Forgiveness, But Not Change

October 3, 2011 2 Comments

I live in a small, rural county in the so-called “Bible belt.” It’s the kind of place where there is a church on every corner, down every side road, and up every holler. Consequently, it can be hard to find someone who has no qualms about admitting to not knowing Christ as Savior. What I mean is, it seems like just about everyone I meet was baptized as a kid, has their name on a church roll, claims to attend somewhere, knows pastor so-and-so as a friend, etc. You get the idea. We’ve got religion, church, the Bible, and prayer running out our noses.

But what bothers me about our little county (approximately 15,000 in number) is how easily we blur the line between authentic Christian conduct and rank worldliness. Some of the same people who go to church every Sunday morning don’t mind doing a good deal of drinking and carousing on Saturday night. Some of the ones who rant and rave about the sexual sin of homosexuality evidently don’t understand that adultery falls in that same category. Some of the ones who are quick to request prayer for themselves or their families are also far too well versed in backbiting, gossiping, and rumor spreading.

My point is that a lot of people love to hear about Christ, the Bible, forgiveness, grace, and salvation, but the numbers dwindle significantly when the topics become repentance, godly conduct, separation from the world, and personal holiness. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not promoting a works-based plan of salvation here. I myself sin every day and have to spend more time than I should asking the Lord for forgiveness of those sins. But with me sin is the exception, not the rule. It occurs outside the norm. It’s the uncommon, not the common. That’s what salvation has done to me (or better yet for me).

Perhaps an illustration will help me say what I’m trying to say. Little Billy was dressed for church in his Sunday best, but his mother wasn’t quite ready to go. So he went out in the back yard and started playing in the dirt. In just a few minutes his clothes were absolutely filthy. When his mother saw him she was furious. Passionately, Billy said, “Mom, I’m real sorry. Please forgive me.” She replied, “Okay, you’re forgiven but go change.” But Billy didn’t want to go back in the house and go to the trouble of dressing again. So he said, “No, I’ll just go as I am.” You see, he wanted forgiveness but not change. And, unfortunately, there seem to be a lot of Billys running around out there these days.

Filed under adultery, Backsliding, Change, Church attendance, Disobedience, Forgiveness, Hypocrisy, Personal, Personal Holiness, Rebellion, salvation, Sin Tagged with , , , , , , ,

The Spirit Is Willing, But the Flesh Is Weak

August 24, 2011 2 Comments

Let’s take a test. For years, a man makes a habit of going camping on Sunday rather than attend church. One Sunday he sees a mountain lion coming toward him. He says, “God, if you will get me out of this danger I promise that I will start going to church every Sunday.” As soon as he finishes that quick prayer, the mountain lion calmly walks away.

Now here’s the test question: Do you think that man will honor the “deal” that he made with God? The answer is: There’s a pretty good chance that he will go to church that first Sunday, but if nothing else changes he won’t keep up the attendance for long.

You see, it takes more than a quick moment of desperation to create a lasting turnaround in your life. As a pastor, I’ve seen so many people who were going through difficult times make grandiose boasts about what all they were going to do for the Lord if He helped them out of their messes. But how many of those boasts actually came to pass, even after the Lord gave the help? Maybe there were two or three, but right now I can’t even remember there being that many.

One Sunday morning I preached and gave an invitation, and a woman promptly made her way to the altar and knelt for prayer. When I went over and asked her why she had responded to the invitation, she told me something along the lines of she wanted to dedicate herself more completely to Jesus. She was crying hot tears and her face was something of a mess from the running makeup. I knew that she was sincere. I also knew that she was a good Christian woman who had some areas of her life that could have been more submitted to Christ’s lordship. So I prayed with her and asked the Lord to help her be even more devoted to Him. The emotion of the moment was almost palpable.

But did that woman even show up for the evening service that same Sunday? No. As I looked around the sanctuary that night and didn’t see her, I was in virtual disbelief. That was the moment when I truly understood for the first time just how fickle and inconsistent we are when it comes to serving the Lord.

Jesus knew us all too well. On the night of His arrest, He took Peter, James, and John into the garden of Gethsemane with Him. He said to them, “Stay here and watch with Me.” Then He walked alone a little further into the heart of the garden and prayed, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will” (Matthew 26:39). Following that prayer, He returned to where He had left Peter, James, and John at their watch-post. And what did He find? Rather than keeping diligent watch, they had all drifted off to sleep.

After a fairly strong rebuke, Jesus summed up the problem by saying, “The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41). In my opinion, those words perfectly describe why that Christian woman didn’t come back for church that Sunday night. Her spirit was willing, but her flesh was weak. When she had devoted herself more fully to Jesus in the altar that morning, she had meant it. In that moment, she couldn’t have meant it any more. But, unfortunately, that moment had soon passed and the rest of her life had come crashing back in upon her.

I’m saying all of this to encourage you to work at eliminating the fickleness from your walk with the Lord. Try to avoid the roller-coaster devotion that marks the lives of so many people. I know that your flesh is weak. So is mine. But we can’t keep using that excuse to consistently fail the Lord and not live up to the commitments we have made to Him. And, by the way, we needn’t expect Him to keep sending mountain lions to keep us committed either.

Filed under Backsliding, Change, Church attendance, Commitment, Discipleship, faithfulness, obedience, Personal Holiness Tagged with , , , , ,

Why The Christian Will Be In Heaven

August 8, 2011 Leave a Comment

Evangelist Dr. A.J. Fristoe tells the story of something that happened to him when he accepted an invitation to preach a revival in London, England. He said that upon his arrival he was met by those who had invited him. They told him that he would be staying in one of the finest palaces in England. It had all been arranged by the couple who owned the home. They had put in a special request that Dr. Fristoe be allowed to stay with them.

Even as Fristoe traveled to the home, he had to question why the wealthy couple would be so gracious to him. The mystery only deepened when he met them and realized that they were strangers to him. It wasn’t until all three were comfortably seated in an exquisite living room that he got his explanation.

The couple’s son, an officer in the Royal navy, was stationed on the other side of the world, but he had heard that Dr. Fristoe was to be in London. It was the young man who had sent instructions for his parents to be so hospitable to Dr. Fristoe. As the couple described their son, Dr. Fristoe did indeed remember him. The officer had been on a ship that had put into Norfolk, Virginia for repairs years earlier when Fristoe was serving as the pastor of a church there. The officer had attended Fristoe’s church and gotten to know the preacher quite well. Fristoe had invited the young man into his home for dinner on multiple occasions. There the two had enjoyed long discussions on the subject of religion, and those discussions had led the young man to believe in Christ as Savior. Dr. Fristoe had even baptized him.

After the officer’s ship had pulled out of Norfolk, he had kept in touch with Fristoe. Upon hearing that Fristoe would be preaching a revival in London, the officer had cabled his parents and instructed them to extend the invitation to the evangelist. After the explanation was all given, the couple ended it by saying, “Dr. Fristoe, you are here because of our son.”

The spiritual parallel isn’t hard to spot. Christian, when you journey to heaven and arrive at that indescribably beautiful place, God the Father could rightly look at you and say, “You are here because of My Son.” Take some time today to thank Jesus for the awesome fact that heaven awaits you when you leave this world.

Filed under Christ's Death, church, Church attendance, God's Work, Heaven, Influence, salvation Tagged with , , , , , ,

Church Attendance In the Summer

August 3, 2011 Leave a Comment

This past Monday, I had lunch with a pastor friend of mine. We talked about a variety of topics and one of them was the “summer slump.” I doubt there is a pastor alive who doesn’t know that term. It refers to the decrease in church attendance that hits every year during June and July.

Disciples Road Church is certainly no exception to this rule, and since our church is small, the summer slump looks especially bad on us. Vacations, family reunions, camps, etc., they all take their toll. Pastors try everything to keep folks coming during the summer. We’ll start a series on marriage or prophesy, two subjects which are always popular. Some pastors swap pulpits with each other for one Sunday morning. Others bring in special guest-speakers. These are all attempts to keep the flock interested in coming to church rather than going to the lake, the ocean, the campground, the ball-field, or wherever.

Mind you now that I’m not saying that all such trips are wrong or sinful. As a matter of fact, I missed a couple of Sundays myself in July as I got away and did some things with my family. But, as is so oftentimes the case, there should be moderation and balance when it comes to missing church. Yes, I missed two Sundays last month and had a preacher friend of mine fill my pulpit, but those were the first two Sundays I had taken off since we started the church four-and-a-half years ago. Do you see my point? God doesn’t mind you missing a church service every now and then if He approves of the reason, but far too many church-goers don’t ask for His approval before they make their plans, plans that cause them to miss church.

During our lunch, my pastor friend and I especially talked about how people could do their summer stuff and yet still attend church if they put just the slightest effort into it. For example, instead of leaving out on Sunday, they could do so on Monday. Or instead of checking out and driving back on Sunday, they could check out and drive back on Saturday. Rather than schedule the reunion or the family get-together on Sunday, they could schedule it on Saturday. And if they attend a church that offers Sunday night or Wednesday night services, they could attend those even if they had to miss the Sunday morning service. You see, with just a small amount of planning and effort, the amount of church services that people miss in summer could be greatly reduced.

Of course, the world and all that it has to offer gives us absolutely no help in this area. For an example, I’ll use my son Ryan’s basketball camp this summer. He is a rising high school freshman, and the high school basketball coach likes for his players to attend the Clemson Tigers basketball camp in Clemson, South Carolina. And what were the dates for that camp? They were June 17th (Friday), 18th (Saturday), and 19th (Sunday). My question is, why couldn’t those dates have been June 16th (Thursday), 17th (Friday), and 18th (Saturday)? After all, it’s summer and the kids are out of school. It would have been easy for them to have showed up on Thursday. You see, whoever set up that camp seemed to go out of his way to ensure that the kids were there on Sunday rather than in church.

This same kind of thing plays out time and time again in baseball tournaments for so-called “travel teams.” I assure you that if tournament directors scheduled their tournaments for Friday and Saturday rather than Saturday and Sunday, the teams would still be there. So why do they schedule them for Saturday and Sunday? All I can figure is that the schedulers are lost people who don’t give a rip about church.

But I don’t mean to lay all the blame for the annual summer slump at the door of lost people. Let me tell you the dirty little secret that we Christians don’t want to acknowledge: The average church-goer actually likes missing church every now and then. People will bend over backwards and move mountains to get to a place where they truly want to be, right? I mean, if a destination becomes a priority, the masses will be there. As the old saying goes, “Hell or high water couldn’t keep them away.” This shows us, then, that church isn’t truly a priority with most people. Even the ones who regularly attend can be knocked out by just the slightest problem or misalignment of the stars.

On this subject, I’ll admit that church has become its own worst enemy. It is now so much a part of the fabric of our lives that we take it for granted, don’t we? It’s so easy to think, “What’s the big deal if I miss a service? There will be another one next week.” Well, I suppose there will be, if you live another week to see it. But who’s to say what blessings you will miss at church if you skip for a reason that doesn’t pass God’s test of approval? You might miss the sermon that would change your life. You might miss the song that would carry you through the rest of your week. You might miss the prayer request for which you could make a major difference. You might be the source of encouragement that helps to keep your tired, frustrated, out-of-heart pastor going. You might be the reason that some visitors decide to become a part of your church. I’m telling you, you just never know.

So, in closing, I plead with you to consider these things any time you are planning to miss church. This goes for the summer months as well as all the other months. I guess what I’m trying to do with this post is get you to think deeper and more spiritually about your church attendance. It’s certainly not a subject that you should be blase or flippant about. Remember that Hebrews 10:24-25 is still in the Bible:

And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.

Filed under balance, Choices, church, Church attendance, God's Will, Personal, Sports Tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

The Woman & Her Church Seat

May 16, 2011 Leave a Comment

Dr. Lee Roberson served as the pastor of Highland Park Baptist Church in Chattanooga, Tenn. for over forty years. After one Sunday-morning service in which several people got saved and others got baptized, he went out the back door of the large sanctuary and down the alley behind the church. There he was met by a dear lady from the church. He greeted her by saying, “How are you today, ma’am?” She answered, “Not very good. You know about it, don’t you?” Somewhat surprised, Dr. Roberson said, “No, I don’t know what you are talking about.” Incredulous, the woman said, “You mean you didn’t know about this?” Again Dr. Roberson said, “No.”

The woman then launched into her story. “Dr. Roberson, you know that for twenty-two years I have sat in a certain seat in the balcony to your left.” “Yes, that’s right,” said the preacher. “Well, this morning I went to my place, and a man was sitting there. I told him that was my seat, but he just said, ‘It’s not yours today.’” After the man’s refusal to move, the woman had gotten mad, left the service, and stood outside to wait for Dr. Roberson.

And how did the venerable old pastor respond to her complaint? He said, “Ma’am, you have heard me preach again and again on dying to self. How long has it been since you died?” Then he got in his car and went on his way.

During the service that night, while the choir was singing, Dr. Roberson looked up to the balcony, but he didn’t see the woman in her usual seat. Finally, after scanning over the sanctuary, he found her sitting in a new seat in the lower section. When their eyes met, she just smiled. Roberson used to love to tell that story and end it by saying, “She died. And I haven’t had a problem with her since.”

In Luke 9:23, Jesus says, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.” Keep in mind now that a cross was an instrument of death. Nobody took up a cross and lived. And so, Christian, I’ll just ask you, how long has it been since you died? Have you died today? Have you ever died? Please understand that the only way to properly live for Christ is to attend your own funeral afresh and anew each morning.

Filed under Attitude, church, Church attendance, Dying To Self, Forgiveness, Humility, Repentance, Revenge Tagged with , , , , ,

The Next Day

March 10, 2011 Leave a Comment

One day some of Napoleon’s officers came to him and recommended a young captain for promotion. When Napoleon asked them why they were suggesting the captain for promotion, they explained that he had used great courage and cleverness to win a victory several days earlier. To that Napoleon replied, “Good, but what did he do the next day?” And that was the last that was ever heard of a promotion for the young captain.

You say you went to church Sunday. Fine, but what did you do Monday? You studied your Bible Tuesday night. Okay, but what did you do Wednesday? You prayed a great prayer Thursday. Excellent, but what did you do Friday? You see, occasional flashes of brilliance in serving the Lord just don’t compare to a life that is wholly devoted to serving Him 24-7. So, how’s your case for a promotion right now?

Filed under Character, Church attendance, Commitment, Discipleship, faithfulness, God's Work, obedience, Personal Holiness, Priorities, Righteousness Tagged with , , , ,

Faithful Over A Few Things

February 22, 2011 Leave a Comment

Here’s a short follow-up to yesterday’s post “You Just Never Know.” The two walk hand in hand.

George Matheson was a blind Scottish pastor in the late 1800s. While he was serving as the pastor of a church in Innellan, he preached to only a handful of worshippers one stormy winter’s Sunday. He left the service discouraged because he felt that his sermon had been especially good. But what he didn’t know was that a stranger in the congregation would never forget the sermon or the blind preacher who delivered it. Over seven years later, that man would recommend Matheson to become the pastor of St. Bernard’s Church in Edinburgh, a call which would lead to thirteen years of highly fruitful service for Matheson at the church.

In the parable of the talents, Jesus taught that the one who is faithful over a few things will be made ruler over many things (Matthew 25:14-30). While He gave this parable within the context of a teaching on prophecy and rewards in the afterlife, the basic principle can apply in this life. A proof text is His parable of the faithful steward (Luke 12:42-48), which isn’t found within the context of a prophetic teaching.

God is always on the lookout for good stewardship, and He always takes special notice of a George Matheson who will faithfully preach to the best of his ability for a bad-weather, poorly attended Sunday service. So don’t ever take lightly any opportunity that comes your way to do something in service to Christ. Remember that no job is too small for a servant big enough to do it well.

Filed under Attitude, Character, church, Church attendance, Doing Good, God's Omnipresence, God's Omniscience, God's Work, Leadership, obedience, preaching, Prosperity, Reward, stewardship, Trusting In God, weather, Worship Tagged with , , , , , , , ,

You Just Never Know

February 21, 2011 Leave a Comment

Lyman Beecher was one of the most famous Presbyterian preachers of the 1800s. Early in his ministry, he once exchanged pulpits for a Sunday with the pastor of a small country church. It was in the middle of winter, with snow piled up along the road, and it was all that Beecher could do to maneuver his horse through the drifts and get to the church.

Once he arrived he found that he was the only one in attendance that morning. This left him with a dilemma, and so he went to the pulpit and began to pray silently. Finally one man entered the church and Beecher proceeded to preach an impassioned, fervent message to him. At the sermon’s close, Beecher hurried down to greet the lone worshiper, but the man made his way out the door before Beecher could approach him.

Well, twenty years passed and one day Beecher was boarding a train when a pleasant-looking gentleman approached him and asked, “Do you remember me, Dr. Beecher?” Beecher answered, “I don’t believe I do.” “Why, we once spent an hour together in a storm!” said the man. “I don’t recall it,” said Beecher, “where was it?” The man asked, “Do you remember preaching in a small country church to an audience of one man twenty years ago?” Beecher smiled and said, “Yes sir I do, and if you are the man, I’ve been wanting to see you ever since.” “I am the man,” said the fellow, “and the sermon you preached that Sunday morning led to my salvation, made a minister of me, and yonder is my church! And the converts from that sermon, sir, are all over Ohio!”

Be faithful in whatever your Christian duty is today, no matter how small or seemingly inconsequential. You just never know how God might use it.

Filed under church, Church attendance, Commitment, God's Work, obedience, preaching, Reward, salvation, Sowing and Reaping, submission Tagged with , , , , , ,

Man’s Body

February 18, 2011 Leave a Comment

This will be the last post in a little three-part series on the subject of man’s spirit, soul, and body. This time we’ll deal with man’s body. I’ll grant you that the body is more easily understood than the spirit or the soul, but my guess is that there are still some important things that you need to learn about it.

The best way to describe yourself is like this: You are a soul; you possess a spirit; and you live in a body. Really, the only thing that others see of you is your body. Furthermore, whatever you get done in this world, you’ll do it via your body. As mysterious and wonderful as the spirit and soul are, they aren’t much for mowing the yard, cooking a meal, holding down a job, reading the Bible, going to church, witnessing, etc. You need body parts (eyes, ears, arms, legs, feet, a brain, a skeletal structure, etc.) to get those things done.

This is why, at the moment of a person’s salvation, God the Holy Spirit comes to indwell the person’s body, not the person’s spirit or soul (Romans 5:5; Romans 8:5-11; 1 Corinthians 6:19; 2 Corinthians 5:5). Just as a pilot flies an airplane, a captain steers a ship, or a driver drives a car, the indwelling Holy Spirit wants to be at the controls of the person’s body. Also, having God the Holy Spirit inside your body automatically turns your body into a temple. Please understand that everyone’s body is not a temple. That honor is reserved exclusively for the Spirit-indwelt believer (the genuine Christian). The body-builder, the yoga instructor, the fitness guru, and the health- food advocate may all have bodies that are in peak condition, but if these people don’t know Christ as Savior their bodies aren’t temples. Only Christians have “temple bodies.”

Still, though, just because a Christian’s body is a temple and the indwelling Holy Spirit is in there, that doesn’t mean that the Christian has handed over the controls to the Holy Spirit. The apostle Paul understood this and said to the Christians of the city of Rome:

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.” (Romans 12:1)

That term “living sacrifice” is an odd one, isn’t it? How can a sacrifice survive an altar of death? How can it live once it has become a sacrifice? The answer is: The Christian’s body remains alive, but the inner will, which is sin-tainted, corrupt, and prone to take destructive paths, dies on the altar. The body will now be used to carry out that which is “holy, acceptable to God.” The indwelling Holy Spirit will be given the controls unreservedly. He will now fly the plane, captain the ship, and drive the car.

But would you believe that even the indwelling Holy Spirit will not stop the aging process? Mark it down, the bodies of non-Christians and Christians alike wear down over time and eventually cease working. This goes back to the sin in the garden of Eden. Genesis 2:16-17 says:

And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

Hebrew scholars tell us that the original Hebrew behind the words “you shall surely die” literally mean “dying you shall die.” You see, when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit their bodies began the long, long process of dying, and eventually that process culminated in their physical deaths. Genesis 5:5 says that Adam actually lived 930 years, but that verse ends with the words “and he died.” And the members of his race have been dying ever since, haven’t they?

But did you know that when all of the various stages of God’s sweeping, eons-long, prophetic program have played themselves out, not one body will be left unresurrected? This isn’t the time or place for me to go into every last detail of that prophetic program, but concerning the resurrections John 5:28-29 is a good summation passage. There Jesus says:

“Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth – those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.”

Notice that Jesus spoke of two categories of resurrection. There will be the resurrection of life, and there will be the resurrection of condemnation. Scripture teaches that the saved believers from all of history will have their bodies resurrected and glorified, even though there won’t be one general “resurrection day” upon which it all happens. (As I said, there are multiple stages to God’s grand plan of prophecy.) But what about the bodies of the lost people from all history? Well, those bodies will all be resurrected too, but for them the resurrection will not involve glorification. Also, their bodies will all be resurrected on a single day. This day will occur at the end of Christ’s 1,000-year reign upon this earth, and it is described in Revelation 20:11-15.

You can read that passage for your homework, but I’ll go ahead and tell you that the bodies of the lost are called forth from wherever their final resting places are (graves, the sea, etc.). Each body is then reunited with the soul that once inhabited it, as each soul is called forth from that unimaginably horrific place we know as “hell.” And it is then that the lost person will be cast resurrected body and reunited soul into an even worse “hell” that is known as “the eternal lake of fire.” There the souls will not be annihilated and the bodies will not be burned up. Instead (and this is beyond tragic) each lost person will spend all eternity, body and soul, in that place of torment.

The Greek word for this eternal lake of fire is Gehenna, and Jesus says in Matthew 10:28:

“And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell (Gehenna).”

You see, the “Him” who is able to cast both soul and resurrected body into the eternal lake of fire called Gehenna is Jesus. But listen, He doesn’t want to do that to you! What He wants is for you to experience salvation by placing your belief in Him as your personal Savior. Once you do that, you won’t have to ever worry about the eternal fate of either your soul or your body, and you’ll be able to present your body as a living sacrifice to Him in this life and enjoy the awesome rewards of the afterlife. So, if you haven’t made this decision for Christ, won’t you do so right now? And, one last thing, get used to that body of yours because you’re going to be spending all eternity in it.

Filed under Belief, Church attendance, Coming Judgment, death, dieting, fear, God's Wrath, God's judgment, God's Will, Heaven, hell, Human Life, Personal Holiness, Prophecy, Reward, salvation, submission, The Holy Spirit Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

A “Bring Your Own Board” Kind Of Church

January 31, 2011 Leave a Comment

A man named Squire Hughes was one of the first settlers west of the Miami River in Ohio. Being a religious man, he would ride twenty miles on horseback just to worship at the Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati. But there was a problem the first time he attended worship at the church. The pews were the style that had a door on the outside of each pew, and as Hughes walked down the church aisle all the doors remained closed to him. Not one person from one pew was hospitable enough to open their door and invite him to sit in their pew.

After Hughes had walked all the way down to the front of the church, he started making his way back up the aisle. By this time a few of the “good Christians” were feeling fairly ashamed of themselves and so they opened their doors for him. But Hughes had a temper and the damage was already done. He angrily stormed back up the aisle, past all the pews, and walked out the back door.

A short time later he came back in, this time carrying a board he had found. He walked all the way back down to the front of the church, sat down on the board, and remained there until the end of the service. Then he picked up the board, put it on his shoulder, walked out the back door, and rode away. And what do you think happened the next time he attended that church? Every pew door was opened to him.

Had any visitors to your church lately? Well, how did you treat them? Did you greet them with a smiling face, a warm welcome, and a hearty, “Here, sit by me”? Or did you look at them with an upturned nose and think, “Now what are they doing here?”

Ah, the church of the “frozen chosen.” Most towns have at least one. It might be a rich church or it might be a poor church, but it’s the one where the folks have the mentality, “We’ve got our group and we don’t need anyone else.” I’m telling you, Christian, beware of that mentality. Why? Well, first and foremost, it is highly displeasing to God because it is lethal to outreach. But second, you just never know when some Squire Hughes type will put you in your place one Sunday.

Filed under Attitude, Character, church, Church attendance, Doing Good Tagged with , , , , , , , ,

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