I am constantly amazed with the way God seems to enrich my life.  I have played a small part recently in the development of a young adult fellowship in my church.  It was sorely needed so that relationships, growth, and  discipleship could be established among the few couples and singles that we have in attendance.  A few of them did not have a lot of opportunities for these things in church because of worldly interference such as work and children or mission interference such as working in the children’s departments and ministries.

The new group has a name and it is The Bridge.  This name was chosen because a bridge is something that connects.  A few people in my church have looked at this new group with concern, having let their minds go to thoughts such as division, separation or even revolution.  The Bridge has none of these things as an agenda.  The Bridge is a place for fellowship, for accountability, for biblical discussion amongst peers, and simply to celebrate our King in a way that is relevant to their age group.  As a bridge it is decidedly connective.  Connecting the individuals in this group to each other and the group to the lost in the community of like mind and interest and finally to the older generations in our church are the main goals we have in mind.  As one of the group, Wayne, put it; The Bridge is an addition and not a subtraction in our church.

Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another-and all the more as you see the Day approaching. Heb 10:25NIV

As some of you already know, I used to be a loner.  I was introverted and pretty much hated everyone.  Then I met Jesus and entered his Kingdom as a child and servant of God and started the process of change.  As all of us know, God sometimes makes supernatural changes in us in certain ways immediately but he seems to do this in various ways.  Some may be miraculously delivered from addictions to tobacco for instance while another may not.  One way I was not changed was in my attitude towards assemblies, groups, fellowships, and even church.

I immediately started going to church but only for the Word of God, not for the people.  I would be the first to my vehicle when church was over, waiting sometimes not very patiently for my wife to finally be ready to leave.  I did not need anyone but Jesus and that was fine with me.  The roles have now reversed.  My wife often is waiting on me.  Somewhere along the line in my concerted attempt to love everyone, a bridge was built.  I was connected to the rest of the Body.

As the verse in Hebrews states, we all need to be connected to each other and never stop meeting or assembling with each other.  Why is this so important?

The main reason is, of course, the mission.  We are not a bunch of spiritual Rambo’s, furtively making our way through the jungles of life attacking all the spiritual forces we find aligned against us.  We are instead part of a unit of elite, trusted soldiers that must train, fight, and rest together.  The enemy is out there and he likes nothing better than finding one of us cut off and alone.  We cannot make it alone, even if God is there with us, simply because God decided long ago to work through us.  And the work he does through us is for others, not ourselves.

Another reason is the thing that brought this post about.  We need each other for the joy it can bring.  The relationships between believers enrich us, fulfill us, and mature us.  I was pretty good at being alone at one time.  But most of you probably don’t need to be told, being alone is not very fun or fulfilling.  Some of you also know the terrible, depressing feelings that come from loneliness.  I no longer fight depression.

And love is simply amazing.  Not the emotion but the true attribute called agape.  Intentional love, as it grows from being something we make ourselves do, to something we want to do, and finally to that thing we just do, does so much good for each of us individually and for the Kingdom that it just naturally spills over and flows out.  It is contagious.  It is life changing.  It is life enhancing.  It is rewarding and enriches not only ourselves but others, and especially the Body of Christ.

We need each other and even more so as we see the Day approaching because the enemy’s activities are ramping up.  I believe the final onslaught is here.  For our adversary, it is all or nothing.  We must stand and even more, continue to advance the Kingdom and we cannot do it or make it alone.

Build a bridge.  Be a bridge.  Protect your bridge.

Blowing up bridges is one way all enemies seek to divide and conquer.

Love you all

Tags: accountability, Believe, Body of Christ, Church, Enemy, Fellowship, jesus, joy, Kingdom, Life, loner, Love, mission, peers, Relationships, Relevant, Servant, Trust, Work

Divide and conquer.  I am sure you have heard the term.  It is a term for a tactic that is used to defeat an enemy.  The concept is that if you can successfully cause a group of enemies to turn on each other it is easy to sweep in and conquer them.  It is the oldest battle tactic of all.  The enemy used it in the beginning to divide the created from the creator and it has been used ever since.  And very successfully.

One aspect of using this tactic successfully is to deceive your enemy in a way that they do not always see the division.  Until it is too late.  Our adversary has continued to use this tactic since that first epic division with great results.  There are many that have entered into an eternity without God because of it.

I am following a lot of discussions and situations in the body of Christ that are causing dissension, distrust, confusion, and anger between the participants.  It seems most are not even aware or concerned with the harm that is being done or how the arguments over things that are either not essential to the mission or just blatantly wrong are helping to divide us.  When I try to determine essentials as it concerns the Gospel I actually see it as rather simple.

Joh 3:16  “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Mat 22:37-40  And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Mat 28:19  Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

These three things are the essentials.  These three are all we really need to know to stay on mission.  The rest of the bible can be seen as instruction on understanding and learning to apply these three.

God loved us so much He was willing to become one of us in the person of Jesus so He could rescue us from the clutches of the enemy that we had allowed to enslave us, then He instructs us to love Him and each other, and finally to go and tell all about this great love of His and to show them how to spread it also.  So the real essential is the mission of spreading love.  And nothing else.

I see more dissension being sown than love being spread as I look at the body of Christ.  One of my main objections to God even existing for most of my life was that I saw very little love, hardly any sacrifice, and only token agreement within Christianity.  This is a historical and a present reality even now.  I am a part of the body now and still see the same things.

Luther, Calvin, Arminius; no agreement there.  Spurgeon, Moody, Wesley, Finney; no agreement there.  Piper, Wright, Pinnock, Conn, Spong; no agreement there.  Baptist, Episcopalian, Catholic, Pentecostal; no agreement there.  COG member and another COG member; no agreement there.  Not only is this sad, not only is this divisive, this is dangerous.  Hatred is being spread, intolerance is being observed and souls are being lost.  The mission is not being done because we are too busy telling the other how wrong they are.  We must wake up to the tactics of enemy that is walking among us.

The arguments and the view of essentials in my own denomination and even my own church are very disconcerting to me.  Tongues as initial evidence, alcohol consumption, missional or Pentecostal, and a misplacement of love are just a few areas where lines are being drawn and the enemy sits back laughing while watching us pound on each other.  I am sorry but I can’t even find the scripture where Jesus spoke in tongues, I can show you where He drank wine, His focus was wholly missional and relational, and He point blank told us who to love.  Take notice where our love is supposed to be applied.  It is to persons and not things.

Instead I am reading declarations of steadfast love for a denomination while those same advance no attitudes of love or outreach for the ones outside the Kingdom.  In fact, some of the things they are arguing against in their unyielding traditional, denominational defenses cause those we should be reaching from even giving us a chance to spread the love we are supposed to be spreading.

The Church of God is an institution, an organization, a denomination; and I do not love it.  I love the people in it.  I also love the people in the Assemblies of God, the Baptists, the Methodists, the Catholics, the Muslims, the Hindus, and the list goes on and on to include even the agnostics and atheists.

We have people that won’t accept anything but the style of preacher that they want, the music that they want to hear, the order and method of service they grew up with, and even the times the services must be done.  When are we going to wake up to the machinations of our enemy?  When are we going to realize the necessity of unity even if it means sacrifice?  When are we going to discern our own self-centeredness?  When are we going to apply our misplaced love appropriately?

If the lost in my community want to sing reggae, country spirituals and this will keep them in church long enough to become disciples, then shouldn’t we be willing to throw out the hymnals and praise choruses?  If the lost in my community want to sit on couches with the lights turned down a notch and have a spiritual discussion instead of a pulpit pounding, corn shucking, belt jerking, spittle spewing preacher yelling at them, then shouldn’t we be willing to give it a try?

Mat 28:19  Go therefore to church, sit on the pews, sing only what you like, keep a pastor and stand behind him only if he preaches to you and only if he does it the way you want him to, and do not in any way suffer the person that does not agree with you, in the name of (insert your own name). (Self-centered interpretation)

This is how we read this commandment today for the most part.  Isn’t it time we went to war, got back on mission, and at least tried to do what Jesus said?  It will take sacrifice.  But He sacrificed Himself so you could sit there on that pew and be wrong.

What if that lost person that won’t come to church because of your self-centered requirements is your grandchild?  Will you sacrifice then?

I love you all (and hope you can still love me)

Tags: atheist, Body of Christ, Calvin, catholics, Christianity, Church, Church of God, Creator, dissension, Enemy, eternal life, Eternity, Holy Spirit, Love, muslim, Pentecost, piper, Self

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.  Gal 5:22-23

On Tuesday’s discussion, right out of the gate, Doug made some comments about self-control.  Thanks Doug, for pushing this forward.  I have been pondering, jotting down some thoughts and praying about the fruits of the Spirit as listed in Galatians.  I was going to get a series together before I started posting, and then they might come along quicker.  I am so easily sidetracked it seems.  But Doug got me thinking again and I decided to start with the last in the list of fruit since he brought it up and I feel strongly about it also.

All of the fruit are things that should be naturally growing in and out of us as we grow in our relationship with Christ.  They are the visible attributes of truly walking the Christ centered walk.  We are first saved and then as we grow in sanctification these nine things listed as fruit should start to become apparent in our lives.

Self control is listed last but I don’t believe it is any less or more than the others with the exception of possibly love.  But if I stay in reverse order then love will be last.  Self control is a good starting point because it is needed so very much in the church today.  And it needs to be properly understood.

We live in a time and a place, if you are in America, where we are lost in our self-centeredness and materialistic view of life.  The war between the flesh and the spirit is raging in all of us to some degree.  It is so easy to look at everything we do with the attitude of ‘what’s in it for me.’  This is diametrically opposed to the servant attitude we should have.  It is why the world looks at us and sees no difference between us and them.

A well known speaker or preacher that demands a $10,000.00 ‘offering’ or they can’t come, a Christian writer who lifts one catchy scripture out of context and sets up a whole new revelatory way of making our lives richer to sell a million copies of a book, a perpetually smiling preacher telling us how great we all have it in the Kingdom of God while we live on less per year than he spends on his dental hygienics; is this self control?  Is this fruit of the spirit?  I believe I would file it under self-centered greed.

The above examples show people that really aren’t even trying to have their spirits win the war against the flesh.  But there are also those that try too hard in another wrong way.  These we sometimes call legalists, fundamentalists, extreme conservatives.  They try to find ways to make the Law of God, as listed in the Old Testament, or their own made up rules about many mundane parts of life, the methods of achieving and displaying self-control.

You may know a few of these people.  They look at things like tattoos, jewelry, makeup, and the length of both men and women’s hair, as ways of establishing or determining self-control.  There are many other things like alcohol consumption, smoking, dancing, card playing and others that make the list also.  And to many of these people these are not only self control issues, they are salvific issues.  A tattoo will send you to hell.

Then there are monks and other religious orders that simply take a person out of the world.  This is also an attempt at self-control or a method of mastering ourselves.  I even know of some people that declare that their own ‘personal convictions’ demand they do or don’t do certain things like watching TV or going to movies but that it is still okay for the rest of us.  How gracious on their part.  But do they have anymore self-control than I or are they just putting limits on their selves that keep them from actually growing this fruit called self-control.

God may not be honored in a lot of the things we do but we are living in a fallen world, occupied territory as it were, in a battle for our very lives.  Jesus set us free from the Law because He fulfilled the Law.  We are free in Christ but we must live in holiness, which is being separated from the world for service to Christ.  All while an angry enemy roars all around us.

A tattoo is not going to stop that service but self control will dictate that we set some limits.  Some jewelry or makeup will not send us screaming into hell because we had no self-control but the ability to know when we are making clowns of ourselves will display it to the world.  On and on I could go but I don’t want to lose you.

The very ones who practice all these things and many more and say “look at me, I have self-control”, are only living a life of rules and regulations that show no one but themselves any hint of self control.  True self-control is finding that line that separates self-centeredness from service-centeredness; and staying on the side of service.

We have to realize we do have to set limits.  But I believe those limits will be dictated to a certain degree on our place of service, our area of ministry.  A person might have just the right amount of tattoos, piercings,  or long hair to reach a group of lost bikers or youth.

Jesus ate and drank wine with miserable lowlife sinners and did not get drunk or sin in any way they did.  But He had a mission to go to them and tell them the good news.  We have that same mission so how are those that never associate with anyone but those of like-legalistic-mind, accomplishing their mission.

Jesus called a man to be a disciple named Matthew and he was a tax collector.  Jesus also called a man named Simon who was a Zealot.  As far as the Jews were concerned Matthew was an extreme, unpatriotic traitor and Simon was an extreme, patriotic loyalist.  They should have killed each other but instead they loved each other and became servants to Christ and to us all.

That is mastering one’s self.  That is self-control.

Love you all

Tags: Christ, Church, Conservative, consumption, Enemy, Fruit of the Spirit, galatians, Hell, Lie, Love, relationship, Self, self centeredness, Servant, spirit

This is the last installment in what I labeled the Combat Readiness series.  It originally started in a post entitled A Tactical Reassessment and was followed by Enemy Tactics.  Then I divided it up into seven entries called Combat Readiness.  All this started with a random thought I wasn’t even sure would fill a page.

I am sorry that this final entry comes so long after the others.  If you need to catch up, they are listed in the archives.

The thought that started it all was about how our enemy has used some things that otherwise might be good for the Kingdom and through his clever ways of deception has caused us to actually corrupt some good ideas.  And I believe it was all to do with the endgame of taking our eyes, us Pentecostals, away from a pursuit of holiness.  This was the beginning of this series.

The last area I defined to a small degree was relevance.  There is a definite need to be relevant to the culture we minister in.  So many in the past have tried to go into a culture and forcefully try to change the very way they live into something we deem more appropriate for Christians.
Paul had some things to say about this:

1Co 9:19-22  For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them.  To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law.  To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law.  To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.

Paul says to go to them, whoever we have been sent to, and be one among them so we might reach them.  He did not say to go to them and seek to change them first into something more recognizable.  Jesus never asked anyone to change either.  Instead, He simply said, “Follow Me”, and they did change, but it was from the close association with Him.

So we have some taking all of this to heart in the Kingdom today.  They call it being culturally relevant.

We now have ministers that use profanity from the pulpit, some for the shock value like Rod Parsley, and others because they think it is the best way to reach the younger crowd.  We have some ministers who seem to never speak of anything but Jesus as a friend.  They paint such a one-sided view of our King that it is no wonder why no one is serving Him.  Most of the younger generations just hang out with their friends, they sure don’t serve them.

The truth of Gods standards, of His Holiness, are nowhere to be found in the churches that are considered the most culturally relevant.  This is not the case in all churches, but it has spread far enough to be alarming.

This whole concept about relevance seems to miss the mark in one major way.  There seems to be no attempts at winning those some of us are being relevant to.  Paul said he would become all things to all people for one reason, to win them over; to lovingly, persuasively, bring them to the truth of Christ.  Our attempts have mostly only taken some of our own over to the worlds side.

By portraying the idea that profanity is no big deal, for instance, some of us have not brought about a change in those we attempt to reach, but instead has lowered us to their level.  If there is one thing I know for a fact about meeting the risen Lord it is that I change, not Him.

Relevance is about meeting them at their level.  Jesus was the master of this.  But then it is about the slow, steady change to Christlikeness.  Not the other way around.

We must reach out to a lost and dying world, not in condemnation, but in love.  Maybe stooping to their level, getting down in the dirt beside them, but never with them, and letting the light of the truth and the love of God convince them of the need for change.  Holiness is the goal and the proper explanation to a lost soul is that holiness is being set apart.  It means joining the gang.  The Holy, wonderful, life giving and love filled Kingdom gang.

And most of the younger generation would just love to be in a gang.

And that might just be true Kingdom relevance.

Love you all

Tags: Christ, Christians, Christlike, Church, Combat Readiness, Enemy, Holiness, Kingdom, Love, Pentecost, Pentecostal, profanity, Relevance, Relevant, Truth