In the last few weeks I have observed the consequences of the very thing A.W. Tozer estimated about the Church nearly a half a century ago. He said in his book, The Knowledge of the Holy,

“It is not a cheerful thought that millions of us who live in a land of Bibles, who belong to churches and labor to promote the Christian religion, may yet pass our whole life on this earth without once having thought or tried to think seriously about the being of God. Few of us have let our hearts gaze in wonder at the I AM, the self-existent Self back of which no creature can think. Such thoughts are too painful for us. We prefer to think where it will do more good –about how to build a better mousetrap, for instance, or how to make two blades of grass grow where one grew before. And for this we are now paying a too heavy price in the secularization of our religion and the decay of our inner lives.”

Modern trends are not necessarily the “move of God” whether a church promotes them as such or not. Just because a church is “reaching out” to their community doesn’t mean that they are reaching out with the Gospel. This is what we were told to take to the community:

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.
(Matt.28:19,20)

I think you’ll agree that this is a far cry from the worldly celebrations of Easter eggs and the Easter Bunny or the allurement of antichrist video games. Do you really think that God approves of us teaching our children about the Easter Bunny over the truth of Jesus Christ resurrecting from the dead!? And what shepherd in his right mind would use such a holy venue for such an anti-God venture? Even if the idea was just to provide a place for the kids to hold this “Guitar Hero” contest, that Pastor should have known enough not to have allowed those kids to be subjected to such trash in his church. The problem is actually greater than I have stated here, for it is one thing to be wrong but it is quite another thing to be wrong and think that you are right.

The church’s business is not to entertain the masses! We have been commanded by the Lord Jesus Christ to disciple the nations and to teach them to obey everything that Jesus has told us. Pastors today think that if they just get the kids together and have fun and have a good time, they are doing the work of God. This comes from darkened hearts and uneducated minds. For us the problem started about a generation ago. Those folks who had not thought it worth their time to contemplate the being of God had lowered their conception of Him and gave that same attitude to their children which included the lifestyle that comes with it. Their children grew up thinking that churches full of spiritually-ill and empty people were better than being a part of small congregations that “never had any fun.” The philosophy of “let’s all go to Heaven and have fun doing it” replaced, “I am the Lord your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy.”

Churches became a place of entertainment, rather than houses of worship and when you start entertaining the masses – you can’t stop. People will demand more and when the present entertainment does not satiate, they will have to turn to the latest trend and sensationalize just a little more! God is not looking for the latest gimmick to grow His Church. He is looking for those who will preach the Gospel and worship Him in spirit and truth. Remember Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”

May His Spirit touch your heart this week! Pastor Jim

I thank God for the Cross, or better said, I thank God for Easter. I thank God that Jesus arose from the grave three days after He was placed in that tomb. For if He had not risen, then the Cross would have just been another bloody massacre, the martyrdom of another holy man, another victory for the side of evil. But because of Easter the Cross of Jesus Christ was not the end but rather the beginning. Instead of His life being tragically shortened by evil the Cross of Jesus Christ points to His victory over evil. Death no longer has any hold over those who trust on His Name! If there were no Resurrection, then the Cross would have been a disaster, a total miscarriage of justice –the ultimate miscarriage! But because of Easter, I can look at the Cross and know that God has forgiven the sins of the world justly. Just think about it; if the Resurrection never happened then nothing would have been written into the Bible after the Gospels. The Apostle Paul would still be a Pharisee, Jesus’ band of disciples would have dispersed, and there would be no Acts of the Apostles or Epistles by disciples. God would have faded back into the recesses of men’s minds locked behind doors of “What could have been.” Had there not been Easter, there would have been a fog of doubt cast over the life of Jesus that would have been impossible to remove; all of His miracles, all of His teachings and even the Virgin Birth would be brought into justifiable question. If there had not been an Easter, the prophecies in the Old Testament would have been proven false. And since these are the ligaments and sinews that hold the Bible together, if there would not have been an Easter, that Book would have long disappeared into the attics of the world. If Jesus wouldn’t have risen on that first Easter morn, mankind wouldn’t have the Word of God, faith to believe, or hope to persevere. Easter declares the love of God and His faithfulness to all mankind. Easter tells us that death is not the end; it is not the final curtain and therefore cannot be the ultimate power. This is a blessing for some but for others it may bring new fears. Since death is not the end; then men’s lives cannot be buried for eternity.

“I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me though he were dead, yet shall he live.” John 11:25

“For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures: And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.” 1Cor.15:3,4

Happy Easter!

John says, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid his life down for us.” 1John 3:16 In the days prior to the escalating divorce rate and prenuptial agreements, the marriage vow held a place of priority within our society. A man asked a woman to marry him and she would respond accordingly. If she said yes then the two of them set a wedding date and the only thing discussed was wedding plans and where they were to travel for the honeymoon. Life was simple; the man knew that he loved his fiancée and he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. By accepting his proposal, she showed the same intent. There were no negotiations, no contracts, no prenuptials, only vows and a license. In the introduction to his book, The Power of the Covenant Heart, David Huskins illuminates the differences between the covenant and the contract:
“There is a major difference between a contract and a covenant. By nature, contracts are legal and binding. Covenants are spiritual and liberating. Contracts are sealed on paper. Covenants are sealed in the heart. Covenants are more binding than contracts. The essential difference is that a contract is enforced by the law, and a covenant is enforced by the spirit.”
Over the years and in these last few perilous days, we have forgotten the liberating power of a faithful committed heart. Spouses are more insecure of their love and the love of their beloved. Hollywood marriage proposals begin with, “Well, if it doesn’t work out… we should partial out the estate now.” I would never enter into a relationship with that much insecurity. Where is the love? Where is the faithfulness? Where is the commitment? With the divorce rate in the Church equaling that of the divorce rate in the world, we should come to realize two important things. First, that same insecurity is now in the hearts of Christians and secondly, it is only a matter of time before we start thinking of our relationship with God as contractual rather than covenantal. But thanks be to God, Jesus lifted the cup on the night He was to be betrayed and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.” God never intended that His Salvation would be contractual. The Bible says that He is faithful and even if we become faithless, He will still be faithful. He has said in His heart that He would love mankind; this is the Covenant! He did not say that He would only love us if we loved Him; that would be contractual. Jesus sealed this covenant with His own life’s blood –that should be good enough for anybody! If God so loved us in this Holy Covenant, then we should rest in the liberating assurance that there isn’t any contract to be broken.

Existentialism is the philosophy that at its heart it believes that the personal experiences of life define the life rather than the objective absolute truth defining it. An existentialist believes that God exists because he believes that He exist. Whereas, a Christian believes that God exist because God has declared it in His Word. An existentialist has faith but his faith rests in his own faith. A Christian has faith in God, who is faithful always. Here the lines are drawn clearly and the distinction is apparent, you cannot be an existentialist and be a Christian. That would be like trying to jump into a pool of water and expecting to stay dry. But I fear, because of things that I have observed over the years, that there is a neo-Christian who is an existentialist at heart. The lines that make up the parameters of his life have become so indistinguishable that, in essence, he has no foundation and therefore he has no moral compass. Because he has no moral compass he has no direction in life and therefore he has no goal. If he has no goal, his hope is depleted and the result of hopelessness is spiritual anarchy. Anything goes, and given the nature of man, the result of spiritual anarchy is death. Now, this is a hard line that I have taken here and many men much smarter than myself may disagree with my opinion. They may show that certain aspects of the Christian faith are certainly existential. But I am not going to drown us into a quagmire of philosophical semantics. My sole purpose here is for you to decide whether your life is heading toward an existentialist end or a Christian end? So let us look into a day in the life of this neo-Christian and contrast it with the Christian who is saved by the grace of God.
In the morning, this neo-Christian arises to his prayer closet if time permits and there are things that are pressing him personally and directly. His prayer achieves more personal satisfaction than the will of God and subconsciously that is fine with him. He knows that he is the light of the world and yet, he desires to show the world his light and end it there. He cannot use his light to lead others through the darkness. The Christian knows that he is a light, but that he is not the True Light. He knows that it does the unbeliever no good to see his light and stop there –the unbeliever must see Jesus Christ –that is his true desire and motivation. (And I am not just speaking of verbal evangelical tactics here.) The neo-Christian receives joy and blessing when he perceives that God is acting on his behalf. He becomes stronger in his faith when his conscious declares his innocence and weaker in his faith when circumstances get beyond his control. His nominal creed does not always agree with his living creed and convenience is more of a motivational factor than love for God. He tries to be a Christian and that’s the problem –he tries. He tries to be good, and when he is successful, he believes that he has found favor in the eyes of God. But should this man fall under temptation, run through a dry spell, or become afflicted because of natural causes, he believes that he must do something to merit God’s good graces. Yet, another problem arises when he equates God’s good graces with the temporal blessings of this life. The true Christian at heart simply rests in the salvation of God that comes through Jesus Christ and he simply states in both his nominal and living creeds; “But by the grace of God, I am what I am.”
Have a great week!

God promises to us all –“I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” Ez.36:25,26
Last week John Eckelberry was to clean the church with Bill and Becky –he forgot. When he greeted me last week he told me what happened; this is what he said: “I feel bad, I was rude to Bill and Becky, I forgot about cleaning the church with them.” He called and left a message on their phone and they returned his message and told him that all was forgiven! Now, if you listen carefully and try not to jump to any quick conclusions, I believe the Lord will help you learn something very precious and it will help you draw closer to the heart of God. When Bill told me what had happened he added that he told Brother John that, “it was okay…” Perhaps Bill was just accepting John’s apology but it seemed to me like he was excusing the faux pas. So I said, “Don’t tell him that! If he believed that he was rude then let him believe that. God has so softened his heart that he saw that even being forgetful can be “rude.” Now, you may be thinking that I’m being too hard on Brother John, but in actuality, I am blessing him by revealing to him that God has given him a heart of flesh. You see, most people would have excused themselves from any wrong whatsoever because… it wasn’t their fault that they forgot. They may apologize that they forgot, but they certainly would have expected you to forgive them because… they just forgot. It wasn’t as though they intentionally tried to forget, so, it wasn’t their fault. (Do you see that the people who think in this way are thinking only of themselves?) But John was thinking of Bill and Becky. Listen to what St. Paul tells us in Ephesians: “So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.” Eph.4:17-19 As Christians, we should think less and less of ourselves and more about others. Doesn’t the Word encourage us that it would be better to be wronged than to be so hard that we demand justice in our lives? Yes, it does! Thinking like the world will not soften our hearts. We are our brother’s keeper and we should treat them as we ourselves would want to be treated. If we continue to excuse our behavior God will not be able to soften our hearts, as He desires. A soft heart is sensitive to the feelings of others while a hardened heart continues to justify itself. Brothers and Sisters, let us love one another.