How Can We Be Offerings To God?...

 God is looking for us to be living sacrifices, in other words, God wants us to live for him besides being willing to die for him and all this for his glory.  We offer ourselves to him to fulfill his will and to glorify him (Isaiah 43:7).  We don't have anything of our own merit to offer such as righteousness, good deeds, morality, or philosophy, nothing but brokenness and strife.  We come to God only as the lowest bidder with nothing in our hands but Christ's righteousness.  

We've received Christ as an unworthy sinner who had nothing to offer God being at his mercy, saying the "sinner's prayer" in Luke 18:13, which says "God be merciful to me, the sinner." He threw himself on the mercy of God and saw himself as unworthy. John Bunyan wrote Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners.  See how he appraised himself? Paul never stopped thinking of himself as the chief of Sinners he said am, not was, foremost among them.

The problem is people have their opinion of themselves they won't let go and refuse to see their sin.  Martin Luther said it is our job to make them see it. This is not the same as having low self-esteem but having no merit of salvation in God's eyes.  This is God's estimation of man, not man's estimation of man.  We are as bad off as we can be, not as bad as we can be.. Luke 5:8 says, "Depart from me, for I'm a sinful man, O Lord," 

Our offering to God is all he wants for us, not our gifts.   He wants us with all the wrinkles, blemishes pimples, warts, bald spots, missing teeth, eating disorders, disabilities, tears, and all our sins.  We must come to him as we are to get a changed life.  We don't change our lives and then come to him as up for his approval.  Do we have anything that God should desire?  God loves us despite all this and sees his potential in us for his ultimate glory

We must realize  God rewards us for what he has done through us as it says "Since you have performed for us all our works," (Isaiah 26:12) and "For I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ is accomplished through me," (Rom. 15:18) and  "You who rejoice in Lodebar (naught) and say did we not by our own strengths..." (they are boasting,) and "From Me, comes your fruit," (Hosea 14:8).

We were chosen according to his purpose and grace and according to the good pleasure of his will (2 Tim. 1:9; Ephesians 1:5).   I must empathize we don't impress God.  It is grace that he has even used us as his vessels of honor rather than vessels of dishonor.  We fit into his plans we don't fit him into ours. The kind of sacrifice God wants for us to live for Jesus because it is a purpose and an honor to be used by God and give and offer a sacrifice of worship.  We come to Christ on his terms of absolute surrender to his Lordship and ownership of our lives giving up the throne of our heart so that we can live through us.  

By The Grace Of God...

"[H]e predestined us ... according to the purpose of his will" (Ephesians 1:5, ESV).

Paul would not boast, but in the Lord, but he was forced to tell of his sufferings for Jesus (cf. 2 Cor. 11) as if they were the marks of Jesus, a crown, and not just a feather in his cap. Jesus warned him of the great things he must suffer for the sake of His name upon his salvation experience in Acts 9:16. We are all that we are by the grace of God, not just Paul. "By the grace of God, I am what I am..." (cf. 1 Cor. 15:10).

George Whitefield said, upon seeing a man dragged to the gallows, what he thought: "There but for the grace of God, go I." That's humility, thinking of others rather than yourself, (if God were to withdraw His restraining grace from us, we'd be all worthy of prison or worse!), and thinking of your unworthiness compared to the grace of God.

None of us was elected conditionally, but unconditionally, and not according to anything we did or didn't do, or any work or righteousness in the flesh. "Grace reigns through righteousness." (Cf. Rom. 5:21), and that means that grace is sovereign and when God decides to send grace it's irresistible and effectual in its purpose according to the will of God. God's sovereignty is over everything and absolute and is not limited by our freedom--what He says and decrees will happen according to plan! 

We have "believed through grace" (cf. Acts 18:27), and God quickened faith within us, as we received faith or were given it, and didn't achieve it--it's a gift, not a work! If it were a work we would have merit to boast of. Merit is opposed to and counter to grace; we cannot earn salvation, didn't deserve it, and can never pay God back for it.

It is important to be grace-oriented to get away from the paralysis of legalism and the mentality that we have a performance-based faith and works earn favor with God or that we can ingratiate ourselves with Him. "The faith you have is the faith you show, they say in theology. Christians aren't saved by good works, but unto them and in order to do them as a result of gratitude and a changed heart. 

 We are indeed saved by faith alone, as the Reformers taught, but not by a faith that is alone! Faith without works is dead, according to James 2:17 and we are not saved by them, nor without them, for they prove our faith as fruit--as a sign of a good tree. (Ephesians 2:10 says we are "saved unto good works, which God ordained beforehand, that we should walk in them.") God's providence guides us to a productive life of good deeds and works.

We cannot believe, except by grace, because Jesus said that we can do nothing apart from Him: "Apart from Me you can do nothing" (cf. John 15:5). Every good thing comes from God, the Ultimate of Goodness or Supreme Good (of Plato), and source of all blessings; and every perfect gift is from grace to us to be stewards of. Our righteousness, then, is not a gift or offering to God, but His gift to us! "Who makes you to differ? What do you have that you didn't receive?" (Cf. 1 Cor. 4:7). 

 If left to ourselves, none of us would've chosen Christ (cf. Matt. 22:14, "Many are called, but few are chosen" and cf. John 15:16, "You did not choose me, but I chose you"). We weren't inclined to come to Him, and our destiny is ultimately in the hands of God, not ours!

The good works we do are God working through us as vessels of honor doing His bidding and will. "I will not venture but to speak of what Christ has accomplished through me" (cf. Romans 15:18). "... you have done for us all our works" (Isa. 26:12, ESV). Our fruit is from God per Hosea 14:8 and the fruit of the Spirit is God's blessing on our lives as He cultivates us and causes us to grow; gifts are given, fruits are grown. We don't automatically exhibit all the fruits as infant believers, but must grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord, as 2 Pet. 3:18 exhorts.

Understanding grace is paramount to comprehend that salvation is all grace (the work of God according to John 6:29, ESV, which says, "... This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent..!) and not our work: "Salvation is of the LORD," according to Jonah 2:9 and that means it's not synergistic or a cooperative venture with God, nor a work of man alone apart from God's aid, but wholly accomplished by God; salvation is the accomplishment of God, not the achievement of men, which is religion trying to gain the approbation of God and reach out to Him.

Our God took the initiative and reached down to us in grace, seeing our hopelessness, and desperateness without His intervention. He called us, not because of our works [of righteousness or pre-salvation works], but according to His purpose and grace (cf. 2 Tim. 1:9). Works say "Do," while God says, "Done."

No one can pat themselves on the back or give themselves kudos for achieving salvation as if they were wise, good, virtuous, or even intelligent! It remains a mystery why God chooses some and not others ("the elect obtained unto it and the rest were hardened" according to Roman 11:7 and Acts 13:48 says that "as many as were appointed unto eternal life believed."

The Golden Chain of Redemption from Romans 8:29-30 makes it patent that God loses no one in the shuffle from foreknowledge to glorification--all who are called are justified, not some lucky ones who endure through trials or don't "lose their salvation." These verses militate against the prescient view that God elected us because we had or would have faith, instead, we are elected unto faith, not because of it--there is no room for any merit in our salvation. 

You must distinguish between the inward call of God, which is always effectual, and the outward gospel call given by us to the lost to exhort them to repent and believe in Jesus, which can turn on deaf ears and be ineffectual.

And so none of us has the right to get a big head, even Paul had a thorn in the flesh to keep him from getting one, and we are all one in Christ, with no elite believers who are privileged or especially blessed--God is no respecter of persons and shows no partiality (cf. Rom. 2:11; Acts 10:34). If we think we came to Christ on our own and by our own ability without being wooed, we probably left alone too and don't have the Spirit. If we don't need regeneration or grace to believe, what good is it and who needs it? The only ones who get the call are the ones the Father grants can come to Him and the ones He draws or woos (elko or to drag in Greek--implying force).

There is no second blessing, or higher life, or work of grace, as some holiness-movement believers (Neo-Pentecostal or charismatics) will have you believe--nowhere are we commanded or exhorted to seek the "baptism" of the Spirit. "We are all baptized into one body by the Spirit" (cf. 1 Cor. 12:13). There is one Lord, one faith, and only one baptism according to Eph. 4:4! Soli Deo Gloria!

How Does God Give More Grace?...

“But He gives more grace…”

John Bunyan wrote Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners to tell his testimony of salvation. Paul also saw himself as the "chief of sinners." It is true that the more sin, the more grace from God's abundance and bountiful provision: "Where sin abounded, grace abounded all the more" (Rom. 5:20). We are great sinners and need a great Savior! Salvation goes to the unqualified, not those who see themselves as righteous. "No perfect people need apply" to God's church! James 4:6 tells of God granting more grace to the believer and how: "He opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble."

This is how it is in God's economy: the way up is down; we must humble ourselves to be exalted. Christianity is full of paradoxes like these: we must become empty to be filled; we must give to receive; we must love to be loved; we must serve to be served &c. God sees things in a different light than the natural man. The wisdom of the world is foolishness to God! The lesson on grace is that we are commanded to grow in it: "But grow in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ" (cf. 2 Pet. 3:18).

Notice that grace and knowledge are juxtaposed or linked in this verse! They go hand in hand and can be distinguished but not separated. God doesn't want us to remain ignorant but to grow in knowing Him; for this is eternal life--to know God and His Son Jesus whom He sent. To know Him is to love Him! But God frowns upon ignorance and puts a premium on knowledge and wisdom. One fault of Israel is that they had a "zeal for God, but not according to knowledge" (cf. Rom. 10:2).

Our hearts must be right before the Lord in our service not like Amaziah's who did what was right in the eyes of the Lord but not with a right heart (cf. 2 Chron. 25:2). We are only eligible for grace when our hearts are right before the Lord, for the Lord looks upon the heart and sees our motives (cf. 1 Sam. 16:7; Prov. 21:2). Then we are candidates for more grace! God is a God of grace and mercy and is good to all: to some in all ways, to some in few ways (cf. Psalm 145:9), but good to all nevertheless! No one will be able to accuse God of not being good! But some will realize that this isn't the whole equation for them--God is also just, holy, and righteous!

Some err in adding merit to grace, tradition to Scripture, the church to Christ, and works to faith! Salvation is by grace and not by merit or it wouldn't be grace, it would be justice and God would be obligated to save us; however, He is obligated to save no one! In grace, God gives us what we don't deserve, in mercy He withholds what we deserve.

Merit is the antithesis of grace and there is no place for merit in salvation--we cannot prepare ourselves for it or do any pre-salvation work; therefore, there is nothing for us to boast of before God. Grace is not only necessary for our salvation, but sufficient--it doesn't just facilitate it, but completes it and we don't deserve it, cannot earn it, cannot pay it back, and we cannot add to it! Therefore, grace is defined as the unmerited favor of God and one of the Five Only's of the Reformers was that salvation was sola gratia or by grace alone!

Our salvation is by grace all the way we are: called by grace; saved by grace; believing by grace; kept by grace; empowered by grace; delivered from sin by grace; sanctified by grace; and glorified by grace! God gets all the credit for our salvation. That's why Jonah 2:9 says, "Salvation is of the LORD," (not of us and the Lord nor us alone either)! If it were even partly by us, we'd blow it! When God is responsible for our salvation, it's by grace and cannot be taken away or forfeited, because it wasn't by merit in the first place. Soli Deo Gloria!

To Test The Spirits...

John warns us to test the spirits to know whether they are of God.  That is, preachers of the cults and all the false teachers distort the teaching of Christ (another spirit,  another gospel, another Jesus).   John says that if you do not abide in the doctrine of Christ you do not have the Father.  He also says we should preach Christ and Christ crucified.  The Lord Christ should be the center of our preaching need to focus on him or else an aside or leading towards Christ and leading up to him of course we're talking about Christ.  

If I know as we preach the gospel of Christ, which is Christ-centered, our doctrine is Christ-centered, not man-centered at all.  Man's not the measure of all things, God is.   John Stott said that Christianity is Christ; all else is circumference. In other words, it doesn't matter if you get Christ right it doesn't matter, what else you get wrong, and if you gett christ wrong, it also doesn't matter what else you get right.  What else if you get my drift, you must get that doctrine correct.  You will go to hell if you distort the teaching of Christ, this is heresy and will prevent you from being saved. They teach "another Jesus." 

Now there are ways to distort the teaching of Christ many teachers teach a false Christ or another Christ as Paul said.  We're not to welcome any other Christ and the one which we have received.   He is the God-man, fully God and fully man.   Not a mixture of the two but completely separate natures in one person.  He was not a humanized God.  He was not a deified man.  He didn't pretend to be God.  He didn't just act like God when he felt like it.  He didn't get godly powers once in a while to do miracles and disguise himself.  Christ fully made it clear that he is God in the flesh. He proved it through many miracles that a deity would do.  Some tell you maybe Jesus is a son of God.  What patronizing nonsense!  

But they use the same words but different dictionaries  Just beware of what they say.   And test things according to the scripture like the the Bereans who went to the scriptures to see whether these things were so.   In other words, the real God Jesus Christ invites us to scrutiny and to be noble and to search things out for ourselves not just take anybody's word for it. That's what happens in a cult people become slaves to a teacher and neglect the word and the teacher has power over them of persuasion.  That is ungodly and the people don't notice it because they aren't reading their Bibles or they're not literate in the Bible and familiar with sound doctrine.

Jesus said that he who was of the truth heard him.    And he was not the truth is not heard him.   We must test the spirits where they are of God and if you say not Jesus's Christ is not in the flesh you are not of God whether you're a preacher or whoever you think you are that is the litmus test of who Jesus is we must know Jesus.   

Most preachers preach what people want to hear according to their itching ears.   Just to get success or to grow the church but we have to preach Christ.   And what he commands is to preach to commit and to complete the great commission to disciples.  So they can know Christ and have a relationship with him, not a matter of knowing a creed but knowing a person is our goal.

Jesus did not just claim to speak for God did not say not quote any authority when he spoke or say I know the truth I've learned the truth I found out the truth he said he is the truth you needed out to see what he said he said well.   They say unto you but I say unto you in other words he spoke as no man ever spoke and claimed the authority of God himself when he was speaking on behalf of God. Jesus did not footnote his sermons in other words and illustrated them oftentimes with miracles or signs and wonders.

Yes, he spoke as one with authority and this is what shook up the Pharisees and the Sadducees because he dared to disagree with them they did not like his doctrine.    We must know the Spirit of Truth and the spirit of error and we can only know this by a thorough study of basic sound doctrine and knowledge of the word of God

It is a sign of the times that people are doubting the deity of Christ.   The early Christians were already believers who sometimes questioned the humanity of Christ now people claim he was just a man people thought was God and later deified him.   Or had he been some type of a legend that he was God is.

His disciples realized that upon the resurrection they did not hesitate in this teaching.  Anybody that has the Spirit of God is illuminated by God he has the anointing that he can tell the truth from error because he can understand the scriptures.  God opens his heart to believe.   

 I must add here in passing that it is a sign of the times that people are starting to wonder who Jesus Christ is.  The search for the historical Jesus as it were!  That it is a sign the times that people are starting to wonder who Jesus Christ is.  This is a pivot of the whole point of Christianity.  We must discover for ourselves who he is.  We must find from experience, revelation, and illumination to know Jesus Christ.  

That is the whole point of Christianity: God became a man for us and saved us from our sins.  But we just realized that it's possible even for the elect to be deceived and then in his last days, it's obvious those who are not grounded in the word of God are easily deceived.  So we must beware of the doctrines of the devil and anything strange being taught.   Doctrine may not be something that we've heard before but test all things and hold fast to that which is good.  The word of God is the litmus test.  "If they speak not according to this word it is because they have no light in them." Isaiah 8:20   Soli Deo Gloria!

Why Do We Possess Spiritual Gifts?..

Why do we possess spiritual gifts question? It is for the mutual edification of the body of Christ. For the building up of the body until Christ comes—that which is perfect comes. Then that which is imperfect, spiritual gifts, will pass away, and you will no longer need them. We possess spiritual gifts for the common good not for our own benefit only.

We are to seek greater gifts such as prophecy. That's why it says to let him who wills to speak, speak, let him who wills to prophesy, prophesy, and if anyone thinks he's a prophet, etcetera. We are not to despise prophesying. We are to think of each other as better than ourselves in other words, we respect the gift of others.

There are two errors in this: gift projection where we expect others to have our gifts or interpret others as having our gift. We also have gift envy when we wish we had another person's gift and are not satisfied with the one we have. The great error people have is that they think they don't have a gift.

We are to do something as the opportunity from God gives rise. In other words, we don't refuse to do something just because we don't have the gift because we don't know if God may use us in that gift or not even temporarily. The gifts and calling of God are without repentance God doesn't take back gifts for instance. If someone has been called into the ministry and falls into sin he may lose his ministry. Then he may be despised, defrocked, rejected, and lose opportunity.

But he still has that gift of preaching God could use them in other ways, maybe he would be a writer or start another ministry because he still has that gift. People think if you have tongues, you are mature or spiritual but that might be one of the least of gifts. It depends upon not how spiritual you are to exercise your gift. You can be carnal and speak in tongues. A person may only need to repent reviving one’s gift. Remember, gifts are given, fruits are grown, and talents are genetic.

Many people are guilty of neglecting the gifts they have. Paul says not to neglect the gift and use it to be faithful. To whom much is given much is required. In this respect, the hand could not say to the face, “I don't need you or the eye to the ear I don't need you,” we all need to tell her we all work together as one in the unity in Christ. We have many gifts but one Spirit. In other words, it doesn't matter what your gift is. It matters the Spirit that you use it in.

There is no greater gift than the fact that anybody can be faithful in the gift they have and receive a full reward. God does level the playing field here! We are to use the gifts when God opens the window of opportunity. That means the gift within us. We're not to neglect that gift but to be faithful to it so it grows and we mature in the gift.

Numbers 11:29 says, “Oh, that all the Lord's people were prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit upon them.” God says, “I will pour out my spirit on all men,” today is the opportunity to have a chance to be used by God, not just the priest, not just an elite spiritual person but by anybody. We are told the Spirit in the Old Testament the Spirit was not yet given. But today we all could be filled with the Spirit and the Spirit falls in all we hear the word of God in faith. All who obey the Lord have received the Spirit—Acts 5:32.

Remember, we are gifted according to what the Holy Spirit wills (1 Cor.12:11), not how we will and can speak as the Lord leads. We are not lacking any spiritual gifts. Remember, the Spirit is like a down payment of our salvation and bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God (Rom. 8:16) this is a bonus we have the Spirit the Old Testament saints did not with few exceptions. Thus whoever renders service, whosoever speaks, whosoever prophesies can do to the glory of God, Soli Deo Gloria!

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What Is God's Work? ...

 The disciples asked Jesus (cf. John 6:28-29) what work we must do to inherit eternal life and Jesus said, "This is the work of God that you believe in his Son."   What we're saying here is that Jesus meant that there's nothing we can do to earn salvation, there's no work that guarantees salvation or brings it about in other words.   We must receive salvation, not achieve salvation.  What happens is that God works faith in our hearts and it causes us to believe and to become born again and belief is the sign that we belong to God.  It is not something we do to get saved, rather we are saved because we believe, in other words, you might say God ordains us to believe.  We are not ordained because we believe there's a big difference we are not saved by works we are ordained to believe. 

If you call faith of work, you're saying also that we're saved by works and works include merit and that would be merit-based salvation.  In other words, works and grace are antithetical.   They cannot be in the same reality effectuating the same conclusion.  God opens your heart to believe and he knows where we are spiritually and can do that because he made our hearts, he understands our hearts.  God looks at the motives that's why you cannot tell us a certain prayer that is effectual for all salvation.  Our hearts seek God because God sees a heart, not just the words it one says.  There's no preset or prefabricated prayer for salvation that one could say guarantees salvation.  And it's also no work that we can do that guarantees salvation.  

The work of God as Jesus said is to believe in Jesus but this is not our work it is God's work he has recognized that God's works are faith in us.   We do not conjure up faith on our own it is a gift of God and his work.   We are not judged by our faith because I'll be judging by something God gave us, we are judged by what we do with the faith that God gave us, in other words, the fruit that we bear in God's name or the works that we accomplished through the Spirit in his name some people have great faith and they do no works as a follow-up.  They do not follow through with their faith. Unbelievers are judged by their deeds whether good or evil.  

 There's a difference between confessional faith and functional faith and what we do with it  You must turn our faith into deeds or our creed into deeds and make it real a living faith that grows in relationship to relationship.   They're not stagnant when a person has faith in God.   Faith goes from faith to faith and from glory to glory from grace to grace.  He gives more grace as our faith becomes strong and we grow in Christ and mature in Christ.

We must recognize that God desires to work faith in everybody but some people are resistant some people are blind and some people are hardened.  In fact, all this was before we were saved.  If God did not decide to work salvation and faith in some people, all of us would be lost.   God has to call us to salvation and open our hearts and everyone that God calls gets saved.  This is called the inward call of God and brings people to salvation but preaching the gospel is the outward call of God and goes to everyone not just the elect. God's working with us is a regeneration and a sanctification and a justification, glorification, things God works in us we do not work on our own. Soli Deo Gloria!

How Can A Christian Measure The Soul Of A Church?...

How can a Christian measure the soul of a church?

Karl W. Broberg

Former Bible Lecturer at Churches (2008–2018)Just now

There is an ambiance to every church body that reveals the health and well-being of the body. The culture is the sum total of the individual attitudes and parts--the sum of the whole being greater than the sum of the individual parts separately--church bodies are organisms working together as a team and must be cooperative, not competitive. (It's a team effort and not a one-man band!)

We are not to engage in the "let's compare" game. The church has five distinct purposes or reasons for existence: corporate and public worship as a unified body in Christ in the Spirit and in truth, fellowship in the sphere and orbits of family and friends in the body including attendees, discipleship of all believers, ministry to the church body and members or congregants, evangelism, outreach and mission to the lost.

Note that we all are to be engaged in each function and not to assume the clergy has sole responsibility. A mission is our work in the world to the lost--our outreach to the world at large, making Christ known. Our ministry is to each other as we exercise our spiritual gifts in the body, every body part being essential to healthy growth. They separate gifts in the church work for a common mission and ministry in unity and being one in the Spirit.

We don't just attend church to be social or to get a spiritual high or lift. We share how the Lord works in our lives and get a regular spiritual workout or checkup. We need to periodically examine ourselves as can be done more appropriately in the company of fellow believers. We should enjoy our church family and even feel part of it as much as our biological one. We must realize our responsibilities to the body and be faithful in attending for the sake of those that may need our ministry and we are connected with. We ought to realize that if we really belong, we will be missed when absent.

The mature believer and congregant has realized his role in the body and finds fulfillment in reaching out of his comfort zone to bring life to the church. The meeting of the church is not a social function, but it is a family and one ought to feel like when what they say, "When you're here, you're family!"

We should all feel at home and free to express ourselves just like the expression WYSIWYG or what you see is what you get! We ought to feel free to be our real spiritual selves in the church and to see God at work in the sanctuary. It is everyone's job description as it were to disciple newborn believers and to make them feel at home and welcome in the body.

Fellowship is vital to growth and there is a difference between fellowship and small talk or exchanging pleasantries and niceties. We don't go to church to talk sports or the weather--you can do this anywhere. We must realize our duty to minister and be interested in how our friends and church family are doing spiritually in life. When we minister, we may share how God is working in our lives and may find commonalities and opportunities to meet needs. We are all accountable to each other and must accept each other despite our personal flaws--making allowance for our faults.

Many Lone Ranger believers who are really going rogue believe they can worship God on their own and don't need to do it corporately! However, the Spirit is present in the body in a special way and we ought to contribute to the needs of the saints and do our part in the body. They may say they can worship in the cornfield, but do they? We must realize that we really do need each other and no one is an island or rock or has all the gifts to shine his light apart from being connected.

We know we are becoming mature when we enjoy our fivefold purpose: worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry, and mission. We rejoice in that God considers us worthy vessels of honor and uses us for His glory. The more dependent we are on the body the more we are contributing because we are humbled and realize the importance of each body part and cannot stand alone spiritually no matter how gifted we are--we need each other!

Who are we that God should use us for His glory; He created us for this very purpose: to bring Himself glory through our salvation from sin and evil. It is only in the contrast of evil that we behold and contemplate or apprehend the good; man has become like God in the sense that he is capable of knowing good and evil, but this is only realized in a mature believer who can discern (cf. Heb. 5:13-14).

The committed Christian has a great commitment to the Great Commandment and the Great Commission! The ultimate purpose of the body is to fulfill this and bring it to the message and Word to the world. A successful church isn't measured by its body count or membership roles, but by the spiritual health of its congregants--we don't need to worship in a crowd, but in a family that can interact and knows each other!

In conclusion, the parachurch cannot fulfill the mission statement of the church and in the final analysis, the raison d'etre (the reason for existence) is to know the Lord and to make Him known to a lost world. Anything less must be seen as falling short and not measuring up to keeping the main thing the main thing.

In the final analysis, the church is not a crowd or an organization--both of which we see many churches becoming today--but it's an interactive and growing body or organism that grows spiritually together, is interdependent, and reaches out with a mission bigger than itself--without vision, the people will perish says Proverbs 29:18!

The church with real soul is the one obeying the marching orders of Christ expecting the Second Coming, keeping the main thing the main thing--preaching the Word, namely the gospel; which involves all five functions of the corporate body: worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry, and mission. We ought never to lose sight of what our mission statement is; knowing that even to have a mission statement is to have a vision of completing the Great Commission which implies that we not only know the Lord but make Him known by our public testimony and reputation to the community at large that is our common orbit.

It is only then that we can say we have a soul as a church--not just because the seeker likes us (stressing seeker-sensitivity or consumer-driven policy) or that we just have great preaching or music (which can be selling points but we don't want to get off track and lose focus of our vision), etc.

The church must coordinate all the gifts and realize that everyone has something to contribute to a body of happy, growing, and healthy members. We must not seek to be everything to everyone or please everyone and ending up being nothing of significance to everyone, going nowhere. Soli Deo Gloria!

Is Everything Vanity?...

 They say there are two important days in your life: the day you are born and the day you find out why you were born. It is certainly important to find out the meaning of life. That is where philosophy or religion come into play.   Science cannot help you here. Science is know-how, not know-how!  Solomon was very wise. He tried to find many ways to put meaning and purpose into life.   Solomon did not search the scripture to find the meaning in life. In other words, he tried all the various philosophies that were available at the time. "The world by wisdom did not find God." (1 Cor. 1:21).

But what he ultimately found out is that without God in the equation, life is meaningless. Unless you assume a God. The question of life's purpose is pointless. Solomon said, for instance, that. life under the sun is ultimately vanity. Everything is vanity under the sun without God in your metric.   In other words,  perplexity, confusion, uselessness, meaninglessness, and purposelessness. In other words, you might as well be a nihilist without any purpose in life other than to exist. And some people do that. They don't live, they exist. 

Our life is not just meant to be a temporary thing. We are here on a pilgrimage toward heaven and must prepare for our ultimate destination. Life under the Son of God is full of purpose and meaning. On the contrary, to that life under the sun in the universe. The point is that life is unfair. Life seems to have no foundations. Life is tough and hard to get through sometimes. Sometimes it seems like the survival of the fittest, the law of the jungle, or whatever. Only the tough survive in this dog-eat-dog world. But we must realize that we can make it through with God and control.

What's the point? The point is that, if you know Christ, then you know life. You have died and our life is hidden with Christ in God.  If there is no Christ at all in your life, then there is no life at all without Christ either. In other words, you must not only find yourself, you must find God. You cannot find purpose and meaning on your own. You must look for something bigger than yourself in this life and look for something to live for that is bigger than you. 

We all have our happy place. And that is important to find in our comfort zone. Sometimes we must step outside of it or outside the box to see what God has to offer our lives. And take that leap of faith and be willing to go alone in step by step following God, where he wants us to go. I want to constantly. We have in life that God is with us. He will never forsake us or leave us. He will bless us give us direction and bless us where we are planted. If we trusted him.

A wise person will fear God.  Fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. Fear of God does not mean that he is afraid of God. he respects God and shows God shows reverence and respect and worships God putting him into the equation and also taking him seriously.

Define a big purpose in life. We don't need big faith as much as we need a big God. It's not how big your faith is, or whether it has doubts or not, but whether or how big your God is, whether your God is capable of doing miracles and working miracles in your life. Do you believe in the right God? That's the point right there. And you must apply the wisdom that God gives you. It is not something to store up in your head to be smart and smarter than everybody else but to apply and make yourself a practicing believer. 

We must practice our creed and put into practice what we believe. Turn our creeds into deeds. We realize that the wisdom of the world is foolishness to God and the world by wisdom did not find God.  We must learn to seek God in faith and believe that he is. And we will find him. He promises that. there is a reward for all those who seek God and find him. God will bless us beyond our expectations. We must expect great things from God because he will. bring and break. and the great things because. when we attempt great things for God, he will bring them to bout to be.

We must realize that the unexamined life is not really worth living, as Socrates said.  We have to come to the end of ourselves, as even Solomon must have, to realize that we have to find God to find what life is about. It's all about finding God in summation, or fearing God, saying, God, same thing. You cannot do one thought the other. We must realize our place in God's scheme of things, and realize the understanding of the world in a Christian worldview. Seeing things as God would have them see the big picture, so to speak. 

Sometimes we learn these lessons very hard, and we must go through the hard school of hard knocks. But Solomon sums it all up here saying that we must and we realize the blessings of God that he gives us and fear of God and do our duty and utilize these blessings for God's glory. The words are to be a blessing in return. We are here to be a blessing. In other words, to be God's blessing to the world.  

We must realize that it will all be worth it in the end, when we have God with us.   This life seems short but the things that we do have an effect that vibrates for eternity. In our life, singing a song of chord that is a melody heard for eternity. But the journey with God is wonderful and we are not alone. We are on a pilgrimage with Jesus as our guide. Nothing is in vain for the Christian. God works all things together for the good, even evil. God has a good purpose in the long term. Soli Deo Gloria!

Whatever Became of Sin? ...

Preaching on sin has become taboo among many pulpits and modern-day megachurches because it is a killjoy word that discourages people and makes them realize they are guilty before God and must sue God for mercy. It makes some realize they cannot save themselves they are less righteous than they thought they were and they're getting knocked out of their their comfort zone. Yes, preaching on sin is very unpopular and a pastor takes a great chance in doing it because there may be deacons or elders who are guilty and many members might even believe they are offended.


So what is a sin? When we do that God would not do anything that does not bring glory to God or brings him shame and dishonor anything that falls short of God's perfect standard and put self above God. When it failed to do what we should have done as well as violate what we were commanded not to do. It is our virus inherited from Adam as our birthright and Declaration of Independence from God and shows our solidarity with Adam and slavery to sin.

I dare say that the preacher was godly and preached on sin simply because you must get them lost before they can get saved. This is the first step to receiving salvation; we all start here humbling ourselves to God realizing that the way up is down! We must get down on our knees and acknowledge the Lordship of Christ who gave himself in our stead for our sins. When we realize our feet of clay or hidden faults are exposed to God it makes us know we are mere sinners who are lost without God’s mercy and grace. We are halfway there to being close to the kingdom of God! We must realize we are not good enough to be saved but bad enough to need salvation!

One must become aware of sin as the first step in salvation jesus came to save sinners and to seek and to save those who were lost. As long as we are comfortable with who we are. We think we are righteous in our own right we cannot be saved we must throw away our own self-righteousness and self-esteem and realize that we need God to steam in God's righteousness. Our righteousness is not our gift to God but his gift to us we must give all of God all the glory for everything we get none we are recipients of the glory of God and the mercy and grace of God we share his glory and reflect his glory it is not ours.

The mission of the Gospel is the number one priority among preachers and is really the basic thing we preach because fulfilling the Great Commission is our goal as job number one. Anything else is a commentary on that. We are not only to preach the gospel and save people and get them born again but to disciple them and get them to mature so that they can help others receive Christ and find God. You must mature to become Christ-like until actually Christ is formed in us and people see Christ in us as we do good works that glorify God but we must be zealous of good works and choke worth the fruit of our salvation to prove our faith which cannot be seen without works.

Jesus' name is called Jesus because he shall save his people from their sins. Jesus' name means Jehovah saves or God saves in short. What he saves is souls He is in the resurrection business of changing lives! He says that he saves us from sin, Satan, death, and even ourselves. We are our own worst enemy we met the enemy and he is us as I say. We should never point the finger or play the blame game we are guilty of our own sins and God only punishes us for our sins not for other people's sins the soul that sins is the one that dies. We have looked inside our hearts and found out that we are not that pretty we have a lot to hide from. We all have a dark side a show nobody this is what must be exposed by God only the Holy Spirit can convict us of sin.

We can preach with the Bible says, but God is the one who does the work to open the heart and change the heart. We do not want our faith to rest upon the wisdom of men but in the power of God the power of the Gospel has the power to change lives we must put faith in it and preach it. Repentance is not therefore just a change of opinions but a change of the heart, mind, and soul, and everything about us must be changed not just our opinions and our attitude and we must show forth the fruits of our repentance to prove it is genuine.

In fact, there is no genuine repentance without saving faith they go together hand in hand that's why we call them penitent faith or believe in repentance--they're both gifts of God and need God to work in our hearts to accomplish. There is not a word to replace sin it is a dirty word even to God and the call by any other name does it injustice. If we called the poison essence of Peppermint it would be even more dangerous because people would be all the more deceived in other words we must call a spade a spade. We must call people's sins by name, confront them from the pulpit rhetorically, and call them out on their sins even the comfortable ones that they're with the ones that their pet sins, the ones they do not want to change.

The sins that so easily overcome us and trip us up! They could easily live to rationalize or justify themselves. We all tend to justify ourselves and we need to be reminded of these sins. It's not always the big deadly sins that we are guilty of but sometimes these little sins that we are accepted by society and are the real ones that judge us in our character. When you hear the word of God preached, there is the conviction the Holy Spirit is at work opening hearts even if you are a born-again believer. God never stops convicting you of sin and bringing you to faith this is an ongoing resolution and work of God. We never stop repenting of our sins, it is not a one-time act of salvation but renewed every time we get convicted of our sins. Serving one in the Spirit with Heidi Broberg, Soli Deo Gloria!

Do You Have The Power To Change? ...

All the days of my heart service I will wait for my renewal to come Job 14: 14

Apart from  Me, you can do nothing  John 15:5

Behold now is the day of salvation 2 Cor. 6:2

Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from the body of this death? Romans 7:24

Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature old things have passed away behold all things have become new. 2 Cor. 5:17

God is at  work  within  you both  to will and to do of his good  pleasure  Phil. 2:13

I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection Philippians 3:10

All of us, if we are sincere and look at ourselves inwardly and evaluate and appraise our own lives, will realize there's room for improvement hopefully and thankfully God is not finished with us yet and we are his works in progress. We should not be discouraged if we sin because we are considered saints with the power to overcome and cannot be and should not be slaves to sin anymore. We're not subject to that power anymore as Christians we are dead to sin.

No, when you become a Christian you leave your past behind you are renewed from within with a change that's taking place from the inside out. You have changed hitching posts, as it were, with Christ in charge. Now you'd say goodbye to your old man and put the new man of Christ inside you you're a new creature in Christ as Paul says and all things are new. People usually hate change because we're creatures of habit but this change that we're talking about comes through God who changes us. We don't change ourselves but we come to God as we are and we do not remain that way but he makes us new creatures and new persons. We cannot do this ourselves because it is a miracle of God by God through the Holy Spirit.

We do not simply make a New Year's resolution or take an AA pledge or turnaround or about-face or a 180-degree turn of our own power. God grants repentance (2 Tim. 2:25) to us that is plain in the scriptures he changes us from within from the inside out you might say when will you pant this is not a one-time thing it's an ongoing resolution a continuing resolution. We renew our repentance daily as we are convicted of our sins. Paul said what do how do I escape this how do I escape the power of this death he was referring to his old nature the sin inside of him our birthright from Adam.

If you try to change yourself, you're just chasing the wind. You will never be able to change your personality, demeanor, or disposition because you're born this way in sin. Only God can change you. Self-help is no help at all you must realize that you are at God's mercy he can change you and make you what you cannot do yourself if you have faith. Your future is in his hands (Psalm 31:15).

You must be ready to change when God calls you and be willing to leave your comfort zone even though we resist change by nature because we are creatures of habit. As I said. if we stay as we are we have a sure ticket to hell which is the default destination of all mankind unless we do something to repent. When you come to Jesus he will set you free you are a slave until you know Jesus you are not free you know the Son shall set you free you shall be free indeed.

Then we become dead to sin and sin has no more control over us. We cannot change our spots or our skins as it says in the Bible. (Jer. 13:23) We cannot do this on our own but God can as he does miracles because he is in the business of changing life still and resurrecting us from the dead.

We cannot clean up our acts we tend to live like the world unless we do something about it and let God change us we must give God all the glory we did not do this God did we not lower our standards or lower the bar to become Christian. There's a high standard to reach and only through Christ can we do it we must realize that we are no better than any other sinner. We are all in the same boat. God levels the playing field and we cannot look down on somebody but we must say: There but for the grace of God go I.

As Paul said: I am what I am but by the grace of God. He wants me to get saved we must not look like a sinner anymore we must show forth the fruit of our salvation walking worthy of the Lord and say goodbye to our former lives. But it all boils down not to whether you think you can change your life but whether you want to change and whether you believe God can change you is not how big your face is but how big your god is that matters.

By definition, repentance is not turning over a new leaf, changing your opinions about your sins, or improving your life rather a better but a radical change in your heart, mind, and will to become a new person with a new life all from within due to God's power in your life all done by the power and grace of God. Such were some of you (1 Cor. 6:11): as sinners, Paul said even those who are drunkards, murderers, thieves, and homosexuals God changed them, they did not change themselves.

We must not eat, drink, be merry, and look for today only in the light of one day at a time but must live in the light of eternity and realize that God has a purpose for our lives and we must realize that God has a plan for our lives also and will fulfill it. We are here to do God's will, not our own, not what's right in our eyes but what's right in God's eyes. Newsflash! We're all sinners, yes there comes a time when we stop rationalizing our sins and justifying ourselves and let God convict us. Then confess and repent.

Repentance, by the way, is the flip side of faith that goes together hand in hand. That's why theologians refer to believing repentance or penitent faith they are linked and just juxtaposition in the scriptures. We all fall short of God's glory but in Christ, we can go from faith to faith from glory to glory, and become like Christ or Christlike as they say. Our past is forgiven and canceled! Our present is given meaning. Our future is secured! What more could we hope for?

Remember you were made in God's image. You're made to become like Christ and bring glory to God which is our purpose in our life God created. Humanity is to bring him glory (Isaiah 43:7). God did not create you just to make you so you could find your plans and purposes and happiness but that you would find a way to glorify God and give him glory, not yourself. That's why we're saved by grace so we cannot both in God's presence become proud. So that we do not think that we did it, not God. Man is incurably addicted to doing something for salvation. Faith is not a work but it is a gift. If it were a work, then we'd be saved by works. It is not a work but it is a gift to God. "This is the work of God that we believe in Jesus Christ" (John 6:39). He grants faith in repentance (Phil 1:29; 2 Tim. 2:25) unto us is a privilege to believe and he works in us according to his power to make us believe in him and to do his will.

To get saved you must first realize you are lost! The preacher must do his job and get the congregation lost first and make them realize their need for God most people say they don't see the need for God. They see that their life is going pretty well like they have their act together and things are going prosperous for them and they think only so-called sinners need God. But this is not true! Their sin may be something like pride, greed, lust, or gluttony.

Some people have hatred in their minds and if you do not love it means you do not know God. So the job of the preacher is to make sure that his flock realizes they are sinners first before offering the good news of how to be saved from the sin. In the final analysis, it's not how hard we try but whether we trust and how big our God is! Serving one in the Spirit with Heidi Broberg, Soli Deo Gloria!