous and ready to step out in faith but only after you have spent a considerable amount of time in prayer.
I know how difficult it is, for about ten years I ran from God and what He wanted me to do. I could never wrap my head around how it would all fit together. The home I grew up in didn't go to church. The only thing I knew about God was that His name was attached to curse words. And I will shamefully admit that such words were in my regular vocabulary up until I was about 18 years old. I didn't know that God really existed, nor did I know that what I was doing was wrong. The worst part was that noone told me that I could go to hell for living this way.
It scares me when I look back over my life and see how easily God could have left me in my condition. Thank God for the people who not only live by the word, but also worked in, and shared the word to the lost. I know I was a very lost individual. But God started placing people in my life, that would help Him change the course of direction for me.
Thursday, September 25, 2014
Monday, April 28, 2014
Division Among The Church Today
In churches today, we have a huge melting pot of personalities and agendas. And being an individual in a leadership role within the church is very difficult because if we move too much in the wrong direction with the conflict it will damage what our main goal is, which is to further the advancement of Christ.
Many times, we are faced with obstacles that must be handled as opposed to being pushed aside and one of these obstacles is division among the members of the congregation. Because of this and because of the evidence of division or discord in the early church, Paul addressed this many times. He too, knew that it was very important not to become distracted with the trivial situations that could drive us away from glorifying the Lord.
The Corinthian church was having so many differences of a opinion that it was actually causing division among them as well as paralyzing any growth or any outreach to the community. Paul addressed this very common problem as a way of instructing them on how better to handle the situations that spark amongst them. These instructions and details can still apply to the church today.
Since we are of this world, we will not only have to fight the enemy individually in our daily lives but we will also have to as a church. Just because we are surrounded by those four walls of the church building does not mean that the devil can not creep in and destroy what we are doing to further the advancement of the Gospel.
I know in my own church I have seen this play out in many different situations. Many people have even stated that the division in the church body is very evident to everyone and that until it is addressed&brought under control that the church will not grow. I personally believe that when you hear this among the congregation it is there way of crying out for help because they know that we are failing to do our job as believers adequately.
Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 1:10, .....that the members of the church should be perfectly united in mind and thought (my paraphrase). We must not allow things of this world to divide us. We are all in this together and we must fight the enemy at every turn so that we can win as many souls as we are able before the Lord's return.
Many times, we are faced with obstacles that must be handled as opposed to being pushed aside and one of these obstacles is division among the members of the congregation. Because of this and because of the evidence of division or discord in the early church, Paul addressed this many times. He too, knew that it was very important not to become distracted with the trivial situations that could drive us away from glorifying the Lord.
The Corinthian church was having so many differences of a opinion that it was actually causing division among them as well as paralyzing any growth or any outreach to the community. Paul addressed this very common problem as a way of instructing them on how better to handle the situations that spark amongst them. These instructions and details can still apply to the church today.
Since we are of this world, we will not only have to fight the enemy individually in our daily lives but we will also have to as a church. Just because we are surrounded by those four walls of the church building does not mean that the devil can not creep in and destroy what we are doing to further the advancement of the Gospel.
I know in my own church I have seen this play out in many different situations. Many people have even stated that the division in the church body is very evident to everyone and that until it is addressed&brought under control that the church will not grow. I personally believe that when you hear this among the congregation it is there way of crying out for help because they know that we are failing to do our job as believers adequately.
Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 1:10, .....that the members of the church should be perfectly united in mind and thought (my paraphrase). We must not allow things of this world to divide us. We are all in this together and we must fight the enemy at every turn so that we can win as many souls as we are able before the Lord's return.
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
We Are Nothing Without Good Character
INTEGRITY
It seems a like simple enough word, but what a lot of us misunderstand or may even forget is the power this word may hold for many of us. Especially when it falls under the category of "shepherding" God's people. It is a subject so often misjudged or maybe judged correctly just wrongly placed on one, if not all of those of us pursuing a Pastoral position.
More often than not I have been in a position where I tell people around me that I'm attending school to become a minister and while most of the reactions I receive are favorable there are times that the minority are not. There are many people out there that feel that a Pastor or minister cannot be trusted. And while I see there point, I don't agree with it.
I try to teach my children that integrity means everything. It can be something that holds a lot of power over your life. So that is why it is of utmost importance that you nourish it and cause it to grow. Mainly because some where, some way someone will see if you will in secret or when no one is looking hold up your end of the deal. Daniel was an excellent example of how we should be.
I think where a lot of ministers go wrong is they get out of their immediate contact and closeness with God and that is when "self" envelops you and you are no longer focused on the One you should be focusing on. Ministers need to keep at the fore front of their mind is that their bad decisions cost us--the ones coming up behind them dearly.
Because right out of the gate we are met with opposition and it takes everything we have&everything that the Holy Spirit has given us the power to achieve to be able to win these doubting people to the Lord. So we get a fight from the very beginning. Character allows the leader to do the right thing even when its the hardest to do or achieve.
Our congregation as well as others we come in contact with on a daily or even infrequent basis need to know that we can be trusted. Without keeping ourselves in check, sin tends to creep in and then we are lead down a path that is treacherous and corrupt.
It seems a like simple enough word, but what a lot of us misunderstand or may even forget is the power this word may hold for many of us. Especially when it falls under the category of "shepherding" God's people. It is a subject so often misjudged or maybe judged correctly just wrongly placed on one, if not all of those of us pursuing a Pastoral position.
More often than not I have been in a position where I tell people around me that I'm attending school to become a minister and while most of the reactions I receive are favorable there are times that the minority are not. There are many people out there that feel that a Pastor or minister cannot be trusted. And while I see there point, I don't agree with it.
I try to teach my children that integrity means everything. It can be something that holds a lot of power over your life. So that is why it is of utmost importance that you nourish it and cause it to grow. Mainly because some where, some way someone will see if you will in secret or when no one is looking hold up your end of the deal. Daniel was an excellent example of how we should be.
I think where a lot of ministers go wrong is they get out of their immediate contact and closeness with God and that is when "self" envelops you and you are no longer focused on the One you should be focusing on. Ministers need to keep at the fore front of their mind is that their bad decisions cost us--the ones coming up behind them dearly.
Because right out of the gate we are met with opposition and it takes everything we have&everything that the Holy Spirit has given us the power to achieve to be able to win these doubting people to the Lord. So we get a fight from the very beginning. Character allows the leader to do the right thing even when its the hardest to do or achieve.
Our congregation as well as others we come in contact with on a daily or even infrequent basis need to know that we can be trusted. Without keeping ourselves in check, sin tends to creep in and then we are lead down a path that is treacherous and corrupt.
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