Church in Trouble

I thought these were thought-provoking from Perry Noble...

15 signs your church is in trouble...

#1 ? When excuses are made about the way things are instead of embracing a willingness to roll up the sleeves and fix the problem.

#2 ? When the church becomes content with merely receiving people that come rather than actually going out and finding them?in other words, they lose their passion for evangelism!

#3 ? The focus of the church is to build a great church (complete with the pastors picture?and his wife?s?on everything) and not the Kingdom of God.

#4 ? The leadership begins to settle for the natural rather than rely on the supernatural.

#5 ? The church begins to view success/failure in regards to how they are viewed in the church world rather than whether or not they are actually fulfilling the Great Commission!

#6 ? The leaders within the church cease to be coachable.

#7 ? There is a loss of a sense of urgency! (Hell is no longer hot, sin is no longer wrong and the cross is no longer important!)

#8 ? Scripture isn?t central in every decision that is made!

#9 ? The church is reactive rather than proactive.

#10 ? The people in the church lose sight of the next generation and refuse to fund ministry simply because they don?t understand ?those young people.?

#11 ? The goal of the church is to simply maintain the way things are?to NOT rock the boat and/or upset anyone?especially the big givers!

#12 ? The church is no longer willing to take steps of faith because ?there is just to much to lose.?

#13 ? The church simply does not care about the obvious and immediate needs that exist in the community.

#14 ? The people learn how to depend on one man to minister to everyone rather than everyone embracing their role in the body, thus allowing the body to care for itself.

#15 ? When the leaders/staff refuse to go the extra mile in leading and serving because of how ?inconvenient? doing so would be.

Prayer

I thought this was some good insight on personal prayer:

Keys to Personal Prayer

1. Pray In Jesus' Name. Real prayer is Christological. There are numerous New Testament references that talk about the importance of praying in the name of Jesus. Jesus even said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you" (John 16:23). When we pray in the name of Jesus, God the Father hears us. He responds to the prayer that is offered in the name of his Son Jesus.
2. Pray According to God's Will. God is not a Santa Claus in the sky; he does not give us just anything we ask for. But in 1 John 5:14 it says, "If we ask anything according to his will he hears us." This means that when we pray in accordance with his will we can expect an answer.
3. Scriptural Prayer. One the best ways to pray is to pray according to Scripture. John 15:7 says, "If you abide in me, and my word abides in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you." If God's word is in us then his desires become our desires, and we can have the assurance that he will answer our prayers. Make sure that your prayers are in line with Scripture.
4. Keep Commandments. "And whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him" (1 John 3:22). God honors those who honor his commandments. If you keep his commandments and do what is pleasing, then you can be assured that he will hear your prayers.
5. You Must Believe. "And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith" (Matthew 21:22). The Lord wants us to have faith that he will hear our prayers. Hebrews says, "without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him" (Hebrews 11:6). The Lord promises to respond to our prayer of faith.
6. Pray in the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of prayer. Paul tells us to pray at all times in the Spirit. Romans 8:26 reads, "Likewise the Spirit also helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words." We don't always know how to pray or feel like praying, so we need the Spirit's power to help us.
7. Be Persistent. Don't give up if you haven't received an answer to your prayers. Throughout the Bible there are stories of men and women who persevered in prayer. In Luke 18:1-8, there was a little old widow who did not lose heart. James tells us that the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.
8. Humble Yourself. One of my favorite parables about prayer is in Luke 18:9-14, where the Pharisee and tax collector come before God. The Pharisee was proud and boastful, while the tax collector was humble and asked for God's mercy. We are told that God hears the prayer of the humble. If we humble ourselves in the sight of God, he will lift us up.

Dog Food and Missions

Just read by Ed Stetzer..While Taiwanese pray to false gods, U.S. Christians spend more on dog food than missions.

Wow!

Worship

Found this quote from Ed Stetzer:

"If we dmand things in worship that can't be in all cultures, we're demandng cultural preferences, not biblical."

Regardless of our preferences, this is an interesting observation and conclusion.

Check him out at Ed Stetzer.com.

Loving Jesus

Today, we preached a sermon entitled "The Disciple's Worship: Love Jesus".

This, I believe, is the bottom-line of the Christian life--loving Jesus with all that we are.

We spoke about three aspects of the Disciple's love for Jesus:

1) Holding Jesus in the place of highest affections in my heart
2) Obeying Jesus' commands as my Lord
3) Seeking his glory, honor, and fame in all areas of my life

How is your love-o-meter?

How can we cultivate our love for Jesus?

The Folly of Seeking Others' Approval

Sitting here watching "Camp Rock", I am confronted with the folly of seeking the approval of others as a means of "feeling good about ourselves" and "identity" and "confidence"--ultimately, it is all self-centered approach to life with the idol of ourselves--we worship our own acceptance and approval from others.

Unfortunately, it is one of the reigning mantras of today's generation--oh, wait--and my generation.

Just a thought...

Home School

Today, we began our homeschooling journey with Cameron.

I'm looking forward to spending the extra time with praying for wisdom to guide and help him be the man God desires him to be.

Let the journey continue...

Missionary

When we begin to follow Jesus, we automatically are called to be a missionary. Why do we continue, particularly, in Baptist churches refer to a certain group of Christians as missionaries? Isn't it time for us to change our lingo to match what the bible actually teaches? It would be better if our hearts changed, I know--but, if we would start preaching the right message about mission, by God's grace, someone will get it--maybe my generation, maybe the next.

We are all missionaries--we are all on mission--every day and in every place God's providence takes us and plants.

Does God call some to specific places? Sure...but, the rest of us have just as an urgent a "calling" given to us by Jesus.

Let's stop making our excuses and get on board the mission train--life is a mission trip, we are resident aliens called to proclaim His glorious goodness.

Man...I needed that.

Studying the Scriptures

Ezra 7:9-10

In these verses, Ezra prepared his heart to seek the Law of the Lord and to obey it. It is because of this that God has put his "good hand upon" Ezra.

When will we recognize the absolute necessity for the Word of God in our lives and our obedience to it?

Should we not as Christians, born again by the Spirit of God, have a desire to obey the Word of God? If so, then why do we get in such an uproar when someone points out areas of our lives where we are inconsistent with the Word? Shouldn't that make us fall on our faces before God in repentance while calling on God to change our hearts and transform our lives so that we might obey Him?

We need a revival in southern Christianity back to the authority of the Word of God and not our traditions.

The Word of God

2 Timothy 1:13 - Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.

Friends, hold fast to the word of life today by meditating on it, digesting it, and obeying it (James 1:22).

God bless you all...

Holding fast

Been thinking about Sunday's sermon entitled "Hold Fast to the Word". I'll be preaching from 2 Timothy 1:13 and the implications of that verse in light of chapter 3 and the first 5 verses of chapter 4.

Getting more fired up as I think about it.

Read the following today: "Many of us want a word from God, but we don't want the Word of God. We know enough to own a Bible but not enough for the Bible to own us. We pay the Bible lip service, but we fail to give it 'life service'. In a world where the only absolute is that there are no absolutes, there is little room left for the authoritative Word of God as revealed in the Bible."

That will preach!

First Post on new blog

Hello all. This is a new blog. It probably will not get as much attention as the other one, but we'll see.

This is going to be more along the lines of just random thoughts about life in ministry and seeking to stay close to the scriptures as possible.

We'll be writing soon.

I also have another blog over at http://www.onewayjohn146.blogspot.com if you are interested.