i am guilty

it seems like every time i preach another sermon out of the book of acts it just shows even more where the church is lacking today. we have abandoned the original ways of the apostles and early followers. we have stopped seeing the importance of getting out in our communities and telling others the good news. we have stopped trying to live in the power of the holy spirit. we have given up on the power of god in our lives. we won't make a stand against our friends or family let alone in front of someone who could punish us for our belief in god.

the church has become this place for scarred people to meet and talk about what they should do if they lived in a perfect world. we don't take the things pastors say seriously-or our pastors aren't saying that it is important to spread the word outside the four walls of the church. we just get together and huddle up and act like our faith is just something very personal and that doesn't come with any costs-when jesus clearly said to count the costs before following! jesus clearly said that faith in him would lead to divisions among families and friends. jesus said if people would hate on him and eventually kill him why should we expect our lives to be different if we are his followers!

yet we sit back and talk about how much god wants to bless us in our church and that if bad things happen then we must have sinned-this is far from the truth. yes god wants to bless us but he wants to bless us so we can be a blessing to others-not so we can be more comfortable and spend more on ourselves!

as i think about thanksgiving this week i am ashamed that i didn't get involved in some kind of feeding people program to help those who are less fortunate-instead i will trek off and enjoy a comfortable meal while people are starving. i have a real hard time with this-should we spend the day with our families or should our families spend the day doing for people who have little to be thankful for? what do you think?

sermon notes available and other thoughts

as i continue to examine what the church should be doing i have decided to post sermon notes that i have used in case they may be helpful to you or someone you know. feel free to copy them and use them or take part of them or whatever you want-also feel free to leave feedback about them. when i copied and pasted them they were a little difficult to read as the outline feature didn't copy and paste well. they are under a different blog of mine i can't remember what the url is right off hand. i will try to keep them posted as i write them. i am pretty far ahead right now but it will probably be once a week or so.

this past weekend we had a great sunday gathering-the spirit was very strong with us-i don't know what i mean by that except to say you could really feel the presence of the spirit. some came to the altar, and it was just a good encounter with god for our group. i hope that these types of things continue to happen-and i don'tget in the way of them happening. i hope this translates to people being changed and really living in the power of the holy spirit, instead of just talking about it all the time.

don't you ever get tired of just hearing about stuff and want to experience it yourself, i think that is my sentiment right now. i have been experiencing glimpses of god's great power available to us in the holy spirit, but still feel like there is much more to it-and i want to experience it all. i wonder why the church today doesn't exhibit all the gifts of the spirit, some churches exhibit some while others have none that are visible in their church. i think we need to get back to seeing the gifts of the spirit in our churches, isn't that what they were intended for-for people to use!!!! they weren't given to talk about but to use!!

how can we better use the gifts of the spirit?? why don't we see more of them? why aren't we seeing them in the world?? just thought you might have some answers for me.

should the church change??

why does the church think that for things to be "spiritual" that they have to happen inside the church? it seems that we have gotten confused on where ministry happens. when we look at the early church, they used the temple some as meeting places, but most of the time we see that they were out among the people. they went to where the people were and did things there, they didn't go to the people and invite them to church or a special program. they performed miracles signs and wonders, they preached to the people, or they talked to the people about jesus, and it seemed that god blessed their efforts. they were always out with the people. i can't seem to figure out how we have shifted from this type of ministry to the type where we sit in church and beg people to come in there instead of being willing to go out to them where they are.

why is the church so reluctant to go out to the people? many of the great spiritual renewals that took place throughout history took place because somone was willing to step outside the box and go to where the people were. the church seems to be failing in its mission lately yet we ae still clinging to our failing tactics. we don't change the way we try to win people to jesus we just call it something else and do it a different day-but it always still involves using the church and inviting people to it (not to say this can't be effective, but i think statistics would show that it isn't working). the church isn't growing in number in america but worse than that the population continues to grow so not only are we losing people we do have but we are missing out on all the population growth.

what will it take for us to change our ideas of how the church should function? should we make drastic changes to the church or should we leave it alone?? what do you think?

r we praying right

upon getting ready for tonite's bible study (we are studying the parables), i am left with some difficult questions of my own. i know these things will never be brought up during the study and that they may not be important. anyway, in the parable of the pharisee and the tax collector there are 2 guys, one prays and thanks god he isn't an awful sinner like the other guy and tells of his great "deeds"and the other guy won't even look up, but prays for god to be merciful on him because he is a sinner.

at first glance you say well the pharisee was just arrogant and the tax collector was a sinner and should have prayed that way. looking a little closer though, the pharisees were the leaders of the "church" or the religious people back in their time, and jesus said the tax collector prayed rightly to be justified before god. so it makes me wonder-have church leaders today gotten too bold, like the pharisees-thinking they are right and others are wrong? aren't we all just as much in need of god's mercy as the next guy? why do we as church people think we have it figured out and that we can lead these "sinners" in prayer when our prayers don't resemble anything like what jesus talked about?

is there maybe a humility problem among our churches leaders and people? are we teaching people the wrong way to pray? perhaps i am just over-reacting to this story and have gotten a little confused, but i am really concerned for our churches!! we need to take a look at how we pray and quit acting so pious like we don't ever make any mistakes. the truth is we make as many mistakes as anyone, maybe more. even paul was humble enough to remmber that he was the chief of sinners. as i spend time with god today this will be something that we will talk about-hopefully something will be resolved in my heart.

how can we really be god's hands and feet????

ever read something real thought provoking then sat around trying to figure it all out? that is what i am doing right now. i am trying to figure out how to help a smaller church (the group of people, not the building), get excited about what god is doing, so they will get out in the community and tell others about him. the problem is we are all kind of stuck in this rut, we talk a good game on sunday but then during the week we take very little action. we had an awesome gathering this past sunday-the holy spirit came and people shared many testimonies of how god was currently at work in their lives-just plain awesome!! u should have been there!

now we need to convert that into "being god's hands and feet" which isn't such an easy task. we have to get out and tell others about him, and practice loving our neighbors as ourselves-and loving god with all our heart soul mind and strength. we have to practice forgiveness mercy and justice. we have to take care of the poor oppressed and downtrodden. we have to do more than just meet together and have talks and lessons and sermons, we need to start some action. what we do needs to come from the peoples desire to follow jesus, not from their pastor telling them they should do this or that. it is good to help them along but, it is more important for them to start to make the decisions and to want to do these things because it pleases god.

there needs to be more sharing what jesus has done for us with others-too often we act like it is a big secret and never get it out there. it can be difficult for me to share with others so i am not pointing any fingers, but i just want to hear encouraging stories and get advice from others on how to authentically talk to people about their need for jesus (i have read several books) (and i know that the spirit will tell me what to say when the time comes).

one last side note while eating lunch yesterday i encountered a guy who appeared to be homeless, outside the door. after way too much discussion about what we should do we decided to go and invite him to eat with us-and i was named spokesman (probably cause i am a pastor). when i went outside to talk to him he was nowhere around-i circled the whole building-we left some money in the cup on his bike and went back inside. the guy was inside drinking at the bar-i totally overlooked him on the way out to get him. anyway i wonder if i did the right thing-did i talk too long about it-did the guy really need some lunch-was he put in my path to feed and i failed??? or was it just god checking to see if i would be willing???

any thoughts or stories please share!!!

what about the power

as i am trying to write a new sermon for this week (we are studying in the book of Acts), i am constantly amazed at the awesome power of the holy spirit. in chapter 6 we see stephen doing miracles and signs and wonders, and throughout the earlier chapters we have seen the apostles do awesome stuff with the power of the holy spirit. the thing is i believe that the spirit is still able to do powerful stuff through people-miracles, healings, etc..., the problem is it doesn't seem like too many other people think so. i wouldn't consider myself "charismatic" but i do wonder why all the skepticism about the holy spirit using people to do miracles?

if we as the church don't believe that there is power available in Jesus for here on earth why waste our time going to church? Not that we only go to see the miracles but we have to believe that they can be done or happen or we take all of his power away. it is something discussed quite a bit in the scriptures but we don't talk much about it. makes me wonder if we really have the right idea about god and how he is?

shouldn't we receive power when we receive the spirit? what makes it so that we don't? it seems that people in the church live the same as people out of the church-neither one believing too much about what god is capable of doing. if the church minimizes god's abilities, then what could we expect from people who don't even claim to be believers? i love to hear great stories of how god is at work in people's live today-perhaps you have one to share?? i would love to hear your story about the power of god at work in your life.

maybe you have some thoughts about why the power of the spirit doesn't seem to be very common in the church today, let me know.

pretending??

There is a great story in the Bible about a couple, Ananias and Sapphira, who make a plot together to lie in front of the church and look good for everyone to see. Some people had sold some properties and given all the money to the apostles so it could be used to help the needy. Ananias and Sapphira decide they are going to do the some thing so that people will think they are “super saints” and that they have great faith. Only their plan involves a little deceit, they decide they are going to keep some of the money for themselves but still tell the church that they gave all the money they got.
Problem is, you can’t trick the Holy Spirit, they could have tricked the people and looked like great people but the Holy Spirit called them on it. When Ananias brings the money to Peter, he asks him is this all the money, and when he insists it is he dies instantly. His wife Sapphira comes in a few hours later with the same story. After being questioned, just like her husband she is also died instantly. No one can believe it the church is in shock.
The point of the story is not about the money, but it is about them trying to lie to God and to the church so they will look like great “Christians”. They tried to be great pretenders, they were hypocrites (you know the people everyone always complains about). But the unfortunate things is that this happens all too often with Christians. We don’t necessarily say we sold property and lie about how much money we gave from the sale, we do it in more subtle ways.
We become great pretenders in other areas. We wouldn’t want anyone to think that we weren’t “super saints” so we never let on that we do anything wrong or that we have fallen short. We do all the right things at all the right times and we act like our lives are just great when really that isn’t true. Ever had one of those Sunday mornings where everything has gone wrong and you have had a terrible morning. The kids won’t do what they are supposed to, your hair won’t do right, and you and your spouse have been arguing, but as soon as you get to the door of the church you paint on your church smile and when someone asks how you are doing you say “great, how bout you”. We pretend to have it all together instead of letting others know that we have struggles just like they do.
Now the problem is we have gotten so good at it that the whole church does the same thing. We all just go to church and pretend that all is well, and we can’t help each other because we can’t let someone know we need the help. We have become great pretenders. We couldn’t possibly come to the altar and pray a prayer of confession because what would others think-we have our image to keep up, we have to keep everyone thinking we are “super saints”. Now it has gotten so far out of hand how can we fix it (even the pastors do it, they have to stay on their spiritual pedestal)? Why is it so hard to just live our lives and let God be part of them mess and all. We aren’t fooling Him anyway. He wants to be part of our lives and be able to help us.
Aren’t you glad that God doesn’t punish our hypocrisy the way he did theirs! Thank God for mercy. We need to get back to having an open and honest life in front of God. Let’s quit all the pretending, and start living the abundant life that is promised (that doesn’t mean there won’t be any bad days, but God will be there along the way). It starts with honesty.