Stop Dating the Church - Part 4

     Hello there lovely bloggers hope y'all have been good. So I'm finally here to finish the last part of the "Stop Dating the Church" series. In part one I talk about the Church and defined it very briefly. In part two I went on to identify the various Church daters/member. Part 3 talks about the different characteristic to look for while choosing a church and drum rolls in part four I shall be talking about what to do once you have found "The Church."

It does please my heart to see that a good number of bloggers and followers I know are Christian and are a member of a Church. For many of people I know including myself, waking up on a Sunday morning and going to church is as natural as breathing. Now the thing is not really about  "going" to Church. Praise God for that but we can certainly maximize our church attendance to the glory of God. Now we can not experience a good church service if we are not prepared for it. Sunday morning should just be a regular morning like the rest because if we are looking to have an amazing encounter with God at that service then certainly it would take preparedness to do so.

When Joshual Harris uses the example that in most of his life he has probably woke up late, walked into Church groggy, listened occasionally, gotten distracted, left early and remember very little in several services, it hits me that many of us certainly do the same. Now if we are much more prepared for the service, the value and gain from the 2-3 hours service is so beneficial than any other day.

Many times we are distracted by the simple things happening in our lives or what is next on the to do list that we lose all focus when the service is on. Sometimes we get carried away by what person XYZ  is wearing to church or how person XYZ is lifting his/her hands and singing halleluiah. Instead of focusing we let things so simple distract us still.

Here are a few tips for preparing for a great Sunday.

1. Start early on a Saturday night. The things we watch or hear plays a big role in our daily lives so to keep the heart pure for a great Sunday encounter stay away from certain movies or videos.  Take for example a crazy Nigeria movie at 11pm on a Saturday night, it is no doubt that you will be replaying several scenes of the movie while the pastor in ministering the next morning. (I'm a victim of this one *hide in shame*). If you must watch something just think Phil 4:8 " Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."

2. Put your outfit together overnight. Ladies Ladies you probably know how it is getting dress in the morning. I am one of those female who have to try at least 5 outfit before knowing what to wear or stare in the closet for 10-15 minuets and conclude there is nothing to wear. Picking out my cloth over night have plays a major impact because once you are awake you already know what you are putting on and is ready to go.

3. Prepare your heartt -  Taking the time out to spend some time in the word will definitely prepare and open up your heart to receive the words the next morning.

4. Sleep and wake up early - This one I can't stress enough. If there is one thing I remember from pre school it would be the song "early to bed early to rise..." Staying up till the early am on a day of service is certainly not the best. Chances are you might wake up late, get very tired in the morning and off course doze off in the church while the pastor is ministering.The earlier you wake up the more refresh, upbeat and ready to go you are. Once you are awake early, you would have enough time to quickly slot in a worship/praise song to keep your spirit well prepared or perhaps quickly read a psalms. Psalms 19 is a great one to go.

5. Be careful how you hear- This one is from Joseph Harris himself. " When God's Word is being preached, you are not merely receiving information about God. God Himself is addressing you through His Word." How we listen and apply the words we hear either honor or dishonor God so it is really important to be careful about it. One thing we should know is that with every Word that God speaks to us we are held accountable for them so if we did not pay attention to them He still holds us accountable. Even Jesus said it in Luke 18:18 "Therefore consider carefully how you Listen"

 6. After the service APPLY - As Christians we are called to not be just the hearers of the Word but also doers of them. With that get out there and practice or simply share what you have also learn. Celebrate the Sunday afternoon with a friend or family and enjoy the glory and blessings of God.

This conclude this series, I hope you all enjoyed it and took our one or two things. I really did love the feedbacks from Part 3 and look forward to elaborating more on point number 7 of it since many of people were interested.

HAPPY SUNDAY!

XOXO
YSU

How about you stop dating the Church? Part 3

      Hello dear lovely bloggers and readers HAPPY NEW YEAR! phew its been since 2011 since I blogged lol. I pray the year have been coming along perfectly so far and I pray ever one of you would experience year 2012 in a way you have never experience any other year in all dimensions of your daily lives, Amen. I'd like to thank each and every one of you for keeping up with me all through last year, without you all I would have almost no reason to keep blogging. Thank you all for always sharing your thoughts and opinion

    So since it is a new year there are a few things I would like to share as you all begin to set your goals and desire accomplishment for the year. With that here are 7 questions to ask when choosing a church and even while still in your church. These are 7 Reasons by Joshua Harris in the book why Church matters. I will only be elaborating on them and adding a little sugar and honey here and there.

1. Is this a church where God's Word is faithfully taught?

For sure the Church is not an anyhow form of gathering, the strongest part of any Church should be the Word of God.that is bean teach/preach. How much of the words is meal are you actually getting? Is the Pastor or minister just quoting a few verses as if he or she is just sprinkling salt and pepper? 2nd Timothy 3:16 tells us "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness." therefor we deserve to hear everything that God has to say to us via the pastors. 

2.  Is this a Church  where sound doctrines matters?

This means a church that truely values what the scriptures says and practice it.  Many people will say its not about the doctrine but Jesus. My answer to that is what are the doctrines exactly? are they Biblical or human because in this generation many try to twist it to fit their standards even 2nd Timothy 4:3-4 says so, "For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. ⁴ They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths"

3. Is this a church committed to reaching non-Christians with the gospel?

Every believer is called to reach out to the world and share the Gospel so this is a very important key. As a body of Christ we not only care for the internal but also the External. Billions of people on Planet Earth today have never of Christ and it is our duty to reach out to them.

4.  Is this a Church whose leaders are characterize by humanity and integrity?

Know your leaders and know them well. The only way to see is by the revelations that God's shows us through His words. There are prophets and prophets. If the leadership preaches one thing in the church and does another outside you have a right to questions and ask God to show you the truth. The whole of 1st Timothy 3 gives the qualities of all church leaderships. " Here is a trustworthy saying: Whoever aspires to be an overseer desires a noble task. ² Now the overseer is to be above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, ³ not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. ⁴ He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him, and he must do so in a manner worthy of full..."

5. Is this a Church where the people strive to live by the Word?

A Church should not be a Sunday morning activity where you put on the holy hat and take it out once the grace is over. It is very important to see if the people live by the word because it would be very difficult to grow in a place where people hear one thing and does the other.

6. Is this a Church where members are challenged to serve?

Bench warming should not be an option with any Christian. There is always a service or something that need to be done in the house of the Lord. Many people only think of Ushers, Choirs, Hospitality when they think of services. There are thousand of other areas you can serve going from committing to give someone a ride to church on Sunday mornings, cleaning the sanctuary, helping set up equipment, projecting songs and many others. Ephesians 4:12 "to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up." This is yet another example of the rule of a pastor/leaders to encourage it members to serve in the ministry

7. Is the Church willing to kick you out?

This one is my favorite one so I had to save the best for last. If a member of the Church is falling it is the Church responsibility to call the individual and talk about their sin for them to repent and if they decide not to the church can removed the person's membership and begin to treat him as they would to the unbelievers in hope that the individual will repent and come back to the Lord. Now I know that was probably difficult to take in but it is merely an act of church discipline as instituted by Jesus. Matthew 18: 15-17 ¹⁵ “If your brother or sister^[b] sins,^[c] go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. ¹⁶ But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’^[d] 17 If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.

Discipline is a way to try to restore a sinning brother as well as a way to protect the witness of the church. A mother does not discipline a child because she hates him or her but rather because she loves the child and when the best for him or her. 

    When you have found these things know that you are in the right Church. Now very Often God place us in a place where in the Natural sense it might be unusual or weird. I have personally had an encounter with that at my school where there were a number of various campus fellowship/bible group. I found myself at one of the Campus ministries that was predominantly Caucasian. It was a different experience for me coming from that heavy praise and worship type of church to a contemporary style of worship. At the time I had a choice to leave and join the other campus ministry where I would be much more comfortable but for some reason I just kept going back because God had his own perfect agenda for me and over the years it had been a blessings. 

No matter where and what Church God have place you today do not be hesitant to stay if God says this is the Church for you. No matter how uncomfortable you may feel at first I assure you it would be a much greater reward in the near future.

Remain Bless!

MZ. YSU

How about you stop dating the Church? Part 2

Hello bloggers hope you all had an amazing Christmas celebrations. I apologize for the long wait in between this series but here we go with part 2 of church...Enjoy and be bless.

Praise God Christmas this year fell on a Sunday. To me every Sunday is pretty much exciting  because I always know I am going in for something. As a person who tend to be overly attentive to details around me I was expecting the church to be overfilled today since it was a Christmas Sunday morning and was a little disappointed when I found myself running late. I was piss that the church was going to be packed with church daters, you know the ones who attend services at most 3/4 times a year meaning Easter, Christmas, Thanksgiving and New year service. Its amazing how many people fall in that categories in this era.

I had a friend, lets call her Jane. Jane and I have been friend for a very long time and for the last year she has been attending two churches. One in the morning and another in the afternoon. She love church one because of the people although she does not understand the language they spoke. Church two she also love because in there she can actually understand the sermon and see areas in which she can apply them. This is what we call church dating because ms. Jane was not committed to any particular local church. Today there are many Jane roaming about and the most common excuse I hear is "Oh I love their praise sessions but the sermons are so dry so I go to Church #2 when I really want to hear a good sermon."  According to Joshua Harris, it is very easy to spot church daters in three manner.

1.  The individual's attitude toward the church is me-centered. What can I gain/get from this church? I'm a really broke college student and have no money to pay for school, can the church pay for me? I really need this miracle/deliverance do they have that there? What activities/social events do they have? Everything about this individual's motive is what will I really get out of my waking up on a lovely Sunday morning when I could be sleeping indoor like others. 

2. This individual is very Independent. You know the "I'm riding solo ones." They come to church because they probably grew up doing the same every Sunday and it has become a ritual. Going to church on Sunday morning becomes one of the things that Christians are "suppose" to do and so the individual just flow with the motion. They are the last set to come in just right when the praise session is over and first set to leave before the Pastor makes the alter call.  They do not want anything to do with been committed to the church or being a part of the church service unit. connecting to people/members of the church is definitely a NO NO after all "I don't need people checking up on everything that I do."

3.  This individual is Critical. This individual basically comes in with the mindset that their must be fault in the church. They are very quick to find fault in a Church and will not be satisfy until they find something wrong with the church. You know the mentality of this is too good to be true so I'm not getting out of this until I find what is wrong.  They are always on the look out for the next church and they sit not too far from the exit door at all.

I am sure you have met at least one of this individual before. If this might be you I beg of you that you reconsidered your decisions before going to church next time. If you do not fall in this categories of "Church daters" Praise God for that, and I would suppose my next question for you would be how committed are you to your local church?

 what is a local church? While I was thinking about this thought and the right definition to use I came across Mark Driscoll's definition where he said "The local church is a community of regenerated believers who confess Jesus Christ as Lord. In obedience to Scripture they organize under qualified leadership, gather regularly for preaching and worship, observe the biblical sacraments of baptism and communion, are unified by the Spirit, are disciplined for holiness, and scatter to fulfill the great commandment and the great commission as missionaries to the world for God’s glory and their joy."

Now there is the local church and the  universal church which is the entire body of Christ all over the world. The local church is within our community and it is definitely important to Identify your local church and be committed to it.

Now let's do a little rewind back to church dating. The first time I heard about Church dating I was almost confuse because I thought I was in that situation. When I was in school I was as committed to my church as well as my campus ministry, bible study group and prayer group.  At the time I thought was I church dating? This brings me back to the categories of people who claim not to go to church because they are part of other group like campus ministry/prayer groups. Certainly there are different protocols in a Church than the other group.  A Church is much more than your campus ministries,  It is more than a group of Christians coming together for words of encouragement, it is more than listening to preachings  online or tv, it is much more than praying/studying the bible with a couple of people over a conference call. Yes you find fellowship in those gatherings but none of those groups can substitute for that local church.  


This post have grown quite long so I shall rest my fingers here for now, however check back soon to find out How to choose/what to look for in a local church.


Do have a lovely week guys and Happy New Year in advance


Muah
YSU

How about you stop dating the Church? Part 1

Jack and Grace met through a mutual friend. From day one they seemed to be the perfect match. Grace was everything Jack had always wanted. She was beautiful, outgoing, and caring - always there when Jack needed her. For the first five months they were inseparable. Jack could hardly think of anything but grace. He didn't want to look further, he told friends. "She's the one."
            Now almost three years have passed. Jack still enjoys the comfort and familiarity of being with grace, but the spark is gone. Grace's Flaws seem more obvious. He's not sure he finds her as attractive as he once did. And he's beginning to resent all the time she want to spend with him.
        One night, when she asks if they can define the nature of their relationship, Jack blows up "We're together, aren't we?" he asks angrily. " Why isn't that enough for you?" Obviously, Jack isn't ready for commitment. And it's unclear if he ever will be..."
        

The excerpt above is from Joshua Harris book "Why Church Matters"

     Have you ever been in a relationship like that of Grace and Jack? Its breaks my heart to say that there are millions upon millions of Jacks all around the word. And no Grace is not a girl she is the Church. Many people today can accept and say that they are "believers" but how many people can we really classify as "bellongers"?
       Paul in Ephisians 3:10 makes us understand that the church was an Intention of God. "His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms."  
What exactly is the Church? we may ask. So many times we think of the building when we hear the word church and forget what it really mean. To me the Church is a fellowship where men and women of all background can come together as one body and worship God. It is a body of Christ that grow day after day. For example if you were to cut off one leg off your body today will it function on it own? The answer is No and this is the same for the Church/the body of Christ. Once one member of the Church break away it is very hard for it to function alone because we do need that fellowship with one another. An iron sharpens and iron and if as much as salvation is an individual pursuit we still need one another to make the journey smooth.

    So to the ones who think/say "Oh I don't need to belong to any church I can worship God and pray on my own and at my house" I'm sorry to break it to you "No you CAN'T and it is NOT OK." It is hard to do most things alone and certainly Christianity is not an exception.  "God manifest His presence in different ways to the "living stones" of His temple when they are gathered than He does to them when they are apart" - Joshua Harris

     When we are members of the church according to Ephesian 2:19-22 " you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, ²⁰ built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. ²¹ In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. ²² And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit."


 This is the beginning of the Church series that I shall be writing on in the next few post. Now this post post took me a little longer than I normally would take to write a post simply because this is a topic that is very dear to my heart and I can get very brutally emotional about it. I don't know if you can tell in some sentences but I had to rewrite every sentence a few times because I thought "oh snap that was too harsh and mean." My point is these next few post might sound harsh because I will no longer edit it to please my readers but rather say it as raw as it is because I believe Christ would love us to all share even the bitter truth as bitter as it is.  I pray that you all bear with me in these post. In the mean time check back for part 2 which shall be "Connecting to a Local Church."

xoxo
YSU

"If you refuse to take on spiritual responsibility you will becomes a liability"

11.28.11

GOOOOOOOOOODDDDDD MORNING, AFTERNOON & EVENING TO YOU ALL!!

For all my American people I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving/Turkey celebrations. I ate all the orishirishi that there was after all I only get to eat proper momma home cooking once in a while and it was so nice to take a break from campus food.

Its Monday morning and the question for the week and thought is how connected are you to people and most importantly your brothers and sisters in Christ?

Many people sees fellowship as a Sunday or Wednesday mid week service ritual but the honest truth is that it goes beyond that. Fellowship is breaking bread with one another, knowing the well being of the other person, sharing and strengthening each other in this journey we as Christian choose to embark. Overall fellowship is belonging to one another.....How many times have you overlooked the "one another" commands in the Scriptures?  I will list a few of them because the one probably in your head right now is the "Love one another" command.

Love one another - John 13:34
Be devoted to one another - Romans 12:5
Honor one another - Romans 12:10
Rejoice with one another - Romans 12:15
Serve one another - Galatians 5:13
Carry one another's burden - Galatians 6:2
Forgive one another - Ephesians 4:32
Encourage one another - 1st Thessalonians 5:11
Offer hospitality to one another - 1 peter 4:9
Confess our sins to one another - James 5:16
Pray for one another - James 5:16


My prayer is that God give us the strength, ability and wisdom to connect with one another each and every day.

This post was inspired by Joshua Harris. In December I will be doing a series about Church Dating with a lot of stuff from the book called "Why Church Matter" formerly publish as "Stop Dating the Church"  by Joshua Harris. It is going to be a very interesting series and I can't wait to share it with you all.

Have a lovely week y'all.

YSU

Nothing gonna hold me back

Hey y'all how are you lovely bloggers doing. So lately November has been month of traveling every weekend and its been a blessing going in all these retreat and conferences with God opening my eyes to see things that I have not experience before which is why my favorite saying is that "the word of God is new every time" because every time i read it there is always something new that I have never seen before.

I'm actually blogging on my phone from the bus from dc and I have about 8 more hours and definitely tired already but I thought I'd share with you guys two songs that's been playing in my head for well over a week now...

The first song is one of my Hillsing favorite 'Forever Reign' and the second one I just discovered last week at a retreat and I could not help but to fall on love with it.... 'Nothing gonna hold you back' by Kim.

Happy Sunday y'all many hugs and have a lovely week ahead

Cheers

~YSU~

Who is He?

To me He is a friend, a brother, a father, and a lover all at once. To Him I can pour out my heart and He listen and hear every words that I say. With every day that I have an encounter with Him I see everything new which is not strange because His words are new every morning.

In my thought today I thought how would it feel like if Christ was here on earth physically today? Would there have been more or less believer? And if He was here today how would He answer questions thrown to Him by men. Its so amazing that Christ is Both the Son of God and yet born of a Woman, and then there are so many other things about Him like

On His mother's side He was hungry but on His father's side He is the bread of life
On His mother's side He was thirsty but on His father's side He is the living water
On His mother's side He was been nailed to the cross but on my father's side He rose again
On His mother's side He slept on the boat but on my father's side He commands the storm in the sea
On His mother's side He died and was buried in the grave but on His father's side He raise the dead from graves.


Now Imagine if He was ask as a young boy 'How old are you?' and He reply something along the line  'you know on my mother's side I'm 12 and on my Father's side I'm eternal." These are things that would make any man confuse which is why men and women on earth today get so confuse about Christ and say there is nothing like Christ and it is all a lie. The best I can say is that Christ is the best thing that have ever happened to me. I don't know about you but He has done so much for me that with every breathe that I take I just want to give Him my all in all which would never be enough considering the prices He paid for my sins.


Question for thought: what if God got tired of forgiving you?

Have a lovely Sunday and a beautiful week ahead.



XOXO
YSU