Today’s Thought “Church of the Living Dead” G. Ward

 

“So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.” Revelation 3:16

 

I believe that a good, concise presentation that recognizes Holy God as Creator and His sending Jesus (His only Son) as the Perfect Lamb to be sacrificed for our sins is irresistible. The problem is however, the ones of us who say we know Him are contained in selfish regimen. From prayer lines (telephone conferring) to great gospel singing, we’ve utilized every expression as substitution for personal evangelism. The sacrifice of Christ demanded our adherence to seeing that others would know Him also. It’s Thursday on today and if we encounter an individual disconnected from joy and peace, we who attend worship services regularly, will expound on the services they missed on last evening’s mid-week message and invite them to Sunday services. That seemingly epitomizes great hospitality, when in actuality it is entirely antithetical to the prefacing necessary unto complete obedience (“So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Mt. 6:34 / For He says,

“At the acceptable time I listened to you,
And on the day of salvation I helped you.”

Behold, now is “the acceptable time,” behold, now is “the day of salvation.” 2 Cor. 6:2).

On the other hand, our attempts at evangelizing others can exacerbate failure when our religious jargon is our primary promulgation. For example, many extend warm salutations and pharisaic responses (from the religious ones) might include, “Blessed and Highly Favored!” Moreover, dialogue is violated with those abhorrent to religion (such as myself) with constant referrals to what your Bishop said. Do you have anything to say? As a pastor, I know my position is to provide tremendous ammunition for every congregant to minister unilateral of my presence (cf. Eph.4:12).

Unfortunately, my un-scientific analysis among my own constituency observes that the ones appearing more religious are perpetuators of more discord in their own families. Their children leave home too early, to never accompany their parent(s) to church. Those same constituents boast about how good God has been to them while not communicating with siblings. They’re viewed in the market-place as obtrusive, divisive and opinionated; while foolishly utilizing a de-contextualized defense mechanism that states, “The Devil Sure Is Busy!” I’m so glad he’s a defeated foe (cf. Jas.4:7)!

Happy Thursday!