My favorite Preacher is Chris Rock

If we could teach Chris Rock to insert a couple of Bible verses in his show, we would have the perfect preacher….  Lots of jokes, entertaining, curse words, F-Word, cleverness, funnny, everything you need…  Simply great!

He is nothing like the old typical ”Outdated/irrelevant” preacher we use to have in our churches…

Ask Chris Rock to read a text from Scriptures and then on with the show. Have him say a ”God bless you, have a good week at work” at the end and… Voila! You have a relevant sermon and something that seekers will finally enjoy at your church!

I hope this doesn’t sound too familiar. Most important, I hope that you’re not shouting ”Amen! That’s what we need!”

I am afraid that this is becoming the standard in more and more churches. A Short funny sermon is more preferable than a long, more ”conservative” one…

Of course, we’ll read a text from the Bible and pray at the beginning to make our sermon ”biblical” but what we say after ”Amen” has almost nothing to do with the text we just read…

Instead of preaching and exposing the Word of God, we preach… Actually, we don’t preach. Preaching is not considered an important part of the service anymore.

We love worship, fellowship with others, ect…. But preaching?… ”Please, can’t we keep singing instead?”

Oh! You’re thinking ”I just want people to understand what I say when I preach.” or  ”I want to contextualize the Word.” or ”If they don’t understand that old Christian stuff they won’t believe and get saved”

First, it is the work of the Holy spirit to convince ( John 16:8)

Second, faith comes from hearing the Word of Christ ( Rom. 10:17)

Third, unbelievers don’t understand the Word, because they cannot. The natural man understands not the things of God because they are foolishness to him. ( 1 Cor. 2:14… Read 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and 2 for a better understanding of this)

It takes a miracle from the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the Word for someone to get saved…

Please stop asking yourself ”What can I say to convince them?”…. Not your job… Your job: Preach the Word!

”This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.” – 1 Cor. 2:13-14

Blessed Assurance

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!
Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God.
Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.

refrain:
This is my story, this is my song,
Praising my Savior all the day long.

Perfect submission, perfect delight,
Visions of rapture now burst on my sight;
Angles descending, bring from above
Echoes of mercy, whispers of love.

Perfect submission, all is at rest,
I in my Savior am happy and blest;
Watching and waiting, looking above,
Filled with His goodness, lost in His love.

It is Well with My Soul

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with my soul.
It is well with my soul,
It is well, it is well with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, tho’ trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.
It is well with my soul,
It is well, it is well with my soul.

My sin—oh, the bliss of this glorious tho’t:
My sin, not in part, but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
It is well with my soul,
It is well, it is well with my soul.

And, Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll,
The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend,
“Even so” it is well with my soul.
It is well with my soul,
It is well, it is well with my soul.

Just a I am

Just as I am without one plea,
But that thy blood was shed for me,
And that Thou bidd’st me come to Thee,
O Lamb of God, I come! I come!

Just as I am, and waiting not
To rid my soul of one dark blot,
To Thee whose blood can cleanse each spot,
O Lamb of God, I come! I come!

Just as I am, tho’ tossed about
With many a conflict, many a doubt,
Fightings and fears within, without,
O Lamb of God, I come! I come!

Just as I am poor wretched, blind;
Sight, riches, healing of the mind,
Yea, all I need, in Thee to find,
O Lamb of God, I come! I come!

Just as I am, Thou wilt receive,
Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve;
Because Thy promise I believe,
O Lamb of God, I come! I come

What a friend we have in Jesus

What a Friend we have in Jesus, All our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry Everything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry Everything to God in prayer!

Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged, take it to the Lord in prayer.
Can we find a friend so faithful who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows over every weakness, take it to the Lord in prayer.

Are we weak and heavyladen, cumbered with a load of care?
Precious Savior, still our refuge take it to the Lord in prayer.
Do thy firends despise, forsake thee? Take it to the Lord in prayer;
In His arms He’ll take and shield thee, thou wilt find a solace there.

Old Rugged Cross

On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross, the emblem of suffering and shame;
And I love that old cross where the dearest and best for a world of lost sinners was slain.

 O that old rugged cross, so despised by the world, has a wondrous attraction for me;
For the dear Lamb of God left His glory above to bear it to dark Calvary.

In the old rugged cross, stained with blood so divine, a wondrous beauty I see;
For ’twas on that old dross Jesus suffered and died to pardon ad sanctify me.

To the old rugged cross I will ever be true, its shame and reproach gladly bear;
Then He’ll call me some day to my home far away, where His glory forever I’ll share.

So I’ll cherish the old rugged cross,
Till my trophies at last I lay down;
I will cling to the old rugged cross,
And exchange it someday for a crown.

”Bridge the gap” with other religions…

It is not our duty as Christians to ”Bridge the gap”…there will always be a gap… The natural man understands not the things of the Lord, because they are foolishness to him. Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God…

Working with political and spiritual leaders and becoming one with them, or if you want, building a bridge with them, that very idea is foreign to Scriptures…

Loving our neighbour and uniting with wordly leaders are two different things, they are two different things…

There’s a lot more to Scripture than ”love”…

Hey!… Why not invite a Muslim to preach at our church to build a bridge and show them we ”love” Muslims… Let’s have them teach our church about the ”Miracles of the Coran” and the ”prophet of God”’, Muhammed…

”Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.^{” – 2 Cor. 6:14-16}

Don’t we have the ”same God”?

I heard that phrase very often in my life.

It is a sort of call to unity between religions…I guess. I speak with a muslim, it’ll come up, with a catholic, same thing.

We have the ”same” god, yet he told the muslim to believe in Muhammed and to do good to obtain salvation and he told the catholics to pray Mary to get to God and to do good works to get to heaven.

And in the Bible, He said that the only way to God is Jesus-Christ. He said that salvation is not something you can earn, but it is the result of grace and mercy from God.

How can we have the same God? How woud the same God tell different things to different people? Is God trying to adapt His message?

The Bible clearly states that there is only ONE God:

”… even I, am the LORD, and apart from me there is no savior.  I have revealed and saved and proclaimed— I, and not some foreign god among you. You are my witnesses,” declares the LORD, “that I am God. Yes, and from ancient days I am he.
       No one can deliver out of my hand.When I act, who can reverse it?” ” – Isa. 43:11-13

”For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,” - 1 Tim. 2:5

There is only one God. He’s revealed Himself in creation, in Christ and in Scriptures.

”In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe.” – Heb. 1:1-2

”For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” – Rom. 1:20

We can clearly know the God in the Bible, His Word is clear.

Do not accept any compromise with other religions, we do not serve the same God, at all! Nothing is further from the truth.

Simply put, other gods… Don’t exist! 

There is only one, God the Almighty, the Father of Jesus-Christ! To Him all the Glory forever and ever! Amen!

What is Evangelism?

That’s an interesting question and the answers you get when asking are even more interesting. Answers may vary depending on the person you ask…

Simply put, Evangelism is to share the Gospel with unbelievers and calling them to repent of their sins and becore followers of Christ.

Evangelism is when you speak the truth of Christ with non-christians.

If your evangelism doesn’t include words… It is not evangelism…

”Your actions speak so loudly, I can’t hear what you’re saying”

Heard that before, right? You know, have a good testimony, make sure that people can see Christ through your life.

Sometimes, I have the impression that we’re saying something that sounds a little more like this  ”Your actions speak loud enough, they don’t need to know what you have to say”

We now think that social works and doing good is evangelism. It is not…

Your doing good, your good works, your social implication, ect… Catholics, Atheists, Muslims, Jehovah’s witnesses, ect… They all do it.

For an unbeliever, there’s no difference between you and them… If you don’t speak the truth in love…

People can’t guess that you are a christian and that Jesus can save their souls and that they need to repent from their sins… They need to hear the Word of Christ to come to salvation, to come to the true knowledge of God and Christ…

Evangelism could sound something like this…

”Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord…” – Acts 3:19

”Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ” – Romans 10:17

Where is our precious Book?

I noticed a couple of years ago that the Word of God was no longer the reference to figure out what could be done in the church, it was no longer the authority.

Any ”man of God” could write a book and have it sold to thousands of churches and it was fine as long as it ”worked”.

It is not even permitted to question those books or methods. If we do, we’re ”rebels”. We have a problem if we don’t just accept and follow.

I remember one time, a friend of mine wanted to put in place a ”transformation path” in their church. It was some kind of a book with some question about your past and what could’ve affected you while growing up. What made you the way you are. This book was supposed to bring one to spiritual maturity…
Of course, when you tell them that only the work of the Holy Spirit, the reading of God’s word, prayers and trials will be bring spiritual growth, they tell you ”Yes, of course we know and you’re right” but nowhere in their books we see that. Nowhere the importance of reading Scriptures is underscored. We give our opinion, share our experience, etc… But we’re not studying the Word of God…

From time to time we’ll share a verse, preferably one about love or something that is not comfronting, nothing divisive or authoritative. I guess to make sure, we’re still an ”evangelical” church…

”The law from your mouth is more precious to me than thousands of pieces of silver and gold.” – Ps. 119:72

Where is our precious book?…