Tag Archives: spiritual disciplines

Why Are Churches Dying?

closed-church

Churches are dying. Some are thriving, but the overwhelming majority are not. Attendance is dwindling. Most are hanging on by a thread. Many will have to shut their doors in as little as one generation.

A lot of this is because we live in a Post-Christian society that embraces the emerging postmodern worldview.

  • Millennials (born ’82-’04) aren’t being reached.
  • Generation X (born ’61-’81) & Y (born ’77-’95) are dropping out.
  • Baby Boomers (born ’46-’64) are ready to pass the torch.
  • The Builders (born ’25-’45) are going home.

Look, people: we are at a tipping point. It is the 4th quarter and we are trailing.

We must re-think, re-tool, and re-frame. We must shift, evolve, and adapt.

If not, we will be mourning church closing after church closing.

“Churches across this country are going out of business, closing their doors, because they’ve lost their relevancy. They chose not to change with the times. They chose to keep people over 60 happy and forget about reaching people under 30. They, like my granddaddy, measured faithfulness by doing things the same way year after year, regardless of the response or the results.” – Edward H. Hammett

Please read that quote again only slower this time.

(I can feel you nodding your head in agreement.)

Traditions are great. But if traditions are only servicing personal preferences, then we need to take a hard look at them.

  • Are we inwardly-focused or outward?
  • If we closed, would the community even notice?
  • Are we a museum for saints or a hospital for sinners?

I know these are tough questions, but they need to be asked and honestly answered.

I’m convinced that people love Jesus, but have lost their love for church. I’m not saying that is correct, I’m just saying that seems to be the trend. The next generation does not see the relevancy church.

How do we reach a new generation for Jesus Christ? How do we help them fall in love with church again?

Ref: Hammett, Edward H. Reaching People under 30 While Keeping People Over 60: Creating Community Across Generations (TCP the Columbia Partnership Leadership Series): TCP Books, 2015.

http://thomrainer.com/2017/08/dying-churches-die/

Please Take Jesus Personally

Lunatic liar lord

How many times have you been told, “now, don’t take this personally, but…”? Well, I want you to take this personally: Jesus is THE ONLY WAY to God.

The postmodern ear may bristle at that, but that doesn’t make it any less true.

Jesus, Himself said that. Not me. Not anyone else. JESUS.

“No one comes to the Father except through me.” – John 14:6

Either you believe that or you reject it. There is no riding the fence. John Duncan called this argument, “inexorable” (meaning unbending, unyielding, & unstoppable). It is black or white, one way or the other, but it can never be both or neither.

For a much more eloquent argument, look up C.S. Lewis’s “Lunatic, Liar, or Lord” trilemma in Mere Christianity.

Exclusive claim? Oh Yes. The claim is indeed, exclusive,but the invitation to accept it is 100% inclusive and universal (Gal. 3:28)!

So, please take this personally! In fact, it doesn’t get any more personal!

How do YOU answer the very same question that Jesus asked His disciples: Who do YOU say I am? (Matt. 16:15)

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Ref:

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (1952; Harper Collins: 2001) 51-52.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis%27s_trilemma

http://merecslewis.blogspot.com/2010/11/deciding-about-jesus-liar-lunatic-or.html

Christians Are Like Tea Bags

teabag

I heard this saying attributed to either Chip Ingram or Greg Laurie:

“Christians are like TEA BAGS; you don’t know what they’re made of until you put them in hot water.”

Isn’t that about the truth!

Is the heat being turned up in your life?

This is where “the rubber meets the road,” right? Anyone can act nice when everything is going their way, but what seeps out when things aren’t? What comes out of that teabag?

  • Fruit or works (Gal 5)?
  • Fresh water or salt water,
  • Bitter or sweet (James 3:11)?
  • Or… are you like a box of chocolates?

Something you may never have thought of is the fact that teabags are useless without hot water, aren’t they? It’s actually IN the hot water that teabag finds their purpose and usefulness.

Try to remember this the next time you find yourself in proverbial hot water. Pray for me as I pray for you.

If this blessed you, please Like & Share!

Ref: https://www.facebook.com/moodyradio/posts/848812451813491

ttps://www.goodreads.com/quotes/1944-a-woman-is-like-a-tea-bag-you-never-know

How Can a Loving God Send Anyone to Hell?

Snowball

How can a loving God send anyone to Hell? Why unlimited punishment for a limited behavior? Isn’t Hell cosmic overkill? Too harsh! Not fair!

I’ve heard this objection many times and it seems reasonable… at first.

John Bunyan said, “No sin against God can be little, because it is against the great God of heaven and earth.” Jonathan Edwards said, “The greatness of a sin is determined by the greatness of the being against whom it is committed.”

Erwin Lutzer gives the following scenario:

To throw a snowball at a mailman is one thing; to throw one at a policeman is another. And if you throw a snowball at the President of the United States, you will be arrested. Using that analogy, think of the infinite crime of sinning against an infinite God. Sin is much more serious to God than it is to us.

I’ve never had the opportunity to throw a snowball at the POTUS, but I’m sure if I tried – the Secret Service would tackle me faster than you can say Barry Allen. And that’s just the President! Imagine throwing a snowball at God? Unthinkable.

God doesn’t send anyone to Hell, they send themselves.

Heaven is God giving people want He wants. Hell is God giving people what they want. C.S. Lewis said that the doors of Hell are locked from the inside.

God wants ALL PEOPLE to be saved (1 Tim. 2:4). He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezek. 18:23, 32). He patiently wishes that NONE perish (2 Pet. 3:9).

Does a doctor enjoy telling her patient: Hey, you have asthma; smoking is not healthy. You should stop. Does she enjoy it year after year, telling the patient the same diagnosis? You should stop. Here is the medicine. Please take it! Of course not. Is God any different? But He won’t force the medicine on us. He loves us too much for that.

Here is justice in its purest form: You reap what you sow.

Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. – Gal. 6:7-8

You wouldn’t let just anyone come into your home, would you? Would you let in a thief? A murderer? A rapist? No. You have a standard. So does God. Unfortunately we can never meet that standard. So He made it easy on us: we come in with His Son (1 Cor. 6:9-11).

It all comes down to how you respond to Jesus.

For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. – John 3:17

The real question is: Why would God send anyone to Heaven?

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Ref:

http://www.biblebb.com/files/bunyan/sayings.htm

https://www.monergism.com/jonathan-edwards-we-are-inclined-sin

https://www.moodymedia.org/articles/god-unfair/

Stuff Is Just Stuff, Jesus Is What Matters

stuff 3

You are rich. You live in America, which means:

  • You have more than one phone, TV & car.
  • You make more than $2 a day.
  • You have so much stuff that you don’t know what to do with it all.
  • You have a word that the rest of the world doesn’t comprehend: “left-overs.”

You knew all that.

I’m not here to give you a guilt trip over your stuff. Who am I to talk? I’ve watched “Hoarders” and thought… how close am I to that?! I’m also not here to tell you to sell all your stuff and give it to charity (but you gotta admit: that would be pretty epic).

I’m just trying to get you to see your stuff for what it is: stuff.

Even though you have all those things, and even though (by the world’s standards) you are rich, if you don’t have Jesus, you don’t have diddly-squat.

WITHOUT JESUS – you are completely bankrupt. WITHOUT YESHUA you are as broke as a joke.

Jesus said, “apart from Me, you can do nothing” (John 15:5).

The world’s wealth indicators could be lost in an instant: one fire, one flood, or one thief. If your happiness and sense of accomplishment were tied to those objects, then – there it goes.

If you lose all your stuff and even if you lose your health, but you HAVE JESUS, then – you are rich beyond compare:

32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?  – Rom. 8:32 (also note Rev. 3:21!)

Real wealth is knowing the LORD and being known by Him (1 Cor. 8:3). Real riches are only found in Him (Matt. 6:19-24).

– If this post blessed you please like and share!

Ref:

How Americans compare with the global middle class

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoarders

God Can Use Traffic For Good

la traffic

One of the reasons I left Los Angeles was the traffic. It is unreal. I knew sitting in traffic like that was going to slowly drive me bonkers. So, it’s no surprise that a new study found that LA is the world’s most traffic-clogged city:

“Drivers in the region spent 104 hours each driving in congestion during peak travel periods last year. That topped second-place Moscow at 91 hours and third-place New York at 89, according to a traffic scorecard compiled by Inrix, a transportation analytics firm.”

While you may not find yourself spending 104 hours in traffic this year, it may feel like it. So, what are you going to do with all that wasted time?

Here are just a few ways to make that time count!

  • Pray: pray for the drivers around you, the cops enforcing the law, and that teenager who just passed you while texting. Prayer is the real deal. Pray more, worry less.
  • K-LOVE: listen to that Praise Music! Ain’t no reason you can’t be worshiping the Living God while stuck on I-79. (Dancing, of course,  is optional).
  • Podcasts/CD’s: There are a plethora (a word I honestly believe no one would ever know if it weren’t for ¡Three Amigos!) of resources available today. There are few reasons not to be listening to 1 sermon every single day. FEW! Start at oneplace.com (it has a lot of sermons, you guessed it: in one place).

I’m pretty sure this is not what the Holy Spirit had in mind, but man, does it seem appropriate: what was meant for evil, God can use for good (Gen.50:20). Am I calling traffic evil? Yes. Yes, I am. Use it for good!

Oh, and by the way – those who bemoan living in little ole West Virginia, here is another fun fact this study revealed:

“Of 240 U.S. cities studied by Inrix, drivers in Parkersburg, W.Va., spent the least about of time stuck in traffic during peak hours at three hours per year.”

So, there.

Ref:

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-traffic-los-angeles-20170220-story.html

https://www.oneplace.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Amigos

Dirt Cannot Remove Dirt

dirty laundry 2

Have you ever gone to the laundry mat? You are able to get your own clothes clean with your own detergent.

With Jesus, you don’t bring your own detergent. He cleans you.

We are not redeemed by our own efforts, but by the precious blood of Christ (1 Cor. 6:11). I know its odd to think of being cleansed with blood, but that’s exactly how it is (1 Peter 1:18-19).

We are filthy in our own sins. Christ comes in and washes us.

Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool. – Isa. 1:18

Whiter than snow? (Psa. 51:7) I’m not sure of any laundry detergent that claims to do that!

Trying to maintain your own goodness through works, deeds, or rituals is like bringing your own detergent to Jesus. It would be like going to the laundry mat and trying to wash your clothes with dirt (Isa. 64:6).

Dirt cannot remove dirt. Dirt makes things more dirty. Only Living Water can remove stains.

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God Makes His Home With You

belonging_ducks excluded

Come on now, we’ve all felt like the odd-man out. We’ve all felt like we didn’t know the secret handshake. We’ve all felt left out. But I promise you, there is a place where you belong.

There is a home for you with Jesus.

“If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.” – John 14:23

Don’t just skim over that: the God of heaven & earth and His Son, Jesus the Christ will make their home with you. That seems pretty substantial. Give it some serious thought.

Your heart is God’s. He made it. Return it to Him. He doesn’t exclude you. He invites you. He meets you where you are and elevates you. Turn from your former life and run to the Savior. Keep His word. Be changed from the inside out.

  •  There is no need to go it alone.
  • There is no need to stay out in the cold.
  • The wolves are coming.

17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted & grounded in love, – Eph. 3:17

There is a place you belong. There is a home for you with the Lord.

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Inspired by X Ambassadors, “Home.”

What If It Were Illegal To Be A Christian?

trial-by-jury-730x365If it were against the law to be a Christian, would there be enough evidence in your life to arrest you?

Or would you be released with a warning?!

Is there fruit in your life that Jesus is your Lord? Is there hard evidence that you are a follower? Would your life convict you? Are you convicted right now? (See what I did there?)

Christian-ese would be: Is there proof in keeping with repentance (Matt. 3:8; Luke 3:8; Acts 26:20)? Would your case be thrown out due to lack of proof!

How hard would the prosecutor have to look for clues of your Christianity? How many witnesses would have to take the stand to corroborate your faith? How long would the jury have to deliberate; a week? a day? an hour?

Testimonies are crucial. They can sometimes sway the jury. What would yours do?

  • Would there be a smoking gun so to speak?
  • Would you have been caught red-handed?
  • Would there be an acquittal (insufficient evidence)?
  • Would you be charged with a misdemeanor (jail time), a felony (serious jail time), or a capital offense (death penalty)?

Finally, it all comes down to this: The verdict. Are you guilty or innocent of being a Christian? I would want to be found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, wouldn’t you? Then what are you waiting for? Start leaving behind evidence!

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Healthy Verse for the New Year

Got your verse for the new year:

But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you – Matt. 5:44

Just imagine if everyone embraced it.
Yours in Christ