Most everyone is familiar with the story of Jonah in the Bible. He even has his own book in the Old Testament named after him. He was made famous for running away from God, getting swallowed by a big fish, then spewed out, so he could be obedient to God and go preach to Nineveh. Jonah sometimes gets the bad rap because he didn’t really want to do what God asked, was disobedient, and had a bad attitude. We, Sunday School teachers, shake our fingers at him, and say, ‘tsk tsk. See what happens when you don’t do what God has called you to do?’ Yet, how many times does God ask us to do much smaller, easier, insignificant things, and we turn away as if we didn’t hear Him ask?
From my experience, many churches tend to “downplay” the Old Testament. In other words, many churches do not “pay much attention” to the Old Testament – instead, they focus almost exclusively on the New Testament.
There are many reasons why churches do this; but one of the common reasons is that churches believe the following idea:
“Everything that Jesus taught us was brand new. In other words, all of the statements that Jesus made cannot be found anywhere in the Old Testament. Therefore, Christians should not really “pay attention” to the Old Testament – because all of the information there is obsolete.”
“But when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus’ feet, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” For amazement had seized him and all his companions because of the catch of fish which they had taken; and so also James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not fear, from now on you will be catching men.” And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.” Luke 5:8-11.
In New England, we battle the hard hearts of skeptics while enjoy the open-mindedness of those searching. Engaging our neighbors and communities is important - and there is a way to do it right. Forget the marketing strategies or membership drives, get into conversations with the people you’re around. I think that the challenge facing New England in regards to evangelism and outreach is not in the people who need the gospel, its found in the people who supposedly don’t.
Best line of the article - “That means outreach must be deliberate and personal.” And those reaching out need to move out of the comfort of our church building’s four walls and away from the safety have having our pastors teach those who don’t know the gospel.
Going to church doesn’t make you a follower of Jesus. Neither does reading the entire Bible. Neither does taking a class about Christian doctrine. Knowing the teachings of Jesus doesn’t make you his disciple. Volunteering to help your church doesn’t prove that you are a Christian either.
If we take these and other similar tests to prove whether or not we are Christians we may find ourselves to be surprised on judgement day. It is scary to think that we might be attending a church service our entire life, yet not know the leader of that Church. A modern day take on Matthew 7:21-23 might sound like this:
Here’s another 1960’s old-school sermon from minister J. Ronald Schoolcraft. And even a near half-century later, this message still has words of truth to help us in the year 2009 and beyond!
“To Scare the Devil”
By J. Ronald Schoolcraft
A young warehouse worker took his customer’s order and started down one of the long aisles of the warehouse to get the desired parts. As he went he was whistling gaily the tune “Just Whistle While You Work” from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. “My, he’s a happy fellow!” the customer remarked. One of the girls looked up from her stack of records and said “He says he does that to keep the devils out of his mind!”
Watch this amazing video featuring Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan from 1930:
Anne Sullivan must have been quite a woman of love, compassion & patience. How long must it have taken to teach and work with Helen Keller, a woman born blind and deaf?! Yet Anne Sullivan did not see someone disposable, but rather someone who had value and was worth spending her time and life with to teach and care for. Amazing!
Watching this video again brought to mind some things I have been thinking about recently. Discipleship takes time. Have you ever been working with someone to bring them along in their faith? This isn’t a one-time momentary thing is it? If you are the mature believer in a relationship with someone coming along in their walk with the Lord you have to be ready to committ your time and love to this person. Teaching someone to observe all the Jesus commanded (Matthew 28:19-20) doesn’t just happen on Sundays either.
Matthew 5:48 - “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Surely Jesus doesn’t mean “don’t ever make a mistake or sin” does he? How could this be? Doesn’t he know “nobody’s perfect?” What is Jesus saying here? Is this an impossible verse?
I love a good sermon on the biblical truth about death and what our future hope SHOULD be. Maybe it is just my Adventist roots showing, but I do so enjoy hearing this kind of message. It really gives purpose to WHY Jesus is coming back and better yet why we should EARNESTLY DESIRE it to happen! I found this looking through some E.W. Bullinger materials. I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did.
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Death No Gateway To Heaven
By: Willard Smith
In the Christian realm today there is unscriptural teaching concerning the death of the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are constantly being told by well-meaning Christians that at death, “We go to be with the Lord.” This phrase is used especially at funerals where preachers misquote or take the Scriptures out of context to reassure the sorrowing that their loved ones are not really dead, but are really enjoying Heaven in God’s presence. This teaching promotes belief in the lie of Satan, rather than what God told Adam and Eve when He placed them in the Garden.In Gen. 2:17 God said, “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest of it thou shalt surely die.” In the Hebrew could read “Dying thou shalt die.”This was a certainty.
In Gen. 3:1, Satan speaks for the first time in the scriptures. He asks Eve (by the Figure Erotesis for emphasis), “Yea, hath God said,” or “Can it be that God hath said…?” In Gen. 3:4, Satan’s second utterance, we read, “And the serpent said unto the woman, ‘Ye shall not surely die’… “ This is a plain contradiction of God’s Word in Gen. 2:17. As one has said long ago, “This has become the foundation of spiritism and traditional belief as to death.”
Going to church doesn’t make you a follower of Jesus. Neither does reading the entire Bible. Neither does taking a class about Christian doctrine. Knowing the teachings of Jesus doesn’t make you his disciple. Volunteering to help your church doesn’t prove that you are a Christian either.