What gets in the way of being an impact?
The problem as I have been hinting at for most of my thirty years in ministry, is weak faith and prideful Christians who are shallow, selfish and haughty are the biggest obstacles to the Church and to the Kingdom.
Because they stagnate the Church, suffocate its growth and work inside and out. Too many of us are so wrapped up in our own needs, hurts, desires and wants we fail to see our Lord or respond to His call. So we hide it in our pride or become lazy and feeble. Thus, our churches instead of stables of majestic stallions are mere empty stables with dried excrement and old hey, the horses are starved and got out and the saddles are hard and cracked. We have to get our act together, clean up our mess and fix our stable, repair and oil then mount our saddle, and take care of our horse of faith by feeding and crafting our relationship to Christ.
This is why this is radical now, because we need a call out for a radical, cross-cultural step of being trusting and committed to Christ and follow-through with our Christian faith. Not the step of overcoming the liberal politics, or the growing hostility many of us face in our secular community, yes we need to do that too. But, but, even more so, cross our own church culture filled with empty trends and prideful leaders puffed up with empty platitudes and nonsense. And surrender our will and plans to His Lordship, be radical for Christ. Not self, not desires, not some trend, but learn and grow in Him, to be the person He called us to be. Then we will see our society start to change for the better. To not ask what the church can give me, but to serve selflessly. To not be just a taker but a giver, not just a complainer, but and go-getter, to boldly go and do as Jesus Christy has gifted and called to do.
All Jesus asks of us is to receive Him and His love so we can pay it forward to others, to show His love by our display of love so we succeed at His will. Jesus’ love is the sap that flows and what causes us to know Him and have His love working in and out of us; it causes us to make Him known to others even more diligently. We were sinners; now, because of His love, we are His people-united to Him, reconciled to God, and filled with the Spirit. This love now becomes the process of continued blessings for us and others. All it takes is our dedication to Christ, so we can respond by faith, worship, and spiritual formation to carry on His love. Growing in Christ is what the Christian life is all about. It is the life-long process of discipleship and spiritual growth that builds our faith and knowledge in Him so we can take hold of His love and produce even more of it, giving it back to Him and onto others. This helps us with our assurance, maturity, character, and spiritual formation. We become changed because we have received Christ and we can keep on loving. If this is not so, there is something fundamentally wrong in our Christian operating system, because love helps us have more hope and reassurance of faith. Why is this radical? Because few do it, and more fight against it, even those who say they are His (Rom. 12; 1 Cor. 1:2; Gal. 5; Heb. 10: 26-39; 12:14; 2 Pet. 1: 5-11).
With what shall I come before the LORD and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of olive oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:6-10
posted by Richard @ 11:38 AM
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2 Comments:
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I leave you with a word of advise. Don't focus on the lazy wana be christians who only do more damage to your congregation than good. They will always be there, I promise. Instead do this. Organize a bible lesson on the most basic fundamentals on the bible like "The Fall of Man" "The Power of Sin" "Grace" and so on. Start from basic to more advance. Make about 14 lessons like these. Then disciple your church members throught these lessons. Thell them they are mandatory. Everyone must take them. Many will leave your church but only those who have true intentions will take them. Is better to have a few church members ready for war than to have 100's of them just playing around and taking up space, your time and this will get rid of the lazy wana be christians who injure your congregation. This way you can separate the goats from the sheep in your church, and keep them separated. But most of the time the goats will leave on their own making your church more productive and easier to build and work with those who really want to work for Christ. Now, when you disciple your congregation and they all finish the entire lessons teach them to start discipling their own. Teach them to multiply themselves. They each can start with 3 like John the Baptist did. Tell then to disciple them with the same 14 bible lessons they took. They can make copies of this lessons without the answers and hand the out to the 3 new disciples. They can start with their own children or husband/wife (house)as the bible says or if no children then with new members in the church as they come in and join. But make them all take the lessons mandatory. God entrusted you with that congregation, show them you mean business, put your foot down, make them do it and watch, when they will start to obey. Treat your church like a real church and they will treat you like a real pastor, a true leader with trained finger to war.
I hope this helps.
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