Pressing On!

A colleague of mine made me aware of the video that I have attached with this little rant.  What is becoming of the church today?  This video explains a lot that is wrong with the Church today.  It seems that we cannot be satisfied with just living and teaching God’s Word anymore.  Now I am not against modern/contemporary music.  I’m not against praise bands.  I’m not against trying to reach people for the cause of Christ.  However, I am against “Christians” using the name of Jesus to promote their new agenda, their new insight, or their new flavor of the month.  When a church building is turned into a den of thieves for raising funds for mission works, for youth outings and the like I think we have a problem.  When the pulpit becomes a place for the latest pop-psychology or the newest fad in presenting God’s Word then have we moved away from that old Jerusalem gospel?  When we use the preaching stage to promote a new book, CD or a new philosophy, where have we went wrong?  What happened to preaching the Gospel?  What happened to convicting souls with the message of Christ?  What happened to evangelism?  I mean evangelism because people are lost and need to be saved.  Not to “steal” a Christian or Christian family away from another New Testament Church Body.  The Church needs to get back to being the Church found in the Bible, letting our lights shine for Christ as we read in Matthew chapter 5.   The only ones that can take the Church back are the ones that make up the Church, Christians.  It is up to us to leave the plague of groups such as the emergent church behind and hang on to Jesus Christ the author and finisher of our faith.

Recently, while doing a study in the book of John I came to a passage of scripture that made me think about those that we would call “seasoned” Christians compared to those we would call “babes” or “new” in Christ.  The passage was that of John 5:1-17 which reads…

After these things there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porticoes.  In these lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered, [waiting for the moving of the waters; for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred up the water; whoever then first, after the stirring up of the water, stepped in was made well from whatever disease with which he was afflicted.]  A man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had already been a long time in that condition, He said to him, “Do you wish to get well?”  The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I am coming, another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Get up, pick up your pallet and walk.”  Immediately the man became well, and picked up his pallet and began to walk. Now it was the Sabbath on that day.  So the Jews were saying to the man who was cured, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not permissible for you to carry your pallet.”  But he answered them, “He who made me well was the one who said to me, ‘Pick up your pallet and walk.’”   They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Pick up your pallet and walk’?”  But the man who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away while there was a crowd in that place.  Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “Behold, you have become well; do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to you.”  The man went away, and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.  For this reason the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because He was doing these things on the Sabbath.  But He answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.”

Now I know that this passage does not directly deal with that of a new Christian however the concept is still relevant.  It seems to me that in many of our congregations today, we have this very same problem.  A person comes to the Lord and wanting to do good and what is right and church members jump right in and act just as the Jews here did to this man that was healed.  When a person becomes a Christian and is on fire for the Lord it seems many times that someone or some group of people want to make that person wonder if the decision they have just made was the right thing to do.  It is as if to say, I know that you are on fire and want to be a good worker but just calm down and wait a minute and think about this. If you go all out now you just might burn yourself out and that would not be good.  It seems that too many Christians operate this way.  It’s like the church might get upset if someone wants to work for the Lord, God forbid!  Perhaps the reason Christians are put off by a go getter is that they are not a go getter for the Lord.  I can think of no better person or thing to be on fire for other than the Lord.  So please if you are one that likes to clip the wings on a new Christian just remember the only reason you are not a fireball is because you let your spark go out.  Stay on fire for the Lord!!!

Emergency Numbers:

When in sorrow——————————————call John 14.
When men fail you————————————–call Psalm 27.
If you want to be fruitful———————————call John 15.
When you have sinned———————————-call Psalm 51.
When you worry————————————call Mat.6:19-34.
When you are in danger———————————call Psalm 91.
When God seems far away—————————-call Psalm 139.
When your faith needs stirring———————–call Hebrews 11.
When you are lonely and fearful————————-all Psalm 23.
When you grow bitter and critical————————call I Cor.13.
For Paul’s secret to happiness————————call Col. 3:12-17.
For understanding of Christianity——————call II Cor.5:15-19.
When you feel down and out————————-call Romans 8:31.
When you want peace and rest———————call Mat.11:25-30.
When the world seems bigger than God—————–call Psalm 90.
When you want Christian assurance————–call Romans 8:1-30.
When you leave home for labor or travel—————call Psalm 121.
When your prayers grow narrow or selfish————– call Psalm 67.
For a great invention/opportunity———————–call Isaiah 55.
When you want courage for a task————————call Joshua 1.
For how to get along with fellow men——————-call Romans 12.
When you think of investments and returns————–call Mark 10.
If you are depressed————————————-call Psalm 27.
If your pocketbook is empty—————————–call Psalm 37.
If you are losing confidence in people———————-call I Cor.13.
If people seem unkind————————————-call John 15.
If discouraged about your work————————-call Psalm 126.
If you find the world growing small and yourself great—-call Psalm 19.

Alternate numbers:
For dealing with fear———————————–call Psalm 34:7.
For security——————————————call Psalm 121:3.
For assurance——————————————call Mark 8:35.
For reassurance————————————-call Psalm 145:18.

All lines to Heaven are open 24 hours a day!

Recently I have been considering a favorite song of mine from the Christian radio genre and it is also a song that we have also sung in the services of the congregation where I preach.  The song is entitled “Jesus Messiah” made popular by the religious artist, Chris Tomlin.  I have written about some of his other songs that I like as well.  However, the part about this song that is problematic for me is the second verse which says, His body the bread, His blood the wine. This has been an ongoing blindly guided situation I see God’s people falling into.  They refer to the juice taken at the Lord’s Supper as wine.  I say that this is problematic not because I object to it but I believe that nowhere in God’s Word does it give the indication that the drink that was used at the original giving of the memorial or at any time the Lord’s Supper is to be observed as wine.  Not in any of the gospel’s nor in the account of Paul in First Corinthians do any of the writers guided by the Holy Spirit ever refer to the grape juice that was used during the commemorating of our Saviors death used as wine.  A quick search into any concordance will verify this.  The Greek word for wine is never used in this area of the Bible.  This word “wine”, I do understand is used to mean numerous different things when it is used in scripture.  But the word wine is nowhere in those scriptures in the Greek or even English.  Even in some of the most liberal translations that I have come across do not refer to the Lord’s Supper as it being wine.

I just urge for us to sing songs about Bible things using Biblical language.  Don’t take a good song and mess it up doctrinally just to fit in with the world.  In the case of this song I have talked with our song leader and we have agreed that changing the word wine to vine, it not only makes rhyming sense, more importantly it makes Biblical sense.  Too many times if we come across something that is wrong scripturally we just stay away from it.  I suggest we fix it, turn it back to God for His praise.  If the old boundaries have been moved we shouldn’t just say, oh well, we should move them back.  Not to mention when something like this is misunderstood among the world it has a tendency of confusing those that are new Christians and to those that are not as spiritually mature as they could be.  Please don’t think me hard headed or legalistic, but check it out see what the Bible really says.  

     Have you ever wondered if you were the only one that has trouble understanding something?  For example, when you were in junior high and it just seems obvious to you that everyone else in the class must have already taken this mathematics course because they all understand what is going on just fine.  And yet you are still scratching your head because you just simply haven’t figured the concept out yet.  In time it finally sinks in and you get it.  Not that it means that the mathematics course was wrong or stupid or whatever you called it when you were growing up, it just took you a while to figure it out.  You know, it took time to make sense of it all. 

     Sometimes I feel the same way about the word worship.  Maybe I just haven’t figured it all out yet.  Maybe I never will.  I do pray for understanding to help me to see it for what the Bible has said that it is and nothing more or nothing less.  I am going to list a few things that I know about worship, just to let you know why I understand what I do about worship. 

1.  I do know the word worship is first found in Genesis 22:5 Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you.”

2.  I do know the word worship is translated differently from one version of the Bible to another, such as in Exodus 3:12 the NASB says And He said, “Certainly I will be with you, and this shall be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God at this mountain.” And then the KJV translates the word as serve.

3. I do know the word worship is used in reference to God and to idols.  Psalm 2:11 Worship the LORD with reverence And rejoice with trembling. Then in Daniel 3:5-6 that at the moment you hear the sound of the horn, flute, lyre, trigon, psaltery, bagpipe and all kinds of music, you are to fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king has set up. “But whoever does not fall down and worship shall immediately be cast into the midst of a furnace of blazing fire.”

4. I do know the word worship is used to mean many different things.  And most of those are things that are not what we would call church gathering events. 

     However, I do believe that worship is what we do when we come together to praise and honor the Lord, God the Father and Christ the Son.  Just as much as I understand that worship may not always be done as a group activity but can simply be me serving in the name of Christ in another capacity.  I also can conclude from study, that worship in not just the singing of hymns, choruses or spiritual songs, that worship is about pleasing the Lord in spirit and in truth as we learn in John chapter 4.

     In the summation of what I am trying to share is perhaps this, Worship is not so much what we do or when we do it, as much as it is what we are and how we express it.  And I believe that as we find in scripture it ought not be about what pleases me. but actually what pleases the Lord.