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 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"