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I no longer update this blog. You will find my current blog for WordImpressions.com here: Http://BillCearbaugh.blogspot.com If you want to leave a comment on any of these, just e-mail me and leave a comment there. [email protected] What are the Priorities of the Church Today? "...where your treasure is, there will your heart be also..." Usually if you go to a person's schedule or budget you will discern their priorities right away. It doesn't take a genius to figure out what their priorities are in light of this kind of information. Let me see....$100.00 a month on cable TV....hmmm, they may make their movies or football of utmost importance. (Not necessarily though) Do they end up in a week's time spending several hours with their mate and children? They have made them a definite priority. My point is this: You can do the same thing with the church. Where they spend their money, and time as a body, that is where their heart is. Are they spending time with each other? Then fellowship with one another is a priority to them. Are they enjoying Bible discussions together? Then growing in Christ and His word is important. Where are you and your church body spending their time, talents, and treasures? That is where you have decided (either intentionally or by accident) your priorities are. Have you and your church family taken inventory lately? You may be surprised. Like the 'ol frog in a pan syndrome, you may have drifted from your original passions and priorities. It may be time to sit down with your board or your family or your church fellowship and take active steps to intentionally make sure your priorities are in the right place. The Church Scattered BTW...because of the things I mentioned in my previous blog, in the New Testament Church, those that were going through trials and being persecuted, scattered. By scattered, it is referring to those in the Church moving to various other parts of the country, in order to attempt to avoid the trials and persecutions. You may ask, "Why would God allow this to happen?" A good, logical question to ask in light of the circumstances. He was naturally spreading His children abroad to begin to build His church. So wherever they went, they were telling the story of Christ and their personal story about what He was doing in their lives. This resulted in the Church growing in numbers and strength. The 4P's I've experienced a lot of life in many realms. The following thoughts do not have a lot of scripture behind them. I could plug verses radomly in, but honestly I have understood these principles through life's experiences, as I saw them play out for me and around me. These are what I call the 4p's...Prayer,Persecution, purity, power. I have found over the years that many times God allows "persecutions" (I was just trying to look for a word that started with p) or more generally, trials into our lives to get our attention and to draw us closer to Him. These trials can take many shapes and forms, but the intention of our loving Papa is, He wants our hearts and lives. The natural response to such trials is for us to call out to God in prayer. "Lord, don't You see what's going on down here! I am hurting! Why are you letting these things happen to me!" "Please Lord, take them away, I will do what you want me to do, I'll go where you want me to go, just take away the trials, I can't handle it any more." But He persists and keeps the trials coming because He didn't bring them to us for our obedience or our sacrifice, He brought them to win our hearts. He longs to have personal time with us. He loves us so very much, He just wants us to love on Him and He wants to love on us. As this process goes on, an outcome of it is us going through the fire. As gold is put into fire to purify it,so we are put into fire to make us a holy people, and He is a holy God. Just as in the purification process of gold, the dross drops off, so for us the "dross" drops off and we slowly become more like our heavenly Father. In fact there is a verse that explains this perfectly..."[You should] be exceedingly glad on this account, though now for a little while you may be distressed by trials and suffer temptations, So that [the genuineness] of your faith may be tested, [your faith] which is infinitely more precious than the perishable gold which is tested and purified by fire. [This proving of your faith is intended] to redound to [your] praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One) is revealed." So we have been persecuted, we prayed, we naturally see purity come into our lives, and finally we taste His power. This often will only come as we see Him take us through the previous 3 steps. What do I mean by "tasting His power"? I mean that God now has a vessel that longs for Him, that has been freed from the burdens that keep us from Him, and He longs to empower us greatly, just because we are His children and He wants to please His children. Now that we are "abiding in Him" we are able to "do" something. In the same chapter of John He says, "apart from Me you can do nothing..." Also we find in Acts 1:8 He says, "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you..." With His presence we will be empowered on high to do things for His glory. You may not agree with these thoughts....that's OK. Feel free to e-mail me. I would love to interact with you about your perspective. Contextualizing the Gospel “To the weak (wanting in discernment) I have become weak that I might win the weak and over scrupulous. I have [in short] become all things to all men, that I might by all means (at all costs and in any and every way) save some [by winning them to faith in Jesus Christ].” Contextualizing the message of the church - what does that mean and when we do it, what does it look like? Jump into my car. We're going to take a ride to the local church. But your ticket to ride is your willingness to wear your "First Time Visitor Hat". What I mean by this is you will need to look at all our interactions as if you have never been in a church before. As we pull up, I tell you we are going to a meeting. You see hundreds of cars and wonder who would be interested in such a religious meeting. You've never been to a gathering this big, except for the Led Zeppelin concerts you go to occasionally. We arrive in the meeting room, we see a huge stage. There's a podium and instruments. You deduct that apparently someone is speaking and there will be some kind of music. I engage with some friends that I know, who are sitting near me, and I introduce them to you. A person comes to the podium and announces several meetings coming up. Everyone begins to sing strange songs you have never heard before. And finally a man approaches the podium and talks forever about this book called, “The Bible”, which you've never heard of. You laugh at the speaker's jokes. (They really were funny.) But you didn't really understand his theological rantings about one phrase in this book everyone calls, “The Bible”. Then you notice something bazaar. Everyone starts passing plates and putting some money into them. You have a weird feeling about this because you have never been to a meeting where people do this. Usually when you go to concerts, people have to pay before they enter the gates. At last the speech is over and the whole group begins singing songs, again you don't know. A man dismisses us and we head out the door. In the car you let a multitude of questions tumble out. “What was this meeting all about?” “Why did we go?” “Whose that person that gave the speech?” “What in the world was he talking about?” I try my best to answer them, but by the time we arrive at your place, you are still very confused. Contextualizing the gospel means we adapt our culture as much as possible to those we are trying to reach out to and love, without compromising our values. It does not mean we are adapting our message, just our culture, there is a big difference. Keep in mind, culture, in and of itself is not right or wrong, it's just different. So what we say, and how we communicate our love is important. How we do it does not matter, again, as long as we do not compromise our values. It's a cultural matter, not a theological one. So often our culture provides huge road blocks to our message. By the time we get to communicating our message, those we are longing to reach are turned off because they are in a state of culture shock and want to run the other way. Frequently we want to tell ourselves those we are trying to reach just are not interested in our message. Unfortunately many times, it's not the message, it's the simple differences of culture they are not used to. What setting would be an ideal “half way house” for those friends interested in learning more about Christ and His values? How do we become culturally aware as a people and what steps can we take to discern the real needs of our friends? I believe some of these unanswered questions are at the heart of why some of America's Churches are dying today. It will only be as we address these and other questions like them, that we will begin to see those outside her walls develop an interest in stepping through her doors. You Can't Take it With You "[And it is, indeed, a source of immense profit, for] godliness accompanied with contentment (that contentment which is a sense of inward sufficiency) is great and abundant gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and obviously we cannot take anything out of the world..." It was a relative who just pasted away, I had the personal privilege of gathering their belongings from the room, while they were still in the room. As I was doing this, the Lord brought to mind this powerful passage to remind me of our transiency. I've never forgotten that passage and circumstances, and it had a life changing impact on me. Remember, you can't take it with you....you have to leave it all behind, when He says your number is up. |
AuthorI have a brain that is both sided. What I mean by that is I enjoy a lot of the arts, i.e. music, photography, digital art. But I am also very logical and love science, mechanics, and resource conservation. So for me, that is where both worlds collide, "Do I enjoy the right side today, or do I focus on the left side?" You will immediately see this in the way I have set up my website; a culmination of the arts and mechanics, a mixture of the creative and the logical.
However, in between all of this lies a third realm; the spiritual world where the unseen is sometimes manifested in the seen, and my Source of life reflects His love for me. Glad you could stop in. Sit down, drink a cup of Joe and enjoy... hopefully after having been here, you will not be the same person. Blessings! Bill |
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