by Angela Sanders | Feb 9, 2017
Church bashing seems to be a favorite pastime these days, both for those outside the Church and those inside. Why? I’m not sure. My best guess is that those outside do so hoping the Church will hear them and change for the better, and those inside do so to let outsiders know they’re heard, so they’ll give the Church another chance and/or stay open to the Gospel message. I sure hope I’m right!
Both are positive goals, but the ends do not justify the means. In fact, they are counterproductive.
Jesus loves the Church. He died for Her. If you are a member of the Church, He expects you to love Her like He does (John 13:34-35). If you’re not a member of the Church, He still expects you to treat Her with respect (Matt 10:11-14).
Not feeling it? It doesn’t really matter. In matters of obedience, God’s will trumps personal perference every time.
For those of you who may be struggling to act your way into feeling right now, here are a few tips to help you on your way:
Consider Her a collective whole. According to Scripture, “we who are many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another” (Rom 12:4-5). That Christian you don’t particularly like? Assuming he/she is actually a follower of Christ and hasn’t just hijacked the name like so many do these days, he/she is just as much a part of the Church as that Christian you naturally love. They are not mutually exclusive.
To hate the Church is to hate them both. To love the Church is to love them both. To discuss/address the Church is to discuss/address them both, so choose your words carefully, both those you speak to others and those you speak to yourself. Don’t use the word Church unless you mean every single member, or you might unintentionally wound someone you love, incriminate an innocent, and/or talk yourself or someone else into believing something that’s just not true. Be as selective and specific as possible.
Don’t confuse Her with Jesus. Jesus alone is perfect (Heb 4:15). The rest of us are working on it with the Holy Spirit’s help (2 Cor 3:18), but we aren’t there yet. We don’t claim to be the Way of salvation, only to know the Way. If you hold us up against Jesus and expect from us what you yourself cannot deliver, you’ll be disappointed every time. We are His ambassadors, after all, not His substitutes (2 Cor 5:20).
Expect Her to make mistakes. “The (Church) body is one and has many parts” (1 Cor 12:12). As none of those parts will be made perfect until they are reunited with Christ (Phil 1:6), they’re going to act up from time to time—to different degrees and with different motives, granted—but members of the Church are never unanimously guilty of the sin you discern in the few, or even the many. If they were, God would likely go ahead and snatch the Church home rather than have His name disgraced.
Remember, even as some members are failing and offending, others are doing their dead level best to love and serve with the Holy Spirit’s help. Let that encourage you. Of course, Christians shouldn’t act up, and they know better, but that’s how it goes when you’re wrestling with that sin nature we all share (Rom 7:24-25).
Understand, regeneration of those who put their faith in Jesus Christ for salvation may be instantaneous (2 Cor 5:17), but transformation into the image of Jesus Christ takes a lifetime. Rather than being disillusioned by the inevitable, choose instead to be encouraged by the grace and mercy God has shown toward helpless sinners like us. We are proof there’s hope for everyone.
Rebuke Her properly. Don’t drag the Bride of Christ into the public square and stone Her. If you have a problem with something that one, several, or many of her members have done, go to whatever lengths necessary to handle the conflict discreetly and in person as the Bible requires (Matt 18:15-20).
When private rebuke is not possible, take time to calm yourself so your anger doesn’t lead you to sin (Eph 4:26), consider whether or not you’re the right person to address the issue (Matt 7:3-5), and choose your words carefully, being as specific as possible and seasoning your words with salt (Col 4:6) to preserve life through the power of the Holy Spirit.
After all, should your words bring sorrow or remorse, you want it to be the kind that leads to repentance, not the kind that leads to discouragement and death (2 Cor 7:10). The consequences, should you cause anyone inside or outside the Church to stumble, are not worth any temporary satisfaction delivering a public ‘zinger,’ growing a fan base, or earning likes/shares might bring you (Luke 17:1-2).
Forgive Her. Emotions aside, release the Church of any debt you feel She owes you so you can move ahead in your own relationship with God (Matt 6:15). It’s really not as hard as we make it sometimes. Simply extend to Her the same grace and mercy God has extended to you out of gratitude and love for Him, treating Her better than She deserves and showing restraint in your response to Her. Your emotions will follow.
Serve Her. “Where your treasure lies, there your heart will be also” (Matt 6:21). Want to like/love the Church? Invest in her and see if you don’t start taking a personal interest in Her health and well-being. Besides, if you’re the one who knows what’s what and you walk away, where does that leave the rest of us? At that point, you have no right to complain.
Pray for Her. Pray that She will live up to God’s expectations, not yours, and you’ll get results (1 John 5:14-15), assuming, of course, that you are living up to God’s expectations as well (Jas 5:16). Over time, your faith-filled prayers will align your will with God’s and you’ll become a co-laborer with the Church instead of Her enemy, able to discern the necessary changes your prayers have helped bring about.
Bottom line? Whether you are a member of the Church or not, you must tread lightly. Bashing Her is serious business. She is the Bride of Christ, after all, and Her Bridegroom isn’t someone you want to mess with.
by Caleb Gordon | Feb 7, 2017
Matthew 5:13-16
“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”
There is no denying that our world is going at breakneck speed into Crazy Town. If you turn on the news or visit a news website you can learn all about the antics and downright spookiness of our modern day.
The thing that is even more disturbing is the stats inside of the church!
Eight out of 10 students WALK AWAY from church, Bible and Jesus by the time they are 19 or 20.
One out of two marriage end in divorce (this is inside the church).
Church membership and commitment has dropped exponentially over the last five years alone.
WHY?
Well, there are several ideas out there on why this is happening:
A. Men faltering on their true roles as men.
B. The nuclear family unit being literally ripped apart.
C. There is no true moral compass in our culture.
But I personally think the main reason is that many in our churches are not truly taking what Jesus did for them as PERSONAL.
What do I mean?
We have grown up in America, and for many of us have been in church most of our lives. We’ve been to Sunday School and VBS, and we’ve heard the stories.
We know that Jesus died on a cross, and three days later He came back to life. We’ve seen it in movies, and we have heard all about John 3:16.
What this all boils down to is that it’s familiar. Nothing is life shaking. It’s just part of our routine. We love the idea of Jesus, but in reality, when push comes to shove, nothing about what we do in our lives is transforming. I speak from personal experience. I was part of the “Don’t rock the boat” culture.
Then I read this verse:
“And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again” (2 Cor. 5:15).
This caused a shift in me!
It made what Jesus did for me PERSONAL. It was not just some foggy far-fetched idea. I had a stake in this thing now. Jesus died for me. But not just died, He came back to life, and as a result of this, I’m JUSTIFIED before God the Father. I have right standing with God because of what JESUS did for me. All of my sins are forgiven – past, present, and FUTURE.
Think about it. Look at that first part of the verse again…
“And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves…”
I admit it, I live for myself! I love “ME TIME.” But sometimes our old sin nature can distract us even if we are redeemed and belong to Jesus. And the devil has one desire when it comes to believers. DISTRACT, DISTRACT, DISTRACT! How does he distract believers? A lot of the time with GOOD THINGS. But if a GOOD thing distracts you from the BEST thing, that good thing becomes evil.
Why is this bad? Because we as Christians have a mission, and that mission is all about JESUS! And the devil does not care how he gets us as long as he gets us off mission! So when I read this verse, everything changed! My life is not about me. My life is not about my family. My life is not about me being happy or comfortable. My life is to be about Christ and Christ alone!
It causes Matt. 5:13-16 to take on a whole new life.
If we as Christians started truly being salt and light what would it look like?
Salt does what? It preserves. It keeps things good. We should be known for persevering good in our culture, not caving into the evil of our day.
Light scatters and dispels darkness. We should be known for bringing light into a dark and dying world.
So what are some tangible ways in which we can live this out?
1. Stop playing with sin. Don’t tip toe around sin. Run from it. Confess it. Repent of it.
2. Get into a community of other believers who push us towards holiness, and when we are pushed, we need to be willing to except that word.
3. Change your conversations. Our focus is Gospel-Centered. No more idle chatter. We focus on the mission at hand.
4. Talk to people about Jesus. Eventually this becomes like second nature. Whether you’re at the gas station or grocery store you talk to people about Jesus. Invite them into this thing called a RELATIONSHIP with Jesus.
5. Forgiveness becomes just as natural as breathing. Don’t hold grudges. Regardless of the issue or circumstance, we FORGIVE! Jesus has forgiven you and me of much so therefore we must forgive of much!
If we begin to live this out and start to take this thing personal, this is when things begin to transform. People begin to come alive for the Glory of God. Life is no longer boring. It’s an adventure every day! It becomes meaningful. You begin to have purpose, and as a result you are now living a BIBLICAL lifestyle, and that is what God wants for each of us.
by Angela Sanders | Jan 25, 2017
I am not a pastor, so I don’t know what it’s like to try to write two or three sermons a week that inspire, challenge and get people talking, especially when you’re expected to teach from the same book week after week, month after month, year after year and decade after decade, the very same book, by the way, that your congregants hold in their Sunday school laps and keep on their bedside tables.
The pressure to keep things fresh must be great, the temptation to put a ‘new spin’ on old truth even greater, but before you give in to that temptation, let me give you five reasons to preach the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth of God’s Word, the Bible.
- There aren’t a lot of people doing it. Honestly, there are so many preachers, speakers and teachers out there putting their own spin on truth that people are getting dizzy…and maybe a little nauseous. Want to stand out? Preach the Bible. Stand firm. Hold fast. Dig deep. Deliver a clear, concise message from Its pages that people can hold onto while their eyes focus and their stomachs settle.
- The Bible touches hearts. “For the Word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any two-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (Heb. 4:12). Want to stir things up? Want to make people squirm? Preach the Bible. God will take it from there.
- The Bible gets results. “As the rain and snow come down from Heaven and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish…so is my word that goes out from my mouth. It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it” (Isa 55:10-11). Want people to respond to what you say? Preach the Bible. You may not get to see the harvest with your own two eyes, but you can rest assured it’s coming.
- It will win you the respect of those who walk in step with the Spirit. “…By setting forth the truth plainly, we commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. And even if our Gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing” (2 Cor 4:2-3). Want to build a solid network of support? Preach the Bible. If you do, the Holy Spirit Who lives in the hearts of those who obey the Gospel and so belong to God will nod in agreement when you speak and point you out as being someone they can trust. The lost may not buy in at first—they may even balk—but they’ll come around once the seed takes root.
- It will spare you grief and punishment in the end. I testify to everyone who hears the prophetic words of this book: If anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book. And if anyone takes away from the words of this prophetic book, God will take away his share of the tree of life and the holy city, written in this book” (Rev 22:18-19). Want to enjoy peace with God when all is said and done? Preach the Bible. Sure, you can get creative with your presentation, and you should be enthusiastic in your delivery, but whatever you do, don’t alter the content of the Book you’re teaching.
Listen, pastor, speaker, Bible teacher—and anyone else who claims to know a thing or two about the Bible—your job is not to inspire, challenge or even to get people talking. Your job is to handle accurately the Word of Truth and leave the rest up to the Holy Spirit (2 Tim 2:15). Just stick to the script.
by Ryan Smith | Jan 17, 2017
I have a bit of a morning routine. I like to wake up before the sun, put on my fashionable (yet masculine) robe and shuffle into the kitchen to make a small breakfast and coffee. Once the food and hot bean water are steaming and on the table, I sit down to read the Bible and pray.
I also have a dumb cat.
Don’t get me wrong; she’s a nice cat. She’s just not enrolling in any honors training classes at PetCo, if you get my drift.
Her routine has begun to mirror mine in the mornings. After I shuffle into the kitchen and place my breakfast on the table, she is usually shuffling in as well – her eyes thoroughly drowsed from a night of sleeping after an exhaustingly full day of sleeping.
Instead of eating and reading the Bible (I fear she’s agnostic), she checks to see if I’ve dropped any crumbs on the floor for her to eat and then slowly meanders to a nearby window. There, she sits and looks out into the calm dusky morning for minutes on end.
Yesterday, after having just poured a nice dark roast, I sat down to read, as is my custom. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a flashing black streak convulsing and whipping through the cold kitchen air.
I looked over to see my dumb cat’s tail thrashing around as her breath lightly fogged the window where her dumb face was affixed. Her eyes were darting about wildly, following what I assumed had to be a swarm of giant locusts, or a scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds,” to warrant such violent concern from her beady little eyes.
Wondering what was causing such a traumatic and tremendous tumult, I shuffled over to the window to see what had stirred her into this frenzy.
It was a leaf. To be fair, at times there were up to three leaves blowing around in the air, but mainly, my dumb cat was overwhelmingly filled with anxiety and concern over a leaf rustling about in the wind.
I looked down at my dumb cat in pity. She looked up at me with frenzied concern.
I shuffled back to my chair.
Returning to what I was reading, I reread these verses in Psalm 1 talking about the one whose delight is in God’s Word and instruction:
“He is like a tree planted beside streams of water
that bears its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever he does prospers.
The wicked are not like this;
Instead, they are like chaff that the wind blows away.”
Immediately, my mind went to those few leaves scattered at the mercy of the swirling wind. They were dead. Dry. Hard. Blown by whatever direction the air took them. They were harmless… “like chaff that the wind blows away.”
But then I remembered my dumb cat. To her, they were alive. They were strange, disruptive, unpredictable, eccentric, and alarming!
Sometimes the wickedness in the world causes me alarm. Whether it is wicked ideologies or those who hold to them, it seems the noise and movement of those who oppose God always hold more of my attention, concern and mindfulness than they should. It is easy for me to let anxiety and “what ifs” control my mind more than the peace of God through Christ in the Gospel.
But while these things may be active, loud and create a great stir, they are ultimately harmless. They are dead in their sin and transgression just as Ephesians 2 reminds me how I was – blown about by every cultural whim and ideology.
What my dumb cat showed me was a look at my own anxieties and the way I often look at the world. I often give bad news on my Twitter feed much more thought and concern than the pages of Scripture that point me to the living God who has overcome the world.
The Gospel gives us an overarching and undergirding confidence that, regardless of who or what holds the headlines and sound bites, it is ultimately God who holds the future. He also holds the present. He also holds us.
Let the leaves blow where they may. Let the chaff fall with the wind. Let the powers of this world have their day and make their noise.
God is sovereign. God is good. God is in control.
by Aaron Hanzel | Jan 11, 2017
“It was for this reason that he (Brother Lawrence) carefully avoided answering those curious questions that lead nowhere and that serve only to burden the spirit and dry up the heart.”
In 2016, the Lord looked down upon me in grace; and I worship Him. As I look back, I am filled with inexplicable joy at how much He has guided my life and taught me so many things. My love to serve and desire to form deep and meaningful relationships with everyone I come in contact with is as if He has continued to rewrite and mature my DNA. My desire to worship and grow in Scripture has never been more evident than now. The Lord has lit a spark in my very being to soak up and bask in His majesty all the time.
The new year is always accompanied by great expectations. What we want, when we want it, how it is to be served to us, and how much it will be to our benefit. One of the greatest lessons I have learned this year, is profoundly exemplified in a book that my brother in Christ, Karl, gave me called The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence.
At its core, the practice of the presence of God is a simple and yet paramount-soulful exercise of never leaving the presence of the Almighty. Although I didn’t agree with everything in the book, there were several documented experiences too real to ignore.
Practicing the presence of God is the continual conversation and awareness of the Lord. When you first wake up, enter with Him in prayer. When getting dressed and brushing your teeth, walking down the hall to your front door to leave for work, commune with the Eternal One. Planning out your day, working on your computer, walking to the kitchen/ break area for a cup of coffee, delight in His divine glory. His design is perfect and vast. His love overflowing. Open the safeguards of your soul, and let Him reign. He is not temporary and limited to our acknowledgements. He doesn’t toss in and about, then diminish like a breeze over a field of grass. He is not passing but pressing. Step into His love that is always and has always been around you, even before you were crafted by Him for purpose.
In Brother Lawrence’s series of letters exchanged to one of his fellow brothers in Christ, he speaks of the snares and pitfalls of the enemy. One in particular stuck out to me, “…the curious questions that lead to nowhere…”
“If God is all-knowing, why did he allow sin to enter?”
“Why does God harden hearts?”
“Does the elect negate free-will?”
“Why did God bless others to be wealthy, only to glorify themselves?”
“Why does He take life?”
Brother Lawrence labels these types of “curious questions” as having no value. Now, we are human. The Lord has designed us with wonder and curiosity. We want to know more about our Everlasting Creator. Such a desire is natural and worshipful. But two things you must understand:
- The answers, or lack thereof, has no bearing on who God is in your life. Security of the believer is not affected by whether these questions are answered or not.
- It is adultery to be completely consumed by the need for truth in these answers.
This is what Brother Lawrence speaks of and the point I urge you to consider. If curiosity evolves into focus, if you for one second slip into a mindset that you must know the answers, if you step away from the presence of God in order to satisfy an itch you can’t scratch, you are declaring that the One Who Sees is not enough – that His sacrifice and grace of purification is saddled on convenience. You are embracing a concept of understanding, over the God Who Is. You are nowhere.
We are all guilty of this act of sin, in one form or another. Let 2017 be a year of love and worship. Of acknowledging who God is and not be distracted by the nowhere. I pray you continue to hunger for Him.
by Angela Sanders | Jan 10, 2017
When my husband was a boy, he and his brother often opened Christmas gifts with their cousins. Giddy with excitement, they tore into boxes with their initials on them and, holding their take high, thanked the givers for what they’d gotten.
At least, that’s how it happened early on.
“Oh, wait!” an aunt or uncle would say. “That gift isn’t yours! That one was supposed to be for your brother (or cousin). It’s his. So sorry! I must have marked it wrong.”
Laughing if the gift was a sweater and holding a smile in place by sheer will if the gift was a toy, they’d turn it over to the rightful owner and move on to the next gift.
It didn’t take the boys long to learn that tags could not be trusted, and they began to open their gifts with a bit more caution, trying not to become emotionally invested until they knew for sure which gifts were theirs and which belonged to their cousins.
Wouldn’t you?
At the start of this new year, it seems that many have resolved to read their Bible more. With every drag of my finger, a new ‘Bible verse’ pops up on my feed, stylized and pretty, complete with seriffed font and a Bible reference bow to tie it up tight, each a gift from those posting to those scrolling.
While I appreciate the sentiment and motivation behind these posts, I can’t help but wonder whether some of them are at least partly to blame for the skepticism some feel toward Christianity, the Bible, and God Himself.
Many of these inspirational posts are not Bible verses at all, but homespun and incorrect interpretations and/or paraphrases of Scripture masquerading as truth, attached Bible references completing their disguise.
Some are actual Bible verses that have been taken out of context, context that is necessary for their correct interpretation and application.
Others are actual Bible verses, usually promises of some kind, intended for a very specific and limited audience and not for all of mankind.
Rather than leading the lost to salvation or the saved into deeper intimacy with God, posts like these can mislead, hinder, and confuse the work of the Holy Spirit Whose job it is to convict hearts of sin, reveal the Truth of the Gospel, and draw hearts to salvation through Jesus Christ and intimacy with the Father.
Let me explain.
When reading such posts, those who are numb to the Holy Spirit, for whatever reason, open what they are given, toss aside what they don’t like, and cling to what makes them feel better, in some cases, believing things that aren’t true and, in other cases, claiming promises that don’t belong to them, making it more difficult for the Holy Spirit to convict and direct.
Those who are sensitive to the Holy Spirit, whether they be lost seekers being drawn by the Spirit or believers, open what they are given, but, try as they might, are unable to find encouragement and joy in it. The Holy Spirit, Who testifies to the Gospel, helps us discern right from wrong, and guides us into all truth, won’t let them. These people know what they’ve been handed is not for them. Uneasy, they hesitate to trust and accept. Some grow skeptical of Scripture in general, the very tool by which the Holy Spirit would lead them to and deepen their faith.
Knowing how God feels about those who cause others to stumble (Luke 17:2), surely none of us would do so on purpose. So why? Why in the world do we twist, mutilate, and misuse God’s Word?
- Some of us are gullible. Either lost or immature in our faith, we lack or neglect to apply discernment. Believing anything and everything that sounds biblical or churchy or makes us feel something we interpret to be positive, we pass it on and, unwittingly, become a stumbling block.
- Some of us are lazy. We know that we should check everything against Scripture, evaluating not only content, but the importance of context and audience, especially before passing it on with a label that reads ‘To: Everyone,’ but that takes too long. If it sounds right or even pretty close to what we think we’ve heard or read before, we neglect our responsibility to rightly divide the Word of Truth and allow potentially damaging half-truth—which is falsehood—to slip through our fingers, underestimating the damage it could do.
- Some of us are arrogant. Overconfident in our ability to interpret and paraphrase Scripture or deciding in our own wisdom that a personal Word from the Lord specific to a particular circumstance or situation we are going through must be applicable and heard by the masses, we spit out half-chewed human wisdom for others to swallow, label it ‘From: God’ by adding a reference and leaving our own name off, and so join the ranks of the Serpent.
- Some of us know exactly what we’re doing, but lack faith in the Holy Sprit’s ability to do His job. We dilute and decorate the Truth in an effort to make the Gospel, God, Jesus, and the Bible more accessible and attractive to others and inadvertently put ourselves square in the way of those who need to find Jesus.
So, should we just stop posting?
Not at all!
We just have to make sure that what we post is, in fact, the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
How?
- Before posting or reposting anything, check it against Scripture. Don’t rely on memory or trust others to do it for you.
- Don’t post anything that doesn’t match up with Scripture exactly, and call others on it when they do.
- When context is crucial to accurate interpretation and application of a particular verse, either include that context or don’t post at all.
- When quoting Scripture directly, use quotation marks. When paraphrasing, say so!
- When posting Scripture intended for a specific audience, such as obedient Christ-followers only, indicate that audience so others don’t walk away thinking they own something they don’t.
Brothers and sisters, God’s Word is a gift worth giving, a gift you must give. Just be sure to check the content and get your labels right before passing it out so what’s yours and mine may one day be theirs!
