Churches that lack prayer...

Hello everyone, today being my day off, I was here at home and finally opened up youtube for the first time in a long time and saw a message that was in a list as I guess I watched a video before that was similar to that, so it was in my recommended list of videos to watch. Now I may have seen some videos similar to this in the past – but I don't recall watching this exact one. You may feel free to watch it, or continue on and read the remainder of this blog post.

Now – there was one part of that video that really caught my attention, and this is a part of the video where Paul Washer summarizes a teaching of Jesus and adds on to that as he states:

“Depart from me, those of you who considered yourselves my disciples, and even infatically declared me to be Lord, but you did not commune with me and you lived as though I never gave you a law to obey – I just described American Christianity – the 60 or 70 percent of the people in this country who believe that they are converted because one time in their life they prayed a prayer.”

This was shocking when I heard this, this is even more breathtaking as I read it over and over. Now, in a recent post – I finished it off with:

Matthew 16:24 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

Yet...... “60 or 70 percent of the people in this country who believe that they are converted because one time in their life they prayed a prayer.”

Now – when it comes to prayer and Jesus, what can we see?

Matthew 26:36 Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder.
Luke 3:21 Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass, that Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened,

Matthew 14:23 And when [Jesus] had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone.

Here we have 3 separate verses(there are many many more) – and Jesus is seen praying. We are taught to take up the cross and follow Him. Just to go a step further – didn't Jesus teach us to pray?

The problem we have – many churches in America(and perhaps the rest of the World) teach to pray a prayer once and you're now disciple as you've confessed Jesus as Lord. Now this in itself leads to another problem. You end up with “Christians” who talk like the World, walk like the World, and look like the World – yet Christians are called to be different. Christians are called to live in a way that Jesus lived and that way is totally different from the World. Oh and just wait – you end up with a bunch of “Christians” who don't pray.

I dare you – start going up to some of your Christian friends and ask them how often they pray. There may be many answers – but I'm willing to bet that the people who don't pray much, will say something like “well my relationship with God is personal”. Now, I agree that a relationship with God is personal, and that relationship is built through prayer, so if one isn't willing to confess such an answer, it's most likely due to the fact that they either don't pray, or they pray very little.

The Bible teaches to pray continually. Many Churches teach – did you ever pray once upon a time in your life and ask Jesus to come into your heart?

If people aren't praying, we as a Church need to step up and pray that people would pray. If people aren't praying because they don't know how, we should teach them. If people aren't praying simply because they don't want to, well we should be praying that they would get a desire to pray.

James 5:16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

My question to you – how can God be with your church, if you don't pray?

Churches that don't know God - Part III

Would you want to be part of a “religion” that has 41,000 different denominations?

Well it would appear that not many people in the World would want to be part of such a thing either. To my fellow Christians – do you realize that the way we do Church, the way we try and portray Christ, is not the way that Jesus himself lived life or did church? If Jesus were to come back today, oh boy, how He'd show us that the way is NARROW!

These churches that we have all around the world are not the churches that Jesus built. Jesus built one Church and it was built upon the Rock! Most churches out there are built on a man's idea; on a group of peoples' ideas; but they are not built on the Rock!

Go around – test the church you go to and see if their teachings align with scripture as a whole – yes not scripture as in “I'll take this one verse out of context and teach a message about it” - but examine it and see if it is aligned with the entire Word of God.

Now, my fellow Christians – do you know how narrow the way is?

Do you love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind? OR Do you love that new iPhone or TV you just bought lost week?

Do you love your neighbour as yourself? OR Do you have so little time for others because you're busy with your own life?

My friends – Jesus came and taught a new way; a way that wasn't about an eye for an eye, but a way that was about LOVE. We as Christians can't win over the World by doing what the World teaches – we can only win over the World by doing what God Himself teaches.

Now – be careful my friends - Matthew 7:15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

In other words my friends – beware of other belief systems. There are people who lack the God of the Bible in their lives – for they don't follow the one and great commandment – Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind; BUT, they do their best to follow a commandment that is like it: Love your neighbour as yourself. The issue is this: these people follow that commandment to win people over to their belief system by using certain teachings from the Bible, but they do it for their own personal gain, for their own selfish reasons.

This is why – we have 41,000 different denominations. This is why people don't want to be part of a “religion” that has 41,000 different denominations. This is why people see Christianity as a religion when it's supposed to be about relationship.

We as Christians, are failing my friends. We lack God in our lives and all sheep are going astray. I don't look forward to a judgement that awaits us. We as a church need to repent, and turn back to Christ and pray for God to pour out his Holy Spirit upon us and teach us the Narrow way, that we may love our neighbours as ourselves, but not for our own personal gain, but that we would all be in harmony with one another, and that we would all at the end of the day praise God.

My brothers and sisters, let's go out and love the World as we were taught to do; even if it leads to our exile, even if it leads to our own families disowning us, even if it leads to our death. This was the way of the cross, this is the way of Christ, this is what we are called to do.

Matthew 16:24 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. 

The Flashpoint Example...

I was at home this evening as I was watching the TV show titled “Flashpoint” - for those that don't know it's a special police unit geared towards getting people out of crime scenes without anyone getting injured or killed – of course sometimes that fails, but anyways that's a whole other topic.

Now – I too would like to take a moment to say that I rarely ever watch TV, and furthermore am reading a book titled “Shall I pray or watch TV?” - but I must say that I'm thankful for having watched the TV show as God was confirming a message to me that's been ongoing throughout this blog, but also through messages I've heard in the past week.

In this episode of “Flashpoint” *SPOILER WARNING* I'd like to say there was a young man about 21 named Jackson. He went to visit his niece for her birthday, brought a present, and his sister greeted him at the door. She wouldn't let him in because of his past. Now – Jackson was a drug user/abuser/seller and all the stuff that goes along with it. Anyways, he was caught 8 months prior to this event for possession of cocaine. Through this, he had transformed himself and wanted nothing to do with his past.

Well his sister wanted nothing to do with her brother, AKA Jackson, so she told him that she didn't want him at her daughter's birthday party, due to his past, but also because he owed her almost $700 for his past crimes.

Now – first off, it's obvious that the sister wasn't forgiving her brother of his debts.

What did Jesus teach?

Matthew 6:12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

Obviously the sister was lacking God in her life. Selfishness was being revealed – as she wouldn't let her own brother to her daughter's birthday party until his debts were paid up; eventhough he had bought a gift for the daughter. She wouldn't even take the gift – left him at the door stranded for nothing, and being the changed guy he was, he left the gift at the door in the mailbox.

So anyways, the brother goes off, calling everyone he knows in his new “cleaned up” life. He's looking to speak to any friend that is willing to give him or lend him some money. At one point one of his friends said she had $40, but as that wasn't enough, he told her not to worry and continued searching. Eventually he finally called his old drug dealer. He wanted to get loaned some money from this guy.

Now – first off, it's clear right here that this guy was lacking God in his life. Now God may have appeared in the event of $40 – which wasn't enough right then and there, but why did he need the money that day. Again – he wanted to have control and make everything right and he was bound to do something to make it right that day. NOW – I'd just like to say, that's not how God works, but again that's a whole other separate message – all I'd like to say is he wanted to take control of his life, rather than letting God control the situation.

The result?

Well – he goes to visit his drug dealer, and in the mean time the cops are planning a drug bust on this dealer. Word got back to the dealer that there were cops up on the roof, and the dealer thought it was Jackson – when it was actually the undercover cop that was in the room that was with the cops.

Anyways, the undercover cop tries to help stop the drug dealer from shooting Jackson – there's a slight struggle, the cop ends up getting shot – and it's a load of drama until that final scene. The final scene has the cops breaking into the apartment, and unfortunately Jackson ends up getting shot and within a few minutes dies.

Now, Jackson ends up being dead in this drug bust for several reasons:

1. his sister won't forgive him
2. Jackson wants to control the financial situation to have his family back in his life
3. the cops tried to control the situation

Now, if his sister had forgiven him, and allowed him to the birthday party this would've never happened; if Jackson didn't try going to seek financial resolution that every day, he probably would've never ended up in the drug dealers apartment and would've have been shot; if the cops dealt with the situation differently, nobody probably would've been shot.

Unfortunately it's clear that everyone in this episode was lacking God. Where God is lacking there is death. Where God is lacking – we want to take control and when we do this, we forget that God is in control. The end result is not God's will, now yes God allowed it to happen, but it's because we as a people don't want to follow the will of God and would rather follow the gift he has given us and that is the gift of free will. Each person in this episode followed their own free will, and the result was death.

Now – as the closing scene of the episode came about, the one cop had to go to the sister's house and of course inform her of her brother's death. Unfortunately, this is where the episode ended, but I'm sure that the sister would have been there grieving as she realized had she just forgiven her brother, the situation would've been different, her brother would still be alive. Unfortunately – her brother is now dead, and she will either have to live with that for the rest of her life, or she will have to turn to God and seek for forgiveness.

Unfortunately, these types of situations happen to many of us daily, fortunately we don't have to deal with someone dying in a situation like this daily, but we still have to deal with the forgiveness and other things. Sometimes it takes a bad situations like a death or murder for us to realize that we should forgive those in our lives, but it is a reality that we as humans are a people who lack the teachings of God, but also just lack God in our lives.

Churches that don't know God - Part II

We live in a World with a church that continues to backslide. We now have approx 41,000 different denominations of Christianity in the World yet somehow they all believe in the same “God”. How can such a thing be?

Where does this problem begin?

Well there are many reasons. I'd have to say that the most common one is the fact that the people in the church don't follow the teachings of Jesus, but rather follow the teachings of the preacher. Now, I'd like to clarify that not teachings of all preachers are bad, but there are many false preachers who are out there preaching another Gospel.

Now – we can stay here all day on how this is the preachers fault, but this is also the fault of the people who sit in the pews. The church is not just a preacher, but it is also the people who sit in the pews week after week.

So – the problem is the fact that the people in the pews think that their only duty as a Christian is to go to Church on Sunday, and perhaps pray before they go to bed. Unfortunately, that isn't the only duty as a Christian. We as Christians are also supposed to keep one another accountable. This means that if the preacher is delivering a message that isn't the teachings of Jesus, then the people in the pews should be confronting the preacher in private and explaining this and rebuking the preacher. Unfortunately – a majority of Christians don't read their Bibles, so they don't know what the Bible actually teaches, other than what they hear from the preacher on Sunday.

So the result is we have a preacher preaching a message that allows himself to be glorified, when it's God who is to be glorified, so the people praise the preacher rather than praising God. So long as the people in the church are praising the preacher, the preacher continues to preach a message that is the teachings of the preacher, rather than the teachings of Jesus.

Galatians 1:8 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.

So – the preacher that preaches a message different from the Gospel of Christ is accursed – unfortunately those who support the preacher, start living out that “gospel” and start teaching people their “gospel” and therefore they too become accursed.

The people within the “church” are becoming accursed because they lack the truth of the Gospel in their teachings and therefore if the truth is not in the message the message lacks Jesus; and if the message lacks Jesus, the message lacks God – for there is a separation between God and men, and that separation can only be restored through Jesus Christ.

We need the God of the Bible to come up and revive the people in these churches. We need the God of the Bible to revive these dead churches! There is a lack of God and that issue needs to be addressed.

I Timothy 2:5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.  

Churches that don't know God - Part I

A World that lacks God, where can we find such a thing? Well obviously in the World, but let's cut down to the chase and go to the most obvious place and that place is the majority of churches.

We live in a world that says “there is no God because look at all the Christians. They're just as bad as everyone else”.

How sad I am to have to agree with such a thing – but it is true. There are just as many people in churches as there are outside of churches that are getting divorced. There are just as many people in churches as there are outside of churches that are going through depression. There are just so many things that people in the churches are going through as much as people outside of these churches.

The questions to be asked are: Why is this? and How is this?

The why and the how actually are tied together in this. Most people in the churches worship an image of God they've created in their heads but that image of God is not the God of the Bible. Most people in churches think it would be cool to be God, and from there they try and be God. Unfortunately, most of these “Christians” don't know God.

My question is – if they don't know God how can they lead others to him? If they don't know God of course they can't follow his standards.

People!!! We have been given a gift! That gift is a man, and that man was named Jesus. Jesus came to show us the way to God. To bring us back to God. Now here lies the problem, most people don't want to know Jesus, even “Christians”. This is the one thing I find sad.

Jesus told his disciples that they are the light of the World, and that they are the Salt of the Earth. We live in a world that teaches we need stuff in this world to survive. Obviously some people haven't read the scriptures where we would no longer need the sun of this world, because we have Jesus at the center of our lives and He is the light and we need nothing else apart from Him.

People in churches don't know God because they don't know Jesus. People don't know Jesus because they don't take time to read their Bibles. Many people who attend church don't know Jesus because they hear a message from a pastor that teaches about “you need this and you need that and you need this and you need that” - when the only thing the pastor should be teaching is “you need Christ”.

I'll be honest, there are many things in this life I may want – but the only thing that I need and want is Jesus Christ. From there, I'm rediscovering who God is every day and it's the most beautiful thing ever. Unfortunately, this isn't being taught in many churches because the people teaching the churches themselves don't know God.

Now – go ask a “Christian” that you know – and ask them what it would look like to “love your neighbour as yourself”. The answers you will receive will be shocking. I generally get an answer of “well it means to love your neighbour in a way that you would want to be loved” - which isn't really answering the question but rather is rephrasing what the phrase is.

All I can say is this: the church needs to repent and turn to Jesus. Yes, there are many others that also need to repent, but I will continue this in an upcoming message.

The deception of the World

In my last blog post, I referred to us living by fear, rather than faith. I'm going to continue with that message and expand on it. It's something that's been on my mind and I just find it amazing that my pastor at church on Sunday brushed or mentioned some of the points I'm going to discuss today.

The world/culture/society drives us to buy stuff out of fear, drives us to buy stuff so that we will have control of our lives. What I find sad about this is the fact that what happened to God in all of this? Fear is just the opposite of faith. The diagram that was portrayed at Church I feel describes it at best.

In a world that teaches about buying stuff to gain control – this is something driven out of fear/anxiety; in the meantime someone who knows God may recognize it as a vulnerability, but the person isn't afraid and therefore doesn't need to go and buy something to gain control, because God is in control.

Coming from a guy who's had his fair share of anxiety issues, I must say that I may still be anxious about things, but I bring those issues up to God. I bring those things up to God so that I won't become fearful of those things. I bring those things up to God that he may remind me that he's in control. I bring those things up to God that he would drive out the fear and anxiety and allow me to live a free life.

Now, I know people will tell me “but you should be in control of your life”. My question is why? When everyone around me seems to be in control of their life, but I could probably write a list a mile long of all the problems the person has in their life, but somehow they're in control. All I can say is that a person only starts gaining control of their life, when they give up their life to God.

Here's what I've learned....I'm not in control of my life. I too know that nobody else is control of theirs. People don't understand that when they think that their way is better than God's way, they end up hurting someone in the end. Somehow in the world, culture and society that we live in that is ok for some reason...I just can't figure out why?

Jesus taught: Love your neighbour as yourself.

This world teaches; as long as you're happy, that's all that matters. The ironic thing about that is, I'm yet to meet someone in this world who is truly happy.

Jesus taught: Love your neighbour as yourself.

This world teaches: as long as what you do doesn't hurt anyone else, that's ok. The ironic thing is somehow white lies are ok, but when the truth comes out, you've now hurt the person. I still find this one said as people believe that white lies don't hurt anyone.

Jesus repeated over and over “I'm telling you the truth” - yet we lie to people to get them to like us, so that we will be happy. My goodness, how we're all so selfish in this generation.

We may make ourselves vulnerable by telling the truth, but we live in fear as we hope that a person doesn't find out we've lied to them.

John 8:32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.  

Living in fear - rather than Faith

As we continue on in this series of a World that lacks God.......a few things are becoming more and more clear.....that is the people who say they follow God – actually don't follow his teachings – and if they're not following his teachings, then just who's teachings are they following.

Jesus taught throughout His entire ministry: Fear not!

Now – how many here reading this are afraid of things that can happen to them?

We live in a World that says - “save for a rainy day” - when Jesus taught : Matthew 6:34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

So – why do we worry about having money for a rainy day, when Jesus said not to worry about that?

The problem is this: we live in a selfish generation. A generation that teaches to get what you want, wherever and however you can get it. If you have money for it, get it. If you don't have money for it, go and get a loan and than you'll have money for it. “You're richer than you think.”

Where does all this thought come from? Well, go and watch TV – and then read the wording in the picture above.

Now – who controls what gets aired on the TV? Well in Canada, we're lucky to have the CRTC – communication regulations for telecommunications – which is run/controlled by the Government. So the Government controls/regulates what gets aired on TV. The same government that we know lies and everything else – but then again, we'd rather follow a government than follow Jesus. A government that teaches the opposite of what Jesus taught.

Take into account that because the government teaches us all these things to be fearful of, obviously we need protection for this, and obviously we need all this STUFF to protect us. Yet aren't we supposed to be free? Don't we live in a democracy where we are to be free?

In reality – only the Son of man will set you free.

If you want to follow a government that you know lies to you – then continue supporting them. I just find it funny that people will complain about all the rules and laws that exist for us people – yet the laws of God were 10. We don't want to follow God's commandments because they're too hard, yet nobody wants the thousands of laws that are in place for us here in the USA or Canada.

Think about it people – what would be easier? To obey the 10 commandments or to obey the laws of the USA or Canada?

Matthew 6 :30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?

The problem is we as people don't want the God of the Bible in our lives – but we want people to be our “gods” and these people have been elected for the people and by the people. If people would only elect God instead of themselves, the world would be different.

An Introduction to a world that lacks God....

As of late – I've been getting into many discussions and sometimes debates with some “atheists” in regards to what's wrong in the world, and how it needs to change. Through this discussion and debate I've come to realize many different things – it's almost been like an eye opening experience, and I just don't know why I never saw it that way before.

This really has caused a stir in me – a stir to provide the truth!

Over the course of the past 50 years, now I'm sure it started much before that, but especially in the past 50 years we're starting to see the world become worse and worse every day. People are killing one another, people are hating our politicians, people are hating our governments, and we have wars for the wrongs reasons and all this STUFF!

So the question would seem to be – what's happened in this time frame that it's gotten so bad in such a short amount of time?

One hundred years ago – maybe there were abortions – but now the government has made it legal for people to go and get abortions, and in most cases as a defense people will say “well what if the girl gets raped?” Well – I'm not going to focus on the “reason for abortion” here – but my question is how is it we've come to accept rape in our society? You see, by accepting abortion for the reason of rape – means we're ok with rape in our society. This I'm not ok with. I too know that the God of the Bible would not be ok with something like this.

Now – this is simply one example of possibly millions of things that have gone on in the past 50 years, but hey – I'm just here to point this out.

I would have to say that throughout all this – there is a deeper cause, a root cause that's causing all this. And the reason is really simple actually. People want to be “God”.

Now – whether it's biblical or not – why did Satan and the dark angels fall from Heaven? Did Satan not want to be God? Did the Angels not choose to follow Satan rather than God?

Now we're in a society where the society is falling apart! All because people want to be God. Every one thinks they should get everything they want. Realistically speaking – everyone wants something, and it's not God.

Even most church goers don't want God. Most church goers I'd say don't even believe in God. They may believe in an image of God they created in their head, but that image they created is not the God of the Bible. To go further on this – I'd even say that there are other church goers who “want to believe in God” - but because they don't know who God is, they don't believe in him, but they want to, they're just waiting for someone to someday talk to him or her about who God is.

In the mean time – we have people around the world who don't/won't believe in the God of the Bible because there are too many “Christians” who don't follow the teachings of the Bible, yet there are many “Christians” who don't know the teachings of the Bible, but then again – it's not just about knowing the teachings, it's about knowing the teacher.