Jer 1:4 Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Jer 1:5 Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.
Jer 1:6 Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child.
Jer 1:7 But the LORD said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak.
Jer 1:8 Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the LORD.
Jer 1:9 Then the LORD put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the LORD said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth.
Jer 1:10 See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant.
The calling of Jeremiah was a profound and powerful event in his life.
God let him know that before he was ever formed in his mother's womb, he was a chosen vessel in the mind and plan of God.
In meditating and studying this morning, I became intrigued by the distinction God made when He said to Jeremiah that he was called "to build, and to plant."
Building and planting are two very different processes.
When you build, your progress is only limited by your own personal limitations. If you have the resources, the project goes up faster the more effort you put into it.
Planting, however, is an act of faith that depends partly on conditions beyond your control. You are responsible for diligent preparation, but once you commit the seed to the soil, the results depend on things other than your personal sweat and toil.
We go to seminars and read books about how to "build" a church.
But honestly, an Apostolic church is an organic spiritual entity. It has to be panted and watered, and God alone can give the increase.
Maybe someone today needs encouragement because when you look out at your harvest field, what you see makes you feel like less than a success.
Remember this, faithful laborer...not everything worthwhile can be built; some things have to be planted.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Saturday, March 6, 2010
This Gospel Is Confrontational
1Co 4:15 For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.
1Co 4:16 Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me.
I sometimes wonder if Paul and the other Apostles would recognize us.
We have come to a place in time where the conventional wisdom instructs us to go to great lengths to be "seeker friendly" and do nothing whatsoever to ruffle anyone's feathers.
The modus operandi of many seems to be something like this...Make friends with people, tie them into the social structure of your church, sell them on your programs and how sweet you are, and when the time is right, sort of slip up alongside them and gradually edge them toward baptism in Jesus Name.
This approach can be seen in the websites of many churches, where there are lots of pictures of photogenic people and no doctrine to be found. This seems to be the complete opposite of Paul's methodology.
Paul disputed in synagogues, cast devils out of people on the streets, trumpeted the Oneness of God without apology, and generally raised cain with the religious status quo.
I'll be honest...in the past I have tried the soft, gradual approach with some people. It doesn't seem to yield much in the way of long lasting results. You wind up pouring a lot of time and energy into people only to see them mostly feel the "spirit" lead them elsewhere when they are finally confronted with some undiluted truth that crosses their flesh or theology.
People who, on the other hand, are brought to a crisis of belief by strong preaching, either make a decision to fall on the stone and be broken, or else they harden themselves and move on. But the ones who yield are much easier to disciple and teach. It seems that I have an easier time working with folks who are begotten by the gospel than folks who are won mostly through people skills.
I am not advocating rude, obnoxious behavior. That is a no-brainer. But I do think the Apostolic, Biblical model of preaching is strongly confrontational. Loving, and steeped in burden, but strong as lye soap and straight to the point.
I want people to like me. I want them to think I am nice.But most of all, I want them to come face to face with the Truth of God's Word.
Ladies and gentlemen, this Gospel is confrontational.
1Co 4:16 Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me.
I sometimes wonder if Paul and the other Apostles would recognize us.
We have come to a place in time where the conventional wisdom instructs us to go to great lengths to be "seeker friendly" and do nothing whatsoever to ruffle anyone's feathers.
The modus operandi of many seems to be something like this...Make friends with people, tie them into the social structure of your church, sell them on your programs and how sweet you are, and when the time is right, sort of slip up alongside them and gradually edge them toward baptism in Jesus Name.
This approach can be seen in the websites of many churches, where there are lots of pictures of photogenic people and no doctrine to be found. This seems to be the complete opposite of Paul's methodology.
Paul disputed in synagogues, cast devils out of people on the streets, trumpeted the Oneness of God without apology, and generally raised cain with the religious status quo.
I'll be honest...in the past I have tried the soft, gradual approach with some people. It doesn't seem to yield much in the way of long lasting results. You wind up pouring a lot of time and energy into people only to see them mostly feel the "spirit" lead them elsewhere when they are finally confronted with some undiluted truth that crosses their flesh or theology.
People who, on the other hand, are brought to a crisis of belief by strong preaching, either make a decision to fall on the stone and be broken, or else they harden themselves and move on. But the ones who yield are much easier to disciple and teach. It seems that I have an easier time working with folks who are begotten by the gospel than folks who are won mostly through people skills.
I am not advocating rude, obnoxious behavior. That is a no-brainer. But I do think the Apostolic, Biblical model of preaching is strongly confrontational. Loving, and steeped in burden, but strong as lye soap and straight to the point.
I want people to like me. I want them to think I am nice.But most of all, I want them to come face to face with the Truth of God's Word.
Ladies and gentlemen, this Gospel is confrontational.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
The Folly of Falling in Love With Goats
When I was a kid, there was a local character known by everyone as the "Goat Man." He lived in an old shed in a holler behind my granny's place. The lady who owned the property was kind enough to let him live there with his flock of goats.
His story was unusual. At one time he was a prosperous businessman who owned a tractor dealership. But then his son wound up cheating him out of the business and booting the old man out with nothing. This threw him into some sort of breakdown, and he decided that goats were better company than people.
He was harmless, but not too pleasant to be around. He stunk just like the goats he lived with.
In the church, I have seen people fall in love with goats. They form an emotional attachment to some rebellious type, and decide that if only the the church and pastor were more compassionate, this poor goat would find healing and restoration.
These folks often become quite judgmental in the throes of this misplaced compassion, and become so fixated on the object of their obsession that there is no spiritual or emotional energy left for the sheep that are all around them, some of them lost and struggling.
And ultimately, these goat lovers usually end up taking on the smell and nature of the goats they love.
I believe in reaching for lost and struggling sheep with everything within me...but hard experience has taught me the folly of falling in love with goats.
His story was unusual. At one time he was a prosperous businessman who owned a tractor dealership. But then his son wound up cheating him out of the business and booting the old man out with nothing. This threw him into some sort of breakdown, and he decided that goats were better company than people.
He was harmless, but not too pleasant to be around. He stunk just like the goats he lived with.
In the church, I have seen people fall in love with goats. They form an emotional attachment to some rebellious type, and decide that if only the the church and pastor were more compassionate, this poor goat would find healing and restoration.
These folks often become quite judgmental in the throes of this misplaced compassion, and become so fixated on the object of their obsession that there is no spiritual or emotional energy left for the sheep that are all around them, some of them lost and struggling.
And ultimately, these goat lovers usually end up taking on the smell and nature of the goats they love.
I believe in reaching for lost and struggling sheep with everything within me...but hard experience has taught me the folly of falling in love with goats.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Remember Me, O My God, for Good
Exo 17:13 And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.
Exo 17:14 And the LORD said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.
Yes, God said it.
He declared His intentions, clearly and without ambiguity. His plan was to erase the remembrance of an entire people group from under the heavens, to consign them to history's compost heap.
What could possibly cause our loving God to feel so strongly about an entire nation?
Whatever they did, I don't want to do.
Every week, I preach the Gospel of Christ. "I heard an old, old story/ How a Saviour came from glory"
I preach about the Jesus Who won't break a bruised reed or quench a smoking flax, a Jesus so tender and approachable that little children felt comfortable climbing up into His lap. That is His nature...or at least one facet of it.
But I fear that many modern believers have forgotten that God is also a God Who will demand an account of us on that great, gettin' up morning. We will be judged by the deeds done in this body, the actions we record on this side of the Milky Way.
Nehemiah spoke for all of us when he closed his book with these poignant words:
"Remember me, O my God, for good."
You see, God can forget. He is omnipotent. He can do anything.
I'm glad He has a good forgetter; He forgot my sins.
But what a fearful and awful thing it is to contemplate that the lost in hell will be obliterated from God's mind and memory.
In Ezekiel, speaking of Jerusalem, God said, "my mind was alienated from her." Sin did that.
Sin separates from God. Sin creates distance between man and his Creator. In eternity, the gulf will be too great to span, but today, while we still have an open door of opportunity, we can deal with the sin problem through the New Birth.
Repent of your sins.
Be baptized in Jesus Name for the remission of your sins.
Receive the Holy Ghost.
Live your life pleasing to Him.
And you can rest assured that your name will be found written in the Lamb's Book of Life.
Otherwise...
Ecc 8:10 And so I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone from the place of the holy, and they were forgotten in the city where they had so done: this is also vanity.
Exo 17:14 And the LORD said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.
Yes, God said it.
He declared His intentions, clearly and without ambiguity. His plan was to erase the remembrance of an entire people group from under the heavens, to consign them to history's compost heap.
What could possibly cause our loving God to feel so strongly about an entire nation?
Whatever they did, I don't want to do.
Every week, I preach the Gospel of Christ. "I heard an old, old story/ How a Saviour came from glory"
I preach about the Jesus Who won't break a bruised reed or quench a smoking flax, a Jesus so tender and approachable that little children felt comfortable climbing up into His lap. That is His nature...or at least one facet of it.
But I fear that many modern believers have forgotten that God is also a God Who will demand an account of us on that great, gettin' up morning. We will be judged by the deeds done in this body, the actions we record on this side of the Milky Way.
Nehemiah spoke for all of us when he closed his book with these poignant words:
"Remember me, O my God, for good."
You see, God can forget. He is omnipotent. He can do anything.
I'm glad He has a good forgetter; He forgot my sins.
But what a fearful and awful thing it is to contemplate that the lost in hell will be obliterated from God's mind and memory.
In Ezekiel, speaking of Jerusalem, God said, "my mind was alienated from her." Sin did that.
Sin separates from God. Sin creates distance between man and his Creator. In eternity, the gulf will be too great to span, but today, while we still have an open door of opportunity, we can deal with the sin problem through the New Birth.
Repent of your sins.
Be baptized in Jesus Name for the remission of your sins.
Receive the Holy Ghost.
Live your life pleasing to Him.
And you can rest assured that your name will be found written in the Lamb's Book of Life.
Otherwise...
Ecc 8:10 And so I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone from the place of the holy, and they were forgotten in the city where they had so done: this is also vanity.
Friday, November 6, 2009
A Tale of Two Transgressions
This morning during my devotional reading, I read John 8. In this chapter, we read the story of the woman taken in the act of adultery and brought to Jesus.
Countless sermons have been preached about the various elements of the story...the writing in the sand, the absence of her male counterpart, the accusers convicted by their own consciences, and the beautiful words of Christ, "Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more. "
What a beautiful depiction of the boundless mercy of Jesus this is.
What gracious words.
But later on in the chapter, we read of another encounter between Christ and a very different breed of transgressor.
He confronts the Pharisees, who refuse to accept Him for Who He is, the Son of God.
His words to them stand in stark contrast to the words he spoke to the scarlet woman.
Joh 8:21 Then said Jesus again unto them, I go my way, and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins: whither I go, ye cannot come.
He acknowledged that they would seek Him; and yet, He plainly said, "ye shall die in your sins."
Why would the gentle Saviour who so readily forgave the adulteress speak words so utterly devoid of hope to these men?
Because even more serious than fleshly transgressions is the refusal to accept revelation when it is staring you in the face. If you will not accept that Jesus Christ is God manifest in the flesh, you can never have a sin remitted.
His interaction with them was confrontational. It was direct. It was without circumlocution or glib oratory.
Joh 8:23 And he said unto them, Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world.
He was from above. He came crashing into their well ordered religious tradition and declared Himself, and they rejected Him.
Thank God for the precious Truth of the Mighty God in Christ, for without this revelation, there is no remedy for sin.
Joh 8:24 I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.
He is the great I Am, the Everlasting father, the Prince of Peace.
I believe. I hope you do too.
While we resist the sins of the flesh, and rightfully so, let us not forget that perhaps an even graver spiritual condition is the refusal of revelation.
Think on these things.
jdc
Countless sermons have been preached about the various elements of the story...the writing in the sand, the absence of her male counterpart, the accusers convicted by their own consciences, and the beautiful words of Christ, "Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more. "
What a beautiful depiction of the boundless mercy of Jesus this is.
What gracious words.
But later on in the chapter, we read of another encounter between Christ and a very different breed of transgressor.
He confronts the Pharisees, who refuse to accept Him for Who He is, the Son of God.
His words to them stand in stark contrast to the words he spoke to the scarlet woman.
Joh 8:21 Then said Jesus again unto them, I go my way, and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins: whither I go, ye cannot come.
He acknowledged that they would seek Him; and yet, He plainly said, "ye shall die in your sins."
Why would the gentle Saviour who so readily forgave the adulteress speak words so utterly devoid of hope to these men?
Because even more serious than fleshly transgressions is the refusal to accept revelation when it is staring you in the face. If you will not accept that Jesus Christ is God manifest in the flesh, you can never have a sin remitted.
His interaction with them was confrontational. It was direct. It was without circumlocution or glib oratory.
Joh 8:23 And he said unto them, Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world.
He was from above. He came crashing into their well ordered religious tradition and declared Himself, and they rejected Him.
Thank God for the precious Truth of the Mighty God in Christ, for without this revelation, there is no remedy for sin.
Joh 8:24 I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.
He is the great I Am, the Everlasting father, the Prince of Peace.
I believe. I hope you do too.
While we resist the sins of the flesh, and rightfully so, let us not forget that perhaps an even graver spiritual condition is the refusal of revelation.
Think on these things.
jdc
Thursday, November 5, 2009
The Origin of Sound--Listen Up
The other day I was sitting at a red light when I heard the "bomp, bomp, bomp" of a violent stereo with the bass turned up all the way. It rattled windows all up and down the street.
Instantly, I began looking for the origin of the sound. It didn't take long to discover it--a low rider in the next lane. I winced as I watched the guy swaying and vibrating to the music.
The Scripture tells us that there are many voices in the world, and none of them is without signification. Every voice has identifying characteristics, and every voice has a point of origin.
Voices are powerful; voices give us guidance.
What voices are you listening to, and what is their point of origin?
Act 2:1 And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
Act 2:2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
Act 2:3 And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.
Act 2:4 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
The sound I'm listening for comes from above, and originates in the Heavens. It is a clear sound, a certain sound, a clarion call that resonates with power and rings with authority, though it has been called a "still, small voice."
Voices from the horizontal plane can lead you astray and bring confusion into your world.
Listen up--and keep lifting your look.
jdc
Instantly, I began looking for the origin of the sound. It didn't take long to discover it--a low rider in the next lane. I winced as I watched the guy swaying and vibrating to the music.
The Scripture tells us that there are many voices in the world, and none of them is without signification. Every voice has identifying characteristics, and every voice has a point of origin.
Voices are powerful; voices give us guidance.
What voices are you listening to, and what is their point of origin?
Act 2:1 And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
Act 2:2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
Act 2:3 And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.
Act 2:4 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
The sound I'm listening for comes from above, and originates in the Heavens. It is a clear sound, a certain sound, a clarion call that resonates with power and rings with authority, though it has been called a "still, small voice."
Voices from the horizontal plane can lead you astray and bring confusion into your world.
Listen up--and keep lifting your look.
jdc
A Day Late and a Dollar Short
Well, I guess I have finally decided to join the 21st Century and begin a blog. I'm not sure exactly what you are supposed to do with one of these things, but I suppose since it is mine I can do what I want to do with it.
Seriously, I hope that we can share some thoughts about the things of God, life, the Word, and other matters that matter.
I look forward to hearing from my friends, and hopefully connecting with some new ones.
Keep looking up,
jdc
Seriously, I hope that we can share some thoughts about the things of God, life, the Word, and other matters that matter.
I look forward to hearing from my friends, and hopefully connecting with some new ones.
Keep looking up,
jdc
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