Category: The Church

The Missing Church – part 1

Much of what we consider to be church today is actually a waste of time.  We go through our religious routines and do our spiritual duties once a week and continue on with our lives as though nothing has happened.  God, it seems, has no room in our lives except to an hour or two on a Sunday.  Or maybe we have a small “quiet time” and pray our list and read a couple chapters in our bibles and consider our duty to God has been fulfilled.  And yet this is not what Christianity was to be about.

Christianity, according to scripture is supposed to make a difference in our lives.  1 Peter 2:9 “tell others of the night-and-day difference he made for you—from nothing to something, from rejected to accepted”  If Christianity hasn’t made a major difference in your life that others can see, then we need to re-evaluate our faith.   People look at us who call ourselves Christians and see no difference between their lives and ours.  Statistically we have the same habits, spend our time in the same pursuits, watch the same movies and television.  In fact statistically the only difference we have as Christians from those outside our faith is that our divorce rate is much higher.  And we wonder why people don’t want what we have.  I don’t wonder.  There are some days where I look at what the church has become that I don’t want it either.  We are a long way from what God designed and planned us to be.

God’s plan for the church is for us to not be a natural church, but for us to be a supernatural church.   We were meant to have the power of God flowing in and through us on a daily basis.  If you visit different churchs from various denominations around North America, you would find little differences, other than maybe styles of music and teaching.  And it wouldn’t matter what faith you visited.  And yet Christianity is supposed to know God’s presence and it is very lacking in our services and lives.  But if we were to visit many churches in many third world and developing nations, you would experience God in them.  God’s presence if so real it is almost tangible for them.   Daily miracles and healings are documented, and not documented by the churches, but by medical science and those outside the church.  People are seeing who have never seen before.  People are hearing and walking and talking.  People are even being raised from the dead.  And the church in North America which calls itself by the same God is barren and quiet.  God seems to be absent.  Why is this so?  I think there are 3 reasons

  • We don’t understand the Christian Cause
  • We don’t understand what Christianity Costs
  • We don’t understand how Christianity is Communicated

We don’t understand the Christian Cause;

            Christianity is not about going to church.  Nor is it about confirmation and communion or all the other rituals we attribute to our faith.   So if Christianity is non of the things we attribute it to, what is it really?  Lets start at the beginning.

Christianity is about our need for a Saviour.  We have missed out on the plan that God had for us.  The bible states that we have missed the standard that God requires of us.  God’s standard to be in heaven is absolute moral perfection. “Be holy even as I am holy” the bible says, and “Without holiness noone can see God”.   We all know what it is to tell a lie, or to steal.  We say but these are such minor issues.  I have never murdered anyone, or commited adultery.  But these are areas where we have fallen short of God’s standard.  And if we look at scripture we have all murdered and commited adultery.  The bible says that if we have hated someone it is the same in God’s eyes as commiting murder, and if we have lusted after someone we are not married to we have commited adultery, so we have fallen short and missed the mark that is God’s standard.  And the cost of missing the mark is that we are and remain separated from God, and as a result of that separation are condemned to an eternity in hell.   “But” you would say “if God is so loving how can He send me to hell?”  But the cause of us being in hell isn’t God’s fault, it is ours.  Asking how God can send me to hell is the same as shooting someone and then asking the judge how he can send you to jail, and in some places death row.  Hell is a result of our actions not God’s.  Then you state that you have been a good person and have helped the poor and done so many good things so then you should be able to go to heaven.  Unfortunately, compared to God’s holiness, our attempts at good deeds are about as nice as a bin of old oily rags.  They simply don’t measure up.  Nothing we can do can cause us to measure up to God’s standard.

So what can we do?  Well scriptures say that God loved us so much that He sent His Son to pay our penalty and allow us access to Him once again.  Because of Jesus the separation between God and us can be broken.  Jesus came into the world not to condemn the world but so that through Him the world could be saved.  He came to save us from eternity in hell and offer us eternal life.

Christianity is about eternal life.  But what is eternal life?   Christianity is not about living forever.  Every person concieved lives forever, which is why abortion is such a horrible thing to God.  So if eternal life is not living forever what is it?  The bible states what eternal life is.  John 17:3 states “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”  The word KNOW in the greek literally means to be intimate with.  Eternal life is simply and deep and intimate relationship with God.  Nothing more and nothing less.  This is why Christianity is so life changing.  When you get close to God you cannot help but change.  We have made Christianity so complicated and so full of rules and regulations and we have totally missed what it is about.  Simply a relationship with The One who created you and loves you so deeply that He sacrificed Himself to pay your penalty so that your could come to know Him deeply and intimately and enjoy each others company for eternity.  If we can come to God on those terms we can have that relationship with Him.  It is about asking Him to forgive us for missing the mark and allowing Him to change us and bring us into relationship with Him.

In my next posts I will continue my thoughts and share about what Christianity Costs and Communicating our faith.

Worship?

In many services around the globe people participated in some form of “worship” service. And yet many of us never give a moments thought to why we worship or why we worship the way we do. It never enters our minds. We simply do what we have always done. But what is worship and why do we worship?

Much of what we consider worship isn’t worship at all. More and more I am convinced that our worship has the same value to our lives as a campfire sing along where we sing kumbaya. We get together for service and sing together, whatever form it takes, be it a choir, or congregational, hymns or choruses. It makes no difference because for the most part it ends up with the same result.

We need to ask ourselves what is worship and why do we. Because worship is less about the music style and more about the audience. We can fight forever arguing our personal bias about music style. In fact Charles Spurgeon dubbed the music department the war department. And for good reason. Churches to this day fight over music styles. But the style of music really has nothing to do with worship.

We decide whether we participate in worship based upon our feelings and what is going on around us. We get involved because the music moves us, or the music leader sets a mood that agrees with us. We determine our level of activity based on circumstances that really have nothing to do with worship. And yet worship has nothing to do with us at all.

Worship also has little to do with singing together in church. Worship involves a total lifestyle, and many of us come to our worship service and think we have done our part and can go back to real life. We tend to over look the life part of worship. And worship has more to do with our life than it has to do with a service and our participation in it.

Take for instance our sharing our faith. This is an act of worship. And one that gets ignored consistently. But if we truly love someone, they come up in conversation regularly. If someone touches our lives and impacts us we are proud to declare it to those around us. I talk about my wife with anyone I can. She is wonderful and has enriched my life greatly. But the same cannot be said about my Saviour. When you get a great deal on something you purchase, or someone does you a good turn we are happy to send our friends and family to do the same. We are giving a value to those people. And worship is all about giving value to someone. Worship has often been called “Worth-ship”. We ascribe worth to God when we worship Him. And yet we never talk about Him with others, and so our worship has little meaning.

We get together on Sunday for our “worship service” and never think about the one the service is for. We fight over music style and participate when we feel like it. And yet worship is never about us. Worship is about the one being worshipped. Is the God we worship worthy of worship and honour? My bible states that God is worthy of all honour, glory and praise. And yet we give him very little. Worship by nature not only involves our life, but it has to cost us something. If all we bring is our weekly duty then we bring Him nothing and again our worship has little meaning. What has your worship cost you? It cost Jesus everything so that you could be here to worship. And yet we offer so little in return. For us to give value to God it by nature has to cost us something. A gift that costs little has very little value.

We have turned worship away from the one that it was intended for and made it about ourselves. Our preferences and what we are getting out of it. You can see that in most of the music that comes out of the church and Christian artists today. The music talks about the benefit to me. And yet the music is supposed to be about who God is. Worship is supposed to be an opportunity to adore the one we serve and to proclaim His nature. If all you do is sing about the blessings of God when do you start to adore Him. I cannot adore my wife to someone else. I can share about how good she is or about what she has done for me, but I can only adore my wife to my wife. And much of our music is about God and what He has done for us, and what He has given us, and how He has set us free, and how He has blessed us. When do we simply adore Him, and not adore Him for what He has done, but simply for who He is.

God by nature is worth our praise and worship. He, simply for who He is, is worthy of our adoration. Simply because He is God and we are the work of His hands makes Him worthy. And yet there is so much more to God than that. He displays His greatness in the world around us. We are all fearfully and wonderfully made. All of our science cannot begin to describe all that goes on in the human body, nor can we copy it. God displays His majesty in the stars and heavens. All that we see when we look at the sunrise, and the stars at night He spoke into being. He said let it be and it was. And the millions upon billions of stars that are in the universe the bible states that He knows each one by name. And He keeps everything in motion working the way it was designed by the power of His word, and yet He takes time to desire to know each of us personally. He knows us so well that the scripture states He knows how many hair we have on our heads. His love for us is diplayed on Calvary where He shed His blood and died for you and I, that we could have a personal, indepth, dynamic and incredible one on one relationship with Him. And we ignore all that and we make worship about us, and how we feel.

Let me ask you one question. Is God worthy of worship, and is the worship you bring worthy of Him? You see congregational worship is a method to bring very different people together into unity to worship the creator of the universe and everything in it. And allow us to come together on one common thought and theme and join together in worship. And yet we make it about the music. You can worship the creator with a pair of spoons, and a simple song and have an incredible time with God. It has nothing to do with the music. We use music because it is the pattern set out for us in the scriptures, but the music was simply to be the means to an end, not the end in itself.

So as we begin a new week and end an old one lets begin to change our vantage point from ourselves to the One our worship is to be focused on. God is always worthy of worship, no matter what is happening. I can worship God when I am up and when I am down. He doesn’t change. I can worship God with the same intensity when I am walking with Him, and when I have slipped into sin. He doesn’t change. I can worship Him when I am glad and when I am sad. I can worship Him when I have just had the worst fight ever with my wife, and when we couldn’t be getting along better. It has nothing to do with us, and everything to do with the One we are worshipping. If God were to arrive in our worship service, what do you think He would think? Is God worthy of worship, and is our worship worthy of our King?

A need for each other

Have you ever looked at the church today and wondered why people do not seem to be living up to the standards set in the bible?

I have looked at my life and the lives of others around me and have wondered this.  And I have been confronted recently with an insight that I think we can all benefit from.  When I look at the lives of people around me I am confronted by a fierce independence that we all seem to be proud of.  Myself included.  Our society has propagated the lone ranger mentality that you ride off into the sunset  after accomplishing some impossible thing, and the whole time you are functioning mostly alone.  We don’t seem to need anyone and if we do it is seen as a weakness and not a strength.  And yet scripture is full of truth that says we need each other.  There are 36 one another’s in scripture.  Some are

Be Devoted to One Another
Accept One Another
Bear With One Another
Forgive One Another
Honor One Another
Live in Harmony with One Another
Greet One Another
Serve One Another
Submit to One Another
Stop Judging One Another
Encourage One Another
Offer Hospitality to One Another
Be Humble Towards One Another

…and most importantly… LOVE ONE ANOTHER

Our ability to live a Christian life is determined by our ability to lean on and rely on one another.  There are no lone rangers in the Christian faith.   One verse in particular commands us to seek out a local church and become a member. Hebrews 10:25, “Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of some.

Our Christian life is all about relationship.  Our first and primary relationship is with our Saviour Jesus Christ.  John 3:16 says “The gift of God is eternal Life…”  we all know the verse, but John 17:3 says “This is eternal life..”,  the bible defines eternal life for us, “… That you may know God and Jesus Christ whom He sent.”   The word know is the same word know that Joseph did not know Mary until Jesus was born.  It entails intimacy and relationship.  The Christian faith is a love relationship with God the Father and Jesus Christ whom He sent, empowered by the Holy Spirit, as we cannot live this life without Him, and lived out in long-term committed relationships with other believers.  My pastor shares this truth all the time and it is one I love.  But yet we miss out on the long-term committed relationships.  We have difficulty letting go of our independence and living in relationships.  Something that leaves us very limited and unable to live the lives that God intends.   James 5:16 says “Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be cured.”  Those things in our lives that we are having difficulty overcoming can only be dealt with as we learn to lean first on Jesus, and then upon one another.  Until we discover how to I don’t think we will ever become all that we can be.