“But when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus’ feet, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” For amazement had seized him and all his companions because of the catch of fish which they had taken; and so also James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not fear, from now on you will be catching men.” And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.” Luke 5:8-11.
In New England, we battle the hard hearts of skeptics while enjoy the open-mindedness of those searching. Engaging our neighbors and communities is important – and there is a way to do it right. Forget the marketing strategies or membership drives, get into conversations with the people you’re around. I think that the challenge facing New England in regards to evangelism and outreach is not in the people who need the gospel, its found in the people who supposedly don’t.
Going to church doesn’t make you a follower of Jesus. Neither does reading the entire Bible. Neither does taking a class about Christian doctrine. Knowing the teachings of Jesus doesn’t make you his disciple. Volunteering to help your church doesn’t prove that you are a Christian either.
If we take these and other similar tests to prove whether or not we are Christians we may find ourselves to be surprised on judgement day. It is scary to think that we might be attending a church service our entire life, yet not know the leader of that Church. A modern day take on Matthew 7:21-23 might sound like this:
Read the rest...(493 words, 1 image, estimated 1:58 mins reading time)
Here’s another 1960’s old-school sermon from minister J. Ronald Schoolcraft. And even a near half-century later, this message still has words of truth to help us in the year 2009 and beyond!
“To Scare the Devil”
By J. Ronald Schoolcraft
A young warehouse worker took his customer’s order and started down one of the long aisles of the warehouse to get the desired parts. As he went he was whistling gaily the tune “Just Whistle While You Work” from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. “My, he’s a happy fellow!” the customer remarked. One of the girls looked up from her stack of records and said “He says he does that to keep the devils out of his mind!”
Watch this amazing video featuring Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan from 1930:
Anne Sullivan must have been quite a woman of love, compassion & patience. How long must it have taken to teach and work with Helen Keller, a woman born blind and deaf?! Yet Anne Sullivan did not see someone disposable, but rather someone who had value and was worth spending her time and life with to teach and care for. Amazing!
Matthew 5:48 – “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Surely Jesus doesn’t mean “don’t ever make a mistake or sin” does he? How could this be? Doesn’t he know “nobody’s perfect?” What is Jesus saying here? Is this an impossible verse?
I love a good sermon on the biblical truth about death and what our future hope SHOULD be. Maybe it is just my Adventist roots showing, but I do so enjoy hearing this kind of message. It really gives purpose to WHY Jesus is coming back and better yet why we should EARNESTLY DESIRE it to happen! I found this looking through some E.W. Bullinger materials. I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did.
-
Death No Gateway To Heaven
By: Willard Smith
In the Christian realm today there is unscriptural teaching concerning the death of the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are constantly being told by well-meaning Christians that at death, “We go to be with the Lord.” This phrase is used especially at funerals where preachers misquote or take the Scriptures out of context to reassure the sorrowing that their loved ones are not really dead, but are really enjoying Heaven in God’s presence. This teaching promotes belief in the lie of Satan, rather than what God told Adam and Eve when He placed them in the Garden.In Gen. 2:17 God said, “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest of it thou shalt surely die.” In the Hebrew could read “Dying thou shalt die.”This was a certainty.
In Gen. 3:1, Satan speaks for the first time in the scriptures. He asks Eve (by the Figure Erotesis for emphasis), “Yea, hath God said,” or “Can it be that God hath said…?” In Gen. 3:4, Satan’s second utterance, we read, “And the serpent said unto the woman, ‘Ye shall not surely die’… “ This is a plain contradiction of God’s Word in Gen. 2:17. As one has said long ago, “This has become the foundation of spiritism and traditional belief as to death.”
I recently received a link to a video (see it here) in which a “Reverend” spouted off about how evil President Obama is, and saying that “white folks are going to rise up” the way black folks did in reaction to the Rodney King incident – and this was from a black minister. Moreover, this man practically foamed at the mouth with his hatred for Obama, repeatedly calling him a “long-legged Mac-daddy” (whatever that means) and worse. No matter what you may think of the president’s politics and policies, we are told to honor and pray for our governmental leaders, not spout off such strife-gendering rhetoric.
The second part of the Bible is commonly known as the New Testament. This is a phrase that means the same thing as “New Covenant” in reference to the New Covenant that Jesus introduced and ratified with his blood. His disciples, who were Jewish, were surprised and awed at the idea that Gentiles would be able to partake of God’s promises to Abraham. But there were some Jewish Christians who insisted that Gentiles needed to keep the Law of Moses to be saved. Paul expounded in great detail about this in his epistles, declaring that the New Covenant which Jesus made has superseded the Old Covenant of the Mosaic Law which had been only a temporary measure.
Going to church doesn’t make you a follower of Jesus. Neither does reading the entire Bible. Neither does taking a class about Christian doctrine. Knowing the teachings of Jesus doesn’t make you his disciple. Volunteering to help your church doesn’t prove that you are a Christian either.