Sunday Reflections
Today
was a great day at FBC Emerson. As the Pastor of Worship, it is a blessing to have the bird’s eye view I get from the platform. I love to see people singing to Jesus, looking past the words on the screen into God’s face as they worship. I pray I will see more of that in the life of our church. I pray we will grow as worshipers of Jesus Christ.
We heard from Warner today with a talk titled “What is God Really Like?” We heard about how and when our “world view” is formed and how that impacts us. We heard about moments in life that may have defined or changed our world view like 9-11, the crash of Challenger, when Kennedy was assassinated, or when Pearl Harbor was bombed. Moments like this “make us” look at life like we haven’t before. We saw a time when the Prophet Isaiah had one of those defining moments where his world view was changed in Isaiah 6:1-6.
What is God Really Like?
We also heard about God’s Holiness, and how we by nature are not Holy. Holy means set apart or different from. We saw that often times to many of us take God’s grace for granted and God’s judgement with to little concern. Even as Christians we will come before the judgment seat of Christ and be held accountable for our deeds (2 Corinthians 5:10). That’s something to think about at the forefront of our minds, when often we let it go in the mire of “it’s all good.” We are not “all good.” We need a Savior who is. Even in that Savior who is Jesus Christ, we are not to take that great grace of God for granted.
That is what I recollect. What stuck out to you?
If you missed it, and care to listen or listen again you can go over to Warner’s blog and hear it.
You can see what else stuck out to me from Warner’s sermon on my twitter profile. If you’d like you can follow me.
Christians need to be kingdom minded not church minded or worldly minded. We need to stop “asking people to church.” We need to “ask them to Jesus” and He’ll find them a church. It may not be ours.
I need to stop being slack about pressing on to the mark of the high calling of Christ Jesus and be more disciplined to follow what He says whether it pleases other people or not.
WORD. Being intentional about sharing Jesus in our relationships with others is something we should strive to do more and more as The Day draws closer. Having a conversation about church is different that having one about Jesus. Jesus is a person. Not that we should not invite people to church, because in some cases that is the avenue by which someone who doesn’t believe meets Jesus. I’m just speaking of our relational courage. It’s a bit different talking about the church, or an event at church than it is to talk about Jesus. A person. Something that is personal.
Yes, you are correct. God chooses to use His children to lead others to Him. Those relationships are very important. I was making an attempt to keep the main thing the main thing b/c the mindset shifted years ago away from Jesus and on to “my church.” Invitations to church didn’t always bring a salvation experience. Invitations were to church, not to Jesus. All you heard was invite people to church. We need more people to come to church. I was a part of that brainwashing until I was taught otherwise. And the pastors and religious leaders wondered why our baptism numbers dropped (and continue to do so). Like you said God still uses invitations to church to bring the lost to Him. God can use any situation.
But from scripture, Jesus was out amongst the people. He never had to invite the people to the Temple or the Synagogue. He invited them to know Him, to be with Him, to be cleansed, to follow Him, and to go teach and baptize others in His name. We must bid people to come to Jesus and do the same. That would put the focus back on Him.
Right on.