Church member leaving after the pastor decides not to preach

WHY?

With someone from our church dying this week it has made me think about a few things. One of them is the issue of eternity and where the deceased person goes when they breathe their last.

I am not speaking about the person who was in our church who passed away. I am talking about people in general.

Why is it that when someone dies the people around them automatically give the deceased person a free pass into Heaven? Oftentimes nothing is brought up about Christ or if that person repented of sin and trusted in Christ. I suppose that this is meant to comfort themselves and others as to the whereabouts of their dead relative/friend.

But let's be honest. Just as no preacher can preach someone into Heaven; family or friends cannot wish or speak someone into Heaven either. It is sad when we as believers let down our convictions and think or assume that God will let someone "slide" into Heaven by the "skin of their teeth." There is no such thing as that. God has never nor will ever allow someone into Heaven except through the sacrifice of His Son Jesus.

Then we descend further into our worldly thoughts on eternity.

It is awful when we discuss Hell and how we want to avoid it because it is such a bad place. Nevermind that we have sinned against a holy God or that we have lived a life of wanton pleasure of self. We just don't want to go because it is such a bad place and we would not be happy there.

So Heaven is a place that want to go to because we will be happy there. We're going to get a crown or catch up with relatives that we have not seen in a while or ever.
So Hell is a place to be shunned because we will not be happy there. We're going to be tortured there without our iPods or Facebook. Horrors!!

It should be about God's glory. Hell exists so that judgment is shown. Heaven exists for grace and mercy to be shown. In the end, it is all for His glory.

Let's not cheapen Heaven by allowing, preaching, wishing, or speaking someone out of Hell and into Heaven just because we want it.

I Am Not on FaceBook

I have had problems with FaceBook for a long time. I am the type of person when I see the crowds run one way I stand back and think about why they are running that way. Others run head long in the same direction as the crowd. I'm sorry. In most cases, I'm not a crowd follower.

Please look at this article that RC Sproul Jr. wrote in reference to FB.

Should Christians Be on Facebook?

from R.C. Sproul Jr.

Should Christians be on Facebook? What about all the privacy issues that are in the news these days?

I sometimes wonder if the devil doesn’t take great pleasure in irony, in watching us turn ourselves inside out while missing the point. While I am on Facebook, and therefore at least hold to a tentative conviction that such is allowable for Christians, there are any number of reasons to raise concerns over it. Privacy and the lack thereof, however, would likely be the last one I would raise. With Facebook’s very public and controversial announcement of its change in policy with respect to privacy, that, however, is what has many Christians concerned. How, I wonder, can a person take a technology that exists to say to the watching world, “Here I am. Come see about me” complain that the world is coming to see about them? Anyone who wishes more privacy can find such easily enough. Don’t use Facebook. If you already do, stop. We are in a moral uproar for all the wrong reasons. We are aghast at the owners of Facebook for daring to change their policy (which, remember, the original policy held out as at their discretion) rather than being appalled at ourselves for implicitly breaking the 8th Commandment. We think because we are a user of Facebook that such makes us an owner of Facebook, and so demand this and demand that from the real owners.

That said, here are some very real concerns I have about Facebook. First, has it become a god to us? When God commands that we have no other god’s before Him He doesn’t mean ranked higher than Him, but rather He means in His presence. If Facebook is too needful for you, you may need to stop. Second, has it become a graven image? Have you confused its reality with real reality? Do you really think you have 200 friends? Third, have you taken the Lord’s name in vain? That is, have you, in weaker moments, put a bad face publicly on your Christian witness? Are you laughing at your old sins with that old buddy from college or high school?

Fourth, is Facebook giving me the peace of the Lord, or agitating me? (And please note the very real difference between that peace that passes understanding and that “peace” we receive when we feed a habit, when we get a fix.) Am I jumpy when I don’t get to log on? Am I more keyed up after I’ve logged off? Fifth, am I honoring those in authority over me? Wives, are you failing to honor your husbands because you’re too busy reading about your friends? Children, are you failing to honor your parents because you’re too busy sending flair?

Sixth, is this technology honoring to life? The cyberworld can be a barren wasteland, not because it is filled with pornography and gambling, but because it isn’t real, because it is Gnostic. Seventh, are you loving your spouse on Facebook? Is the rush of nostalgia from finding long lost friends encouraging you to be dissatisfied? Are you secretly looking for that old girlfriend? Are you already caught up in adultery simply by wishing you could be sixteen again? Or do you not know that Facebook can all too easily devolve into relational pornography? The allure of porn is that you think you can have the joys of the sexual union without having to have a real relationship with a real person. The allure of Facebook is much the same. Eighth, are you stealing from your employer by not giving a full days work because you are moonlighting at Farmville, or as a Mafia Don? Or, simply because you are spending your hours at work at play?

Ninth, are you lying? That is, is the you you present on Facebook the real you? This technology has an insidious capacity to both hide reality and fool us into thinking we are both showing and seeing it. Why are our updates all about our victories- I just made cookies for the family; My son just hit the game winning home run; rather than our failures- I just shouted at my little girl; I left my computer on the airplane and it’s gone? Keep a particularly close eye on this one. And tenth, is Facebook encouraging contentment or resentment? Are you coveting your neighbor’s friend count? Are you jealous of how many “likes” there are for his posts compared to yours? And are you content with the real life you are shutting out while hunched over your keyboard?

Please don’t misunderstand this little thought experiment. I suspect we could walk through the Ten Commandments in light of our church, and find many of the same temptations. That doesn’t mean you should stay away from church. It does mean we ought to be deliberate enough to know what we are doing, and why we are doing it. And deliberate begins by affirming that our own hearts are not just desperately wicked, but deceitful as well. We don’t need to protect our privacy. We need instead to expose our sins to the light, the light of Scripture that we might repent and believe, that His face might shine upon us.

Makes Me Sick

Jennifer Knapp announced recently that she is a lesbian. There are so many issues here to bring up but I will only touch on a few.

1. It sickens me that she felt the need to travel the globe for years living in sin and desires to come back and have the Christian community receive her and give her a pass. To do this would put us in violation of James 5.

2. It grieves me that someone can come on Larry King Live and state that she can embrace her lesbian lifestyle while embracing her faith. The arrogance that she showed and disrespect she showed Pastor Bob Botsford was appalling

3. She said..."I would rather be judged before God as being an honest human being," she said. "If I am in any way unpleasing in his sight, I can only hope and pray that he gives me the opportunity to find who I am supposed to be."

Who I am supposed to be? To her, sin is anyone saying the Bible calls certain actions sinful.

Repeatedly in the Larry King Live interview, she infers that God wants us to love as did Haggard. This implies that love allows someone to sin, allows sin to continue without being called sin, and never calling sin what it is, and never bringing up the Bible when it opposes our actions.

4. What in the world is she saying here?

Before Knapp met her girlfriend in the United States, she was celibate for 10 years, which she says is in line with the general expectation for unmarried members of the evangelical community.

"Anyone who has a decade of celibacy has 'complete loser' written on their back," she joked, although she still respects those who do abstain.

5. It matters none to me if the pagan culture buys her CD. But I hope that not one Christian buys her CD. If she is saved, and I do have my doubts, she has to see that the Christian community CANNOT turn a blind eye to here wicked lifestyle. To say that you're dealing with these sinful tendencies and that you need the prayers and support of the saints is more than fine. To embrace it and dare anyone to call it out is wickedness.

How to Grow a Church!!!!

I'm wondering what it takes to make a church grow. Here is a list of some things that have popped in my head...

1. No dress code of any kind. If someone wants to wear a suit fine. Bathing suit, fine. Clown outfit, fine.

2. No hymns are allowed. You have to have hip-hop music that the kids want to hear. Lyrics about Jesus and the cross and blood are a drag.
3. Move out the pews and bring in La-Z-Boys.

4. Let the kids/youth run the church.
5. Make the sermon a 5 minute devotional.
6. Have coffee and doughnuts.
7. If you don't have coffee and doughnuts at least have a full breakfast bar.

8. Joshua says an ATM might be a good one.














9. Melissa says Free Daycare.














10. Stuart thinks a bar would be nice.

Are we being Selfish?

I have noticed something for quite a while that has gone unmentioned in theological circles to my surprise. I guess I could sum it up in one word; application.

It seems to me that in church today everything is about how does this or that apply to me. We now hear a sermon and automatically we think of ways that it applies to us or if it even does.

Now I am not saying that Scripture is not relative to us nor am I saying that it does not apply to our lives. I believe Scripture is applicable to every area of our lives. My concern is that we have become so focused on self that a good sermon is only good because it applies to my life or that it "speaks to me."

We hear a sermon about Jesus weeping and we wonder how it "applies to me." Nevermind why He was crying and the context of the verses before and after that verse.

I am not saying that we should not attempt to discern if that sermon "applies" to me or not. What I am saying is that we should not think that every drop of ink in Scripture is about us. It is about God and His glory. I think it is awfully easy to be self-centered in church rather that Christ-centered.