Posts Tagged ‘discipleship’

Is just a belief of Jesus enough for salvation?

Posted: January 30, 2015 in disciples life
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Since 2010 I have been studying the RED LETTERS with a deep and longing desire to know for sure what Jesus taught about being His disciple. There are so many messages out their today from a universalist view that we can live as we please to the greasy grace doctrines of all is forgiven so live life the way you choose after all Gods Grace covers it all. I know that I can do nothing whatsoever to earn my salvation yet at the same time I was haunted by the words, “depart from Me for I never knew you”.

The group of men I have been blessed to mentor/disciple and I are about to engage in David Platt’s study series from his book “Follow me. A Call to Die. A Call to Live. I have already read the book and much like Radical, I believe David does a good job at causing his readers to search the scriptures with regard to being a true disciples and not be found in the masses of deceived people, who think they are disciples. For those who only desire a comfortable, sacrifice free life, enjoying the pleasures of this world with no true desire to be ruled over, this book will anger you. For those of you who desire a deeper understanding into what it means to live the life of a true disciple of Jesus Christ, this book will help you on that road.

Below is an excerpt from the first chapter. Enjoy:

WHAT ABOUT BELIEF?

Amid this emphasis on the cost of following Jesus, you might wonder about passages in the Bible where it seems that salvation involves simple belief. Jesus tells Nicodemus that “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Paul and Silas tell the Philippian jailer, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.” According to the book of Romans, “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

Based on these passages, you might conclude that believing in Jesus is all that’s involved in becoming or being a Christian. This is absolutely true, but we must consider context in order to understand what the Bible means by belief. When Jesus calls Nicodemus to believe in him, he is calling Nicodemus to be born again— to begin an entirely new life devoted to following him. Likewise, when the Philippian jailer believes in Christ, he knows that he is joining a community of Christians who are being beaten, flogged, and imprisoned for their faith .

The cost of following Christ is clear.

In the same way, Paul tells the Roman Christians that to believe in the saving resurrection of Jesus from the dead is to confess the sovereign lordship of Jesus over their lives. In each of these verses (and scores of others like them), belief in Jesus for salvation involves far more than mere intellectual assent. After all, even demons “believe” that Jesus is the crucified and resurrected Son of God.  Such “belief” clearly doesn’t save, yet such “belief” is common across the world today. Just about every intoxicated person I meet on the street says he “believes” in Jesus.

Scores of people I meet around the world, including some Hindus, animists, and Muslims, profess some level of “belief” in Jesus. All kinds of halfhearted, world-loving church attenders confess “belief” in Christ. We can all profess publicly belief that we don’t possess personally, even ( or should I say especially) in the church. Hear the shouts of the damned in Matthew 7 as they cry, “Lord, Lord!” Jesus replies to them, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”  Clearly, people who claim to believe in Jesus are not assured eternity in heaven. On the contrary, only those who obey Jesus will enter his Kingdom.

As soon as I write that, you may perk up and ask, “David, did you just say that works are involved in our salvation?” In response to that question, I want to be clear: that is not what I am saying. Instead, it’s what Jesus is saying. Now I want to be very careful here, because we could begin to twist the gospel into something it’s not. Jesus is not saying that our works are the basis for our salvation. The grace of God is the only basis of our salvation— a truth we will explore further in the next chapter. But in our rush to defend grace, we cannot overlook the obvious in what Jesus is saying here (and in many other places as well): only those who are obedient to the words of Christ will enter the Kingdom of Christ. If our lives do not reflect the fruit of following Jesus, then we are foolish to think that we are actually followers of Jesus in the first place.

DANGEROUSLY DECEIVED

Consider a recent study which found that four out of five Americans identify themselves as Christians. In this group of self-proclaimed Christians, less than half of them are involved in church on a weekly basis. Less than half of them actually believe the Bible is accurate, and the overwhelming majority of them don’t have a biblical view of the world around them.

The pollsters went even deeper, though, to identify men and women who are described as “born-again Christians” (as if there is any other kind). These are people who say they have made a personal commitment to Jesus and who believe they will go to heaven because they have accepted Jesus as their Savior. According to the research, almost half of Americans are “born-again Christians.” But out of this group of “born-again Christians,” researchers found that their beliefs and lifestyles are virtually indistinguishable from the rest of the world around them.

Many of these “born-again Christians” believe that their works can earn them a place in heaven, others think that Christians and Muslims worship the same God, some believe Jesus sinned while he was on earth, and an ever-increasing number of “born-again Christians” describe themselves as only marginally committed to Jesus.  Many people have used this data to conclude that Christians are really not that different from the rest of the world. But I don’t think this interpretation of the research is accurate. I think the one thing that is abundantly clear from these statistics is that there are a whole lot of people in the world who think they are Christians but are not.

There are a whole lot of people who think that they’ve been born again, but they are dangerously deceived. Imagine you and I set up a meeting for lunch at a restaurant, and you arrive before I do. You wait and wait and wait, but thirty minutes later, I still haven’t arrived. When I finally show up, completely out of breath, I say to you, “I’m so sorry I’m late. When I was driving over here, my car had a flat tire, and I pulled over on the side of the interstate to fix it. While I was fixing it, I accidentally stepped into the road, and a Mack truck going about seventy miles per hour suddenly hit me head-on. It hurt, but I picked myself up, finished putting the spare tire on the car, and drove over here.” If this were the story I shared, you would know I was either deliberately lying or completely deceived. Why? Because if someone gets hit by a Mack truck going seventy miles per hour, that person is going to look very different than he did before!

In light of this, I feel like I’m on pretty safe ground in assuming that once people truly come face-to-face with Jesus, the God of the universe in the flesh, and Jesus reaches down into the depth of their hearts, saves their souls from the clutches of sin, and transforms their lives to follow him, they are going to look different. Very different. People who claim to be Christians while their lives look no different from the rest of the world are clearly not Christians. Such deception is not just evident in the United States; it’s prevalent around the world. As I was praying through the countries of the world recently, I came across Jamaica, a country that is supposedly almost 100 percent Christian. The prayer guide I use made this statement about Jamaica: “It enjoys one of the world’s highest number of churches per square mile, but the majority of self-proclaimed Christians in Jamaica neither attend church nor lead a Christian life.”

As I read this, my heart was overcome by the unavoidable conclusion that multitudes of men and women in Jamaica think they are Christians when they are not. They join scores of people in countries around the world who call themselves Christians yet don’t follow Christ. Spiritual deception is dangerous— and damning. Any one of us can fool ourselves. We are sinful creatures, biased in our own favor, prone to assume that we are something when we are not. The Bible says that the god of this world (Satan) is blinding the minds of unbelievers to keep them from knowing Christ   Couldn’t it be that one of the ways the devil is doing this is by deceiving people into believing they are Christians when they are not?

Platt, David (2013-02-05). Follow Me: A Call to Die.  A Call to Live.

A call to a new kind of church for a new culture

Posted: June 22, 2013 in disciples life, Kingdom Teaching, teaching, wilderness
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We’ve all seen the recent developments in our day that just don’t align with the way things used to be. The statistics used to be that more than half of our country consisted of followers of Christ. There used to be a time when we could freely speak about prayer, Jesus or sin without much criticism or debate. Before, in the 70’s, 80’s and even 90’s, the Christian seemed to be the majority. Mega Churches, national days of prayer and para-church organizations led the way, but now we have seen a radical shift in that culture. The United States lived up to the moniker of the “Last Christian nation” back then, but as we can see, we are seeing a great shift into something increasingly more un Christian.

STATE OF THE CULTURE AND IT’S RAPID SHIFT

In this century, church is dying. Less people are going to church now than ever before. More importantly, less people understand and agree with the foundations of scripture and who Jesus is. Young people especially have completely abandoned traditional biblical principles in favor of the new ‘tolerance culture’. This new culture is a pluralistic, therapeutic one that says everything, no matter what, is tolerated and accepted by all, with one exception, Christianity. John Dickerson writes in his book The Great Evangelical recession, that culture is shifting faster than it ever has. If we look back to the 70’s or 80’s or even early 2000’s we will see the most rapid cultural shift our nation has ever seen. In the last 15-20 years, culture has shifted more than it had in the previous 100 years.

Simply looking at the occurrences of our day can help prove this point. Last year, for the first time ever we had a presidential election without an Evangelical Christian as a candidate. At President Obama’s most recent inauguration, evangelical Christians lacked a representative for the first time in the nation’s history. 25 years ago, it is hard to imagine we would see the full-fledged acceptance of things like abortion and homosexuality as we do today. TV shows like Glee and the New Normal are promoting homosexuality. Entire networks like MTV have dedicated their programing to miserable celebrations of sin with shows like 16 and pregnant, the Guy code and Jersey shore. And the most obvious occurrence of all is the suppression of Christians who speak in opposition to any of the above. Christianity is downright hated in today’s culture.

THE CHURCH BUBBLE

Before I venture into the 21st Century Church and how we can better reach todays young people I need to preface with something. Many older people reading this perhaps have something around them I call the “Church Bubble”. Many were raised in the church, serve in the church, all of their friends are part of a church and all of the activities they do are church related. These people have few if any non-Christian friends; they only read Christian media and watch Christian friendly programming. SO when they read the idea that culture is changing, they vehemently disagree. They have no clue what it means that things are changing, and to them, we still are a strong Christian nation. As John Dickerson writes in his book, “You don’t have to talk, work or study outside evangelical circles long to realize that we (Christians) are not possibly that much of the United States population I the 21st century.” I encourage anyone in the Church Bubble to step out and take a look around. For those that spout of a bloated statistic like “75% of the country is Christian,” or “at least 50% of the nation is evangelical”, I would challenge them to reconsider. Do we really believe that if we asked 10 people to come forward in a grocery store in Los Angeles or New York that 7-8 of them would say they are a bible believing Christian? If we were to ask a few sub questions like, “is Jesus the only way to heaven?” “Is there a hell?” “Can you be a good person without Jesus and go to heaven?” or, “Does your sexual orientation matter to God?” Do we really think that even 5 out of 10 people would still align with Christianity? We must look at the sobering facts of reality.

THE SAME OLD CHURCH

Since I work in ministry a little, I hear the calls of some to continue pressing on with what we have been doing the last 30 years, particularly with young people. Many suggest being more and more relational. Some want to abandon teachings of the cross in favor of more worship, games and one-on-one hangouts. Multiple retreats, secular games and vague, vanilla teachings of Jesus are tactics of old. They perhaps worked on the majority of youth in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. When most churches spoke the hard truth of the gospel, these methods were great ways to show the youth that you can relax about Jesus, be informal and not get hardcore every second of every day. But this dynamic has shifted. The majority of our churches have adopted this soft form of church. The vanilla, plain Jesus message coupled with the omission of calling people to repentance has entered our churches in the name of making church non-Christian friendly. Unfortunately, everything in the culture is giving us a plain, relaxed, no pressure way of doing things. Additionally, the culture treats children like adults more now than they every have. Flick on the Disney Channel or MTV to see that. We still want to get 17-year-old boys to stuff marshmallows in their mouth and play board games, instead of dealing with their sexual sin and their call to manhood. Unfortunately, kids aren’t kids anymore. But, as a result they are far more receptive to direct teaching

We cannot assume that the youth of the 70’s and 80’s are the same as the youth of 2013. They are different. They need a different style of church to fit their different personas. If you don’t agree, just look at the numbers of youth walking away from church and never coming back put out by Lifeway, Barna group, Josh McDowell and even secular researchers at UCLA. All of these researchers agree that somewhere in the neighborhood of 70-80% of young evangelicals are leaving church, never to return (Dickerson, The Great Evangelical Recession).

21st CENTURY CHURCH

Today, people lack knowledge of the bible. Many have no clue what the bible says about key issues. They have been fed this watered down Christianity for so long they don’t know who Jesus really is and what the Gospel really says. Take, for example, the number of “evangelicals” who recently affirmed the coming out of the closet of Jason Collins, the NBA player. Or the number of “Christians” who are undecided about a real hell or if Jesus really said he was God. Here are a few key components we will need going forward to assimilate to the 21st century

1. PREACH THE WORD

The art of sharing the true gospel has been lost in our day. We must hold fast to the teachings of scripture, call people to repentance of sin and faith in Jesus. For our youth, this method is extremely effective. I recently took over a young adults group. I changed nothing except I opened the bible and preached the word of God. I told them that God doesn’t like the sins they commit and desires more for them: to be reconciled to Him through Jesus death on the cross. Bang. All that happened is that they went home and came back the next week with more people! The group has grown 10-fold all because God’s word changes people lives. If we back down from preaching it because we are afraid of what people think, then we are in sin. God wants his Word preached.

2. CONTEXTUALIZE OUR CHURCHES

The Apostle Paul said, that we should become all things to all people so that we may save some (1 Corinthians 9). We must do this for this new generation. Older, Godly people should be humble and assimilate their church to what helps people get saved. Our processes and method of church is secondary to people meeting Jesus. I once heard Missiologist Ed Stetzer say, “I am convinced that some churches want to die holding on to their method of church while the region around them goes to hell.”

We must alter our church to fit the 21st century. This does not mean the word of God Changes one bit, but that if we need to become more technologically sound, get a better website, use social media and get more modern décor then we should do it for the sake of the Gospel

3. MAKE DISCIPLES

We need to quit feeding and tending to the same sheep for 20 years and instead make that sheep a co-laborer and a disciple that can go serve the lost. Non-Christians are out there waiting. We often let our ministry turn in on itself. Its time to turn our ministries outward and be instruments for Jesus in his saving work to those outside of our church.

4. LETS PRETEND THE HOLY SPIRIT HAS A SAY

Have we forgotten that God sends the Holy Spirit to save? We are not the salvation police. So why do we soften the message of Jesus to make it easier to swallow? Don’t you remember that the God of the Universe is greater than any culture and any strong spirit? I think it’s time we pretend Jesus is in charge and we do as he asks, to boldly proclaim the gospel in His name. We have shared the gospel for too long. Sharing it worked for a season. But we must return to proclaiming the gospel.

The new church we must present to the lost is not anything spectacular or crazy. What it is is a radical call back to the gospel of Christ. We must boldly share our faith in a way that can be understood by the lost, and we must not be a afraid of the consequences. The criticism of Christianity is as harsh as it’s ever been. let us hold fast to the teaching of Jesus, let the Holy Spirit do his work.

Eddie Williams(Twitter: @realewilliams) is a Christian, a husband and a father, and public speaker, he also leads a ministry as a pastor, called REACH, a young adults ministry at his home church. The 5 year NFL veteran (Cleveland Browns, Seattle, Seahawks) speaks weekly at the ministry and has spoken across the U.S. at high schools, colleges, conferences and ministries about a vairety of topics, including leadership, hea’th and faith. Eddie has been a part of numerous programs for youth, including NFL Play60. He has also given back to the community at organizations like the Cleveland Foodbank, Feed My Starving Children and Veterans hospitals.For more on Eddie, visit: Eddiejwilliams.me

Profile of the Lukewarm, Part 2

Posted: June 14, 2013 in disciples life, Kingdom Teaching, teaching, wilderness
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This is a continuation of my previous post. Again, this was taken from the newsletter from Crazy Love authored by Francis Chan.

LUKEWARM PEOPLE are thankful for their luxuries and comforts, and rarely consider trying to give as much as possible to the poor. They are quick to point out, “Jesus never said money is the root of all evil, only that the love of money is.” Untold numbers of lukewarm people feel “called” to minister to the rich; very few feel “called” to minister to the poor.

LUKEWARM PEOPLE do whatever is necessary to keep themselves from feeling too guilty.

They want to do the bare minimum, to be “good enough” without it requiring too much of them.

They ask, “How far can I go before it’s considered a sin?” instead of “How can I keep myself pure as a temple of the Holy Spirit?”

They ask, “How much do I have to give?” instead of “How much can I give?”

They ask, “How much time should I spend praying and reading my Bible?” instead of “I wish I didn’t have to go to work, so I could sit here and read longer!”

LUKEWARM PEOPLE are continually concerned with playing it safe; they are slaves to the god of control. This focus on safe living keeps them from sacrificing and risking for God.

LUKEWARM PEOPLE feel secure because they attend church, made a profession of faith at age twelve, were baptized, come from a Christian family, vote Republican, or live in America. Just as the prophets in the Old Testament warned Israel that they were not safe just because they lived in the land of Israel, so we are not safe just because we wear the label Christian or because some people persist in calling us a “Christian nation.

” LUKEWARM PEOPLE do not live by faith; their lives are structured so they never have to. They don’t have to trust God if something unexpected happens–they have their savings account. They don’t need God to help them–they have their retirement plan in place. They don’t genuinely seek out what life God would have them live–they have life figured and mapped out. They don’t depend on God on a daily basis–their refrigerators are full and, for the most part, they are in good health. The truth is, their lives wouldn’t look much different if they suddenly stopped believing in God.

LUKEWARM PEOPLE probably drink and swear less than average, but besides that, they really aren’t very different from your typical unbeliever. They equate their partially sanitized lives with holiness, but they couldn’t be more wrong.

This profile of the lukewarm is not an all-inclusive definition of what it means to be a Christian, nor is it intended to be used as ammunition to judge your fellow believers’ salvation. Instead, as 2 Corinthians 13:5 says, it is a call to “examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves? We are all messed-up human beings, and no one is totally immune to the behaviors described in the previous examples. However, there is a difference between a life that is characterized by these sorts of mentalities and habits and a life that is in the process of being radically transformed.

We’ll get to the transformation later, but now is the time to take a serious self-inventory.

So if you want to know more about this book, you can visit his site at http://crazylovebook.com.

The Importance of God’s Word (Is it relevant for today?)

Posted: June 1, 2013 in disciples life, Kingdom Teaching, teaching, wilderness
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One of the weakness we have with the present day Church in the United States is the reality that we have promoted experience over teaching. We have become more interested in trying to make Jesus attractive to people rather than teaching the truth about Jesus. The result of this practice is a Church in the United States which is basically indistinguishable from the rest of the world.An honest evaluation of the Church in the United States leads us to understand that we lack the knowledge and the spiritual maturity that we need to impact the world in which we live. We are ignorant about what the Bible says and how its teachings apply to our lives. Many of our leaders are better students of culture and current events than they are of the Bible. We are people of the sound byte and video clip rather than people of the text.

This lack of commitment to the Bible has hampered us from becoming the people God created us to be. The Bible is God’s revelation to His people, and if we truly want to please Him then we will make the Bible our source of truth for living life.

We shouldn’t be surprised that Paul encouraged Timothy to be a student and teacher of God’s Word.

1 I solemnly urge you in the presence of God and Christ Jesus, who will someday judge the living and the dead when he appears to set up his Kingdom: 2 Preach the word of God. Be prepared, whether the time is favorable or not. Patiently correct, rebuke, and encourage your people with good teaching.

3 For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will reject the truth and chase after myths.

5 But you should keep a clear mind in every situation. Don’t be afraid of suffering for the Lord. Work at telling others the Good News, and fully carry out the ministry God has given you (2 Timothy 4:1-5; NLT).

Without a proper foundation for spiritual truth we will be carried this way and that way by whatever suits our fancy. Whatever seems attractive to us becomes our guide for life rather than the Truth God has given us in His Word.

This is the point I would like to make: As we, the Church, have moved away from solid Biblical teaching, as we have sought to be “relevant” to the world, we have made the church inconsequential to the world that we live in. After all the church offers no answers that couldn’t be found on Dr. Phil and too often he is better at communicating them than we are.

It is time for us to return to strong Biblical teaching. Rather than picking out topics and finding proof texts for our teaching points, we need immerse ourselves in the entire text of the Bible. Rather than seeking to be relevant and attractive to culture, we need to offer God’s truth and allow the Holy Spirit to use God’s Word to impact the hearts of people.

We cannot hope to become spiritually mature until we allow the Holy Spirit to teach our hearts the truth through the revelation of God that is found in the Bible. Yes, we need to be active in loving people. Yes, we need worship experiences that will warm and encourage our hearts. But we will not change, we will not live a life pleasing to God, until we are founded in the truth of God’s Word.

Let’s stop allowing the Bible to be demoted in our Church Families in favor of a worship experience and seeker sensitivity. Let’s trust God enough to know His Word, teach His Word, and allow the Holy Spirit to use that Word to impact the hearts of people. Let’s be people of the text rather the people of the sound byte. Let’s be rooted in the Word of God.

Visit Paul’s new blog at www.paulsponderings.com.

A Critical spirit is a deadly room mate!!!

Posted: May 3, 2013 in disciples life, Kingdom Teaching, Prophetic, teaching, wilderness
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Definition of Critical – Inclined to find fault, or to judge with severity

Quote: It is impossible to help anybody after they have developed a critical spirit.

“Son of man, these men have set up idols in their hearts and put wicked stumbling blocks before their faces. Should I let them inquire of me at all? (Ezek 14:3)

One of the quickest ways to shut up the Heavens over ones life and stop receiving the blessings of God is to allow entrance of a critical spirit. Even worse are those who have welcomed this spirit in and actually made room in their hearts for it to stay. Sadly the room was made via the eviction of the love of God from their lives, for they now are worshiping the spirit of the deceiver, the accuser of the saints, Satan himself.

 Now He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath.  And behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bent over and could in no way raise herself up. But when Jesus saw her, He called her to Him and said to her, “Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity.” And He laid His hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God. But the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath; and he said to the crowd, “There are six days on which men ought to work; therefore come and be healed on them, and not on the Sabbath day.”

 The Lord then answered him and said, “Hypocrite![a] Does not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or donkey from the stall, and lead it away to water it?  So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound—think of it—for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?”  And when He said these things, all His adversaries were put to shame; and all the multitude rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by Him. (Luke 13:10-17)

I. The Causes of a Critical Spirit

A. An Unhealthy Appreciation of Self – vs. 14 the ruler of the synagogue

  • Romans 12:3  For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.

A critic is one that considers themselves an authority or a master of a subject which qualifies them to point out the good and the bad.  Their own knowledge and expertise is their authority; not a defined standard.

Webster’s 1828 Dictionary: A person skilled in judging of the merit of literary works; one who is able to discern and distinguish the beauties and faults of writing. In a more general sense, a person skilled in judging with propriety of any combination of objects, or of any work of art; and particularly of what are denominated the Fine Arts. A critic is one who, from experience, knowledge, habit or taste, can perceive the difference between propriety and impropriety, in objects or works presented to his view; between the natural and unnatural; the high and the low, or lofty and mean; the congruous and incongruous; the correct and incorrect, according to the established rules of the art.

We ought to wake up every morning singing, “I’m not worthy to be here, but THANK GOD I belong!”

B. An Unbiblical Adherence to a System – vs. 14

Where did this rule come from? Where did he come up with this?? You can only be healed on certain days?

  • Colossians 2:8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

Truth is, he made this rule up.  Since he had never had a person healed in his synagogue on a sabbath, surely God cannot be in it!

A critical spirit will come when you are always thinking you know what OUGHT to be done when the truth is, you don’t have a clue!

Here he was telling people when they OUGHT to come get healed, and he had never healed anybody!  In essence, He was limiting God – trying to cram God in his own little test tube!!

He was an expert in a system that didn’t even exist except in his own mind.

C. An Unreasonable Attitude toward the Sovereignty of God – vs. 14

NOTE: He was upset with what God did, so he took it out on the people.

God can do what He wants to, when He wants to, however He wants to.  Deal with it!

He mistook GOD working for MAN working.  (there are six days in which men ought to work)  It wasn’t man working – it was GOD.

You say – “I just don’t understand it.”  If you understood everything, you’d be God.

His ways are past finding out.

  • Romans 11:33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!

Keep your mind open to this possibility: God might work in a way you never thought possible or have never seen before.  God might use somebody you didn’t think He could, He might save somebody you never thought could be saved.  He might manifest Himself in a manner that you’ve never seen before.  He might be trying to teach you something!  Quit criticizing and learn!!!

II. The Curses of a Critical Spirit

A. It will Belittle the Positive – vs. 14 (because that Jesus had healed…)

Positive things such as:

  1. Jesus is in the midst – vs. 10 (theirs wasn’t the only synagogue; they were honored)
  2. Jesus was teaching them things – vs. 10 (many people never learn anything or grow)
  3. There were people in the place that were there in spite of their infirmities – praise God!
  4. Jesus was still calling hurting people to himself – vs. 12 that’s a blessing!
  5. Jesus was still laying his hands on people and touching people – vs. 13
  6. People were still getting straightened out after years of being wrong – vs. 13
  7. New converts were praising and glorifying God – vs. 13

Did any of this matter?  NO!!  The man with the critical spirit saw NONE of the positive things

B. It will Badger the People – vs. 14 …and he said unto the people…

Interesting NOTE: We find no record that this ruler of the synagogue ever badgered or criticized this woman UNTIL she got STRAIGHT!

For 18 years, she had been in a mess, and he never helped her.

Now she’s right with God and he gets mad!

If somebody bothers you, just imagine how bad it would be if you’d known them before they met Jesus!

C. It will Buck the Praising – vs. 13, 14 they glorified; he answered with indignation

  • A critical spirit will cause you to pout when others are praising.
  • A critical spirit will make you mad when others are magnifying.
  • A critical spirit will make you tense when others are testifying.
  • A critical spirit will cause you to hinder people when God is trying to help people.
  • A critical spirit will cause people to ask “What’s wrong with him or her?”

Do excited Christians get on your nerves?

Do people that brag on the Lord and the church and their pastor irritate you?  You’re critical!

D. It will Broadcast the Poison – in vs. 10, Jesus is teaching; where is the ruler then?

He let EVERYBODY know where he stood on the subject.  Notice that nobody asked him.

Watch out for this line – “Well, if you ask me…”  Nobody will.  They don’t care as much about what you think as you do!

Critical spirits are not happy until they’ve poisoned everybody they meet with their criticism.

Question: Do the excited, testifying, praising Christians stay excited, keep testifying and are they still praising after you’re done with them?

Do you find yourself more comfortable around those that are uncomfortable?

  • Ever noticed that the people that are most critical are the one’s that’s not doing anything?
  • Ever heard a soul winner complain about too many visitors?
  • Ever heard a bus worker complain about the mess that bus kids make?
  • Ever heard a grass cutter complain about how the grass was cut?
  • Ever heard a friendly hand shaker complain about not getting their hand shaken?
  • Ever heard a shouter and testifier complain about a service being dead?
  • Ever heard a servant criticize another servant’s way of doing something?
  • Ever noticed that the one’s that never bring anybody to church can tell you how it’s done?

III. The Cures for a Critical Spirit

A. Admit your Hypocrisy – vs. 15 “Thou hypocrite!”

Most of the things that people criticize in others are things they are guilty of themselves.

  • Illustration: The beam and the mote in the eye.
  • Start judging people by the same standard you judge yourself!  You’ll be more longsuffering.

Even if you had ALL YOUR DUCKS in a row and all your own personal issues resolved, you still wouldn’t have the right to have a critical spirit, but your own shortcomings and faults and failures make your critical spirit even that much more hypocritical!

B. Be Ashamed that your Heart is not 100% right with God – vs. 16, 17

God’s will was not their will.  Their will always will contradict what God wants to do.

God’s will was all about this woman’s problem getting healed.

The critic’s will was all about his position being honored.

God’s was concerned about sinners; they were preoccupied with standards.

C. Acknowledge all the glorious things that are being done by Him – vs. 17

Stop looking for the negative and the problems and start seeing what God is doing.

There’s many faults and failures in the lives of everybody you come in contact with.

  • Philippians 2:3 Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.
  • I Cor. 13  Charity thinketh no evil…

Spend your time planting grass instead of pulling weeds.

You don’t have to elaborate on everything that you see wrong.  Why not elaborate on what you see RIGHT and what God is doing?

  • Colossians 4:6 Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt,…

http://www.pleasantview.org/2011/a-critical-spirit-what-the-bible-says-series

A true disciple is following Jesus and eager to learn and change.

Posted: April 24, 2013 in disciples life, Kingdom Teaching, teaching, wilderness
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While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. [19] And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. (Matt 4:18-22)

The first requirement to be a disciple—a Christian—is to follow Jesus.

To follow involves three elements: belief, life-change, and submission.

Following Jesus requires belief in who he was and what he came to do. Simon Peter and Andrew weren’t asked to follow someone they didn’t know. They had spent time with Jesus previously (John 1:35-42), and even believed he was the Messiah. When Jesus approached them in Matthew 4, they had already known Jesus for some time, scholars say a year. So we understand that the first requirement of a disciple of Jesus Christ is to believe.

Of course, the Simon Peter and Andrew didn’t know a lot about Jesus. But they believed he was the Messiah, even though they didn’t entirely understand. And this is the beauty of following Jesus—you don’t have to be a genius to figure it out. Your understanding of Jesus doesn’t have to complete. In fact, usually it’s the simple ones who get it best. “God chooses the foolish to shame the wise.” You can’t follow someone you don’t believe.

What you do have to know is that you have a sin problem that has earned you punishment and Jesus alone can save you. There are more details—a glorious and beautiful treasure trove of details—but the essentials of following Jesus today remain quite simple. God made you. You rebelled. Faith in Christ saves those who repent and believe. Those who believe those things are saved.

Following Jesus also implies life change. When Jesus says “follow me” the underlying directive is stop following that. If he says follow me, he means give up on your ways. If he says live for me, he means stop living for yourself. Simon and Andrew got it—they left their nets and followed him. Following Christ meant giving up their careers in fishing. James and John were mending their nets, trying to fix them so they could catch more fish. And suddenly when Jesus called them, they left the nets in the boat. They weren’t important anymore—following Jesus meant leaving behind old ways.

That’s what following Jesus is—not literally following him around, like the original disciples did. For us, following him has a much broader meaning: we are to follow his way of life, his teachings, his priorities, his goals.
Following Jesus also indicates submission. Jesus says follow me, and that means we give up the rights to run our lives. This is called repentance. We have handed over the title deed of our lives. We gladly submit to Jesus as our lord, master, leader, and guide.

Some try to make Jesus’s call easier than it actually was. They like to accept Jesus as Savior but not as Lord or Master. And so they think they’ll can be saved without submitting to Christ. This isn’t so—the truth is that if Jesus ain’t your Master he ain’t your Savior. If you haven’t submitted you haven’t been saved. It’s the blunt truth that Scripture is careful to repeat over and over again.

So let me recap quickly: When Jesus says “follow me” this is what he means: believe me, make a change in direction, and submit completely.

When Jesus said “I will make you” the offer was out on the table. Jesus was being straightforward. His intention was to make them into something they were not. Jesus wanted to fundamentally change their priorities, their desires, their goals, their dreams, their purposes—and he was clear about it. It was like he said, “I know you’ve spent your life catching fish. Not anymore. I’m going to change you.” To our modern ears, that sounds offensive. What right does he have? We shouldn’t try to change people, that’s rude. Let them be, man. Tolerate.

Jesus didn’t fit it then and he probably wouldn’t fit in now. His goal—and he was absolutely unashamed of it—was to change people. To make them into something they weren’t. From the beginning, this was laid out on the table. A disciple, then, is something who is being changed by Christ.

If you are to start following Christ—by believing, by changing, and by submitting—you must understand what you’re agreeing to. Almost everything you sign up for these days has a long tedious document with terms and conditions. Does anyone actually read those? Well, Jesus has terms and conditions that we must agree to if we are to follow him. But they’re not long, hard to read, annoying and complicated. They’re actually simple. He says” if you follow me, understand this: I am going to change you. That means you must be eager to learn and eager to change.”

True disciples are learners. People who think they have nothing else to learn aren’t good disciples. The best disciples are the best learners. They are hungry for knowledge, hungry for information, hungry for insight, hungry for wisdom, hungry to acquire skill, hungry to hone their talents, hungry to practice what they’ve been taught. Part of what it means to follow Jesus is admitting you not only have the deep-seated problem of sin, but the deep need of being taught.

True disciples want to change. This goes right along with being a learner, but it takes it to the next level. Being a true disciple means not only learning but practicing what you’re learning. True disciples aren’t about acquiring information for information’s sake. They want to change. They hate their sin and they want to grow. That’s why Jesus’s call must have been so appealing. I love it—Jesus promises to change them. “I will make you.” Perk up whenever Jesus makes an “I will” statement. He said to his disciples that he would make them fishers of men. He would set out to change them and he wouldn’t fail. This is great hope for us, because the promise we receive is that Jesus will change us to make us useful for his service as we follow him.

So a true disciple is following Jesus and eager to learn and change. And he is also someone being changed by Christ. He is radically in love with Jesus and willing to submit to whatever and wherever the Master commands him

Preaching Christ

Posted: April 8, 2013 in disciples life, Kingdom Teaching, teaching
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The church of the twenty-first century faces many crises. One of the most serious is the crisis of preaching. Widely diverse philosophies of preaching vie for acceptance among contemporary clergy. Some see the sermon as a fireside chat; others, as a stimulus for psychological health; still others, as a commentary on contemporary politics. But some still view the exposition of sacred Scripture as a necessary ingredient to the office of preaching. In light of these views, it is always helpful to go to the New Testament to seek or glean the method and message found in the biblical record of apostolic preaching.

In the first instance, we must distinguish between two types of preaching. The first has been called kerygma; the second, didache. This distinction refers to the difference between proclamation (kerygma) and teaching or instruction (didache). It seems that the strategy of the apostolic church was to win converts by means of the proclamation of the gospel. Once people responded to that gospel, they were baptized and received into the visible church. They then underwent a regular, systematic exposure to the teaching of the apostles, through regular preaching (homilies) and in particular groups of catechetical instruction. In the initial outreach to the Gentile community, the apostles did not go into great detail about Old Testament redemptive history. That knowledge was assumed among Jewish audiences, but it was not held among the Gentiles. Nevertheless, even to the Jewish audiences, the central emphasis of the evangelistic preaching was on the announcement that the Messiah had come and ushered in God’s kingdom.

If we take time to examine the sermons of the apostles that are recorded in the book of Acts, we see a somewhat common and familiar structure to them. In this analysis, we can discern the apostolic kerygma, the basic proclamation of the gospel. Here the focus in the preaching was on the person and work of Jesus. The gospel itself was called the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel is about Him; it involves the proclamation and declaration of what He accomplished in His life, in His death, and in His resurrection. After the details of His death, resurrection, and ascension to the right hand of God were preached, the apostles called the people to be converted to Christ — to repent of their sins and receive Christ by faith.

When we seek to extrapolate from these examples how the apostolic church did evangelism, we must ask: What is appropriate for the transfer of apostolic principles of preaching to the contemporary church? Some churches believe that a person is required to preach the gospel or to communicate the kerygma in every sermon preached. This view sees the emphasis in Sunday morning preaching as one of evangelism, of proclaiming the gospel. Many preachers today, however, say they are preaching the gospel on a regular basis when in some cases they have never preached the gospel at all, because what they call the gospel is not the message of the person and work of Christ and how His accomplished work and its benefits can be appropriated to the individual by faith. Rather, the gospel of Christ is exchanged for therapeutic promises of a purposeful life or having personal fulfillment by coming to Jesus. In messages such as these, the focus is on us rather than on Him.

On the other hand, in looking at the pattern of worship in the early church, we see that the weekly assembly of the saints involved a coming together for worship, fellowship, prayer, the celebration of the Lord’s Supper, and devotion to the teaching of the apostles. If we were there, we would see that the apostolic preaching covered the whole of redemptive history and the sum of divine revelation, not being restricted simply to the evangelistic kerygma.

So, again, the kerygma is the essential proclamation of the life, death, resurrection, ascension, and rule of Jesus Christ, as well as a call to conversion and repentance. It is this kerygma that the New Testament indicates is the power of God unto salvation (Rom. 1:16). There can be no acceptable substitute for it. When the church loses her kerygma, she loses her identity.

by R.C. Sproul
From Ligonier Ministries and R.C. Sproul

Sevenfold Sin of Not Winning Souls

Posted: April 7, 2013 in disciples life, Kingdom Teaching, teaching, wilderness
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My message is on the “Sevenfold Sin of Not Winning Souls.” I said sin! If you are a Christian and don’t win souls, it is a sin like getting drunk, lying, hate, murder or adultery. It is a wicked, terrible sin! Every preacher and every Christian ought to win souls. Any Christian who does not win souls is sinning. And we who win a few are sinning if we don’t do our best all the time to win more souls.

A man running for office said to his business manager, “Do you know what my opponent said about me? He accused me of lying.”

“He ought not to have done that. That’s bad.”

“He did worse than that.”

“What’s that?”

“He proved it!”

That is what I plan to do tonight—not only to preach that it is a sin not to win souls, but to prove it by the Bible, the precious Word of God.

“And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

“Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”—Matt. 28:18–20.

We call this the Great Commission, and it contains three teachings. First, go and teach all nations the Word—that means make disciples of men in all nations by teaching them how to be saved. Second, baptize them. Third, teach them to observe all things that Jesus commanded us.

Soul winning is the main thing with God. If it isn’t first with the preacher, the preacher isn’t right. If soul winning isn’t the first thing with the church, the church isn’t right. If soul winning isn’t first for a Sunday school teacher, he or she is not a good Sunday school teacher. If soul winning isn’t the main reason for a Christian school, it is not a very good Christian school. If soul winning isn’t the main thing for a Christian newspaper like the SWORD OF THE LORD, then it is off the track and not what a Christian paper ought to be. The first and main thing with God is soul winning.

In I Timothy 1:15, Paul said, “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation.…” That sounds like it was a saying often repeated among New Testament Christians. What was the saying? “…that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” Jesus came to save sinners.

Jesus said, “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:32).

Again, He said, “The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). This is what Jesus came for, what Jesus died for. That is why the Bible was written, why churches are organized, why preachers are called to preach.

Some preachers say, “But I don’t feel led to win souls.” That means you are not led of the Lord. If God were leading you, He would lead you to do what the Bible says. A Christian ought to win souls. That is the most important thing with God.

He gave the Great Commission in each of the four Gospels with slightly different words. The same day He rose from the dead, Jesus entered into the room where the disciples were shut up for fear of the Jews and breathed on them and said, “As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you” (John 20:21).

Another time He came to the disciples as they were eating and said, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). Again, Jesus met the disciples on a mountain in Galilee and gave the Great Commission to them in the words of our text. Then in Luke He said that “repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things….but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high” (Luke 24:47–49).

Forty days after His resurrection when He was preparing to ascend back into Heaven, He gave the Great Commission yet a fifth time: “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judæa, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8). He had already given the command four times (and perhaps many unrecorded times during the previous forty days); but in the last minute before He went away to Heaven, Jesus repeated it. These were the last words of Jesus on earth.

When a person is departing, his parting words are likely to be about the thing that is most on his mind, the thing that is most important to him. I’m saying that this is the one main thing Jesus left for us to do in these ages after He went away. This is His Great Commission.

There is a sevenfold sin in not winning souls.

I. Sin of Disobedience to Christ’s Main Command

The first sin is the sin of disobedience to the main command that Jesus Christ ever gave. We have an all-inclusive command for every Christian in the Great Commission. Not to obey that is not to obey Jesus on the one thing He died for, the main thing He gave instructions about.

Jesus told His disciples, ‘All of you go out here and get the Gospel to every creature. Take it into all the world and make disciples in all nations.’ I can imagine they might have thought, Well, we’re only twelve men. We can’t go to every nation. If we put one in Africa, one in South America, one in the continent of North America, one in Eastern Europe, one in the Balkan states, one in Russia, one in China, one in India, one in Indonesia, one in the Philippine Islands, one in Japan and one in Australia, that uses up all twelve apostles. But He said, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world” (Matt. 28:20).

Now all the original twelve disciples are dead. But let’s see what happened because they obeyed His commission.

He said to Peter, “Go get people saved.”

“All right, Jesus, and then what?”

“Now get them baptized and grounded.”

“All right, Jesus, then what?”

“Then send them out to do just what I am telling you to do—observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.”

Jesus is saying, “The command I give you today, you pass on to everybody you get saved.” So the Great Commission is as much to everybody here as it was to Peter or any one of the twelve.

But you say, “I’m not called to preach.” You’re called to be a Christian, though, and this is a part of being a Christian. If you were taught what Jesus said, then you were taught you ought to be a soul winner. In Revelation 22:17 we read, “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come.” If you’ve heard it, then you are supposed to tell it.

Have you been scripturally baptized? If not, you have missed a joy and a blessing. If you have, then they ought to have told you, “Now, I’m passing on to you the Great Commission that Jesus gave the twelve apostles.”

Somebody says, “The Great Commission is given to the church.” Is that so? Chapter and verse, please! We are to get people saved, and we are to get them baptized, and we are to teach them to do what Jesus told the apostles to do. The Lord Jesus didn’t save church houses or have them baptized or call them to preach.

The Lord Jesus didn’t call denominational headquarters or baptize them or give them the Great Commission. Why doesn’t somebody say “Amen”?

Every preacher, if he is saved, has this Great Commission. If you don’t win souls, you have failed in your Christian life. No one is a good Christian who doesn’t win souls. You are not doing the first things He said you were to do after you got baptized. Those who do not win souls are disobedient in the main command of Jesus Christ, and that is not a small matter.

II. The Sin of Lack of Love for Christ

Sin Number Two is the sin of lack of love for Jesus Christ. You say, “I love Jesus so much.” Oh, do you? Let us see what the Lord says about it. “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). Isn’t that a fair, honest statement? He says in verse 21, “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me.” And then verse 23 says, “Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words.”

So in proportion to your love for Jesus Christ, you will win souls. Not winning souls is proof of the coldness of your heart.

“Brother Rice, I don’t know much Bible.” That isn’t your trouble. “But don’t you use the Bible in soul winning?” Can you learn John 3:16? I have won hundreds of souls with John 3:16. Your real trouble is heart trouble.

You say you don’t have gifts. Well, do the best you can with what equipment you have. When I was called to preach, I said, “Lord, I don’t have a great voice like Dr. Truett, and I don’t have a personality like some other people, but I will do the best I can.” Your trouble is not poor equipment. It is heart trouble. You don’t love Jesus enough to do what He said. The Lord Jesus said three times in this chapter that if we love Him we will keep His commandments.

“Well, I’ve been taught different.” Yes, I know. You are talking about your head, but your trouble is not your head; it is your heart. You don’t love Jesus Christ enough to do what He said.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if God would give us such a floodtide of love in our hearts, shed abroad by the Holy Ghost, that we would beg Jesus for power to win souls?

In the letter to the Ephesians in Revelation 2, the Lord said, ‘I know you have worked. You have been patient. I know you have borne burdens and didn’t faint in hard times. But I have somewhat against you because you have left your first love!’

Wouldn’t it be good if you had the honeymoon again—you and Jesus? Wouldn’t it be good if you just came back to the first wonderful love you had when you were first saved?

I remember when I went down the aisle and trusted the Lord and was converted at the First Baptist Church of Gainesville, Texas. My dad was preaching out in the country that day. I went home and told him I wanted to join the church. I didn’t say I had been converted—I didn’t know what you called it.

He said, “Son, when you are old enough to be really convicted of your sins and repent and be regenerated, then there will be time enough to join the church.”

Well, I guessed so. All of those were nice big words—only I didn’t know what they meant. My dad didn’t know I’d gotten saved, and I didn’t know how to tell him. So the next morning as I went to school and crossed the creek, I knelt under a willow tree in the sand and prayed, “Lord, maybe I’m too young to join the church or get saved, but So-and-so is not, and this one is not, and that one is not.” I cried and prayed under that tree for other people to be saved.

I didn’t know it then, but that was mighty good evidence the Lord had done a work of grace in my heart. I had the first love that Christians ought to have. You are backslidden if you don’t have that first love that makes you concerned about lost sinners.

In a campaign in Spearman, Texas, a French girl came night after night. She spoke in very broken English with a French accent. When I would ask, “How many are Christians?” she would hold up her hand. She had gone to mass regularly back in France and said her prayers, “Hail Mary, mother of God,” etc.

One night I preached on “You Must Be Born Again.” That was news to her. When I asked, “How many of you know you have been born again?” she didn’t hold up her hand. Then when I asked, “How many want to be saved?” she did hold her hand up; but when we gave the invitation, she didn’t come.

The next morning her husband brought her to the home where I was. She wanted to be saved, and I showed her how. She said, “There were a lot of churches in France; why didn’t anyone ever tell me I needed to be born again?”

I said, “Are you ready to ask Jesus to save you?”

She said, “I don’t know English very well. Can I pray in French?”

“Yes, God understands French just as well as English.”

I prayed in English, and she prayed in French and trusted Christ. I read to her John 3:36: “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.” We shook hands and cried and laughed. But I said, “Now, I’m glad that’s settled. I have to go now to see two young men I promised to meet.”

As we parted, she said, “Oh, Brother Rice, I do hope you save those boys!” She had that first love that is normal for a good Christian. She had what the Lord Jesus was talking about.

If you don’t have it, then you don’t love Jesus like you ought. Lack of love for Jesus is one of the sins of not winning souls. God forgive us for a cold heart.

III. The Sin of Not Following Jesus

Those who do not win souls are guilty of not following Jesus. We sing, “Trying to walk in the steps of the Saviour,” and talk about following Jesus, but in Matthew 4:19 Jesus said to Peter and Andrew, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Those who followed Jesus turned out to be soul winners.

Aren’t you glad God makes soul winners? If I were going to make them, I would pick men with real culture, training and personality. But then they would likely speak to the minds, not necessarily to the hearts. But Jesus makes soul winners, and, thank God, He can make a soul winner out of people not fit for much else in the world.

“Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

Isn’t this a short, simple, easy way to get to be a soul winner? I follow Jesus, and He does something wonderful in my heart. It gets to where I love sinners as He does and want to go after them like He does. He puts His power on me to get people saved and makes me a soul winner.

If it is true that when you follow Jesus He makes you into a soul winner, it follows that if you are not a soul winner, you are not following Jesus.

“Brother Rice, I joined a church long ago.”

Yes, the churches are full of dead wood like you. Part of the curse of our churches is we have too many Christians of that kind. I would gladly have just one-tenth as many people, if they were all red-hot for God. Brother, we can’t drag sinners over your dead carcass. But if you follow Jesus, He will make you into a soul winner.

Soul winning costs something. During one blessed revival, a woman said to me, “Brother Rice, religion is like the measles. It’s catching.” I said, “You’re right, but you can’t give someone measles unless you have a fever.” We surely need people with fever. And if you follow Jesus, you will have it. He will make you into a good soul winner.

I started preaching before I knew I was called to preach or surrendered to preach. I was in Baylor University, studying to be a college English teacher, when a country pastor, Brother R. H. Gibson, wrote me a postcard asking me to lead singing for him in several one-week revivals. They ran from Friday evening through Thursday evening, with a baptismal service on Friday morning.

I liked to sing, and I wanted to win souls, so I went with him. We started under a brush arbor with a pump organ and sang the old-time songs. We had a wonderful meeting.

On Wednesday night, Brother Gibson said, “This is wonderful. It would not be right to close this meeting tomorrow night.”

I said, “No sir, I don’t think you ought to quit now. New people are getting under conviction all the time.”

“You go to the next place and start that on Friday night, and I’ll stay here and preach through Sunday afternoon. Then I’ll come over there where you are.”

“What is that?” I asked. “I’m no preacher! I’m not called to preach.”

“That’s all right. Just tell them you’re not a preacher and you’re not called to preach. But go ahead.”

I said, “I can’t do it. I don’t know how to preach.”

He said, “Are you saved? Do you know how to tell somebody how to be saved?”

“Yes. But I can’t preach.”

“Haven’t you been speaking some for the Red Cross and raising money for the boys in the army?”

“Well…yes.”

“Weren’t you in the Connally Debate in Baylor University and president of your literary society?”

“Yes. I won a scholarship in oratory.”

“And you gave your high school commencement address, but you can’t talk for Jesus! That’s a funny kind of Christianity!”

That stumped me. He sent me on over there to start the meeting. I walked up and down the creek bottom all day. I didn’t know much Bible. I was studying English; I could tell them about Shakespeare and Tennyson all right. I tried to remember all the Scriptures he had preached on and the things I knew. I preached, and when he got there, we were having people saved, and a revival had broken out. He went on with the revival, and everything went fine.

The next week he did the same thing, and I started the next meeting. It happened that way every week. The whole summer was nearly over before it dawned on me that he had planned it that way.

If you ran with R. H. Gibson, the first thing you knew, you’d be preaching.

And if you run with Jesus, you will be going after sinners. Your trouble is you are not following Jesus. If you were, He would make you into a soul winner.

God, put a burning in the heart of people and made them soul winners!

IV. The Sin of Not Abiding in Christ

Those who do not win souls are guilty of not abiding in Christ. You say, “That sounds like we are not even good Christians.” You’re catching on! Christians who do not win souls are not abiding in Christ.

In John 15 Jesus said,

“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.

“I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.”—Vss. 4,5.

But you say you thought the fruit He was talking about is the fruit of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Bringing forth fruit is one thing; the Christian graces the Holy Spirit produces in you are another matter.

You may brush the old cow and spray some fly powder on her, but the fruit of the cow is either a calf or milk. The Bible speaks of the fruit of the womb—a woman’s baby. Proverbs 11:30 says, “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life.” A tree? You mean the fruit of a peach tree is another peach tree? Don’t you mean the fruit of the peach tree is a peach? No. Plant the peach and you get another peach tree. The fruit of a Christian is another Christian, and the fruit of the soul winner is another soul winner. The Great Commission is not only to get one saved but to get him baptized and to tell him to do what Jesus told us to do. So if you don’t bear fruit, you are not abiding in Christ.

There are a lot of false teachings about abiding in Christ—consecration, sanctification, baptized of the Holy Ghost, entered into the rest of God. “Oh, I have found in Him the key for life. I’ve had a testing experience.” A lot of people have been brainwashed. Nobody is sanctified or consecrated who doesn’t do what God wants him to do about soul winning. Any so-called Keswick experience that doesn’t make you a soul winner is a fake. If you don’t win souls, you’re not a good Christian and you are not abiding in Christ. If you were, you would bring forth much fruit.

In a Toronto revival, we had back-to-back services to accommodate the crowds. After a service where fifteen adults had come to Christ, we had a brief intermission. A man came up to me and said, “Brother Rice, have you been baptized with the Holy Ghost?”

“If you mean some holy anointing enabling me to win souls, then, thank God, yes.”

He said, “I didn’t mean that.

I meant, have you talked in tongues?”

I said, “Why didn’t you say what you meant?”

“Well, I meant where you just let go. Something comes on you, and you just feel light as a feather. You don’t know what you are saying, but you feel so good.”

I said, “If I can get enough sinners to come down the aisle; keep people out of Hell; see drunkards made sober, harlots made pure, convicts made into decent citizens and homes reunited, I’ll be happier than if I felt light as a feather with electricity coming in my head and going out my fingers and toes. I was talking in the English tongue tonight. Do you think everyone could understand me?”

“Well, yes.”

I said, “If I have a message from God and everybody understands English, what is wrong with preaching in English? Now let me ask you one. Did you ever win a soul?”

He said, “I’ve witnessed to them.”

I said, “Did you ever win a soul?”

“I’ve prayed for them”

I said, “Quit dodging. Did you ever get your Bible out and show a man he is a sinner and show him how to be saved and get him to trust Jesus and start out to live for Him? Did you or not?”

“I guess I never did.”

“Then don’t you ever again pretend you have something better than some man who preaches the Bible, who weeps over sinners and who in God’s mercy is being used to win souls.”

I’m tired of these deeper-life conferences. The pastor of a church that for years has had only a handful attending, mainly children, wanted me to run several articles in the SWORD OF THE LORD on the deeper life. I wrote that every time we put something in the paper about soul winning, we’re teaching about the deepest life there is. D. L. Moody and R. A. Torrey and Billy Sunday had the deeper life. You can tell, because they bore fruit.

The deeper life is keeping people out of Hell. That is what brings eternal rewards and causes rejoicing and hand clapping and bell ringing and singing the “Hallelujah Chorus” up in Heaven. If you don’t win souls, then you are not abiding in Christ.

V. The Awful Sin of Dishonesty in a Sacred Trust

Those who do not win souls are guilty of dishonesty in a sacred trust. Dishonesty? Brother Rice, that sounds like one is crooked. That is exactly the point. Anybody who does not win souls is crooked.

In Romans 1:14,15 Paul says, “I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise. So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also.” You are in debt, Paul?

“Yes,” Paul said. “I got salvation which I didn’t earn and couldn’t pay for. I got it on credit, on the mercy of God. I’m going to Heaven when I ought to be in Hell. He called me to preach. I’m not worthy.”

If you are saved like Paul, you got salvation by God’s mercy. You didn’t deserve it. How much in debt you and I are!

Will you admit that you got salvation you didn’t deserve, couldn’t pay for and didn’t earn? Well, you are in debt then, aren’t you? This is a Gospel for the rest of the folks too, and you are dishonest if you don’t pass it on.

Matthew 25 tells of a man who took a far journey and he left his goods with his servants and provided for them.

“For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods.…every man according to his several ability” (vss. 14,15). When the man returned, one servant told him, ‘I worked hard. I made five talents into ten.’

“Well done, thou good and faithful servant…enter thou into the joy of thy lord” (vs. 21).

The second servant came and said, ‘I worked hard and made two talents into four.’

The lord said to him also, “Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord” (vs. 23).

Another fellow with one talent returned it, saying, ‘Here is your talent. I knew you were a hard man, so I took your talent and hid it in the earth.’

And the lord said to him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant. If you didn’t want to risk this money, why didn’t you put it in the bank so I could at least have earned some interest on the money?’ He called him wicked and slothful—crooked and lazy! He didn’t bring anything in on the investment made on him.

If you don’t win souls, you are wicked. God has a lot invested in you—the precious blood of Jesus, the wooing of the Holy Spirit, the writing of the Bible, the preaching of the men of God, Mother’s prayers. Shouldn’t God get a little back on His investment? If you do not pay some back to God by spreading the Gospel, then you are dishonest in a sacred trust.

Dr. H. A. Ironside once sent a sermon for the SWORD OF THE LORD with a note on the back of a handbill that was advertising some meetings he was going to have. The note said, “Just trying to pay my debt to my brethren.”

You have a debt to pay too, and you are dishonest if you don’t pay it. God has a right to some soul-winning effort from you. Don’t be dishonest in a sacred trust.

VI. The Sinful Folly of a Shortsighted Fool

You mean a man is a fool if he doesn’t win souls? Yes sir. He is putting his money, his time, his energy where it won’t bring much reward or do much good. Listen to Proverbs 11:30, “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise.” The soul winner is wise, because he is going to reap for eternity.

We read in Daniel 12:3, “And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.” Who are wise? They that win many souls!

I may be nobody much now, but if God in His mercy be willing, I will be somebody in the next world. Somebody will be at the gate to meet me. When some of you get there, you will have to hire a taxicab and get a map of the city to find your shack out in the suburbs. I want to have a brass band of praise when I get there.

At a filling station in Dallas one day, I asked the attendant, “How are you today?”

He replied, “Well, if you really want to know, I’m the biggest fool in Dallas.”

I asked, “Why is that?”

“I got my pay last night and went on a big bender. I don’t remember a thing, and when I woke up this morning, this was all I had from a week’s wages.” He pulled out a few coins. “I have to pay my landlady today, and I don’t have the money. All I’ve got is a guilty conscience and a dark brown taste in my mouth. Of all the fools in Dallas, I’m the biggest.”

I said, “I’ll say amen to that.”

A lot of you Christians are like that. You think of food for the belly and clothes for the back and a new-model car and wall-to-wall carpeting and four bedrooms and two baths. A heathen has that much sense. You had better put your money and your time where you will have a real reaping someday.

I’m only an evangelist, and everybody knows an evangelist isn’t anybody much. I don’t have money laid aside, and I don’t have life insurance, but I have some put away where thieves don’t break through and steal.

In Japan some years ago, I preached through an interpreter in a revival meeting for a missionary. I preached on the Prodigal Son, and God was there in power. Five people came forward to be saved. Only one of them had ever heard the Gospel before, so we took about half an hour to make sure these five understood it. They had come to the meeting after working for eleven hours in a rice paddy, and now it was late.

As we went outside, the missionary said, “I want you to meet this young man who interpreted for you. He is your grandson in the ministry.”

My booklet “What Must I Do to Be Saved?” had been translated into Japanese, and we had about four million copies of it published in Japan. In the first six months after the first printing, missionaries received letters from 2,800 Japanese who had trusted Christ as Saviour, and they followed them up.

One of those booklets had gotten into the hands of a man who was serving a life sentence in prison. He read that he could be born again and could have a new heart, that God would forgive him, that he could be a Christian and go to Heaven.

He believed it and trusted the Lord and was saved. A wonderful transformation took place. The guard began to say, “You ought not to be in jail.”

It wasn’t long until the warden and the guards all talked about him: “He is a better man than any of us. He shouldn’t be here.” The warden went to the judge and recommended that they turn the man loose, and they did.

One afternoon the former convict came upon a young man in the park who had his head in his hands. He asked, “What is the matter?”

“I wish I were dead! I slashed my wrists, but they rushed me to the hospital and saved me. I then got out of bed and beat my head on the brick wall. I was put in a straight jacket and strapped in bed until I got well. I’m an alcoholic, but I wish I were dead.”

This former prisoner said, “You need what I got.” He showed him this booklet and began to tell him about how to be saved.

“That doesn’t sound reasonable.”

“Come to the missionary, and he will tell you.”

He talked to the missionary and was saved. That is the man who interpreted for me that night.

While the missionary was telling me that, the young evangelist was talking in Japanese with his hands held high. The only word I could understand was “Hallelujah!” He rejoiced to meet the man who had written the little booklet that won his friend and him to Christ. My spiritual grandson! Bless God!

Many people curse me now. I preach plain and make people mad. But I’m going to have people who will be glad to see me when I get to Heaven!

What a fool anybody is who spends his time making money and on these other things! It is the folly of a shortsighted fool not to win souls.

VII. Not to Win Souls Is the Sin of Bloodguilt—Spiritual Manslaughter

“Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me.

“When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.

“Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.”—Ezek. 3:17–19.

If Ezekiel did not warn the Israelites about their iniquity and they died in their sins, God required their blood at his hand. What a staggering thought that God says to a man about sinners, “His blood will I require at thine hand”! But if Ezekiel warned the wicked, even if the wicked did not turn, then God said, “Thou hast delivered thy soul.”

That strange commission was given to Ezekiel for the nation of Israel, but surely it implies that God still holds people to account for the souls of those that they do not warn! Surely we are guilty of the blood of every poor lost soul who goes to Hell if we had a chance to warn him, to weep over him, to woo him tenderly and win him and get him to come to Christ, and we did not!

Paul had this in mind when he came to Miletus and had the elders of Ephesus meet him there. Solemnly facing these preachers, Paul told them that they would see his face no more, and then said, “Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God” (Acts 20:26,27). Then he said again, “Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears” (Acts 20:31).

Paul could solemnly say, ‘After three years in Ephesus, I have no blood on my hands! I have gone night and day with tears, publicly and from house to house, carrying the whole counsel of God. I am not to blame if anybody goes to Hell!’

O Christian, is there blood on your hands? Are you guilty of the death of immortal souls for whom Christ died, because you did not warn them?

When a boat overturned in a Chinese river, a missionary urged some nearby Chinese fishermen to bring their boat quickly and help him rescue a man who was drowning. The fishermen insisted on a price of fifty dollars before they would come. The missionary gave them all he had and at last persuaded them to help him, but it was too late. The callous hearts of the fishermen took no responsibility for their drowning countryman, but they were guilty of murder, as certain as there is a God in Heaven to hold men to account!

But are you much different, Christian, when you let people near you go to Hell and never warn them, weep over them and see that they have the Gospel?

In Roosevelt, Oklahoma, I promised to go see a dying woman who was distressed about her soul. But I waited until the second day, and she died before I ever saw her.

In Dallas, Texas, an elderly man wrote, saying, “I am dying with cancer, and I am not ready to die. Brother Rice, please come and pray with me.” But I had so many burdens that I postponed it. After two weeks I sent a young preacher to visit the old man, but a neighbor told the young preacher that the old man had died and the family were then gone to his funeral!

I hope that in their extremity these two people turned to the Lord, but I have no certainty at all. What will I say to the Lord Jesus when I see Him, if He asks me to give an account for the souls of these two who sent for me and I did not get there in time?

The sin of not winning souls is the bloodguilty sin of soul-manslaughter. I beg you in Jesus’ name, consider how guilty you must be in God’s sight if you do not put your very best and all your heart’s strength and love into the one precious business of soul winning!

So, Christian, if you do not win souls, you are not right with God. You may be saved, but you are not a good disciple. If you follow the Saviour at all, you follow afar off.

Consider again this sevenfold sin of failing to win souls. It is the sin of disobedience, of lack of love, of failing to follow Christ, of not abiding in Christ, of dishonesty in a sacred trust, of shortsighted folly, and of bloodguilt for which we must give an account.

May God convict us of our sin in not winning the souls who are dying all around us!

By Dr. John R. Rice

Eating and making disciples

Posted: March 24, 2013 in disciples life, teaching, Uncategorized, wilderness
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Eating and making disciples
by Tone Benedict
Last week at the Well I talked about the Rhythm of EATing. Everybody eats, not just Christians, But for the person who believes in God and loves God eating is meant to be a form of Worship. You see God created us in such a way that we smell, we See and we taste food, some of us like it crunchy, and all of our senses can enjoy food, and God made it that way! God made it so eating food could be an act of worship! Problem is too many of us worship the food instead of the God who gave us the food and the ability to enjoy it.

Meals are a big deal in the bible, it was a piece of Fruit that Eve saw and it looked good and she worshipped it and gave some to Adam and Sin entered the world. God provided Manna in the dessert, Jesus fed the 5000. But here are a few reasons, I have the Word EAT in the name of the Well. (not all these are original with me, just stuff I have learned.)

Meals remind daily Of our common need for God and his faithfulness to provide both physically and spiritually. Our hunger and thirst remind us that we are not self-sufficient or self sustaining. We have a need for food and water that must be met outside of ourselves. This physical need points our hearts to a deeper spiritual needs, Jesus pointed to it a lot. We have a hunger for intimacy, satisfaction, reconciliation, and more! These desires can only truly be met by Jesus, He called himself both the Bread of Life and the Living Water-consuming him, taking him into you, means there’s a sense in which we will never be hungry or thirsty again if we have Jesus. (some insights from Jeff Vandersteldt)

Community – We all have a need for community, Iron sharpens Iron, in they early church they were together eating meals and loving on each other. God created us to have community. All of us have this desire to be fully known and accepted and I just don’t see how you can get that in one hour on Sunday. Ultimately only Jesus can know you fully, be as Christ followers we are called to encourage one another, that means we need community with each other. But how bout this! Community is that Jesus EATS with Sinners! You cant make disciples if you don’t eat with people. When God comes, he is going to be having a party, it is about communion and Jesus by eating with Sinners he was communing with them. When you eat with people you commune with them you have unity with them. Whoever we eat with, we give a chance to be changed and that maybe some more sinners would show up here if our churches were a place where people they felt loved and welcomed into community.

Communion – Amazing that originally the Passover, was the way God saved the Israelites. They had to kill a lamb and take its blood and put it over their door and the Angel would Passover their house, the lamb had to be perfect. There was to be no yeast in the house. In the bible Yeast represents Sin. So no yeast in the bread, and then Jesus shows up. So listen to what Jesus does. They never understood why no yeast in this bread, Jesus teaches them why. Because His sinless body was going to broken for them.

Now as they were eating,(eating a meal) Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” (see the disciples would have all of a sudden understood why the bread couldn’t have yeast, we have always wondered why no yeast, now they understood, it was because it represents the sinless body of Jesus). And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

Jesus is the better meal. I have a story that I tell about the first real communion I had where God me in the meal. He told me he wanted to die for me, he opened my eyes and for the first time I saw blood in the cup. I never knew a man that would die for me and seeing that blood was God’s way of expressing his love toward me. Oh how much love he has for us. And Jesus said we should do this “every time we get together, we break open the bread and we would think about his body being broken for us, we would drink the wine and by his blood we are forgiven. Every time, we get together we can celebrate his life and his death and his resurrection.

And Jesus promised that In the Kingdom we will get to eat with Jesus. ”I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.” (Matt 26:26-29) What a promise we will eat with Jesus, we will spend time communing and talking and celebrating with Jesus, what we do now should not be a ceremony, it should be a party, I can’t wait to party with Jesus!

A picture of the Kingdom. “On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined. And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken. It will be said on that day, “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the LORD; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.” (Isaiah 25:6-9 ESV)

I can’t wait!

Pastor Tone is the pastor of “The Well“ located in Jacksonville Florida.

“I personally know Pastor Tone and he is one who lives what he preaches” Russ Welch, owner Radicaldisciples.me Blog

You can read more of Pastor Tone’s writings at Tone Benedict’s Blog

A Conversation with Francis Chan

Posted: March 18, 2013 in disciples life, Kingdom Teaching, teaching, wilderness
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A Conversation with Francis Chan

We’ve reached the end of the Crazy Love newsletter! We hope you’ve found it challenging and inspiring. Today, in the final installment of Crazy Love, we feature a follow-up conversation with author Francis Chan in which he discusses his book and the message behind it.

Q: Tell us about the title Crazy Love.

A: The idea of Crazy Love has to do with our relationship with God. All my life I’ve heard people say, “God loves you.” It’s probably the most insane statement you could make to say that the eternal Creator of this universe is in love with me. There is a response that ought to take place in believers, a crazy reaction to that love. Do you really understand what God has done for you? If so, why is your response so lukewarm?

Q: Why do you think so many Christians blame the church for their failures?

A: We all need to justify our actions. The easiest thing to do when we’re not living how God wants us to is to blame someone or something else. It’s not unique to the church. You see it everywhere, people blaming their parents, a chemical imbalance, whatever, rather than looking to themselves and changing who they are through the Holy Spirit. The same thing happens in the church. All of us who have the Holy Spirit have the potential to live a “crazy love” type of life, but it’s easier to not live it and blame someone for that.

Q: You talk about believing in God without having a clue what He’s like. As a Christian, how is that possible?

A: Because we’re taught so little about God, most people just want to know what God can do for them rather than desiring to know Him. When we present the gospel, we try to answer one question: How do I keep from going to hell? After that question is answered, we stop asking questions about God. With the American church being so concerned about converts, we don’t take the time to present the God-centered universe to people. We don’t try to dig deep into the truth of God. We need to learn the attributes of God before we know what He is like.

Q: There is urgency in your message. Where does this come from?

A: I think from two things. One, as a pastor I was doing funerals just about every week. A lot of these funerals were for people younger than I am, and so many of them are unexpected. Seeing the shock of their loved ones and realizing God can take your life at any time gives me a sense of urgency.

The other is my upbringing. My mom died giving birth to me; my stepmom died when I was nine; my dad died when I was twelve. I learned that there might not be a tomorrow. I always want this to be the greatest message I’ll preach in case I’m not here to give another one.

I have a sense of urgency built into me from my upbringing and going to so many funerals and seeing friends pass away. I can’t help but be urgent in my message.

Q: You talk about what it means to be a lukewarm Christian. You make a bold statement that “churchgoers who are ‘lukewarm’ are not Christians.” We will not see them in heaven? How do you explain this? How does grace play into this statement?

A: I explain it through the passage of Revelation 3 and look at the passage objectively. God says that the lukewarm will be spit out of His mouth, and that is drastically different than God embracing you and welcoming you into heaven. The lukewarm still need to be saved. How can we say a lukewarm Christian is saved?

Salvation has nothing to do with my performance. If I’m truly saved, then my actions are going to show. All through the New Testament a person’s faith is shown through his actions. New Testament teachings are clear that someone who loves God and doesn’t obey God is a liar, and the truth is not in Him.

It’s not popular to question someone’s actions and salvation, and Scripture tells us to test ourselves and see if we’re really in the faith. I believe 100 percent in grace, that I did nothing, and I’m completely saved by the cross. By the grace of God we believe and are saved. If someone has the Holy Spirit in them, there will be fruit, and there will not be a lukewarm life.

Q: In one chapter you state, “Dare to imagine what it would mean for you to take the words of Jesus seriously.” What does this mean? Why do you think so many Christians would turn down this dare?

A: We’ve conditioned ourselves to hear messages without responding. Sermons have become Christian entertainment. We go to church to hear a well-developed sermon and a convicting thought. We’ve trained ourselves to believe that if we’re convicted, our job is done. If you’re just hearing the Word and not actually doing something with it, you’re deceiving yourself.

I remember preaching on Luke 6, and I brought up the passage that says, “Do good to those who hate you? I told the congregation to think of someone who hated them, and I asked, “Are you willing to go do something good for them? Will you do that? Yes or no?” I said, “Tell God right now, ‘No I will not do that.'” We’re not willing to make that statement because we don’t want to say that to God, but we’re doing that every day.

We don’t think it through because we’ve developed a habit of listening to the Word of God and not obeying it. If we take Scripture literally and if we actually apply it, we won’t have what our flesh desires, so we walk away sad or we run to the church where no one else is doing it, but they seem okay with that.

Q: How does the American dream play into a lukewarm faith?

A: It’s interesting when we talk about the American dream. In Luke 12, Jesus tells the parable of the rich fool. There’s this guy who is rich and has an abundance of crops. He builds bigger barns so that he can store it up. He says, “[I] have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink, and be merry.” Basically, he’ll retire and enjoy himself, the American dream. God says, “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you.”

We shouldn’t worry about our lives, what we’ll eat, buy, or wear. God says the American dream is absolute foolishness. It’s exactly what Christians are doing and defending. God could take your life at any time. Don’t conform to the patterns of this world.

Q: Do you think God calls you to live a radical, crazy life?

A: It’s not that this lifestyle should be crazy to us. It should be the only thing that makes sense. Giving up everything and sacrificing everything we can for the afterlife is logical. “Crazy” is living a safe life and storing up things while trying to enjoy our time on earth, knowing that any millisecond God could take your life. To me that is crazy, and that is radical. The crazy ones are the ones who live life like there is no God. To me that is insanity.

That’s it! Thanks for reading the Crazy Love newsletter. If you enjoyed it and want to dig more deeply into the subject matter, check out the book, ebook, and group study materials at the Bible Gateway store.

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