To Be Least

I am sick with the state of America. With no thought to God, people have thrown themselves to the mercy of their sin. Without constraint our country has been running down the road of destruction.

Although that bothers me greatly, I am sickened even more by something else. What is it? It is the fact that the church in America has not stopped it. We have not fervently prayed for our nation and gone out to proclaim the truth. We have become cold in the inactivity of our faith. Forgetting to do as Jesus commanded us; we have not gone out and truly made disciples.

Jesus commands us to be the salt of the earth. What does salt do? It preserves the food. We hold the truth that can prevent destruction and we are to use this to preserve the world from death. Jesus said that if we lose our saltiness, we are no longer good for anything and must be thrown out.

Thrown into the place of everlasting torment.

My friends, that is serious. We must awaken ourselves and go out into the world preaching the gospel. We must preserve America by being its salt. And if we do not, I shudder to think of those who knock at the gates of heaven pleading, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?” Yet Jesus will plainly say to them, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!” (See Mt. 7:22-23)

I am sorry for not posting for the last several days, I was away for Thanksgiving at a relatives house. Before I could remember to type away my departure, I was taken away for a car trip.

Will post later today. God bless.

A modern evangelist approached a young man in a shopping mall. "Sir," the evangelist said, "If I offered you a free gift would you take it?

"Of course I would," the young man replied, "Why?"

"Because Jesus offers you a free gift, a gift of eternal salvation," the evangelist replied. "He loved you so much that he died on a cross so that you could have eternal life. "Would you like to accept this free gift today, and have eternal life?"

The young man startled says, "Well, I suppose, what do I have to do?"

The evangelist smiling says, "Just say this prayer..."

Is this the gospel message? Is this what Christ told us to do, go around asking people to pray a prayer so that they could get to heaven?

Before Christ ascended into the sky, he told his disciples to go and make disciples of all nations. (Mat 28:19) He did not tell us to make one moment decision makers, he told us to make disciples.

However, it does not end there. Through out the gospels and the book of Acts, you see a common thread throughout all conversions. What is it? It is something called repentance. Repentance is the act of turning away from our sins and toward God. When we go and evangelize, we need to emphasis that fact that they are sinners going to destruction in hell. Only when they understand and believe this can they truly repentant and turn to God for healing and forgiveness.

So I ask you the question, are we proclaiming the full gospel, or are we proclaiming a gospel that shows the benefits, without showing the consequences of rejecting it? It is time that we begin to proclaim the gospel that is truly good news.

When Christ said that, "Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it," in Matthew 10:39, he showed the incredible extremity of following Christ.

When you die, or lose your life, your entire life is involved. So when Jesus tells us that we have to lose our life in order to have eternal life, he is not talking about losing just one aspect of your life. No, he is talking about losing your entire life. Everything.

What does this translate to our lives now? It means full and complete submission to Christ's will regardless of the consequences. Every sinful aspect of our life needs to be completely destroyed and never touched again in obedience to Christ.

We are to give everything in our life, and even our life itself for God's use, not our own.

I have recently subscribed to the free Voice of the Martyrs monthly newsletter. I recently read about the Christians and other people in Sudan who are literally starving to death. All through this world, many of our brothers in Christ are in need of food and the basic necessities of life. Some have seen this problem and have served on the mission field helping these men and women with Christ like servant hood.

Yet, I just have to glance around at the church in America and I see something that disturbs me. I see churches expanding, building bigger and better auditoriums, gyms and other facilities. I see the church spending the majority of the money on its self.

This money could be used to provide food and clothing for those who are dying every day because they lack them. Rather then selfishly indulging in things for ourselves, should we not rather be giving to those in much greater need?

I am going to reboot this blog so to speak. So please come back soon and check out whats new with this blog!

God willing I will be back very soon.

While sitting in the school computer lab, the repetitious sounds of typing fingers and whispering voices are vibrating in my ears. My mind, however, is in a place of thought and contemplation. I begin to think...

What has Jesus called us to do? What are his standards for the Christian life? The writings of the Apostles show us clearly that we are to imitate Christ. But surely God does not expect perfection from us as only humans. Or does he?

Imagine that you are sitting on a mountainside, listening to Jesus teach. Glancing about, you see a crowd of people. Many of them listening intently and absorbing the truth the Jesus spoke to them.

Several minutes after Jesus started teaching, you hear something unbelievable. Did you hear him right? Did he say that we are to be perfect, therefore, as our heavenly Father is perfect? (See Matthew 5:48)

How can we do this? John talks about the fact that "if we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us." (1 Jn 1:8) So surely Jesus did not mean it when he commanded us to be perfect.

He meant every word of it. Not only does he want us to be good, he wants us to be perfect. Without sin, just as Jesus was. Even still, we are not perfect and we will fall from time to time. That is why John tells us that, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." (1 Jn 1:9)

After striving with all our heart, soul, and mind to be perfect and failed, Jesus will forgive us. Then we will be purified from sin. Only then will we be perfect here on earth.