Light of the World and Salt of the Earth

I was reading recently that in an interview a twenty-eight-year-old Christian described what he thought is one reason Christians are not engaging and influencing the world as Jesus tells us to, you know light of the world, salt of the earth, is that many Christians are closed off from the world.
 
"We go to church on Wednesdays, Sundays, and sometimes on Saturdays. We attend small group on Tuesday night and serve on the Sunday school advisory board, the financial committee, and the welcoming committee. We go to barbeques with our Christian friends and plan group outings. We are closed off from the world. Even if we wanted to reach out to non-Christians, we don't have time and we don't know how. The only way we know how to reach out is to invite people to join in our Christian social circle."
 
How can we make time to let our light shine and are salt savor? Are we too busy?

Speaking of Involvement

Consider the rise of Christianity during the 1st century. People were drawn to christians, not because of evangelistic outreaches or crusades or mass media...those did not exist. The church grew because christians were doing the gospel and had a community--local congregation---where people loved each other.

 

During the great plagues that swept through Rome in the 2nd century, like Sherman through Atlanta,  the doctors ran for their lives but history records christians stayed and cared for the sick. They did what christians are called to do. Many christians died but the pagans they were helping were drawn to Jesus because they saw both the love of  christians and Christianity itself in new light.

 

What would we do today? Run or stay?  Why?

 

 

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Regards,
John Jenkins
865-803-8179  cell
Gatlinburg, TN

Email: jrjenki@gmail.com
Website: http://www.greenbriersolutions.com  
Blog: http://littlepigeon.blogspot.com/

Hokey Pokey Anonymous, a place to turn yourself around.

Examples?

I've been reading again.

 

Jesus said:

 

John 6:44 

"No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him."

 

And

 

John 14:6   

"I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." 

 

In his commentary, Matthew Henry explains the Father draws people when:

 

The discovery of their guilt, danger, and remedy, by the teaching of the Holy Spirit, makes men willing and glad to come, and to give up every thing which hinders applying to him for salvation.

 

Today people want to be immersed to join the church or to become a Christian or because they want a close relationship with the called out etc. It seems people are immersed today with different motives than what Matthew Henry suggests.

 

If, what appear to be Christians, never experience the feeling of being lost, unsaved, separated from the Father what motivates them to evangelize? Have they followed the examples in the book of Acts? Has the Father added them to the number being saved?

 

Can we fulfill a New Testament example for different reasons and get the same results as they did? If we are immersed to join the church have we received the forgiveness of our sins and received the gift of the Holy Spirit?

--
Regards,
John Jenkins
865-803-8179  cell
Gatlinburg, TN

Email: jrjenki@gmail.com
Website: http://www.greenbriersolutions.com  
Blog: http://littlepigeon.blogspot.com/

Hokey Pokey Anonymous, a place to turn yourself around.

Public Reading of the Word

Matthew Vaughan:

 

Reference your article, Public Reading of the Word, Gospel Advocate May 2009

 

Nice article with practical solutions. I have been an advocate of public reading or any reading of the Bible for quite a while.

 

As you mention one reason for not publicly reading the Bible may be that many people are poor readers. Research indicates that a significant number of the population do not read any books following graduation.

 

Another reason is the emphasis on holding the assembly time to 60 minutes.

 

I wonder how much time the Apostles took preparing a sermon. Could it have been they did not have to prepare because they had something important to say. Today instead of publicly reading the scriptures we listen to a person who has spent a number of hours trying to come up with something to say. Maybe we should return to the source and "listen" to what God has to say in His Word instead of to what a person says it says.

 

When it comes to treatment of the Bible we do not match what Israel was told to do when they got up in the morning and when they went to bed in the evening or when they walked along.

 

Considering Jesus' example where he read scriptures publicly I wonder how many of His examples and commands can we ignore and not be considered a tare at the judgment.

 

 

Again nice article…….

--
Regards,
John Jenkins
865-803-8179  cell
Gatlinburg, TN

Email: jrjenki@gmail.com
Website: http://www.greenbriersolutions.com  
Blog: http://littlepigeon.blogspot.com/

Hokey Pokey Anonymous, a place to turn yourself around.

Church Leadershiplessness

Preachers living in a different city than the congregation for which they work, who  are available only on Sundays, cannot participate in social occasions and meetings of the congregation, do not promote classes like ladies' or men's Bible classes, do not suggest, promote or participate in evangelistic activities, do not lead the effort to prepare men to be elders and deacons, inhibits those same activities and becomes a detriment to the growth numerically and spiritually.

Big Sins, Small Sins, Bad Sins,

Hi Al,

 

How does the man Paul refers to in 1 Corinthians 5:1, 2 compare with other sinners? The members of the church in Corinth were arrogant as if they supported what the man was doing. Do you suppose Paul told the people to shun him because of his sin or the congregation's sin?

 

The man shunned was in the kingdom and apparently not bothered by that sin. He may or may not have been sorry for some of his other sins. Not knowing what is in each other's mind at what point does being a sinner disqualify someone from participation in the assembly?

 

If a person has a recognized mental illness or disease is he disqualified from participation in the congregation?

 

When we look at a person leading in the assembly, we know he sins and may or may not be sorry for those sins, we do not know. The person may lead a prayer and may be lost, we don't know.

 

The question is what criteria should be used to categorize sinners?

--
Regards,
John Jenkins
865-803-8179  cell
Gatlinburg, TN

Email: jrjenki@gmail.com
Website: http://www.greenbriersolutions.com  
Blog: http://littlepigeon.blogspot.com/

"The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it." Michelangelo

Milk, Meat or Fast Food?

I've mentioned before how odd it appears, to me, to be in a class where Christians question if baptism is important, who killed Jesus, are sins forgiven before or after immersion, did Judas have a choice etc. Reminds me of the man or woman who wrote Hebrews "let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment."

 

In books I have read recently the authors assert that Christians struggle to define spiritual maturity. That many American Christians do not believe the Holy Spirit or Satan exists. That many young people are interested in witchcraft and are comfortable with the idea of worshipping nature.

Are we concentrating on milk for ourselves, and letting the world go to Hell?

--
Regards,
John Jenkins
865-803-8179  cell
Gatlinburg, TN

Email: jrjenki@gmail.com
Website: http://www.greenbriersolutions.com  
Blog: http://littlepigeon.blogspot.com/

"The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it." Michelangelo

Hypocrites?

In a class recently the idea that people do not attend churches because the members are hypocrites was mentioned. We can be defensive about the idea, we can ignore it or we can consider the possibility that these accusations are God's way of waking us up to the needs of others? What if he is using our culture to make us aware of our hollow, empty answers?

 

In his book, "What's So Amazing About Grace," Philip Yancey wrote, "Having spent time around 'sinners' and also around purported saints, I have a hunch why Jesus spent so much time with the former group: I think he preferred their company. Because the sinners were honest about themselves and had no pretense, Jesus could deal with them. In contrast, the saints put on airs, judged him, and sought to catch him in a moral trap. In the end it was the saints, not the sinners, who arrested him."

 

Maybe the Christian's view of outsiders should be more like that of Jesus, and Christians should condemn hypocrites the way he did: "They crush people with impossible religious demands and never lift a finger to ease the burden" Matthew 23:4.

 

Christians need to get a grip on what it means to follow Jesus and then convey that authentically to the world. One of the issues causing the divide is the demand for perfection in the life of anyone claiming to be Christian. This is not an accurate understanding of what it means to be Christian.

 

Christians fall into the trap of being called hypocrites because being a Christian is held to mean following a list of moral benchmarks coupled with a dose of judgmentalism.

 

An authentic Christian is simply someone who has made a decision to believe in Jesus as their forgiver and then attempt to follow him as their leader. But nowhere do we find a requirement for perfection or sinlessness.

 

Christians need to convey that to the world, authentically.

 

There will be disappointments with Christians as long as there are imperfect people. Since all Christians are imperfect, there will always be disappointments. Christians need to stop having the message of Jesus tied to their butchered efforts.  

 

Too much emphasis is put on what Christians do on Sundays. Sunday is not the highpoint of the week it is the beginning of the week. We need to follow Jesus' instructions to the young man. On Sunday we should "Go and do likewise" as well as Paul's instructions to "present our body a living sacrifice." Authentically.

 

Leo Tolstoy wrote: Attack me, I do this myself, but attack me rather than the path I follow and which I point out to anyone who asks me where I think it lies. If I know the way home and am walking along it drunkenly, is it any less the right way because I am staggering from side to side!"

There is a divide between the neighborhood and the church.
--
Regards,
John Jenkins
865-803-8179  cell
Gatlinburg, TN

Email: jrjenki@gmail.com
Website: http://www.greenbriersolutions.com  
Blog: http://littlepigeon.blogspot.com/

"The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it." Michelangelo

Why Do We Gamble Eternity

Luke 18:18-27

    And a ruler asked him, "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"   And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.  You know the commandments: 'Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.'"  And he said, "All these I have kept from my youth." When Jesus heard this, he said to him, "One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me." But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich. Jesus, looking at him with sadness, said, "How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!  For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God." Those who heard it said, "Then who can be saved?" But he said, "What is impossible with men is possible with God." 

 

Matthew 6:19-21 "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

 

Matthew 6:25 (ESV) 

    "… do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on." 

 

Matthew 6:27-28 (ESV) 

    Which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?  [28] And why are you anxious about clothing?"

 

Matthew 6:31-34 (ESV) 

    Do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'  [32] For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.  [33] Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

    [34] "Do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

 

Luke 12:15 (ESV) 

    "Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." 

 

Luke 12:16-21 (ESV) 

    "The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, 'What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?'  And he said, 'I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.' But God said to him, 'Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?' So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God."

 

 

 

Job, Satan, and Us

Hi Al,

 

We talk about how God blessed Job.  The first chapter says that he had a lot of animals and servants and he was the greatest of all the people of the east. No hint of special blessing by God so I presume Job was a good business man.

 

The last chapter says that his brothers and sisters showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him. And each of them gave him a piece of money and a ring of gold. Allowing for the writer being inspired does that mean he believed the Lord brought evil upon Job? If not did he, as politicians often do, misspeak?

 

In verse 12 it says the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. Does that support the televangelists when they tell us if we stay faithful to God we will be rich? If not, does it mean God treated Job differently than he treats everyone else? If not what does it mean.

 

We also talk a lot about Satan walking around looking for people he can tempt into sinning. If we need Satan for us to sin what does James mean when he wrote each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire?  If we need Satan for us to sin, who tempted Satan to rebel against God?

 

Did you catch Jim's categorizing of sin as bad sins? I wonder if he is one of the folks who thinks gay people are worse sinners than those who lie or are gluttons… or even a worse sinner than those in the class. It seems to me the Bible does not support that way of thinking.

 

Might be nice to try to understand some things we normally ignore due to time constraints.

--
Regards,
John Jenkins
865-803-8179  cell
Gatlinburg, TN

Email: jrjenki@gmail.com
Website: http://www.greenbriersolutions.com  
Blog: http://littlepigeon.blogspot.com/

"The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it." Michelangelo