In a society where we have so many churches and very few true Believers, what is really the problem? From personal experiences I discovered that the problem is not the church, either is the problem the people, rather the problem is from some Preachers who have decided to take out the most important messages from the WORD and MODERNIZE it to self gaining business.
The fact is that there is no point generalizing because Jesus made it clear enough to us when He said "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves"(Matthew 7:15). This False Prophets are the major problems that we have today in the church. It is not only affecting the church but also the world.
They are among us but they are not one of us. They live with us but they are not like us. They do the things we do but they interpret the WORD to suit themselves. They redefined the morals, norms, standard and ways of the CHURCH. They don't believe in so many things in the Bible. They also look for a way to make people not to believe in those things because that is the only way they can achieve their personal purpose.
As someone who has received Christ and working to understand the messages of Christ, I was thrilled with the discovery that a lot of churches today have forgotten the primary messages of the church and so have replaced the insignificant messages. I hasten to express my concern about modernizing the WORD in the CHURCH of God today.
I admit I was ignorant, but I am not anymore. Why we need to know about the right messages in the church of God today is because the modification of church messages is majorly what is causing confusion and division in the house of God and exposing people more to the world rather than understanding the WORD of God. If we don't understand the will and purpose of God concerning the church there will be a very big vacuum that might not be occupied in this generation and generations to come.
The world today, people are more interested in the arresting rather than the significant. The whole idea of messaging in the church today is to make people come to church and not paying attention to the Salvation of a person's soul. This concept has totally brought the world into the church and instead of the church reforming the world as the Bible describes that "Ye are the salt of the earth(Matthew 5:13,KJV), the church decided to embrace the world and modifies the contents of the church messages to suit the world. Giving the world full access into the church.
The above Scripture explains to us that if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. What do we see, the world is now telling the church how to run her activities. They paint God and the anointing to people as something that is cheap, modernizing the Sermon of GRACE to make people comfortable in CHURCH while still enjoying SIN.
More than ever, sighting the future from where we are now, of a truth, there is a need for the people to have a better and sound understanding of the WORD of God. In the course of preaching in most churches, what people are been thought is how to improve themselves and honour pastors. Financial growth and how to become successful in life. In most churches today if you are not succeeding, you are not relevant in the church. You can not sit where the important personnels are sitting.
If a preacher is teaching the WORD the way it is, people see that preacher today as been bordering, old fashioned preacher. What they care about is someone that will tell them what they want to hear. If some essentials are not well emphasis on, what then is the church created for? What do we really mean when we tell ourselves that we are saved? If we do not understand certain things, we might not be able to come into completeness in the body of Christ.
I attended a leadership program with a friend some years ago. There was a class on Success and the speaker said something about being successful in life. One of his points was that, in order for you to be successful in life you must do away with certain things like bad companies, etc. After the class, I got talking with my friend and we started asking ourselves questions about the lecture. My friend said to me that one of the reasons she goes to church is to get to know about the secrets of success and also to mingle with the very rich people. According to her, churches that uses Sunday services to enlighten people about things like Success Skills are places where you meet the very rich people. Wow! Very surprising to me because I actually thought that the WORD of God is being implanted inside of her. Then I asked her what exactly was she talking about. She said to me that anything outside meeting rich people or lectures on how to become successful in life, she has no business with the church. After all, she can live her life as long as God's grace abound.
I was dumbfounded, I couldn't say a word because at that point I heard nothing to say to her. She left me there and walked away. A young girl was there listening to us and she said to me that she liked the fact that I didn't say anything to her again because it will be a wasted effort. Her reason was that my friend had a mindset and she is working on it. The girl then told me how she lost a very good friend because of messages like this in church.
She narrated her story of how poor they were during her University days and how she used to go and asked a particular friend for financial assistance. One day she went because she needed to rushed back to school for her exams and her friend told her that after listening to lectures on how poor people can add problems to your life because all they do is to come and ask from you and they never stop asking, is to stay away from them. Interestingly, that was how she lost her childhood friend of 25years, and her friend never kept in touch with her for a while.
She said that she almost missed her exams that semester but she had no choice than to go to God in prayers and God made a way for her. Today, she is good and doing well with a good job. Her friend has till not become the billionaire, even though they see sometimes, they are never friends again.
People have different ways of perceiving things in life. If my friend didn't make me realized her reasons for going to church I wouldn't have believed the young lady. But apart from the girl, I heard other people narrating similar experiences and it is the messages people are getting from the church.
I had to sit down and mull over these things over and over again and then asked myself, if the church messages can not mood people positively anymore what then is the church created for? No wonder, the poor are dying everyday in poverty and the church members do not see it as a priority to help.
Now, the reason from my own view is that the message content of the CHURCH has lost it taste. In my childhood days, the church used to be a place where people come in with evil intentions, wicked mindset, jealousy, hatred, pains, frustration, sadness, depression, shame, rejection, confusion, reproach, and after listening to a Sermon they leave the CHURCH a different person. A renewed person with a POSITIVE mindset that God can do it. They leave the CHURCH been HEALED and DELIVERED of those negative things through the WORD of God.
Today, we have people who are dying in frustration, depression and all of these things we mentioned above yet they can't find HEALING and DELIVERANCE. If we have so many CHURCHES planted everywhere, why are the people of God dying in IGNORANCE, SHAME, and REPROACH? What is missing in the CHURCH of God today?
This problem that has affected the Church is seriously affecting the World because Jesus said "Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid"(Matthew 5:14). Where is the LIGHT that is meant to REFLECT from the CHURCH of God? Where are those that are meant to RAISE a STANDARD for the people of God to follow?
People are in the CHURCH but they are not part of the CHURCH. They come to church sick and leave the church sick. The sickness in this context is not the physical illness but in the area of not knowing who they truly are in Christ. When you come to God, it is important you don't leave the same way you came.
Some modernized Preachers paint the sermon of GRACE without letting the people know the things that walks along with GRACE and the only passport to accessing divine GRACE. What the church is all about is to lead the UNGUIDED and captives to Christ. Jesus called believers the SALT and LIGHT of the WORLD. As a mirror of Christ, what Jesus preached and did is what the believers are meant to do. However, when a salt looses it saltiness of what use is the salt in the food? As a SALT you are supposed to add Christ in the lives of the people in the world. Teaching them the necessary things they need to know, what our Heavenly Father is saying.
"According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:"(Ephesians 1:4). Following the Scripture, in order to access divine GRACE fully, you must be HOLY and walk in LOVE. Walking in LOVE, you can not get perfectly if you do not live a HOLY life because it is also being at peace with all men. "Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:"(Hebrews 12:14).
What Is A Church? A church is a place of worship. Let's look into it, is there really a point emphasizing on the insignificant as a sermon? Are the insignificance teaching really a topic that should be discussed in the church? I decided to write on this topic when during evangelism I met a young lady who asked me what it means to be born again and how do one knows if his or she is born again. I couldn't hold my peace, I asked the young lady immediately if she has been a Christian. Infact, she is not just a Christian but a worker in her local Church. I was amazed but then I realized that Jesus made us to understand that there are wolves in human clothing among Us.
The first and most important thing the world should know is to understand how serious obeying God's commandment is. It is important that in all thee getting you get understanding. Understanding God's Laws and Commandments will save not only the world from destructions but also her people. Obedience to God is the first principle to knowing who and what the church is all about. However, you are the church. As a church you must know the content to give out to the world. Let your messages to people reflect positively. The world needs to obey the Laws and Commandments of God. Yes, His grace abound but we can't allow sin to dominant us and then talk of abounding grace. There is no grace in sin. Do not be deceived.
The truth is, False preachers say things like Hell is not real. These preachers never preach on sin because they don’t want to offend anyone. They twist the Bible to justify sin. A Christian who doesn’t do what Christians are supposed to do. Many are just motivational speakers. They only talk about love and your best life now. Who’s going to talk about the severity of God?
The Scripture says in 1Timothy 6:5 "Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself." Their minds are corrupt, and they have turned their backs on the truth. To them, a show of godliness is live your life the way you want as long as grace abound. But do they tell YOU that there is no grace in SIN?
The Bible made us to understand that a time will come when people will not listen to accurate teachings. Instead, they will follow their own desires and surround themselves with teachers who tell them what they want to hear and give them signs that they seek. People will refuse to listen to the truth and turn to myths. "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables"(2Timothy 4:3-4).
Believe it or not, that time is now. Beware of FALSE PROPHETS! The only way to God is to live a HOLY life and holiness can not be "Except one is BORN AGAIN"(John 3:3). Yes, Being born again is not to suffer or live a useless or poverty live. However, being Born Again is surrendering totally to God. Allowing God to be the centre of your life. And for God to be the centre of your life, it means that SIN must not be seen around you.
Understand that God is not a dirty God. Any Preacher who allow SIN to dominant him and he is still performing miracles, RUN! God can not and will not be associated to filthiness, Unrighteousness, unholiness, can never be seen in God because God is HOLY. Guide your heart jealousy for every man will give an account of himself on that great day.
True Repentance is total separation from SIN. It is to Let go and Let God into all that concerns you in life. It is knowing the dos and don't of the Almighty. Serve God in truth and Spirit. HoLINESS beget SUFFICIENT GRACE.
the sufficient grace of God will lead you to Holiness, not holiness beget the grace of God
ReplyDeletethere is a big difference to that
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