Satan the firefighter??

There are several thoughts here, missed a few days of meds so not as neat as usual :-)

Has the church, especially here in America, morphed from a New Testament church, to just a Christian or members only club?

Look at how the people in the church carry themselves. Do they go out of their way to welcome visitors, get their names, etc? OR Do they only speak or at least acknowledge the presence of those people they know already, leaving the strangers to the Pastor since he is the one getting paid for such things?

When there was a church event in years past it used to be a community event and there would be people attending said event that never entered the church building. And it was fun and fellowship for all.

There has been a decline in the outreach of the church (in general) that coincides with the political attacks made against her. She has been beaten and beaten by the devil and sin ruled people so hard that she has backed into a corner and just kept quiet…..FOR TOO LONG!!!!

There has been so much garbage going on in our world that we as the church, the bride of Christ, simply cannot allow this beating any longer. Thankfully over the recent few years, there has been a re-emergence of the church. She has regained her strength from the love and care of the Christ and the Holy Spirit. A sleeping giant has been awakened and she is not happy with what has taken place in her absence.

Much like the Israelites, when Moses left them to go up the mountain when he was given the 10 Commandments written with the very finger of God, and they lost themselves in revelry and sin, so have we as a “nation under God” lost ourselves in our sin and “freedom thinking”.

Because of the decline in the world and our society, and because we as Christians are getting outraged at the sin around us and that which we ourselves commit, we have misused the church as a place of Christian solace. A place where we can fellowship with other believers a couple times a week for a few minutes and feel safe, as if everything is ok; a place where people treat each other as they should all the time, everywhere. And because we have done this, we have forgotten about the outside world and those that so desperately want what we have. A safe place.

It is also because of this that many church leaders have been encouraging their congregations to remember where they came from. Remember the lost and dying. Remember that once we were as they are. Therefore, there has been another shift in the church lately. That of the involvement in outreach to the community, to the lost and dying, and involvement in every area of life.

What is the church? It is not just a building. It is not just the universal body of believers in the life, death, burial, and bodily resurrection of our Lord and Savior, the Son of the One and Only Living God, Christ Jesus. It is also every single believer. One of the purposes of the church is to spread the news of Jesus Christ to everyone. Another purpose of the church is to educate all people in the sound doctrines of the Word of God and to help the people learn how to apply the truths found therein to their lives. Not just a single part of their lives…..to their entire life….every area of their life…church life, home life, kid life, school life, college life, party life, marriage life, sex life, parenting life, job life, political life, social life, etc.

The people of the church are shifting from this “members only” mentality to a “members and NOT YET members welcome” mentality. Communities have been changed already because of this shift. The one in which I volunteer as one of the church youth ministry leaders has actually asked our church (the largest in the community, but hey, it’s a small town, a farm town) to be very involved in the largest community celebration times next month. What an honor and testament to the work and power and effect of the correct application and ability of the truths of God’s Word and God Himself. Hallelujah!!

Other much larger examples of the uprising and involvement of the church is Saddleback Church and Pastor Rick Warren, crossing the supposed lines of church and state when he had the Saddleback Civil Forum involving our current President Obama and Senator McCain. Many other exist and are growing.

Youth ministries have been doing this all along, reaching out to hurting kids to show them the RIGHT and life changing love of Christ. I have joked with my Pastor when talking about the frustrations of ministry to people....teens can be so frustrating sometimes, but you have to deal with the adults, YIKES!!! A very respected professor of mine back in college quoted someone saying, “The church would be a great place, if it weren’t for one thing…..the people.” :-) Yet like last week when one of our teens accepted Christ as his Savior, everyone agrees heartily, if he is the only one that ever gets saved during our time doing all this work (though we hope, pray, and strive to help more see the truth of Christ)….that one life is all worth it.

Yes, the church has been making a comeback lately and this leads to revival. It starts with one person and like a wild fire, it spreads. Only this time it’s the devil and his demons that are the firefighters…..there is a deep thought!!

Brand Power - Jesus

Ever notice how the "Christian" God is the only god whose name is EVER used in both reverance AND disgust and cussing? He is the only God that is regularly the butt of vulgar jokes and skits and cartoons.

It's simply amazing to me how much power the name of Jesus holds. What's even more amazing is how the "unbelievers" acknowledge this fact every day. In the movie Ace Ventura Pet Detective 2 - the one where he is in Africa, one of the tribes has such reverance for their "god" the stupid huge ugly white bat, that even the voicing of the name of the bat brings them to their knees for a second. Now why don't we show that kind of outward example of our faith in Christ when His name is uttered from human lips?? So let's do it. After all, the Bible says in Philippians that "He has been given the name above all names...at the name of Jesus, EVERY KNEE WILL BOW..."

Now please don't bow the knee if you are physically unable to do so, but if you are, lets show the world the correct response to even the mentioning of our God's name. What a truly wonderful and powerful name it is.....JESUS.

One more note of interest...

One more thing that you all may want to know....about the ads that you see on this site, I purposefully have put them there and are contracted with all of them. This means that if anyone makes a purchase through one of the links from my site, we will get a percentage or a commission from said sale. So please explore. From the vast pool made available I have tried to choose those that would be of most interest to my readers, such as photo printing and postage. We actually have used all of the photo printing sites that I have on here and will do so hopefully in the near future.

Some site that I would have liked to have on here declined my application for various reasons, my suspicions are the following, the content is not the same as their company (understandable), not enough traffic (understandable), or it is God centered and they want no part of "supporting a particular religion". So for those that are on here, if you are in the market, please check my links out. AND ONLY USE THEM IF YOU WERE GOING TO USE THEM ANYWAY. DO NOT UNWISELY SPEND MORE MONEY THAN YOU NEED TO JUST TO HAVE A FEW CENTS OF IT GO TO US....NOTICE THE UNWISELY EMPHASIS!!!

Will be back, I promise, and thank you!!!

Thank you to those that read this blog.
As you know I have been pursuing a post-graduate degree. This is the main reason that I haven't been posted as often as when I started out. It's sort of crunch time as the birth of our third child draws nigh, I am attempting to get as much of this done as I can. At the same time, I also want to get as much as I can from each class, lecture, and study. I have 3 classes left to complete. So for those of you who bet against me making it by the first couple weeks of June (when our baby is SUPPOSED to arrive), I can tell you right now that you have made a very realistic choice and you may collect if allowed!!

HOWEVER, I am also taking some time to work out some additional thoughts to be posted very soon. I have been writing them in a notebook to go back to later when I have the time to do so.

I also have realized how selfish I have been with this site. While I am quietly wanting more readers and more comments....I am not taking the time to thank those of you who have already done so and have your own FANTASTIC sites going on. Therefore, another area to strive to improve in is taking a few minutes to read your works and briefly comment....YES I SAID BRIEFLY lol...I really can to that.

So fret not fellow stinker thinkers, thoughts from a madman will continue on!! Laugh on my friends....laugh on.