Life Goes On

Matthew 16:18 (HCSB) And I also say to you that you are Peter (petros, a rock), and on this rock (boulder; the statement “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”) I will build My church, and the forces of Hades will not overpower it. It is Jesus’ intention that the church overwhelms the gates of Satan’s domain. He wants us to be on the offensive for the Kingdom of God . We are never to be in retreat or in a circle the wagons mode. We are to be on the attack. We are to take captives away from Satan and lead them into the kingdom through faith in Jesus. We must learn what our rights are and how to use the weapons God has supplied. Our rights Matthew 16:19 (HCSB) I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth is already bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth is already loosed in heaven.” Matthew 18:19 (HCSB) Again, I assure you: If two of you on earth agree about any matter that you p...

In this day of cookie-cutter churches, it seems that when one church does something that results in numerical increase, many other churches line up behind and emulate them. The primary idea seems to be the old Tony Robbins mot "Find someone who is successful, do what they do, the way they do it, and you too will be successful." BTW that probably is not a completely accurate quote, but you get the gist. The problem with this approach when used by churches is that they copy the technique, the program, or the marketing approach while giving little thought to their scriptural assignment. That assignment is found in Matthew 28:18-20. Having discovered the assignment, the real question is how do we accomplish it? Jesus gave us help, both as individuals and as churches in Matthew 25:31-46, commonly called the parable of the sheep and the goats. The defining factors that determined who was welcomed into the kingdom and who was not were these; Feed the hungry Give water to the ...

On Labor Day our church had a fish fry. More people attended than have attended church or Bible Study on any given Sunday in the past three months. This got me to thinking about the place that fellowship occupies in the life of the church. In Acts 2:46 we find the new church members meeting together daily in the temple and then "breaking bread" (having fellowship over food) from house to house. This reminded me of something I once heard; "it is hard to put on airs while eating". We are more apt to be ourselves over a meal or refreshments than in most other settings. The only problem I see is that many churches have elevated fellowship to a position above worship, evangelism, discipleship and ministry. At one point the Sunday School was known as the "outreach arm" of the church. In the early 1970s, that changed to being the Bible Study FELLOWSHIP, or Small Group FELLOWSHIP. The drop in baptisms can be traced back to that change in philosophy. I thin...