Are We Losing The Culture War

Christian, are you afraid we are losing the culture war? It should be no surprise society is becoming more and more immoral and Christian values, which use to be a norm in America, are disappearing. It would be difficult arguing anything other than Christian morals and beliefs are being systematically disassembled year after year by an unending onslaught by atheist and those supporting a relaxed social standard.

America Has Changed

But are we too focused on trying to hold the line to preserve Christian values?...

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Christian Backsliders: Leaving The Faith

Have you ever had an experience where someone you once knew seemed to be on fire for God but then cooled off like lava pouring into the sea. They use to volunteer at church but now if they come for Christmas and Easter your surprised. I have. So what happened? Are they what we commonly call backsliders? To find out let's look at a "backslider" from scripture; a man called Demus. Continue Reading.

Giving Using an Acts 1:8 Approach

Around Christmas time we begin to get bombarded with different ministries each wanting our support. The last few years have been financially tough on gospel ministries who are all competing for a ever decreasing pool of donations. Supporting ministries that spread the gospel is important and is another way you can reach more people for Christ. But which ones and how many? My wife and I a few years ago decided we needed to develop a giving plan to support some solid ministries that promote the gospel. With so many choices we made a plan using the Acts 1:8 approach. Read More

Basin Theology: The Missionary Mindset

My original impetus in starting this blog was to encourage other Christians to view their immediate surrounding as the personal mission field given to them by God. Hence the title of the blog: Where You Are...Evangelism. It is still for this purpose and this was reminded to me again by my pastor’s sermon this morning.

As for some background, my pastor has led us into a time of inward evaluation of where our church is in obedience to God’s plan for His church. To aid in this we have used the Transformational Church program (TC) as a guide. One of the questions asked by TC that struck the loudest chord was, if your Church disappeared would anyone realize it was gone. We could even ask ourselves this question. If you disappeared would there be any less impact on your community for the gospel? 

The illustration used by my pastor was something he called basin theology. Let's look at Mathew 27:24.

When Pilate saw that he was accomplishing nothing, but rather that a riot was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this Man’s blood; see to that yourselves.”

Pilate washed his hands in the basin of self. He knew what was right but in order to continue his comfortable life he was unwilling to change. Many Christians are in this position. We know our responsibility. We know we should speak to our neighbors, friends, family, and strangers about the kingdom of God. Instead we wash our hand of responsibility believing we will not be held accountable. 

Now let’s move on to John 13:5, 16-17 and examine the basin theology of Christ.

⁵Then He poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded…¹⁶ Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him. ¹⁷ If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.

Here we see Christ and the basin of others. Whereas Pilate used his basin to wash away responsibility Christ’s basin is used to wash away ourselves in service to God. As John the Baptist understood, we are to decrease and He is to increase. We are placed where we are to serve God as He pleases, not as we please. Let us know these things and do them!

God made me to be a missionary

God made me to reach other for Him

God made me to care for others more than I care for myself

God made us to minister to the needs of others.

God made us to be missionaries. Let’s Do It!

The Drive-Thru Diference?

You may have heard about the drive-thru difference. This is being promoted by different radio stations but in particular the one in the Washington DC area is where I first heard it. The concept is this, when you go to pay for your order pay for the one behind you as well. Sounds like a nice thing to do, right? After all Christ said it’s better to give than receive. However, I was bothered by this. At first I didn't know why but after some study and thought I found why I take issue with how this is being promoted. To illustrate the problem let’s look at what is posted on the radio station’s website. Here we find a flyer they suggest you leave for the person behind you to read explaining what just happened. This is what it says:

Hi! I just wanted you to know someone cares. You don’t know me, but I’ve just paid for your order. Just something I felt like doing. I heard about people doing things for others on the radio on WGTS 91.9. They call it the Drive-Thru Difference. Maybe you’ll feel like doing it for someone else and sharing. I hope this encourages you today! (Emphasis added)

Did you catch that last part? The reason they suggest you are doing this is to encourage others. Encourage them to what? Die in their sins? What is missing from this message? It’s the Gospel. Being this is a Christian radio station you would presume that Christians are the ones asked to do this. Instead what happens is another wasted opportunity to share the good news of the saving grace of God. So what if some lost person gets a free Big Mac. All that does is allow a person to go to hell with a full stomach and wallet. We need to proclaim the Word of God. As Jesus said, there will always be poor among you (John 1:28) but what we will not always have is time itself. If you want to pay for the person behind you great, I have done this many times. But instead of leaving a radio promotion behind leave a gospel tract. The fruits of repentance cannot grow if the seed is not first planted. Go serve and obey.

"Jesus Was Perfect But So Am I"

Photo by Leo Reynolds'

The Bible says that man will usually declare his own righteousness if given the chance. 

 "Most men will proclaim every one his own goodness" - Proverbs 20:6

 I was reminded of this when discussing the commandments with a gentleman at the local county fair. After looking at a few of them in detail like lying, stealing and lust we discovered he had not broken a single one. (1 John 1:10) I told him that was remarkable because I only knew one perfect person and that is Jesus Christ. In his audacity he calmly declared that he knew Jesus was perfect but that he was also.

I asked him to look at himself very carefully in the light of God's word because if he had told just one lie in his entire life he was destine to hell according to the scriptures. (Rev 21:8) I then bid him fair well. 

No matter how good of a person you think you are the One who made you knows your heart. And the truth is just as the prophet Jeremiah said, your heart is deceitful above all things. (Jeremiah 17:9) Examine yourself while you still have time. Repent and put your trust in the Savior.

"But for the cowardly, unbelieving, sinners, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their part is in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death." Revelations 21:8

Declaring the Truth in Words

“…that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.  And these things we write to you that your joy may be full.” – 1 John 1:3-4

Truth must be proclaimed always. And that Truth is that there is no fellowship with God apart from Jesus Christ. But which Jesus Christ? Since the beginning Satan has been at work to deceive those who do not know the scriptures. A task he has been very successful at. Look at the ranks of JW’s and Mormons. Look at the theology of the Catholic Church. In each case the nature of Jesus Christ is attacked and replaces by a false theology. The JW’s say Jesus is the archangel, to the Mormons he a created being and the brother of Satan, to the Catholic he is ineffectual without the nagging of his mother Mary on the sinners behalf. I heard John MacArthur say once that the greatest thing we have is Truth and the greatest threat to it is error. How right he is. Words have meanings and if we do not clarify those meaning we can hold entire conversations thinking we are in agreement while all the time our definitions and our understand of truth be diametrically opposed. We can speak of repentance. We can talk about Christ. But if we do not define our words when speaking to those lost in false religions we can do great damage.

Foolish Atheist Agruments: How to deal with them?

Bobby Henderson in his protest to the teaching of Intelligent Design in Kansas developed the absurd argument that there is a deity that resembles spaghetti and meatballs. Its name? The flying Spaghetti Monster. This was meant to be satire but asserts that creationist claims that there is a God goes without proof and thereby makes an untestable claim. However, this is a false assertion. Spending some time in the scriptures would show them where the proof can be found.

"Listen to this, O Job; Stand still and consider the wondrous works of the Lord." - Job 37:14

Mr. Henderson should consider the works of creation. God has put us here in the middle of all His creation and we still look around blindly and deny His being. Man will go so far as they need to, even to create false idols in the form of a spaghetti gods, just to remove the fear of future judgment.

"Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment" - Hebrews 9:27

Mankind loves its sin and will do anything to keep it. If we can remove God we can indulge in any sinful pleasure without fear of judgment. Remember when dealing with people who want to argue the existence of God that they are really covering up sin. You could waste many hours of time going point by point trying to convince them of their logical failings. Instead, go for the conscience by using the law and allowing the Holy Spirit to do His work.