The Problem…

In some ways it’s the height of comical irony that a culture such as ours so steeped in the worship and reverence of love could have it so wrong…

but it does.

It’s often confused with sex, perhaps as a result of the perception that it’s somehow inherently explained by the misleading commonly used expression

“make love”.

Sadly, many settle for the red-headed step-child of love “attention” primarily because we don’t really know the difference. Children, both young and old, act out in bad behaviors that are really just cries for help or for “love”.

It’s sometimes described as a feeling, but that’s kind of like saying Gods creation is God and then worshiping “it” instead of Him. We’re told that love is a choice, which is true, but how does that help us to make loving choices? We’re inundated with a constant flow of dis-functional concepts and examples from every possible source! Through the song lyrics that brainwash us daily all the way back to the fairytale stories that were read to us as children.

I feel very comfortable in saying that all of the most screwed up things that you and I have done in our lives are directly related to our misunderstanding of God and of love, and our search for both.

Almost invariably, mans search for love and his quest for the understanding of it are motivated only by his selfish desires to marshal it’s great power for his own purposes. Man has become a master at peddling illusions and perpetrating lies on his fellow man in order to get what he wants. One is seen as being successful in this life by demonstrating an ability to manipulate others and more importantly to convince themselves that it’s love that they’re offering. None of which would be possible apart from the basic ignorance about the true nature of love that’s so prevalent. We’re like blind people feeling around in the dark who are stung, bitten and burned as a result of working through a process of elimination hoping to find the real thing.

As unfortunate as ignorance is,there’s still cause for hope in that ignorance can be dealt with through simple knowledge. Whats most unfortunate are those of us who have allowed fear to take hold of our spirits. In acting out of fear we acknowledge our own personal insufficiency by believing that we are the source of our limited provision. We’ve been taught to look out for number one which is of course ourselves because if we don’t who will? certainly not a benevolent God, afterall, everyone knows that God helps those who help themselves right?. But in truth, God helps or comes to save those who absolutely cannot help or save themselves!

And that’s exactly the work I believe God is wanting to use His church to accomplish!

God Is Love!

As His representatives and ambassadors, disciples and followers, evangelist’s and ministers, church members and children, shouldn’t we have, based on our personal relationship with Jesus, a much greater familiarity with love than those who don’t or who aren’t any of those things?

Love is the answer!

Perhaps we as the church have forgotten that. We live in the midst of a world full of people who are crying out for answers, are we prepared to give them? Shouldn’t we be the ones teaching the world about love?  This world is a vineyard ripe for harvest, and the only real preparation necessary for us as Christians is to truly receive that love and those answers first ourselves! How can we say that we know the Lord, or that we’ve accepted Christ as our Savior, and then stand idly by in the presence of so much need in our own assigned area’s of mission field earth?

We’ve been given the perfect example of what love is in Christ.

I don’t think there’s any way that I personally could ever be thankful enough for what He did for me. If I really mean that, then what does it mean?

We need more than a “revival” what we need is a revolution! A love revolution…

And since love is an action word, a “verb”, that means we need to shift our focus away from merely talking about it week in and week out to one of making some thoughtful plans to implement it in some way scratch that, every way possible! I’m not talking about some token “feel good” project that doesn’t require much from us. What I’m suggesting here is that we work in earnest the great harvest that’s been prepared before us! Just as Christ held nothing back on our behalf, How can we do any less?

We can make the most of the opportunity before us by bringing everything we have to bear on this Kingdom battle for the souls of those around us who our Heavenly Father dearly loves!

Or we can listen to fear…

It’s a choice each of us has to make,there is no way to “abstain”

We can either choose to live in love or be imprisoned by fear.

We can choose to serve the One True God and His Kingdom…

Or be a slave to the one who opposed Him and who is also our enemy.

Is that a problem?

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Let It Begin

If you should attend an American Christian Church it’s likely that at some point you’ll hear the term “Revival” used. In conjunction, you’ll probably also hear the word “Evangelism” spoken as well. These words conjure up images of fiery preaching that takes place in a tent on a steamy summer night by a traveling minister of the Gospel. Or perhaps a man standing on a street corner passing out gospel tracts to passersby attempting to engage them in a one on one discussion as to the eternal destiny of their souls. Everyone who calls himself a Christian has  been commissioned to “go out into the world and make disciples” by whatever means is available to them. To that end,  Americans give enormous amounts of money to support our local church’s and overseas missionaries. Some of us are also involved in various capacities within the church or are busy conducting outreach ministries. With all of these ongoing evangelistic endeavors I wonder why the church is still in need of revival. What I mean is,  given the number of Christians in this country and all of the efforts being put forth by them I would think that we would have folks standing outside the doors of our church’s waiting to get in but of course that’s not the case. Instead, statistics I’ve seen say that for every church that opens one closes and that most of the new members added are simply people who became dissatisfied in some way with their previous church.

It’s really not that difficult to get new people to come to your church.  As I mentioned previously,   Some congregations offer relevant targeted programs designed to be of interest to people outside the church to get them inside the doors. There are door to door invitations that are extended to people and even personal canvassing of one’s own friends and extended circle of influence. All of these are good and you’ll almost always get some response from them.  And while you may see a bump in the attendance numbers for a few weeks too often that’s about it! While this is perhaps an acceptable scenario if one is selling Amway or some other multilevel marketing product to people, I don’t feel as though it’s an outcome that we as the church should be satisfied with.

Being able to keep what you have is a critical principle of heating and cooling that’s accomplished by using insulation, we can get all of the people we want into the church but without having Jesus to meet them and keep them there we’re wasting our time!   If we’re NOT living in victory and demonstrating to them a genuine and powerful life changing faith empowered by His Holy Spirit or offering them a hope that’s beyond this life and showing them the love that’s been shown to us then exactly what do we have to offer them?  If people who come to our church’s can’t see Jesus in us then we have a much bigger problem on our hands than how to fill our sanctuaries. If we’re not living examples of what having Jesus in your life means then about all they’ll see is a bunch of hypocrites! The devil will make sure of that…

Of course we’re not perfect, but I believe that we as the church have got to get serious about allowing God’s Holy Spirit to fill us and help us to put our own spiritual house in order if we truly want to be the vessel He uses to bring revival in our nation!  It’s our personal choice to make whether we want to be the church of Laodacea or the church of Philadelphia, I say personal because each of us is a walking talking “church of something” we’re all “selling what we’re living”!  I say “choice” because God gave all of us a free will, and we’re free to decide which area’s we do and don’t give over to God.  We each must individually choose to make Jesus Lord over everything in our lives! The alternative is to presume that the Holy Spirit is going to cohabitate with a bunch of dirty stinking rotten sin that we’re still holding onto in our lives…or even worse, that He’s unable or unwilling to deliver us from it… which is a lie straight out of the pit of hell!

That’s living in defeat, not victory!  We’re called to Holiness which is the highest expression of love toward Jesus,Others and Yourselves! It’s also the greatest aversion to everything which isn’t holy, that means that we as individuals should have no tolerance for any form of sin in our lives! It is to be rooted out and dealt with. No exceptions, no blaming or finger pointing at each other, no excuses as to why we just can’t do that or why “That stuff just happens” …We’ve been empowered by the blood of Christ to be that Holy, spotless, bride of Christ and we’re either going to pick that up and run with it or we’re going to let the Devil deceive us into “Not being so unrealistic” or perhaps he’ll convince us that by doing that we’ll be “over our heads” and might find ourselves in places we’ve never been that are scary! Oh they’re scary all right, but not to us! they are however terrifying to the demons we’re harboring and if you want to see the devil squirm and panic build an altar in your home and then use it!  Keep a prayer log of things you’ve prayed for and the answers you’ve gotten, or how about getting rid of that “portal of sin” known as a television!!! OOOHHHH! you really hate me now! You choose! blessings or curses, excuses or victories, ourselves or Jesus, our will or the Fathers, We’ve been deceived into believing that we can have both by the liar and we most certainly…cannot.

More than anything, I want to truly be crucified with Christ, to be a new creation that the Holy Spirit would find willing, empty and ready to be filled, So let it begin with my surrender!

I can’t change anybody,  but I believe that if I die to myself and am filled with the Spirit then ALL things become possible with Christ!

John 12:32

“And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.”

He said that by His death, which happened when they lifted Him up on a cross after nailing Him to it…that all men would be drawn unto Him.

You want a revival so great that you won’t believe it? Do you want to see a move of the Spirit like what happened at Pentecost? I’m looking for it to happen at least one more time before He returns for His church, and I believe that when it does happen it’s going to stun and bewilder the entire world! I want to work that harvest, and even though it’s late in the day I’m signing on…Will you come too?

This is my first move!

Father God,

I humbly ask your forgiveness for my pridefulness,my arrogance, and for all of the ways that I have fallen short and sinned against you. Father, search my heart! I ask that you would send your spirit again to convict me of all the sin in my life that has to go. Even though I’m so unworthy of it my desire is to be a surrendered vessel filled with your Holy Spirit. To be empowered to victory over those sins by the atoning blood of my Lord and Savior Christ Jesus who was crucified,died, and rose on the third day. Father, I’m so thankful that you sent your son that I might receive His righteousness and be restored In Christ to a right relationship with You. Help us as your children to be obedient that we might be worthy of your calling and to call you Father God.

Father we ask these things in the name of Jesus!

Amen