Losing Jesus

Losing Jesus:

Lets take a look at the Book of Luke, in chapter 2. Joseph and Mary had lost their son. Lost him in the most unlikely place of all, in the temple. The church.

When Jesus was twelve years old, they attended the festival as usual. After the celebration was over, they started home to Nazareth, but Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents didn’t miss him at first, because they assumed he was among the other travelers. But when he didn’t show up that evening, they started looking for him among their relatives and friends. When they couldn’t find him, they went back to Jerusalem to search for him there. Three days later they finally discovered him in the Temple, sitting among the religious teachers, listening to them and asking questions.

Luke 2:42-46 (NLT)

We would think the last place on earth we would lose Jesus is in the church. Yet, that is the very place where most of us lose him. Just a few weeks ago I was in a conversation about all the different churches in town and how many if not most of them where founded by splits of other churches. Not planned church plants. Coming from California I find it hard to understand. We had a hard enough time keeping our church up and running. Planting new churches was a fight with the local planning commission and zoning commission. Not founded by infighting of fellow church members. So to hear a church was founded by splitting off from another church takes me to the edge of understanding.

This is where we lose Jesus. For a time everything is just going fine and well within a church. Then the pastor preaching a service which the message comes from God, and it hits too close to the heart for some members. Without warning someone's feathers get all ruffled up and starts screaming, “Get the torches and pitchforks!” Or time comes to replace the carpet. One group likes green. The other wants blue. Again the Torches and Pitchforks come out. The piano gets moved or the music seems too modern or the choir director tries to appeal to a larger and a more diverse audience. Getting crucified for it when all he is trying to do is please everyone. I hear these stories over and over again. Some churches have such a bad reputation that local neighborhoods will have nothing to do with them. These churches go through pastors like kids go through shoes. Bright and shiny at first will all kinds of ideas and on fire for God. Then crushed when the truth of what they are really part of comes crashing down around the poor new pastor.

Any church staff member can tell you how hard it is. How would you handle having 50, 100, a 1,000 pairs of eyes looking over your work in the smallest detail each week? It can become disheartening and down right depressing. When someone does tell you good job. It is like a cup of water after you have spent days in the desert.

Losing Jesus happens all the time. One time when I was part of the church basketball program as our gym's time keeper. We had a game were the parents were a little too emotional to put it lightly. Two men sat close to me always making sure I heard their comments when our referees did not make a call to their liking. When the night was over I was so grateful that I would never have to deal with those men again. Oops! Just lost Jesus!. Should have been praying for them than counting myself lucky in abandoning them. God was about to teach me a lesson.

Two days later I was with my oldest daughter and her boyfriend. We had stopped at McDonald's for lunch. There was only one person in line when we got there. Who was it? You guessed it. The same man from the basketball game. Talk about God giving me a clear message. It was the father's son who broke the ice. Recognizing me from the game just two nights ago. Sounds like Peter when asked if he was with Christ? To make matters even more obvious there was only one table open for us to sit. Yes you guessed it again. Right next to them. We continued to talk and I learned his brother who was the other man at the game had suffered a stroke. He did not like to speak much and I was wrong just 48 hours ago thinking he was rude to me. You see. I had lost Jesus. We both left with renewed spirits. A lesson well learned.

So how about you. When have you lost Jesus? In church when you are trying to focus on the pastor preaching and you get distracted by a child crying thinking their parents should keep that kid quite? At work when someone cracks a joke that rubs you the wrong way? At the store when someone cuts in front of you? At home? Around friends? With family? We seem to lose Jesus just as easy as Joseph and Mary did. Like them, when we lose Jesus. We need to run back and find him immediately.

Teach, Preach and Reach.

Healing Your Church Hurt by Stephen Mansfield

Healing Your Church Hurt by Stephen Mansfield

If there was ever a time the right book came to me at the right time it is this one. Healing Your Church Hurt by Stephen Mansfield is an excellent book on the subject everyone of us in church deals with but afraid to even mention it. If you have been attending church or a member of your church for any length of time you have run into it. Experienced it. Endured it. Broken by it. Bitter because of it. Even turned away from God because of it. Its not God's Word that hurt you in a bad way. Nothing from the Bible. In fact, most of us would admit we would rather be smacked in the face with a Bible than being hurt from an insensitive word from a fellow brother or sister in Christ.

Our expectations of church and how it is supposed to be and operate are so much different than the realities each one of us experience. We look at God's house as a fortress. One we can run into for protection, for love, for kindness, for learning, for encouragement or just plain hide. We do not enter these divine gates for ridicule, distrust and out right cruelty. But if you are a true church goer you have in fact experienced the downside and the dark-side of the church.

My church hurts, and I do mean hurts, run deep to my very core. Dare I say even to my soul. That in fact is true. It is when such hurts which we perceive as inflicted upon us by another begin to slowly at first infect our souls with bitterness. A bitterness from Satan himself. Like a cancer growing undetected until it appears too late. We are so bitter that the church now begins to represent the very thing that causes us pain. Anything associated with it now becomes a cruel reminder to us.

Author Stephen Mansfield hits it on the head. How we go beyond the memories and continue to re-live the very thing, memory, situation, people and persons that deepen the wound and place ourselves in the very dark pit we desire to escape. He refers to it as, “The Season of Hell.” Through the course of the book I was determine to use the principals used and taught by the author. Regardless of the pain I knew and did feel through my own personal Season of Hell it had to be done. Which in turn prepared me for the next Church Hurt.

This book is for 99% of those who have called church home. There is no doubt in my mind that anyone has been so perfect not to have experienced a Church Hurt that cuts them down to their knees.

I personally have had to re-read many of the parts of this book. Revisit my Season of Hell on occasion. I can safely say I can remember the events, people, the words and the physical pain deep within my heart. But I no longer re-live them. No longer let the teeth of the trap inject the poison of bitterness continually into my soul without my permission any more.

Is this a life changing book? For me, Yes. Going deep into scripture to the very Hebrew and Greek words originally used. Learning and applying God's Word directly into my life. Seeing the reality of the situations. Addressing why I would even consider the opinions of such people valid or of any value to me? Many of those who speak do so without knowing or caring at the time. As they go through life it becomes second nature to them. The bitterness pouring out of them without question. Ask them to pass the salt and they find some way of releasing some of the bitterness at you like some splattering water balloon. Trying to get everyone wet.

I have always had a problem with authority. Nearly everyone I have met who had some title never was able to live up to it. In fact, many of which are just the opposite and determine to hinder anyone who dares to work towards achieving more and helping others to do the same. One thing I have learned from this book that those within the church are held to a higher authority than the rest of us. They often forget it is God they serve. It is God they must answer too. We too forget. For we too answer to God. The wicked things we do even if we are unaware have consequences that we will be judged for. The problem is we are too afraid to make known or to call another out when obviously what they are doing or done is wrong according to scripture. The procedure for such is spelled out plainly in God's Word. Still we, as well as I. have become to afraid to do it. It is simpler to just leave and hop to another church.

In his book Stephen Mansfield gives us the blueprint on what questions must be answered before joining a church. Before leaving your church and searching for another. Going beyond the entertainment factor to the heart of service. Is your church preparing you for the work of the Kingdom? This question must be answered by each of us.

This book is worth twice its costs. I find it a much needed part of the puzzle in my daily walk with Christ. Church hurts will continue to come. You will not be able to avoid them unless you have taken the easy way out and left the very brothers and sisters that need you. Ones you have not even met yet. 

Muscular Faith by Ben Patterson

Ben Patterson's new book was not what I expected and I am glad for it. Taking your faith seriously is a 24/7 job. God's first and second commandments absolutely require it. Yet in our day-to-day lives we seem (myself included) to put God's commandments on the back burner of our lives. Then wonder why our lives are more of a roller-coaster ride than the abundant life God wants for us.

My copy of Patterson's book is already filled with highlights and notes. His use of scriptures, personal accounts and life narratives keep your interest from start to finish.

Like the Apostle Paul taught, we need to approach our faith as Ben Patterson so very well describes it with “Vigorous Faith.” We must train. It takes time and commitment. Focusing on the prize means giving up and putting aside self-interest (Self) and truly committing yourself to God. Easier said than done in today's world. It is the world we are fighting against. The world wants to take your attention away from God.

The four parts of Muscular Faith give you easy reference to go back to. Not a step-by-step process in such but a where to go reference. The style is down to earth writing in my opinion. If you're a new Christian or a tried and true veteran you will enjoy and learn from this book. Yes, we get beat up and pushed back in our life. So many of us wish just to sit in the stands and roar with the crowd. Patterson teaches that is not what we have been called to do. We need to get onto the field and run the race. Before we do. We need to train daily. Focus on the prize. Get our house in order. Push through and realize the “good hard” and the “bad hard.” Keep building in our daily walk with Christ.

This book is well worth reading. An excellent book to give to other Christians. Whether they are new or old. Whether they are struggling with their faith or enjoying life abundantly. It will help them both.

In His Image

In His Image Devotional Bible is first of all a complete Bible. One I can bring to worship, Sunday School, and Bible study. The New Living Translation is my translation. God's Word jumps off the pages for me. Easy to understand and share with others.

The devotional features give you the ability to go step-by-step like traditional devotions if you wish. Let me first point out. This devotional Bible focuses solely on your personal relationship with God. For life application there is a Bible for that. For serious study there is a Bible for that. What good is having all this knowledge without having a personal relationship with God? This devotional helps me focus on what is important. My personal relationship with God growing and getting stronger each day.

Each devotional keeps you on track. Prayer, subject verses, focus on what God is telling you. Closing with prayer and taking time to thank God. In today's hurry up and step on the gas world this course of study works.

There are hundreds of combinations you can put together to learn all the attributes of God. It is learning these attributes of God that help me build and grow stronger in faith.

If there are any drawbacks to this devotional Bible they are minor. I am old school and like to have the words of Jesus in red. I would also like a concordance. With that said the In His Image Devotional Bible is my Bible of choice and will be for years to come.

Unburdened by Chris Tiegreen:

God's timing is perfect. When I received a copy of Chris Tiegreen's book from the Tyndale Blog Network I had been going through one of the worst and darkest times of my life. This is not a “how-to” book to relieve stress and magically make your worries disappear. The author focuses on the root of our problems as a Christian. How many times have we gone up to the alter to place our burdens upon Christ then moments later just pick them back up again? Chris makes if very clear from the start that our problem is truly trusting God.

If we are to truly let go and trust God we need to go all the way. Even when we feel and it looks like God is not listening to us we still need to trust Him. It is easy to trust in Christ when things are going well. It is when life throws a curve ball at us that we seem to want to put the load on our own shoulders and wait till the weight is crushing us until we turn to Christ for help.

Mr. Tiegreen points out that when we hand our burdens over to God they just do not disappear nor should we go around with a care-free attitude. It is Christ that makes the load lighter working with us. We still have responsibilities and obligations. If we are to be truly living an unburdened life then we really need to let go of self and live for His will.

This book has only 9 chapters. Walking you through a look in the mirror in my opinion of what we are facing and how God's Word explains how we are to live with less weight upon ourselves. As Christians we have resources others do not. Yet we still want to do things our way and the end result is just opposite of what God has planned for us.

The author really showed me how our own perspective and expectations of others are so unrealistic which in turn adds to the burdens we carry. This simple truth unlocks the way we need to look at things. Being humble is OK. Working to live up to others expectations is misguided if we are not living by God's standards first.

You will find this book deeply fulfilling. Sure at times here in the South we might say that Chris takes the long way around the barn to get to the point but you quickly will see the reasoning. If you find yourself wondering why all this junk in your life keeps building up and weighing you down over and over again then you need to read this book. Life may not be trouble free but worth living in Christ when we truly trust Him fully.

The House Church Book

I just finished reading Wolfgang Simson’s new book entitled, “The House Church Book.” Right from the start is does a great job in pointing out what is wrong with our modern congregational church model that was established in the later part of the 3rd century. He defines the congregational system as, “plot plus building plus pastor plus salary plus programs.” Which in a nutshell does describe the modern church of today.

If you are looking for a “How To” book on establishing your own House Church this is not the book and Simson is the first to tell you that. He does a great job in telling of the history of the church and how we have moved away from the first church in the Book of Acts. Before we were known as Christians we were know as, “The Way.” It was living the way Christ had instructed us. Thousands if not hundreds of thousands paved the way for us with their very lives. Today would we be so willing?

The author spends much time comparing the differences between cell groups and house churches. While cell groups are part of a larger congregation house churches are fully independent and operate without a hierarchy. It is this lack of hierarchy that confuses such as me who knows nothing different than the established congregational church model.

Here in the South when you mention House Church we think foreign missionaries getting together in a home to avoid persecution from an anti-Christian government. Has America become any different? Surveys show that people in the USA are interested in God but not church. House church as Wolfgang shows is a growing outreach truly based on Christ’s teachings the church going out to the people instead of the people coming to the church.

The author points out that when a house church reaches 20 members it is time to establish a second house church and so on. Unlike the congregational church model that focuses on ever expanding its flock. House Church is a lateral expansion as we see in the Book of Acts. Planting of churches within the communities. Working and serving those communities in a way today’s modern church cannot or has forgotten how too.

Can someone like me establish a house church? One who has been brought up in the modern congregational church model? The author points out that would be difficult since there is no established hierarchy within a House Church. In other words a regular church member might have too much baggage with them for such a ministry. Yet House Church does not always mean in one’s house. Church can be in an office, restaurant or meeting hall. Is there a difference between a bible study group and House Church? Yes, and the author does go into great detail about it.

Being established in the congregational church model and a recent graduate of seminary I had my predispositions before reading this book. It was hard during the first few chapters but I highly recommend reading this book. It does not take a lot of head scratching to realize the congregational church model is broken. Fewer souls are being won for Christ and it appears the evil one has the upper hand. House Church is a growing movement around the world and here in America. There might be a house church in your neighborhood and you do not even know it. House Churches run below the radar same as in foreign missionary work. Focusing on Christ and engaged in fulfilling the Great Commission.

Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone. Mark 16:15 (NLT)

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Church a Spectator Sport?

What have we done? We invite friends, neighbors, family members or fellow co-workers to church. This might be something absolutely new to them. Then again it might not. We require them to sing along with us to songs they have never heard of let alone have sung too. We expect them to join the crowd and sit down and stand up three or four times, perhaps even more depending on the service. Listen to what appears to them as a lecture or monologue. How are they supposed to know we call it a sermon? We expect them to open a bible from the pew. A book they may have never seen before until now. Listen to the preacher and somehow understand what is going on. Then after all that we expect them to rush forward and give their lives to Christ. Yes, it has happen before but not often enough. We come in. We sit down. We watch and listen. We cheer once in a while. Then we go home. Have we made church a spectator sport?

If a blind man walked in front of you and tripped over your foot would you kneel down to help him up and say, “Watch where you are going?” Of course not you know he is blind. You know he cannot see. Why do we expect unbelievers to understand us? Understand the scriptures? Understand the hymns we sing? Understand what living for Christ is all about?

No wonder many point fingers at us saying look at those people. Look at that church. What are we doing wrong?

I am sure it has happen to you. You have read one verse over and over again. Then suddenly without warning it hits you like a bolt of lighting. Crashing down on you like an ocean wave an unstoppable power demanding you to take notice now.

Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Matt 28:19-20 (NLT)

The Great Commission, we have read it many a times. Heard many sermons preached on it. What could possibly have gotten my attention? See the word “GO?” It does not say to ask to come to church, to come to a meeting, to come to an event. It says GO. Go and make disciples. There is that word again, “Disciple.” Spreading the teachings of Jesus Christ. Is that the preacher’s job? No, Jesus is talking to all of us. This week it hit me like a brick.

All my friends here are Christians. I work at the church where we are all Christians. So, like Jesus told His disciples I need to go out there and share the good news. Learn to meet and talk to complete strangers about Jesus. Will I be rejected? Yes, I expect that. Will I give up? No and I need my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ to help me up when I am pushed down. Does this mean running around downtown with a sign chanting out scriptures and acting like a crazy man? Absolutely not, that is not biblical nor is that how Jesus taught us. Keep watch on this Blog as my life story continues.

Witness Reaction Program, Step Three: Worship

In step-one we learned to get in tune with God and stay in tune with Him through prayer. In step-two we learned to know God through His word. Studying His word is essential for our Christian growth. The first three steps of the Witness Reaction Program are the foundation work for our Christian faith. If you do not have it or do not live it then how can it show in you? How can God’s light shine through you?

The next step is worship. Have you ever been in church service with the choir singing and tears come running down your face? For that brief moment everything is fine even though you might be at you’re lowest. It is at that moment we come before God with a repentant heart. It is at that moment that we give up all we are to God. I will let you in on a little secret. We do not come to church to worship. We bring our worship to church.

Worship is associated with song or music. If you are like me then you know how to make a joyful noise. Those around me hear the noise and God and I hear the joy. Yes, call me a Jesus freak. I am one of those who move back and forth when the music plays. I enjoy hearing the choir sing. Come Monday morning has the joy left you?

Each day and each moment is a time to worship God. When that choir song keeps ringing in your ear let it move you. Perhaps you only remember the chorus line. Sing it over and over. Today there are many Christian radio stations as well as Internet radio Christian videos on Godtube.com and on CD. A good song can change your mood from negative to positive.

Reading the Book of Psalms has helped ease my heart in times of trouble. The more of them you read the more your heart will cry out to God.

Our youth band is a joy to listen too. Sure I know I am getting older since I often think the music is too loud. So I sit in the back. The point is that you need to search out different opportunities in worship. Go to a Christian concert with friends from church. Ask fellow Christians what groups or songs they listen too. Your Minister of Music at your local church is a great resource. Ask him.