(This week I begin another series from my web site, dealing with Kingdom Living.)
The promises made to Abraham included land, material blessings, and protection. Those who are Christ’s now have the hope of partaking of those promises, and of ruling the world with Jesus Christ. That rule will be a perfect and righteous rule, and in order to enjoy all those things one would need to be given life in the Age To Come. Yet Jesus said that unless our righteousness exceeded the righteousness of the Pharisees, we would in no wise enter the Kingdom of God (Matthew 5:20). This hearkens back to verses like Psalm 15:1-2, that the one who would dwell in God’s holy tabernacle is the one who works righteousness and speaks the truth in his heart.
Some verses are just ‘refrigerator verses,’ you know? I mean the kind like John 3:16 which gives a great message, makes you feel good, and you’re not afraid to post it for all to see. People post verses on bumper stickers, t-shirts, refrigerator magnets, Facebook statuses, and I even have some stenciled on my walls. I love the reminder of God’s words being everywhere my eyes might happen to fall. Deuteronomy 6:6-9 comes to mind, which says, “And these words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. And you shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”
But what do you do with a verse like this one: “You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin.” Hebrews 12:4.
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.
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.