Faith like a child

As I sat there tears started to fall down. Not tears of sadness but tears of joy. I was at the Good Friday service at my church and I was watching fifteen of my brothers and sisters in Christ come and give their testimony and be baptized.  I heard what God had been doing in their lives over the past few years. How He had broken the chains of addiction and brought them to repentance. However, this is not what brought the tears of joy to my eyes. It was the younger children that came up and proclaimed in front of the whole church what they believed. Because of Christ's work on the cross and His resurrection they are now righteous in His sight. Some of them had such excitement in their eyes as they were giving their testimony. They get it! They are not confused by different doctrines are theologies, but they understand God's love for them. How often do we get so caught up in the different aspects of what we believe that we lose our focus on Christ? Tomorrow is Easter, the day that we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Let us remember what has been done for us and because of that let us live to bring Him glory. Have a great Easter.

Devotions and Bible Studies

How often do we go into a church setting like a Sunday morning service or a college group with the expectation of getting a spiritual high?  A high that will make us feel good, convict us a tiny bit, and overall leave us with a feeling of satisfaction and general happiness. Then we leave and basically forget all that we heard. We continue on with our week almost in a spiritual low looking forward to the next service. Do we get involved in several ministries so we have these "highs" throughout the week? If our only times of prayer, study, and worship only happen in a corporate setting we are missing out on the most rewarding one on one times with our Savior. He loves when we come and spend time just being in His presence and learning from Him. We need to be filled daily with the Word through our devotions and prayer. Corporate meetings serve as a catalyst for studying throughout the week. Do our daily devotions stem off what we have heard or are they not connected at all? When we do this our devotions will grow deeper and the messages that we hear throughout the week will impact us for more than thirty minuets. Here is how I think we should approach church meetings/Bible studies.

Before:

• Prayer for the Spirit to work in our hearts and give the speaker the words to say.
• Remember the previous week's teaching and the lessons learned.
• Thanksgiving for what God has done since then.

During:

• Praising God for who He is and what He has done for us.
• Focus our mind completely on the teaching.
• Write down key points, application, and references to look up later.

After:

• Prayer for God's working during  the following week.
• Discussion with others about the message and service.
• Prayer for the church body.

There is one more area I want to address that goes along with all of this. We should apply this to the conferences and retreats we go to.  Personally when I have gone to different conferences or retreats I hear so many good things, but a few weeks later I can't really remember what they were and they have not done much for my personal growth. The reason for this is because after the conference we go back into our daily routine and forget about it. Invest follow up time to go over what you learned.


I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge -- that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Ephesians 3:16-19 

Dating the Church

A few weeks ago I listened to a sermon by Joshua Harris titled "Married to the Church." It was one of the best messages I have heard on commitment to the local church. We have a serious problem today. Christians are no longer committing to the local body. The church is the place where we will grow and we are encouraged. If we are not committed then we are missing out on a critical portion of our Christian walk.


Joshua Harris writes "I want to see my generation get a hold of God's purpose and plan for the local church, too.  We live in an increasingly fragmented and isolated world, and this has influenced the way we approach our relationship with God. We often see faith as a solo pursuit. Many young adults in particular have given up on the church. If they do attend, it isn't something that they invest themselves in passionately.  I believe the church is the most exciting thing to be a part of on the planet. It's the privilege of every Christian in every generation to play a small part in this very big and very awesome story God is writing."

If you would like to listen to the message click here.  

Joshua Harris also wrote a book on the subject titled "Dating the Church." I have not read it yet but it is going on my reading list.  Here is a quick preview.

Are you committed to the church or are you dating it?