Adapt, for the Sake of the Gospel!

Adaptability, it is something that I have never been very good at and in fact as I age it is something that I am becoming worse about.  One thing I will say is that I recognize this as being true about myself and having pondered it I thought it important to share these thoughts with you as I think it important that all Christians prepare for change.

As I write this, seven weeks ago I severely broke my fifth finger (pinkie) on my right hand and so much of what was a part of my daily life came to a screeching halt.  If you have ever sustained an injury like that you learned as I have that you have taken something for granted.  Everything from brushing your teeth to taking a shower or eating or reaching in a pocket is affected and you have to learn how to do things differently.

Normally my day begins at 4 a.m. and I use the extra time so that I can write mostly for my International Sunday School Lesson commentary at http://theadultsundayschool.blogspot.com/ but alas that too was affected as I found the action too painful.  I have continued to get out of bed at the same time but I have just mourned by ability to type instead of adapting.  Until today I hadn’t even thought much of how I could change and do the work of the gospel in a different manner.  I know now that I might have put just some notes down for future lessons or maybe some verbal recordings.  I might have read more but I wasted my time instead of adapting.

Today the pain and lack of mobility is still there and I am making a lot of mistakes but I can type with nine fingers and remind you that we have in store for us a great deal of change.  Change that will bring much pain and disorder for us as Christians but we must not stop the work that we are to be about in the sharing of the gospel as we wait for good times to return.  Instead we must adapt and think of new ways to share the good news.

If you aren’t about the work you should be as a Christian then now is a good time to start before the times become harder.  By learning to type long ago I can adapt to one less finger for the process.  Christ told us that as the end nears we will face very dark and perilous times as followers of His.  By learning the ways of sharing the gospel now you will more readily adapt as persecution rises and your daily life becomes more strained but the need for the gospel more urgent.

I pray you are a quicker learner than I have been!

Do you think God wants you to be timid when it comes to the gospel? Be bold!

A recent sermon that I heard has caused me to ponder something both during the sermon and now days later.  My hope in sharing this with you is less that it will result in your asking yourself something but more that through you others will ask themselves something.

This sermon was based for the most part on that often overlooked book of Philippians where the sermon concentrated on the third chapter taking from it the apparent joy that Paul felt in the life he now lived of struggle.

The life that Paul lived before would have been considered by a Jew as a successful one.  He was a student and zealous follower of the law but in looking back at that life Paul considered it all a waste, a loss.  All the things he accomplished and all the life he lived before, Paul considered rubbish.

First let me say that due to the constraints of a sermon or even a blog format not all aspects of an issue can be presented.  And quite often the giver of a sermon or the writer of a lesson must measure his words but in so doing the ones that most need to be convicted in their hearts are not awakened from their slumber.  Whether that should be the case is a question for another day but let’s make these that follow ones for today.

I would like you to broach with boldness all those with whom you associate who are Christians these questions because I think it will serve to strengthen the message of the gospel and therefore glorify the Father.

After referencing this idea of the conflict that those who are being sanctified experience, ask these questions: Do you feel the struggle, the conflict and feel the joy to which Paul refers?  Do you consider all the life you lived before becoming a Christian as rubbish?

My fear, brothers and sisters, is that you will be greeted for the most part with blank stares of non-comprehension.  This is as if to say, “Why should I be in a struggle or struggling with what?” or “How can I feel joy from something that is causing me pain?”

Paul said in the previous chapter that we as Christians should shine as stars in a crooked and depraved generation.  Just as this depravity existed then so does it now and just as then, these to whom Paul spoke were advised to work out their salvation with fear and trembling.

If those you ask for the most part were not aware of this and of the conflict they should be experiencing on the road of sanctification then I can only pray that your reminding them will eventually result in the conviction you desire.

Your church might be stacking up the numbers of new members or it might only occur once in a while, but please have in place within your church the fertile soil of mature Christian teachers and solid Biblical education not the curriculum that you must purchase.  Spend your thousands on those who have yet to hear the good news, those who are risking all to deliver it and on those who are in need, first within your midst and then without.

For our part, as those more mature in the faith, we must be like Paul who himself in Philippians 3:12-17 acknowledges that in this struggle that is sanctification he had not obtained all that he should be or been made perfect.  But let us be examples like Paul and strain toward that goal.

We serve as examples but so do all those who surround us.  We should hate the life we lived before Christ and the life that we live now should not resemble that life.  If we still look the same to the world we cannot effectively strengthen the gospel and bring glory to God.

Blessings,

Jed

Are We Building Towards a Perfect Storm?

By

Jed Greenough

Solar flares

Tsunamis

Earthquakes

Dying forests

Dying economies

Revolutions

Riots

Churches with a form of godliness only

Technology

Acceptance of deviant lifestyles

Famine

Inequality

Weakening good and strengthening evil

Increasing persecution

Increasing deceit

Where I live I have often had the opportunity to watch as massive powerful storm clouds build up with frightening rapidity and billow and spread thousands and thousands of feet into the sky. 

The sight is awe inspiring and it has a way of making you feel small as you know the power being created before your very eyes can cause terrible destruction. 

Usually the storms travel upon a fairly predictable track but sometimes the storms descend with a fury in an unpredictable manner as do any that come upon you as you sleep unaware of their approach.  Occasionally the storm is visited upon you or a neighbor in the form of terrible tornadoes, damaging winds, hail or torrential downpours.

I wonder about that list above and I liken it to one of those storms.  Will the track that is taken be one where some will suffer damage and then repair and rebuild?  Or could this be the one perfect storm that descends upon us all as we are all caught “sleeping”?

In Matthew 24 Christ said that no one will know about the day or hour and I am not being that specific as some have done recently but He also said here are the signs of the end of the age.  As with most prophecies we won’t know until after the fact if they were a literal list or a figurative one.  Some think they are literal but as for me, I can go either way.

When I read that there will be famine, war, revolution and that these are the so-called birth pains I know we have seen those.  When I read that we will be handed over for persecution I know it is happening in mild forms here where I live but in the most extreme way in other countries.  The deceit is here as are the false prophets.

Are the signs in the heavens just a way of writing for the form of this type of literature seen elsewhere in the Bible or a literal list?  Are the signs in heaven something yet to happen or was it the Solar eclipse of January 1^st, June 1st, or July 1st this year?  Is it the lunar eclipse of June 15^th or December 10^th?  Are the falling stars the meteor showers of any eight that will happen in 2011? Are these the ones Christ was referring to?

My point is we won’t know and He tells us that.  He said people will still be eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage just as they were the day Noah entered the ark.  And that is why He ends with the story of the faithful and wise servant left in charge of His fellow servants.  That servant in charge whether you want the position or not is you the Christian.  You have been given a charge and He will descend as a Perfect Storm at a time you do not expect. 

Share the Gospel!

Blessings,

Jed

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect….(from 1 Corinthians 15:10)

If we are to all be about the work of the gospel as the scriptures say we are, how do we go about doing that work?  For some the work is obvious as they stand on street corners or at pulpits preaching the good news.  For others their work is not obvious as they work in professions just the same as non-Christians do but they give with unfailing support to ministries that do the field work.  Another encourages through emails, notes, or in person people such as me or the preacher or teacher in their church.  Not one of these is more or less important but both just as necessary in order for the work to be accomplished.

My prayer for each of us is that the following occurs: 

1.      We read the scriptures such as 1 Corinthians 15 that tell and remind us of this work.

2.      We read the scriptures such as 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12, Ephesians 4 and 1 Peter 4 that show us that God gives to each of us different gifts that will suit our roles in this work.

3.      We determine through what is obvious, what others see in us or from what we are passionate about what our gift or gifts are.

4.      We utilize those gifts of teaching, giving, encouraging and so on in this work whole heartedly for the rest of our lives.

5.      We take every opportunity to remind other Christians that they are to do the same as well.

As Paul said, God’s gift of grace to Him was not without effect, make sure the world sees the effect God had on you!

The Latest Rage, Fad or Phase

What will it take to mobilize Christians into action to do their work of the gospel?  Will it be ever increasing cataclysmic events of global significance?  Perhaps what will do it will be a true financial meltdown or something that even Hollywood hasn’t invented yet.

Stop a moment and think about individual roles.  First think of your own role in the church.  Are you a student or a teacher?  We cannot all be the latter, but we are all the former.  Remember that no matter the role, no matter the age, we all are students who through the working of the Holy Spirit within us, should be growing in our resemblance to Christ.

Since Christ was a servant at His core, then we should all be ever growing in our servant attitude.  This need to serve our brothers and sisters both in Christ and those that might be, should be growing ever stronger within us.

Very few will read this, but I am encouraged that you are, but I ask, are you convicted in your heart to do more?  Do you ache that more be done in the fulfillment of the work of the gospel?

What does it take to convict people now days?  What does it take to get people’s attention and keep it, to motivate them into action?

Today, some see those that suffer after a natural disaster and they follow the events religiously for a few days or even several and they give of their resources.  Others follow with anticipation the ranting of a mad celebrity throughout days perhaps weeks of reporting by the media. 

Many take up and grasp onto the latest rage, fad or phase and then discard it days or weeks later.  Perhaps you are one of these people.  Such people are clearly demonstrating to me their need for THE work in their life.  That is the working of the Holy Spirit and the outward manifestation of that through the work that they are to be about in doing the work of the Holy Spirit.  Without it they are empty and they will continue to search about aimlessly and for a time pick up the latest greatest thing.

I pray daily that I could convict you of your need for this work, a work whose desire for it does not fade like a passing fad.  I am happy for your visit here just as I am for those who visit my weekly commentary: http://theadultsundayschool.blogspot.com/  I am grateful for all who study God’s word and grateful for any opportunity to serve, but what I want more than anything is to convict one of them, again, to convict you (and truthfully many, many more) to want to do the same and have a fire lit amongst us to share the gospel.

As we see Easter approaching and after it has passed, how many will go through the motions, and how many will feel Christ’s Spirit grow within them and burn to have others glorify Him?  To borrow the words of Paul from 1 Corinthians 15, the grace of God’s gift to me was not without effect and I have so much I need to do, but how about you?  What effect is showing in you from God’s gift of grace to you?

Would Jesus Burn the Koran?

I think that this was the first post I did in this blog back in September, 2010 and I thought to myself I would re-post it today.  I almost can't believe this man is back in the news....almost.

Jed

Typically, I would not entertain subjects such as this whole controversy of burning the Koran that has filled so much of the news lately but today I have in fact felt motivated to do just that.

Unless you have been hiding under a rock you will have heard about this Pastor in Florida who decided that he was going to burn the Koran.

As you can tell from the name of this blog, Work of the Gospel, what I think we should be about is just that and that includes Pastor Terry Jones of Gainesville, FL and the members of his congregation.

Most people who are contemplating ministry ideas look to the scriptures for guidance.  They look for specific areas of scripture that say you shall do or not do this.  Or, they look for examples that show that certain behavior was acceptable or not.  Looking for examples let's consider what Jesus did.

If we scour the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and Acts we see all of the recorded words and actions of Jesus while He was here up to and including His resurrection and ascension into heaven.

Was Jesus a grandstander?  Quite the contrary, people sought Him out, not the other way around.

Jesus by His words and actions drew those crowds.  "The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised and the good news is preached to the poor," Luke 7:22a

Jesus did not lead a rebellion against the Romans or the Jews that were in power.  Jesus did not promote fights, organize gorilla attacks, or the destruction of infrastructure.

Jesus instructed us to love our enemies and those who persecute us as well as to be peacemakers both of which are specific to Matthew 5.

When we read in Matthew 14 that Jesus' cousin John the Baptist was beheaded He didn't lead His followers against Herod but rather He withdrew privately to a solitary place.

When Jesus sent out His disciples to preach the kingdom of God His instructions to them if their message was not listened to or welcomed was to simply shake the dust off their feet and to move on.

What is the Pastor Jones saying by burning the Koran and what does he hope to reap?

Will he motivate those who follow Islam to seek out more about Jesus because they are so impressed by this action?

I would instead offer the following scripture as a more appropriate alternative of how we should deal with the subject of the Koran, "Jesus called the crowd to Him and said, "Listen and understand.  "What goes into a man's mouth does not make him 'unclean'."

Then the disciples came to Him and asked, "Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?"

He replied, "Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots.  Leave them; they are blind guides.  If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit."  Matthew 15:10-14

Jesus' advice, "Leave them."

Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 Biblica. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Since you are here, I am guessing that you are a Christian and I am happy that you stopped by.  And, since you are here, I would like to take this opportunity to ask you a few questions and for you to chew on your responses long after you’ve answered, so let’s go.

When you read the words from 2 Timothy 3:13, “In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,” what goes through your mind?  Do you stop to think that you aren’t being persecuted in any fashion so therefore you aren’t living a godly life?

Have you ever read how terribly dangerous it was for early Christians who for generations were so horribly martyred for their faith?  One book where you can read of some is Foxe’s Book of Martyrs.  This book can be downloaded from Amazon.com for free.

Does your church have a class, group or program to educate members so that they can evangelize to the unsaved of your community?  If so will you join it, and if there isn’t one, will you do something about that?

If anyone needed to hear it, could you clearly articulate the gospel?  I recommend a book entitled, “What is the Gospel?” by Greg Gilbert.

My prayer is that by asking you these questions I will either have helped you feel a bit happy with yourself by your favorable responses and for your work for His kingdom or shamed you or awakened you to action.

Our faith is worth dying for, it is worth learning enough about it that you cannot help but share it.  This faith is like God’s word in that it is living and active and if yours isn’t, then there is not faith at all.  If that bothers you, do something about it!

The Harvest is Ripe

John 4:31-38 

 ³¹ Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.”

 ³² But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”

 ³³ Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”

   ³⁴ “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. ³⁵ Do you not say, ‘Four months more and then the harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. ³⁶ Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. ³⁷ Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. ³⁸ I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”

     Let’s imagine that you actually are aware of the work of the gospel.  Let’s take it even one step further and imagine that you are more than aware, you are supporting ministries that are working in less than ideal, perhaps extreme conditions with regard to their welfare.  You give a few dollars and as a result things like medicine or tracts or foods are distributed that open a door for the sharing of the gospel and people come to salvation.  In a way, you have reaped the benefits of others labor.

     This harvest is always ripe, 365 days a year, but with the unfortunate consequence that daily the workers are not enough for the harvest and some of the yield is lost.  Ministries fail or limp along due to inadequate resources, it might have been an airline ticket, a tank of gas, some expense money, I don’t know, but the possibilities are as numerous as those lost, those that were not harvested.

     Meanwhile, in your very church, new chairs are purchased, new books for the latest, greatest curriculum are ordered and the first renditions from the architect for the new addition are reviewed.

     If you haven’t read my work before, you may not realize that I am blunt.  There is a place for saintly discourse and then there is a place for candor that raises ire, rankles consciences and inflames sensitivities.  I really don’t care because God has put it upon my heart to share these declarations with you to get your attention.  Unfortunately, in the big scheme of things, few care or few find the words and react in a manner that matters.

     I really can understand how the situation developed.  Persecuted Christians survived, grew in their ability to worship publicly and solidified that blessing by building infrastructure.  An infrastructure that required that they know where there next sermon was going to be and who would be delivering it and so it grew.

     Men were put in charge that took up the responsibility to make sure that just as their normal families were taken care of with a hearth, bed and food, so would the members of the church be taken care of.  Unfortunately, it came to be more of an institution that was preserved then the people who made it up.  The programs of the institution grew instead of the direct providing for of the people.  If someone that was a member had more to give, they gave it to the church and the church invested it in itself instead of in its people.

     The churches that we see in the New Testament met in homes, gave to each other as each needed and then took their surplus to support the spreading of the gospel and to the care of the churches that had less than they did.  If you read in places like 1 Corinthians you could see an almost competitiveness was encouraged by Paul so that they could see who might give to the next church in need more abundantly.

     When I think back upon that day, I think of that simple beginning and then consider pictures of the pope with ermine, gold and jewels and though I am not picking on the Catholics, it is just the perfect image to bring up.  The idea is one of opulence and whether it is paying quarterly for an educational curriculum when you could just use the Bible or $50,000 for a pipe organ’s maintenance it is all the same.  When there are Native Americans dying unsaved decades earlier than the national norm or orphans in India or widows in Africa, or limping ministries anywhere in the world that could and should be receiving attention, it is all just as glaringly wrong.

John 4:39-42 

 ³⁹ Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” ⁴⁰ So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. ⁴¹ And because of his words many more became believers.

 ⁴² They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”

     Because of a woman’s testimony many from her town came to believe in Jesus.  Because of dollars that you have given, that your church has given, many from other towns have come to believe in Jesus, but many more should have but didn’t because they weren’t harvested.  The workers were too few because instead of giving to the church across town that had flagging attendance but strong biblical values that closed, your church installed playground equipment.  A missionary came home because he couldn’t feed his family because your church remodeled the kitchen.  The orphanage was never built and children entered lives of unspeakable depravity because your church hired a youth pastor who the kids can relate to better then the head pastor.

     I know that if you read this you most likely will keep on doing what you have always done and so will your church but I have fulfilled my duty of pointing it out to you.

Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 Biblica. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

To Share the Gospel Start At Home!

Sometimes we look out into the vastness of this world and we think, “How can I make a difference for the Kingdom?”  We peer across the oceans or cyberspace and we want to make an impact by sharing the Gospel and we should and I encourage you as often as I can via this blog to do just that.

Today, though I was reminded that sometimes the way to reach across the sea and the internet might be to start right here at home.

Imagine if you created something online that reached, I don’t know, one thousand people.  That would be a nice start for sure, but what if instead of this effort you reached twenty people that you personally know and they then each reached one thousand people!

Sometimes, we truly cannot see the forest for the trees or the opportunities that are right in front of us.  What reminded me of this came from a visit that I had today with an associate pastor friend of mine who had just started teaching a new class on how to study the Bible.

The things that he shared with me didn’t shock me since I had encountered identical issues in my own experience, but it did serve to remind me of how much need there is at home.

The people that are in this class to learn the Bible are in fact Biblically illiterate.  The wonderful news is that these people are showing up to do something about that fact.  The bad news is that these people for the most part are not new to the church and they are not alone.

Visit many churches today and randomly choose people and do a little digging and you would find that they would have a difficult time finding even the more famous books within the Bible without looking them up.

These people would have a difficult time telling you any kind of chronological history of the Bible.  They would have a hard time differentiating between an Old Testament prophet and a New Testament Apostle.

Ask them to give you a rundown of the requirements of an elder and you would be likely to get a blank stare.  Ask them to explain the Gospel and expect them to start looking for a way to escape.

Yet as I was reminded this morning, these same people have been convicted of their sins at some point and believe that Christ died for these sins.  These people have demonstrated a love for their fellow man and church member but through their illiteracy have this mistaken belief that this is sufficient. 

Now I daresay that most of you that are going to read this blog know your Bible pretty well and you are the ones that care to read things such as this.  It therefore falls to you to do something about this situation.

Does your church have sufficient educational classes in place that people can grow in their knowledge of the Bible or are the classes more along the lines of how to do better financially?

If you do have a class like, “How to study the Bible”, can you reach the people that need to attend?

There has to be a fair amount of thought given to the promotion of this class so that not just those that would jump at the opportunity will attend but also the many people who feel ashamed about their lack of knowledge.  Many of those assume that everyone around them knows the Bible inside and out and they don’t want to betray what might be a false image that others have about them.

Start the class by not assuming anything yourselves.  Don’t assume that just newcomers to the church will need or want to attend a “How to study the Bible” class.  Don’t assume even the smallest things about what people know about the Bible.  Nor is it a good idea to think that everyone has a Bible and if they are looking to buy one, what to look for when they purchase.  A class such as this can answer questions that people always wanted to ask but were afraid to ask or did not even think about asking.

From personal experience I think that it is also a good idea to post it everywhere you can from the weekly bulletin to the monthly newsletter, put it on the wall and put it on Facebook, send out emails and invite people face to face.  I cannot stress enough how just as we can’t just think that someone is knowledgeable about the Bible we also shouldn’t think that everyone is as comfortable within the confines of the church.  Sometimes people need to be led by the hand into a class and then watch as they become a dynamo with regard to their involvement.

Once you have had success with this class I would suggest you open it up to your community by advertising an upcoming class.  I am confident that there will be people who have not been attending a church who will respond as well as those who are but are not having their needs met.

Once educated in the Bible and actually aware of the Gospel you will have given people a priceless gift that they cannot help but pass on.  The end results you may never know until our Father tells you!

Remember the Gospel

To use the words of 1 Corinthians 15, the purpose of this blog is to remind you of the gospel, the gospel that was preached to you and on which you took a stand.

By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word that was preached to you.

Paul in this chapter goes on to say that he was passing on what he had received: that Christ died for your sins, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day and then appeared too many.

He finishes the chapter by stating that you are to stand firm, let nothing move you and that you should always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord.

Some versions of the Bible will say abounding in the work of the Lord, throw yourself into the work of the Master, excelling in the work, doing more than enough.

This chapter did not apply to Corinthians only.  Nor did it apply for only a certain period of time, so why is it that most Christians who have heard the gospel and believed, do not do this?

One has to assume that some do not really have faith, that they became Christians because it was the thing to do.

Others heard and believed but for reasons as unique as they are individuals, they have not held firmly.

Now if you aren’t really into something whether it is because of a lack of faith or a lack of involvement, knowledge, experience etc., it is really going to be hard to do the work, or if it is done, to do it well, to abound in it.

Imagine trying to sell a product you truly, truly believe in versus one you know to be an abject failure.

Do you think the gospel is a failure?

You know, actually the odds are that those reading this do take the gospel seriously and I am preaching to the choir and I am probably not being too effective in reaching those that need to be.

How about you, are you having any luck?

I really think that Paul is showing us that part of the work of the gospel goes beyond sharing it with those that have never heard the good news to include those of us who have.  Those among us that need to be reminded of that which was preached to them and in which they once took a stand: that Christ died for their sins, that they are to stand firm in this and that they are to be excelling in the work of the Lord.

Go do your work!