Music to My Ears

Have you ever listened to a good song and then it abruptly stopped. It's happened to me plenty of times as I was driving and the radio station got fuzzy....just when the good part of the song was coming up. You want to play a cruel trick on someone...play them songs but before each song gets to the chorus.... stop and go to the next song. Arrghhhh : )

This is how I feel about some scripture verses. We stop reading before the "hook".... or before reading until the end of a main point. I've done it several times myself. Take Ephesians 2:8-9 for instance: 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.

Good stuff to chew on, thats for sure! But if we stop there...we dont get to the "chorus" . In order to truly get it, we need to read a bit more.

Verse 10 - 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

Created in Christ Jesus....for what? For good works!!

Not saved by works.....but created for good works.... which God prepared before hand.

Here it is again from the Message Bible:

7-10Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It's God's gift from start to finish! We don't play the major role. If we did, we'd probably go around bragging that we'd done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.

Brothers and sisters in Christ....let's get busy....let's make a difference.... let us be the light within darkness!

Outreach Linebacker

Here are some key points in a recent article in the Christian Post. It's pretty much a doom and gloom outlook for N. America and speaks volumes with regards to our failure to reach out to the lost and disciple new believers.

U.S. Evangelicals Pessimistic about Christianity in America
By Michelle A. Vu
Christian Post Reporter

“Evangelical leaders are very bullish on the future growth of Christianity, except in America,” said Leith Anderson, president of the 30 million-member National Association of Evangelicals (NAE).
In the latest Evangelical Leaders Survey, released Tuesday, respondents said they overwhelmingly (94 percent) believe the number of Christians worldwide will increase in the next ten years. A mere four percent of respondents said the number of Christians will stay the same, while two percent said they are unsure.

When it came to the United States, most of the U.S. evangelical respondents said they believe the number of Christians will stay the same at best, but will more likely decline

Here's their take on the reasons for dwindling number of believers in N America.

American Christian leaders, in response to the report, called the survey results troubling and an indication of a theological crisis among the country’s Christian population as well as the growing pluralism in America.

Here's another way to look at this:

Can it be that N. American Christians are finding other ways to live their faith without the institutions that keep track of the numbers?

Either way you see it, our natural response to Jesus saving us is - love for Him and love for those we come into contact (our neighbors). I dont think it's a losing battle. I think we need to do our part and then believe that God's Holy Spirit will draw people to Him.

Picture Perfect Outreaches.....Not Always

Many years back, the church I was pastoring had a "lets talk about outreach" approach....kind of like the ready aim...ready aim....but never firing scenario. This was not surprising since we were a brand new church start. One day I decided that I had enough of this routine. I went to the grocery store bought drinks, sandwich "fixins" (we are in the south), and some misc. giveaways.

I got to the church on Wednesday and anounced that instead of a Bible study we were going out of the church and feed people who are hungry. I sent a few people to the kitchen to make sandwiches, and few other to pack the coolers for the drinks etc...

My associate pastor and I both had vans so we loaded two teams with the instructions of "see a need - fill a need". My group had a great time! The young people were into it and only complained when it was timew to go back to the church. The other group unfortunately didnt have a good time....at all. In fact, they couldnet find anyone to help. They went to our donwtown area - a typical hangout for the homeless. It turns out that on Wed. nights, they go to the shelter or some local churches instead of hanging out. Needless to say, that group was frustrated.
We went back to the church and debriefed. Although the other team was bummed out, after taking pics of the group leaving and then hearing stories from the entire group, we laughed at the lessons learned and praised God for the seeds he had sown - both in us as well as those whose path we crossed that night.

My associate pastor is now the senior pastor of that church and they are truly an outward focused group. I believe that night was the catalyst that started the outreach mindset even though it was less then picture perfect.