The Ignorant Church

There is no truth or mercy or knowledge of God in the land…. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. (Hosea 4:1, 6) This was God’s message to Israel during the days of Hosea the prophet. I wonder what God would say to the church today? Israel lacked a knowledge about God. They were ignorant, and their ignorance led them into both spiritual and physical bondage.

A recent Pew research has come up with some challenging statistics based on their recent survey. In asking Christians, atheists, Mormons, Jews, and other religions, the results revealed where the church has failed. For example, the results state: Four out of ten Catholics (45%) do not know that their church teaches that the elements of communion, the bread and the wine, are not symbols, but actually become the body and blood of Jesus. It makes we wonder how many folks come to church on a Sunday morning out of ritual and tradition, but who do not know what they believe or why they believe it. If they were asked the reason for their faith, how would they answer? The Bible tells us that ‘as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” (Prov. 23:7) What is the church thinking today?

The Ignorant Church

The Apostle Paul wrote to the early church, challenging them because of their seeming ignorance, their need for milk and not meat. They were acting like small children instead of mature saints. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. (Hebrews 5:12) Paul knew that if the church was going to survive, it needed to mature, grow up and challenge each succeeding generation to spiritual maturity. That maturity depends on our diet. What kind of spiritual food are we eating. Our natural man often demands that we feed it many kinds of things that are not good for us. Our cupboards are filled with junk food, foods that put on the pounds and destroy our immune systems. Somehow I wonder if what we tend to eat in the natural is a reflection of the lack of spiritual discipline and wisdom in our spiritual lives as well. It was a problem in the early church, so it is probably still a problem in the church today. Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. (2 Timothy 4:2-4) What a danger for any church to fall into! We can so easily fall into a trap of “not enduring sound doctrine.” The moment the church clamors for entertainment rather than sound doctrine, we begin the long trail to ignorance of the Word of God and solid teaching. When pastors and teachers fail to teach their congregations the basic doctrines of the Word, and clearly explain their importance for today, we risk being turned aside to fables. It is sad to say I have heard of some churches who no longer use the word ‘sin’ in their messages. In an attempt to not offend ‘sinners’, we tend to coddle them into an understand that God sees their ‘mistakes’ and loves them. They fail to get the sound doctrine regarding sin—that sin is an offence to a holy God, For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; (Romans 3:23)

Others have eliminated the Sunday School classes due to poor attendance or lack of teachers. When do we get to teach this next generation the basics of the Christian doctrine? Can it all fit into the neat package of 90 minutes most churches have for their Sunday morning Worship service? How will they learn what is wrong with the many cults and world religions clamoring for their attention today?

A New Generation

The Millennium generation (ages 19-29) is one that is moving more and more away from the church and all formal religion. They most often claim to be atheistic or agnostic or have no affiliation with religion at all. How does the church reach this generation today? They are not moved to action or to allegiance by our institutions (home, school, church,) or by our buildings (mega churches) or even by our religious code of conduct. They become passionate about a movement, as every generation in the past. Christ came not to establish an institution (church) but a movement...a kingdom of believers who would carry the message forward with passion and commitment. A movement is alive, something you can believe in and feel part of, and whereby you can change the world. This generation has seen how a ‘movement’ led by Muslims is changing the face of the world for Islam. It has seen how a movement of political agendas has sent America into a pit of debt. But what are they seeing from the spiritual camp? In the past they have witnessed the disgrace of individuals who have fallen into sin. But they have not seen the rise of any strong spiritual leadership that can change the world for God. Spiritual ignorance coupled with sinful behavior has crippled the church and turned off a generation. It’s not the size of your church sanctuary, nor the money you spend on missions, nor the fame of your pastor that matters. What motivates you to serve God to the point of sacrifice and even death? It takes us back to the basics. Jesus prepared His disciples to become the apostles. He told them in John 14: 11-15 Believe me: I am in my Father and my Father is in me. If you can't believe that, believe what you see—these works. The person who trusts me will not only do what I'm doing but even greater things, because I, on my way to the Father, am giving you the same work to do that I've been doing. You can count on it. From now on, whatever you request along the lines of who I am and what I am doing, I'll do it. That's how the Father will be seen for who he is in the Son. I mean it. Whatever you request in this way, I'll do.15-"If you love me, show it by doing what I've told you.

Motivating a Generation

What will motivate this generation to see and become a part of a powerful movement of believers who walk in the Spirit...who are not afraid to do the “greater works” Jesus talked about? It will take an honest demonstration of the mighty power of God at work in the lives of needy people. You may have heard the famous quotation by Rod Wolford—“A man with an experience is never at the mercy of a man with an argument.” The church that is maturing today needs that fresh experience of the mighty power of God. It needs to see bodies healed, lives transformed, and the kind of ‘revival’ that changes people, cities and nations. When I experience something dramatic, I never forget it. It becomes a part of me. When the church experiences the revitalizing power of God, it too will never be the same again.

Walk in the Spirit

Ignorance is swept away as we learn to walk in the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is our teacher. His role is to guide us into truth, keep us from error and give us power to speak boldly to those who will listen. He wants to flow through believers to touch a hurting world. How does God want to use you? What part will you play in allowing the Holy Spirit to flow? It is tempting to sit back and let others do it—the pastors, the evangelists, the deacons. But we are all His servants, His ministers, His disciples. He has called us all to disciple others, to teach and repel the spiritual ignorance that surrounds the church today like a fog. His wind want to blow in, and sweep away the fog. His fire wants to burn up all the dross, the chaff, the things that cannot stand the test. We may be challenged in the fire, but it must come to cleanse us.

When the church of today becomes rigid and unmoved, unwilling to change and experience the presence of God, it becomes an ‘institution’ rather than a ‘movement.’ An institutional mindset breeds attitudes such as—be faithful but don’t rock the boat, do enough just to get by and then leave unchanged. That attitude will destroy the church and cripple the next generation. If your church has fallen into this trap, it is time to call the church to prayer, to challenge each heart to spiritual change and growth. As times get tough, and terrorism and elections shake our world we need to know and experience the God who shakes hearts and minds and who transforms people and churches from ignorance to conviction and commitment . What is our part? Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen (Matthew 28: 19-20)
J. Johnson

The Silent Killer

The Silent Killer

We listen to the advise of experts to protect our home and families from things that can harm them, even kill them. One of those deadly silent killers is radon while another is carbon monoxide. Radon, an invisible radioactive gas that seeps into homes through foundation cracks, causes 100 times more deaths than carbon monoxide poisoning, says the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. We learn that there are ways to deal with these two deadly problems. We place detectors in our homes that will alert us to the impending danger. Those detectors have saved many lives while homes without them, have sometimes had fatal consequences. As families have slept, the gases have filled the homes gradually eliminating healthy life giving oxygen with deadly odorless gases, causing the human body to begin to shut down, go into coma and sometimes die from lack of good clean air.
There is a silent killer lurking in many homes and churches across America. Daily it does its task of destroying the plans and purposes of God in the lives of God’s people. Like the deadly gases, radon and carbon monoxide, it seeps into our lives when we least expect it, and begins gradually doing its deadly work. This silent killer begins with a casual remark, a careless word, an undeserved jab or even a thoughtless deed. It results in cracks in our clay vessels that cause our love to leak out and the painful killer to seep in. What is it? Unforgiveness! You may lightly say…”Oh, but that’s not my problem!” Unfortunately, it’s everyone’s problem. In our own personal lives, it colors our view of life. In the church, it affects everyone with whom we rub shoulders. It has been known to destroy marriages and families, as well as dividing churches and ruining ministries. Most pastors have at one time or another heard someone say, “I’ll NEVER forgiven them!” They say they are Christians, but the pain of the deadly silent killer has already tainted their soul. They forget everything they ever learned from the Bible and make the pain of the past more relevant, more significant. They unconsciously choose to never forget, and in doing so, they also never put it behind them.
How To Clear the Air.
Forgiveness clears the air in our spiritual lives. Refusing to forgive invites poison that pollutes our souls. But how can we forgive those who have hurt us in such awful ways. How does a child forgive the incest? How does a woman forgive the date-rape? How does a mother forgive an abusive husband who damages not only her but her children? How does a wounded Christian forgive abuse of another Christian? It is not impossible. Just as you choose to love and trust, you can choose to forgive.
1. Recognize that the anger and frustration you feel comes from a moment of hurt that needs attention. Sometimes we tend to sweep it under the rug and ignore it, hoping it will just all go away in time. Yet the wound continues to fester.
2. Remember that others who may have hurt you are also vulnerable to hurts and may have been hurt in the past. Abusers often were abused themselves. When you see them as victims, it creates compassion rather than hate.
3. Forgive yourself. Perhaps you did something for which you blame yourself, resulting in the problem. We all make choices, some good and some bad. We learn from our mistakes. A baby learns to walk by falling down and getting up again and again.
4. When you can, restore relationships. Some have a habit of ‘snipping’ others out of their lives. Each person who wounds them in any way gets ‘snipped’ from their list. A story was told of a woman who did this all of her life. She began with many friends, but on the day she died, her family expected a large crowd at her funeral, only to be surprised when only the immediate family came to pay their respects. All the old friends of the past knew they had been snipped out of her favor years before. How sad! When we ostracize family and friends, we are expressing our lack of forgiveness. How sad it is to see families where parents and children no longer speak to each other, or churches where whole groups leave because of a lack of forgiveness. Practice reconciliation.
5. Take the Initiative. Be the bigger person and look beyond the faults of others. Don’t let the past keep you in the past. See the future God sees. Let your forgiveness build a bridge over troubled waters. Launch your lifeboat and watch what God will do. Tell your abuser sincerely… “I forgive you….” and watch them bend over backwards to make things right. Guilt will do that. Use your experience to help others be free from the past and the pain.
6. Remember what the Bible teaches! Forgiveness is Biblical. Jesus always practiced forgiveness instead of condemnation. He told the adulteress, “Go and sin no more.” He told the Father “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” One key verse we must lock onto is found in Matthew 6:14-15 14For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. According to this verse, we cannot expect God to forgive us if we fail to forgive others who sin against us. Our eternal destiny depends on our willingness to forgive. Even Paul taught the principal of forgiveness. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. (Col 3:13) Jesus sets the example for us all. Just imagine how many of us would not make heaven our eternal home if we failed to forgive.
I love the Message Bible version of Psalm 130:3 If you, God, kept records on wrongdoings, who would stand a chance? As it turns out, forgiveness is your habit, and that's why you're worshiped. Our God chooses deliberately to forgive...and forget. Unlike God, it is difficult for us to forget. While me may not forget, we CAN forgive!
7. Forgive with eternity in view. Life here is not all there is. We are planted on this small blue planet for just a few brief years. In those years, we are given opportunities and choices. We can become better or bitter. We can cut and snip, or glue and paste. We can give Satan a foothold or allow Christ to be the center of it all. Ask yourself these questions: “In eternity, when I stand before the Lord, what will matter the most? Will it be my anger or my forgiveness? How will it affect my eternity?” One person who learned to forgive put it this way: When you haven't forgiven those who've hurt you, you turn your back against your future. When you do forgive, you start walking forward. (T. Perry) Have you stopped in your tracks, paralyzed by the past? Your attitude will affect everything around you. It will cause you to be angry….and your children will be just like you. But the moment you forgive, you break the chains that bind you to the past, and set your steps moving forward again into freedom. God cannot use your potential when it is bound in unforgiveness.
Joseph in the Egyptian jail had every right humanly speaking to be a hateful bitter man. His own brothers had sold him into slavery and deceived his father into thinking he was dead. His employer had him thrown in jail on false charges of rape. His own cell mates forgot all about him after he had helped them. But GOD...had a plan bigger than anything Joseph could have imagined! God’s plan was based in Josephs attitude. He never allowed bitterness to take root. He let God take the lead and God used Joseph for the saving of his family and the nation.
8. Forgive with a Helper. There are many things that the Christian often discovers he cannot do on his own. He needs help. Jesus sent us a Helper. It is the Holy Spirit. He comes along side to speak into our lives, to guide us, to give us boldness, to make us more like Christ. He comes into our lives at salvation, and the moment we receive God’s forgiveness, He is there to help us forgive others. He is the ‘wind’ that blows away the poisonous gases in our spiritual lives. He fills us with His Presence. He points out to us all of our failures so we can let Him help us each day. He convicts us of our sin so we can see His forgiveness. He prods us to reconciliation with God and others. He is the potter who mends our broken vessels, then fills us to overflowing with Himself.. He lifts us above the circumstance, above the past, and gives us a hope and a future. (Jer 29:11)
What about you? Have you forgiven? Are you forgiven? Will you choose to forgive? I can do everything through him who gives me strength. Phil 4:13: . Remember these words...Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 2 Cor 5:17 Put the old ways of unforgiveness and vengeance behind you. God wants to give you a new day. Let it begin right now. Let the Holy Spirit be your ‘unforgiveness detector’. When His warning sounds, take immediate action. Forgive completely and immediately. Make forgiveness your habit and change your world! Let the wind of the Spirit blow away the silent killer of unforgiveness in your life today. J. Johnson

Avoiding the enemies traps...

Every year we read, or hear in the news, about another pastor or spiritual leader falling into the trap of sin. We all tend to point our fingers and say, “I’d never do that!” Yet, thousands of believers every year fall into traps of sin, snares of temptation, pitfalls that hurt not only our Christian walk and integrity, but every believer and unbeliever we know. The thing we tend to struggle with on a daily basis is overcoming those traps, snares and pitfalls. As Christians give attention for even a moment to the seductive voice of the enemy, they fall into his traps that promise better things… more satisfaction… greater achievement… at the expense of ignoring the promises of God given in the Word of God. Paul warned young Timothy...:For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. (2 Tim 4:3-4) These myths are the traps of Satan. They fall into three basic categories: intellectual, emotional and sensual.
Intellectual traps:
Today we live in a very intellectual world. The systems in place pride themselves in the intellectual prowess of humans. They tend to argue against anything that would attack the premises of intellectual superiority and how education is supposed to cure all the ills of the human race. While educators promise utopian solutions, man continues in a downward spiral as jails grow overcrowded, drug abuse becomes rampant, and corporate greed causes financial giants to fall. Every strata of humanity continues to fail. They write God off as useless and irrelevant. Paul the apostle had a solution here too. We destroy arguments and every proud obstacle to the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:5 RSV) First of all, he attacks the ‘arguments’ of men and their reasonings., that is, their rationalizations by which they support and defend their spiritual errors. These ‘arguments’ are rooted in pride. Pride needs to be placed in subjection to Christ himself. It is a matter of choice. We must choose to bring our minds into spiritual submission to Christ. He is Truth. He is Life. He has the answers that human intellectuals demand. We can try to understand the ways of men with our flawed sinful minds, but in reality, only Christ can know what is in the minds of men. He made us after all.
Emotional traps:
We want to feel good. We love a ‘feel good’ gospel. We want the preacher to tell us that God loves us and His grace is far reaching. It’s true, but the other side is also true. His judgment is also far reaching. Our desire for emotional pleasure, happiness and satisfaction—when placed in carnal pursuits—will always lead us astray. Paul again warns young Timothy of the dangers of emotional excess in the last days. But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of stress. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, inhuman, implacable, slanderers, profligates, fierce, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. (2 Tim 3:1-4 RSV) The key words that stand out here are “stress”, ‘lovers of self” “lovers of money” “proud” “arrogant” “abusive” “disobedient” “ungrateful” “haters” “reckless” “lovers of pleasure”….and every one expresses the emotional characteristics of our culture today. Paul again has a solution for this as he continues in v 5 ...holding the form of religion but denying the power of it. Avoid such people. (2 Tim 3:5 RSV) Notice that these evil people are playing a game of pretend. They are actors (hypocrites) with a ‘form’ of religion but without power. Paul advises that we stay away from such people. Their influence can drag us down to their level. Sadly, too many of our churches today are filled with these pretenders. How can we tell the difference? The fruit of the life of a truly sincere and Godly Christian will be evident. They will be people of prayer, constantly in the Word of God, not seeking selfish interest or gain. Pleasures that satisfy for a moment should not have the highest place in their life. When Paul advises us to “avoid such people” he does not mean that we are to ignore them. After all, they need Jesus. But we can choose our friends, and the church we attend carefully. Place your feet in a church that tells it like the Bible says it. A ‘feel good’ gospel is not an honest presentation of the whole picture. Find a church that preaches power over sin, power to live in victory, power over the devil and the power of the Word and the blood of Jesus. Without these elements in the church today, the church itself becomes powerless.
Sensual traps
Satan is a master of the counterfeit .(2 Cor. 11:4,13,15). He masquerades as an angel of light, deceiving even the people of God. Some find themselves giving an ear to his seductive lies, “Its OK for Christians to have sex outside of marriage, to enjoy the love God created.” When we see spiritual authorities fail, we tell ourselves, if they can do it...we can too. It’s a lie! Those sensual traps he sets up for us are sure to catch us if we do not know the Word and, like Jesus, throw it at the devil when he comes with his seductive lies. He sets us up when he sees that our desires to please ourselves are more dominant that our desire to please the Lord.
The world tries to deal with sensual traps using laws, peer pressure, rehabilitation, jail, psychology, and any type of coercion to try to influence us to good behavior. But the root of the problem is pride….pride that leads us to believe we are OK and above others. Pride causes us to look down on others, especially those who have fallen into open blatant sin. The moment we think we are above the sin, we risk becoming victims of it. When we neglect the basics— reading our Bibles, going faithfully to church, spending time in prayer—we are sliding backwards into sin.
If we become lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, we have a form of religion that has no power. When we major on entertainment without a balance of prayer and intercession, we are in trouble.
Jesus promised that we would suffer persecution and be killed for His sake. The real prosperity message of the Word is that our souls would prosper, and that our treasures are to be laid up where moth and rust do not destroy. Today, our self-centered Christianity asks “What’s in it for me? What do I get out of it?” We want our rights, our needs, our way. We don’t want persecution or suffering, yet these very things are what makes for strong Christians and vibrant churches. It caused Christianity to blossom in it’s early stages. Today it continues to build strong churches in countries such as China and Russia where Christianity suffers constant harassment. It is never persecution that destroys the church but material prosperity. Today, our churches tend to be more like retirement communities and country clubs, where believers can safely retreat from the world, instead of being soul-saving stations where the lost find help and gain spiritual strength. Satan loves it when we entertain ourselves instead of fulfilling Jesus mandate to “go into all the world and preach the gospel”. While some sit idle, others are willing to go and seek the lost, tear down spiritual stronghold and challenge Satan’s grasp on God’s creation.
Spiritual warfare should be a part of every believers life. First of all it demands that we recognize that Satan is real and is out to destroy our walk with God. Then it demands that we take action. That action means prayer. In our own strength we can do nothing to counter Satan’s attacks. But through prayer, we can counterattack the strategies of Satan. When we pray, all the resources of heaven are working on our behalf. We have other weapons too. They are powerful, and they accomplish something. They destroy Satan’s strongholds of evil, but we must use them. They must be part of our daily life. Paul lists them in Galatians and calls them the ‘armor of God’.
We have to choose to be over-comers. Avoiding Satan’s schemes is possible when we stay spiritually alert, in the Word, with a clear focus and our weapons ready. As a good soldier goes into battle, he goes fully equipped, physically fit, and with the mission clearly in mind. He does not allow distractions to deter him from his purpose. God wants each of us to be good soldiers. He is seeking those who will avoid the enemies traps, to do the work of God, to disciple new recruits. What will you be in this New Year? A victim or a victor? Trapped or triumphant? Paul encouraged the churches saying… “I've found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty. Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am. (Philippians 4:12,13 The Message)
The One who makes us who we are is Jesus, our victorious Lord! He makes me a winner!

J. Johnson

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