What God Doesn't Need

Me.


God doesn’t need my talents. God doesn’t need my gifts. God doesn’t need my preaching. God doesn’t need my strengths, abilities, skills, personality or looks.

God doesn’t need me.


And yet, God loves me, and calls me, and chooses me. Not because of me, but because of His great love.

That should be enough to keep me humble and striving to live every moment for Him. That should be enough for me to serve Him unswervingly forever.


" For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." (Ephesians 3:14-19, ESV)

Why Stop There?

Headline on Foxnews: New Ohio Church Holds Service in Bar To Reach New People. (click to read story).

Could these be some future headlines:

New Strip Club Ministry: Offering is taken up by placing donations in g-strings.

Rastafarrian Ministry: We Supply The Weed

Jesus Loved Prostitutes, So Do We: Church Meets In Brothel

Obviously I am being facetious. I know that Jesus ministered to sinners and prostitutes, but he didn't become one to reach them. He didn't condone their sin. You don't have to have church at a bar to reach those that go to bars.

Stay Off My Block

Last night I had three visitors come to my door. I immediately knew who they were and saw it as an opportunity for the gospel. They all had on white shirts, dark pants, and black name badge. You have probably figured it out – they were Mormons.

I learned several things through this encounter and thought I would share it with you. I tried to be as nice as possible and as straightforward as I could as well. I attempted to speak the truth in love.

One of the first things I learned is that I am not as smart as I think I am. These guys were considerably younger than me and were ready for the challenge. They were well prepared, articulate, knew some of my arguments before I had even voiced them, and were very intelligent.

I am fairly well versed in the false teaching of Mormonism, but I am not as well schooled as they were. These young guys are basically in school everyday of the week learning a tried and true program of how to present and defend Mormonism. There is a lesson to learn from that because we are commanded in scripture to “be prepared to give a defense to anyone who asks”.

I also admire their commitment to the spreading of their faith. If more of us true Christians were as committed to sharing the true gospel more souls might be saved.

Here is how the conversation went. I let them give me their opening statement and I could tell that it was a presentation that they had memorized filled with the typical Mormon diatribe, “We are the one true church coming to share the gospel…”

I complimented their efforts and decided I better come clean right from the start so they would know my position. So, as politely as possible, I told them that I believe that Mormonism is a false religion and that Joseph Smith is a false prophet and that they were deceived and their souls were in jeopardy. I thought this could be the end of the visit, but it was not. They took it as a challenge and the debate ensued.(which I kind of enjoy).

After some short exchanges they surprisingly began to attack the doctrine of the Trinity. I wasn’t prepared for that but decided to pursue it. If they deny the Biblical teaching of the Trinity they have denied the essence of who God is.

We spent the majority of the time discussing the doctrine of the Trinity from the Bible. The Mormon position is that there are three entities – Father, Son, Spirit. And these three entities have one purpose. Of course, Christianity teaches that there are three distinct personalities but One in person, equality and essence. There is only One God.

This seemed to be fairly effective because I pointed out to them that they basically believed in three different gods. They never denied this! I also knew of the Mormon teaching that says, “As man is God once was, as God is man may become.” This too they never denied. I pointed out to them that they not only believed in three gods, they believed that they would become another god. This is idolatry.

They did have a few counter-arguments, some I probably didn’t respond to as well as I could have. They took me to several passages that clearly show the distinctions between Father and Son as proof of their position. I tried to explain that I don’t have any problem with the distinction passages. There is a distinction, but they are still One. I don’t think I did as good as I could have at this point.

What I did do was take them to the Old Testament. It is filled with proclamations, teachings, warnings and judgments that there is only ONE God! They believe in three gods. I think I could see that this was something they didn’t have an answer for.

I could tell that they weren’t going to give in, and they knew that I was not either. So, I made my final appeal. I told them that I believed that they were being blinded by the devil, could not see the truth of the gospel, were believing a lie and their soul was at stake.

Then I told them this, “This is my block and I would appreciate it if you wouldn’t go to anymore houses or come back to this neighborhood.” I don’t want them telling my neighbors a false gospel. They have the freedom in our country to go wherever they want but I can also ask them not to come to mine. They seemed to respect that. Who knows if they will. I guess I need to be prepared for their return to my neighborhood. The only thing I can think that I would need to do is go right behind them to every house they do and tell the people they have just talked to the truth.

I am sure that I made several mistakes. One is that I think for some of the moments in our discussion that I overestimated the power of argumentation instead of the fact that this was a spiritual battle. Thankfully, Michelle saw me grab my Bible and got together with my girls to pray for me while I was talking with these guys. I need to know how to defend my faith, but I can’t rely on that, I must rely on the Holy Spirit to break down the spiritual stronghold that had a grip on these young men.

When they left I was saddened. I realized that they were deep in the grip of a Satanic cult and it would be really difficult, but not impossible, for them to break away from Mormonism.

Preach Jesus

Below is an article by Dr. Jim Richards, the Executive Director of the Southern Baptist of Texas Convention. It is a great article on preaching Jesus! www.sbtexas.com



Preach the real Jesus, whatever your style
Written by Jim Richards Executive Director
Posted Friday, March 28, 2008

Seems like we ought to be getting ready for Easter! It did come early this year. As a matter of fact, Easter will not be that early again until 2228! Surely Jesus will come before then. Speaking of Jesus … a lot of churches are not.

I have been shocked by the avoidance of the name of Jesus. Dare to say mentioning sin, the blood, the cross, the resurrection or a number of other essential elements in helping people understand their need for Jesus.

North American Christianity in general and Southern Baptists in particular are in crisis. Our conversion-to-population growth ratio is at an all-time low. We have more buildings, education, money and technology than ever before. Yet we are doing less with more than any previous generation of believers. You have heard the dreary statistics: 70 percent of SBC churches are declining. Some say plateaued and declining, but unless you are growing you are declining; you can’t stand still. There is a lot of handwringing and finger pointing over this problem.

Numbers of young pastors have rejected the SBC model of cooperation. We have gone through “contemporary music,” the “Purpose-Driven” phenomenon and now the emerging church models. New forms are constantly in vogue.

Recently I heard about the Redneck Church. This flock, upon learning of the feeding of the 5,000, wanted to know whether the two fish were bass or catfish and what type of bait was used to catch’em.

We have become so niche-conscious that we may see a church start to target left-handed, blue-eyed 9-year-old girls who don’t like Hannah Montana. I’m for reaching all kinds of people in all kinds of ways, but we might be taking it to an extreme. Let me affirm much of the innovative church planting.

If I were 30 years younger, I would want to be on the cutting edge reaching the unreached with unique approaches as a church planter.

Music style is a preference, not a point of fellowship. Whether a guy sits on a stool or beats the pulpit is irrelevant. If he has bed-head, shaves his head or wears a pompadour, it doesn’t really matter. What is important is that churches both innovative and traditional uplift the Lord Jesus Christ, present clearly the gospel and depend upon the Holy Spirit.

Here’s my beef: Whatever style you are, present the biblical Jesus. Jesus had a virgin birth, sinless life, vicarious and bloody sacrificial death, bodily resurrection, and will have a visible return. I have been in churches recently that got so cute with their ministry that they forgot to present the gospel. And just because somebody baptizes a trough-full doesn’t mean the “converts” have been presented the biblical Jesus.

Use imagination and new tools, but know that only the Spirit of God can produce eternal results. We have become so slick in thinking we can “trick” people into conversion. It is the old “bait and switch” technique. We will make them think they really aren’t worshipping Jesus, never mention his name, don’t offend them and maybe they will be saved by some holy osmosis system. Paul spoke of the spirit of this world in 1 Corinthians 2:12. Don’t try to outsmart the Holy Spirit. Neither is it some jibber-jabber or some attention getting activity. Salvation is the clear, unmistakable work of the Spirit of God.

Willow Creek admitted error in their philosophy of ministry. It is hard to improve on presenting the gospel. People must understand their need. Conviction of sin is the first step toward repentance. How can a person repent if he doesn’t think he has anything to repent of? We have to preach the bad news before anyone will be ready for the Good News. We don’t have to be offensive in our methods, but the cross will offend.

The apostle Paul had a pastoral relationship with the church at Corinth. He pointed out shortcomings of the church in his first letter. In the book we call 2 Corinthians he confronted them about their infatuation with novelty. He used sarcasm to point out their rejection of his authority and the acceptance of deceivers. Paul was aggravated with the church that he started in its being so easily removed from the truth. He warned them about preaching another Jesus, receiving another spirit and having another gospel (2 Corinthians 11:1-5).

Even though Easter is passed, I urge you to boldly share the true gospel in the power of the Spirit by presenting the biblical Jesus.