The Amusement Park Church

Just think of all the people we could attract to our church if we had an amusement park associated with it! Maybe we could even name some rides after popular stories from the Old Testament. We could even have people dress up in costumes that resemble some of the heroes of the faith! We could have rides and shows and animals, and games. Don't forget about the light show and fireworks followed by a brief message about a loving God. Add some rockin' music with a kickin' beat and our church would grow by leaps and bounds!

All that may be true. The church might grow. But why? Amusement? Entertainment? Lights? The show? I found this Spurgeon quote today on the Truth Matters blog. I think Mr Spurgeon hits the nail on the head. He says:

“The devil has seldom done a cleverer thing than hinting to the church that part of their mission is to provide entertainment for the people, with a view to winning them...providing amusement for the people is nowhere spoken of in the Scriptures as a function of the church...the need is for Biblical doctrine, so understood and felt that it sets men aflame.”

I know that what I have written above is a little extreme. It is true though. More and more in churches today the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is softened. People are brought in because the music is more contemporary, the speaker more flamboyant, the church more accepting, the people more "loving". In many cases we are missing the point! Jesus did not come to be entertaining! He came to save sinners! Jesus did not come to be amusing! He came to die! We so often forget that God is just. He hates sin. Many times in the Old Testament we see the destruction of kings and nations. Why are they destroyed? SIN! SIN! SIN! God hates sin! He hates sin so much that He cannot even tolerate to be in the presence of it! Yet he loves us so much that He gave his Son to die for us! We must preach the Gospel, the power of God above all things! That is what saves people not entertainment! The Gospel will change lives! I know that it has changed mine! Entertainment does not. Folks may get excited and enjoy entertainment, but it is empty. There is no meat. We need a Savior not a comedian. We are lost in our sin, worthless, empty. Entertainment will not change that! Jesus can and will! Look to the Cross of Christ, it does have the power to change your life. That is what we must preach in our churches! Look to the Cross!

Romans

Ty and are are reading through the book of Romans. Each night before bed we will take a section section, read it, and then discuss it. We started on this journey together last night. I was challenged at the Men's Conference to memorize certain books in Romans in an effort to try to live more fully with the gospel in front of my face. Thus, I wanted to similarly challenge my son. Romans 1:16 really stood out to me because it is a verse that Milton Vincent spoke about during one of the conference sessions. It says "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek." What a great verse! Vincent went on to talk about the universe and the sun and comets and how God's power that is so evident in all of his creation. All of these things took unimaginable power to create and awesome power to maintain yet these are not the power God. The power of God is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 1:18 also talks about the power of God, it says "For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." It is amazing to think that we as Christians have access to the power of God through the Gospel! This gives new meaning to Phillipians 4:13! It says "I can do all things through him who strengthens me." Let me paraphrase, I can do all things through Him who strengthens me through the power of the gospel! Exciting stuff. Let's get out there!

The Gospel

This past weekend was the 5th annual ABC men's conference at Camp of the Woods. It was truly an awesome experience to worship with almost 200 other men, all of which are dedicated to the same gospel. The one and only Gospel. The good news of Jesus Christ our Lord. The guest speaker is a man I have really learned to admire. A man who loves the Lord. A man who does his all to live his life inside the Gospel. This man's name is Milton Vincent. He wrote the book "The Gospel Primer for Christians". I would highly recommend this book to all Christians! Please read it!

I have had some time to try and digest some of the truths that were brought forth during this conference. I would like to share with you, what was for me, the most life changing. It's the idea of living your life with the Gospel in front of you face. It is looking at life not with "rose colored lenses", but using the Cross of Christ as a lense to view all things. I know that at different seasons in my life, I have lived with many different things in front of my face. Self has always been a big one. I am selfish. Fear is another. The fear of man and what they will think of me. How shallow of me! Who cares! If we, as Christians who love the Lord can live our lives with the Gospel in front of our faces and nothing else, the Lord will use that to change the world! If we interpret all things through the Gospel we will be changed. We will see our God in a new light. We will see others in a new light. We will see trials in a new light. Do you want to change the world for Jesus? I believe that this is the first step! God's word, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, is eternal, we will be in eternity with them! Let us, you and me keep the Gospel in front of our faces, conquer our sins, and take this world for our God. We deserve wrath! God has given us grace.

A Christian Nation

It is becoming more and more apparent to me that this nation, founded on Christian values and morals; this nation that was once called a Christian nation, can no longer be referred to as such. I have been watching and listening for some time now the different movements in our culture. These movements are political, cultural, even theological, and they can be a little startling! My first response is to get angry! How in the world can these people be so naive, so ignorant as to what is right and what is wrong. I don't think that I am the only person that has these feelings! I praise God the he is sovereign! The correct way for me to feel about these movements and changes in the way our society thinks is to respond with love. I know that my flesh is not able to love them. This love has to be supernatural! It has to be a love that my Heavenly Father instills in me. I will do my best, by God's grace, to love them and I pray that you will too.

I was reading in Romans 1 the other day and it struck me that this section of scripture describes America. I realize that Paul is speaking to the Romans here but I cannot help but see some similarities! I will share it with you. It is Romans 1:18-32-

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God's decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

Our nation seems to be falling apart. Our world too for that matter. Yet here I sit. I am convicted. The Lord says "Go and make disciples of all nations." The Lord asks "Who can I send?" Like Isaiah, I will say "Here I am send me." Help me Father to have a heart for the lost, help me to love them as you do. Help me to go to them and share your beautiful gospel. Help me to keep the cross ever in front of my face. You and You alone. Please help me to be faithful. Help me to understand your gospel better. Make me more like your Blessed Son every day. Now to him who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen. (1 Tim 6:15b & 16)

Biblical

I have a friend who likes to share his biblical opinion on some topics that can be very controversial. This friend is well educated and would probably consider himself something of an intellectual. His arguments are touching and sometimes very persuasive. However, most of his opinions I very much disagree with. I have yet to see any scripture to back up this "biblical opinion", in most cases because I don't think there is any. I think I have somewhat of a grasp on the major doctrines of scripture and I am enjoying digging deeper into God's word and learning about the not so major doctrines. If I do state my opinion, especially if it's an opinion on something scripture has to say, such as creation or marriage, I want to do my best to understand what God is saying in that scripture. I truly believe that God's word is sufficient for all things through our knowledge of Him. (2 Peter 1:3). We have no need to look to the Discovery Channel or the Science Channel, we have God's eternal word (Isa 40:8), which is written by God (2 Tim 3:16) Why would we look to man for his wisdom? God's word says repeatedly that the heart of man is wicked or evil (Matt 15:8, Rom 3:11 to name a few) I guess that my point is that if you are a Christian and you want to give your biblical opinion on issues that scripture talks about, use the scripture. It carries much more weight then "I think" or "I believe" or even "I saw it on the Internet so it has to be true". I guess there is a second point too. Christian please don't believe everything you hear or read from other Christians. Open up that bible of yours and test it! I apologize for this tirade. Thanks for listening, or reading, which is a type of listening. Blessings!

Perfect fellowship

I had a great conversation the other night with my friend Al. I don't remember all of what we talked about but I would like to share just a brief thought with you! I don't know where this thought came from but I said to Al "It will be great to get to heaven and have perfect fellowship with you". Normally when I talk about perfect fellowship it is in relationship to Jesus or God the Father. This thought was more along the lines of perfect fellowship with my friends too! I don't know about you but my mind sometimes wanders when I am talking to my friends. Sometimes those wanderings are tainted with sin. More often for sure then I would like to admit! So, on top of rejoicing for eternity with our God we will have fellowship with each other that is not tainted with sin! I would imagine that this would take all of our relationships to a much deeper level. Love without sin. Friendship without sin. Think without sin. Exist without sin! Heaven is going to be so much better then I can fathom! I can't wait to get there!

But Have Not Love

Today at church Pastor Ed talked about the newly elected Barack Obama. I know that there are many Evangelical Christians that have some very negative feelings about Mr. Obama. While I do not agree with some of the policies that he has, he is our leader and God's Holy Word has some very important things to say about how we should treat our leaders. Titus 3:1-3 says "Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, 2 to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people. " As many of you know I enjoy Facebook, it has been a great tool for me to get in touch with old friends. It has been a blessing! Lately many of my friends have been bickering and fighting, name calling and bashing each other over this whole president thing. This should not be! Fast friends now are disgusted with each other. Is that love? I don't think so. I think many of us "Evangelicals" have forgotten what it means to love. I include myself in the above statement. Who remembers what the greatest commandment is? Love the Lord you God. The second is like it Love your neighbor as yourself (my paraphrase). Where does love fit into all of this anger and fighting? I think it fits in very well where Satan is concerned. Get them fighting and they will be useless. The world will see all the fighting and have no desire to follow Christ! We are commanded to love! Yet we fight. My heart is broken. If we can't love each other because of who our new president is how are we going to love others? How are we going to bring revival to this land? How are we going to bring glory to God. That is why we are here!

Christians are known for what they don't agree with. We are known as anti-gay and anti-abortion. We are looked at as judgemental and arrogant! We should be know by our love! It is possible to love others and yet hate sin. I want to be known as a Christian. A follower of Christ. A lover of others. Not as someone who just condemns others that are not the same as I am. But for the grace of God that saved me! Romans 13:8-10 says "8 Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. The whole world is my neighbor. I need to love them more. I would be willing to bet that you do too!

I think it is important for us to love Barack Obama weather we agree with him or not. We need to pray for the leader that God has ordained. We need to pray for each other. Lift each other up. We may have different views of what is right and what is wrong, that does not change what scripture says about how we are to deal with each other and our leaders! Love! I am going to spend some time in the word this week studying more on how to love others and how to treat those who I don't agree with. I will be praying for Barack Obama and his family. I will be praying for this nation. I will be praying that we remember how to love our neighbors! Please join me in this and maybe we will see God do some great things! Thanks to my Pastor for his God given words this morning. God bless you all!

Friendly Fellowship

As a rule I am not a conversationalist. I do not like being with large groups of people, I guess I feel out of place, awkward. Unless forced, I have a hard time meeting new people and making new friends. I dread reunions. Class reunions, family reunions, way out of my comfort zone! Avoid at all costs! Danger!

Well, last night I had the opportunity to catch up with some folks that I have not seen or heard from in 15 years! I was nervous! I was really not looking forward to the forced conversation or the consuming silence that accompanies me in times like theses!

I had an awesome evening! The fellowship was sweet. We were able to share some testimonies, talk some theology, and share some of what had happened the last 15 years. I can truly see us becoming fast friends. I praise God that He overcame my fears. If it were not for our shared faith in the Lord Jesus I believe that last night would have turned out much different! I would have been uncomfortable, out of my comfort zone.

I know that through my relationship with the Lord that I am a new creature! The old is passed away, new is come! (2 Cor 5:17).

Sparkling clean

This morning I was reading in John 13 about Jesus washing His disciples feet to show them how important it is for Christians to be servants, no matter their station in life. If Jesus the Lord of the universe is washing feet, how much more should I be doing! I wanted to share this passage with you starting at verse 6 and going through 11, it is beautiful.

6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” 7 Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.” 8 Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” 9 Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” 10 Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.” 11 For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “Not all of you are clean.”

Clean or not clean, that is the question that we all have to answer. What a beautiful picture John paints for us. I long for my Savior. Oh to hear Him say "because of Me you are clean! " A sinner like me clean, as white as snow, because He who was from the beginning cared enough to die. I stand in awe. Thank you Jesus. Help me to serve you better and therefore serve those around me better too.

Election

I bet you thought by the title that I was going to talk about voting and who I was going to vote and why you should vote for that person too. Well, you are wrong! Ha!

All of this talk about the presidential election has made me appreciate the fact that God elected (or called) me to Himself for salvation! Last Sunday night at church we talked about predestination. Romans 8:30 says, And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. This is such a great verse! I am so thankful that I am on the Romans 8:30 road! I was predestined! I was called! I am justified! I will be glorified! It had absolutely nothing to do with me or who I am, It was and is all God. What a great God we have! What a great Savior we have! Were it not for the love of the Father and His perfect plan for salvation I would die a wretched sinner. We as Christians have such hope! We are His people! His chosen. His elect! I praise you Father!

Spurgeon

More from Spurgeon. Try to say this from a pulpit today!

Why, there are those who pretend to save souls by curious tricks, intricate manoeuvres, and dexterous posture-making! A basin of water, half-a-dozen drops, certain syllables—heigh, presto—the infant is made a child of God, a member of Christ, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven! This aqueous regeneration surpasses my belief; it is a trick which I do not understand: the initiated only can perform the beautiful piece of magic, which excels anything ever attempted by the Wizard of the North. There is a way, too, of winning souls by laying hands upon heads, only the elbows of the aforesaid hands must be encased in lawn, and then the machinery acts, and there is grace conferred by blessed fingers! I must confess I do not understand the occult science, but at this I need not wonder, for the profession of saving souls by such juggling can only be carried out by certain favoured persons who have received apostolical succession direct from Judas Iscariot. This episcopal confirmation, when men pretend that it confers grace, is an infamous piece of juggling. The whole thing is an abomination. Only to think that, in this nineteenth century, there should be men who preach lip salvation by sacraments, and salvation by themselves, forsooth!Why, sirs, it is surely too late in the day to come to us with this drivel! Priestcraft, let us hope, is an anachronism, and the sacramental theory out of date. These things might have done for those who could not read, and in the days when books were scarce; but ever since the day when the glorious Luther was helped by God to proclaim with thunder-claps the emancipating truth, "By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God," there has been too much light for these Popish owls. Let them go back to their ivy-mantled towers, and complain to the moon of those who spoiled of old their kingdom of darkness. Let shaven crowns go to Bedlam, and scarlet hats to the scarlet harlot, but let not Englishmen yield them respect. Modern Tractarianism is a bastard Popery, too mean, too shifty, too double-dealing to delude men of honest minds.If we win souls, it shall be by other arts than Jesuits and shavelings can teach us. Trust not in any man who pretends to priesthood. Priests are liars by trade, and deceivers by profession. We cannot save souls in their theatrical way, and do not want to do so, for we know that with such jugglery as that, Satan will hold the best hand, and laugh at priests as he turns the cards against them at the last.

The Saviors Promise

I Am the Resurrection and the Life

17 Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. 18 Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, 19 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. 20 So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house. 21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”

I read this during my time with the Lord this morning and wanted to share it. I hope that it will bless you!

Ecumenical?

The following is a quote from Spurgeon.

To pursue union at the expense of truth is treason to the Lord Jesus. If we are prepared to enter into solemn league and covenant for the defense of the crown-rights of King Jesus, we cannot give up the crown-jewels of his gospel for the sake of a larger charity. He is our Master and Lord, and we will keep his words: to tamper with his doctrine would be to be traitors to himself.

Todays Church is striving for unity with others. I say amen to Mr Spurgeon!