A Cause for Christian Concern

Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people. – Jude 1:3 (NIV)

God’s people have been entrusted with “the faith.”

The ability to contend for the faith is based on commitment to the faith.  However, there is cause for concern in Christendom.

The Prop. 8 Debate: Arguing about What We are Against Rather Than for What We Believe

Homosexuality is a sin.  That’s biblical and sound.  However, adultery, lying, murder and a load of other things are sinful, too.  In church, we are to speak out against sin and speak up about salvation.  We cannot attack one group of sinners and turn a blind eye to others.  That type of soap box ministry feeds the media frenzy, but does little for the kingdom of heaven.

Preach the truth and teach how to live by the truth.

Denominational Divisions and Disunity 

For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? – 1 Corinthians 13:3 (KJV)

We are divided over doctrine.  We are divided over religious practices.  We are divided over women and their roles in the ministry.  We are divided over heaven and hell.  We are even divided over Christ, His deity, and His miracles, even His messages.

We are just plain divided.

Return to the Word and resubmit to His Spirit.

Let the Lord lead you in how to go forward with brothers and sisters in the faith.

Lackluster and Lost Leadership

I oftentimes contemplate whether we are part of that generation that was led astray, destroying the landmark left by our ancestors and removing the reminders of God’s faithfulness to us and those who came before us.

Are we the generation who did not know the Lord of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob?

Have we forgotten the Law of Moses?

Have we neglected the work and ministry of Jesus Christ?

Our leaders are leading us in the wrong direction.  They are leading us down the road away from God, where many of us have fallen away.  They have led us down a path that has led to our demise, all the while losing their own sense of calling and making their followers lose faith in them and the Christian faith that they represent.

Truth trumps everything else.  Let’s stick to the truth.  Let’s teach truth.  Let’s preach truth.  Let’s uphold the truth.

It may not cure everything at once, but it sure can cure a lot of things immediately.

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Help from on High

God offers us some serious heavenly help.

It is a statement that could stand all by itself and on its own.  Yet, it is also a statement supported by all sorts of verses from the Scriptures.  The Book of Psalms gives us an array of God’s attributes such Him being “good and upright” (Psalm 25:8).  In particular, Psalm 25 shows us how the Lord offers us help from on high.

Show me Your ways, O Lord ; Teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me, For You are the God of my salvation; On You I wait all the day.
– Psalm 25:4-5

Good and upright is the Lord ; Therefore He teaches sinners in the way. The humble He guides in justice, And the humble He teaches His way. – Psalm 25:8-9

Who is the man that fears the Lord ? Him shall He teach in the way He chooses.- Psalm 25:12

The secret of the Lord  is with those who fear Him, And He will show them His covenant. – Psalm 25:14

Let integrity and uprightness preserve me, For I wait for You. – Psalm 25:21

Look at all of the different types of help that He provides His people.  He gives us mercy and truth along with His covenant and “the way” as He teaches and protects us.

God gives us help from on high.  Take a moment and embrace every ounce of His help.

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Freed by the Truth

Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. – John 8:32 (NIV)

Truth is the key to unlocking your life.  Truth is said in the Bible and by Jesus to possess the power to free us from the enslavement of expectations or the slavery of sadness. 

We need to be free and we need the truth in order to be free.

So what is truth?

Better yet, what or who is the Truth?

I am the way and the truth and the life. . . John 14:6 (NIV)

We know Him to be the truth.  He does not lie (Numbers 23:19).  He offers us His truth through His written Word (the Bible).  He provided His truth through His spoken Word through the voices of the prophets.  Finally, He gave the Truth to us through the Word who became flesh for us and our redemption(John 1:14).

He gave us the Truth.

He gave us the Truth so that we could be free forever and ever.

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Speak Life

 …The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.- Jn. 6:63 (NIV)

What Jesus shared with His disciples at this point in His ministry caused some to walk with Him no longer.  They walked out and walked away from Jesus.  They left Him for good because they could not handle what He was saying about being the Bread of Life that gives eternal life.  Yet, they found it hard to accept.  That’s when Jesus drops the real bomb.  The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. Yet there are some of you who do not believe (John 6:63-64, NIV).   How much harder was that one to handle? He hit them with a direct blow to their ego-centered theology.  After all, they were hanging out with the Master.  You don’t get much closer to having arrived than that, or so they thought.  That was at least until Jesus shared His spiritual insights about where they stood spiritually with what He was saying to everyone.

Is there something that you struggle with that comes out through the red letters of your Bible? What “hard saying” of Jesus do you find yourself tripping over from time to time? Don’t worry.  You are not alone.  The choir director struggles with it.  The youth director has issues with some of them.  Some of the mothers of the church still question a few of those “but I say” statements of Jesus from the Sermon on the Mount.  The Sunday school teacher tries to find an easier way to say it much like the preacher who wants to build up and feed the flock rather than break them down.  You are certainly not alone.  We all still have some growing to do.

 What can you do? You can start by realizing that Jesus wants to grow in Christ.  He desires that start with the perfecting process.   He wants us to start.  Once we get started, He can supply us and sustain us, even strengthen us and support us.  He wants us to get started, though.  And where do we start? Speak life.  Do like Jesus.  Share words that give life.  Speak positive things that give life to individuals, especially those who live in hopelessness and despair.  Start by speaking life, sharing something positive with someone who may not have hope to hold onto for themselves.

“Be like Jesus.”- Bob Briner

“Your calling is to live like Christ.”- Andrew Murray

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Truth

The truth is the truth.  There’s no getting around that for sure.  I have difficulty when the truth is made blurry by what people say and do with it.  It’s the truth still, but it has become damaged and tainted by others and their actions.  Preachers are supposed to maintain the truth.  God calls preachers out from among the people in order that they will speak and preach the truth to God’s people.  Preachers are to speak the truth.  Preachers are to share the truth.  Preachers are to spread the truth.  All of this is to occur as they follow the truth daily themselves.  Keep the truth as the main thing.  The truth is simply the truth.

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