All posts tagged: church

You are being build into a Spiritual House

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Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 2:4-5 God is on a mission. Through the hands of the master carpenter he is building a temple. Only this time a spiritual power house. As we draw new to Him, our foundation is the chief cornerstone – Jesus himself. I love the way C. S. Lewis describes it in mere christianity: Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth …

Holy Worldliness

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The church has a double calling: on the one hand to live in the world, and on the other not to conform to the world. The first is a call to worldliness, as opposed to other worldliness—getting involved in the life of the world around us. The second calling is the call to holiness. We have no liberty to respond to one call without the other. Indeed, we may neither preserve our holiness by escaping from the world, nor may we sacrifice our holiness by conforming to the world. Escapism, on the one hand, and conformism, on the other, are equally forbidden to Christian men and women. Instead we are to combine both callings to involvement and to separation. We are to develop what Dr. Alec Vidler, an Anglican scholar of the former generation, in his book “Essays in Liberality called “holy worldliness.” Ezekiel 11:12? “You have not followed my decrees. You have not kept my laws. But you have conformed to the standards of the nations around you.” 2 Kings 17:15: “They imitated the …

7 Habits of Highly Effective Leaders

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Charles Nobles once said, “first we make our habits, then our habits make us.” We are what we repeatedly do. And if we ever want excellence in our lives, we need to remember that it “is not an act, but a habit.” Some habits are good, others very bad and still some are of no value or eternal significance. However, to effectively impact the people around us and leave a lasting impression, we must develop good habits and do everything in our power to unlearn bad ones. The following are habits of highly effective leaders: Where the Lord leads, they follow It is laughable to think that one can lead effectively without he being led. You may be the head of your home, the head of your church or the head of your company, but God is the head of you. A highly effective leader is humble enough to recognize and submit to the leading of the Lord. A leader who follows God where ever He leads, is bound to succeed. It was Benjamin Franklin …

How to resist and defeat Cultural Pressures

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We are exposed on every side to cultural pressures. Between the two temptations of escapism and conformism, the latter is more common—that is, accommodation to the prevailing culture. We are exposed to cultural pressures incompatible with the Lordship of Jesus Christ, which, nevertheless, are demanding from us a capitulation that we are not prepared to give. And if we do capitulate to the pressures of society around us, then we compromise our integrity, we blunt our testimony, and we suffocate our spiritual life. What are the pressures of our culture to which we are forbidden to conform? What are the contemporary trends which threaten to envelop and engulf the church and against which we need to be on guard? I have selected three. I’m sure there are many more we could discuss, but these three are very important. First there is the challenge of pluralism: the church is called to be a community of truth. Second there is the challenge of materialism: the church is called to be a community of pilgrimage. Third there is the challenge of moral relativism: the …

An Evening Prayer

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Dear Lord I am waiting in a silent prayer I am frightened by the load I bear I am aware that this world can be cold and cruel I am afraid, cuz sometimes this path can be very lonely Please hear these words of mine: Be with me now, hold me together, Be forever near me, lighten my darkness, Pour over me Your holiness

Jesus Paid it all! In case you forgot

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Jesus Paid it all! In case you forgot! Thy Strength indeed is small Find in Him thine all in all Rest from all thine striving Cease from all thine trying Nothing can thy do to save thine soul Salvation is free – paid in full Praise the One who paid your debt Jesus paid it all don’t ye ever forget Written by Walter Bright

It is finished: Shout heaven and earth, this Sum of good to Man

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When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit John 19:30 It is finished! I have executed the great designs of the Almighty When God made man and put in him a free will, all the angels thought He was out of His mind. He had a plan. A plan, from the foundation of the earth, to reconcile the world through Jesus His Son. He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be Holy and blameless before Him (Eph. 1:4). That plan was accomplished today, 2000 years ago. I have satisfied the demands of his justice God is holy and just. His nature demands justice. The wages of sin is death and somebody had to pay for our rebellion. Jesus answered that call. The LORD was “pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would give Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper …

Pastors in the order of Antiochus Epiphanes

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I would hate for this little post to come across as another pastor bashing other pastors. So I hope you will take this post as just notes of a pastor who is trying to avoid the mistakes of a historical figure and at the same time sounding the alarm for others to avoid as well. This historically, scriptural figure, Antiochus Epiphanes, is the little horn in Daniel 8:9. The name Epiphanes means the Illustrious One and the prophecies of Antiochus Epiphanes you can find in Daniel (Dan. 8:9-14; 23-25; 11:21-35). I am going to take or use different episodes or events in his life to urge myself and others to avoid. Here we go – Pastors in the order of Antiochus Epiphanes: 1. They forget where you came from… Antiochus grew to become a great power from a small beginning. Notice that the little horn of Daniel 7:8; 8:9 waxed exceedingly great, toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the pleasant land. And it waxed great even to the host of heaven (Dan. 8:9-10a). Unfortunately, he forgot where he came from. Pastors in …