Church Growth Could Be the Same

I cannot help but get jealous of the church in the book of Acts.  At the end of chapter 2 the church seemed to be awe of everything that had happened recently and seemed to careless about anything left in their life except Jesus. 

Notice what Chapter 2 verses 42-47 says, or doesn’t say.  It doesn’t say that after work every day they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to fellowship.  It doesn’t say they were all together and even though everyone was different they just overlooked it and fellowshipped. 

It does say that they were all together and they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to fellowship.  It does say that they were all together and had everything in common. 

Church growth and evangelism could be same today as it was 2,000 years ago.  We could still see everyone excited and spreading God’s wonderful redemption message!  Today we fail to COMMIT to God.  God is simply something we fit into our life but not anymore important than having to pay bills or having to go visit family members or having to go to work.

"The devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching..."Acts 2:42

I can tell you this…if you want to see Acts chapter 2 again in this modern world then it doesn’t start with prayer rebuking the devil to stay away from sinners, it doesn’t start great messages in the church or wonderful anointed worship services.  It starts with you, the Christian.  You commit to God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.  You simply bring into perspective the fact that there is nothing more important than the message of the Cross. 

God’s glory is real, God’s power is real and we need to commit to the understanding that there is nothing more important than serving him and fellowshipping with people that we have things in common with!

Read Chapter 2 and commit to prayer.  Ask God to bring back the event, feeling and movement of Acts chapter 2.  The is more to come on this topic!

The God of Certain Faithfulness

In I Kings 17 Elijah had a gigantic risk ahead of him and needed reassurance that God was still in control.  For at least a year, the Lord had commanded ravens to feed him. After the stream dried up, God prepared a Gentile widow to demonstrate His continued presence and power.

The ravens had appeared with food every morning and evening.  The jar and the jug held enough flour and oil for another day, and another, and another.  The Lord could have provided Elijah and the widow with a barrel of flour and a keg of oil.  If he had, there would have been no dramatic need to trust him every day.  Elijah, like all of us, needed to learn to trust God constantly.

With church growth and evangelism opportunities we need to make sure we understand that God is concerned about all people regardless of what they look like, how old they are, or what language they speak.

If we remember that God loves everyone then our evangelism is easy to do because there isn’t anyone that we do not need to reach.  God will always honor those that put others first and we need to test that principle with evangelism and our church growth.  Can you imagine being that widow that was starving to death when she was faced with the test of giving Elijah her last bit of food.  Most people would have said, “I hate it for you sir, but I come first!” 

God delights in taking our material things, our talents and time and multiplying their effectiveness.  God made a supernatural provision for the woman and her son and Elijah and fed them.  There are times in our lives when we supernatural intervention for our lives and God can do it if only we believe in the faithfulness of God. 

Finally, There are times when God will keep us on the edge or uncertainty until we have proven we have unending and unwavering faithfulness in God!

Tell us a time in your life when God proved that He was faithful but it sure was at the last minute of the situation.

The Disconnected Christian

Matthew 13 sure does a good job with showing how people are today. We have those that let God’s word be sown into their hearts and take root to change the field that they live in and grow amazing fruit for God’s kingdom. Also, we have people that appear to be faithful and amazing Christians but have no clue about God’s true power in their life!

“A farmer went out to sow his seed…As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up.” Matthew 14:3-4

Have you ever watched the movie Home Alone 2? In the end the character catches the bad guys by throwing bird seed over their sticky covered clothing and instantly thousands of pigeons attacked them and they were brought down. Notice that the pigeons took no time to jump once the seed were thrown. In our life today a small bird may not be an enemy to bring us down, but Satan is. He knows well the power that has been placed upon you. Does Satan easily take God away from you?

In today’s time people are so shallow with their Christian walk with God that I am sure Satan is not lacking for “seed meals.” Here is a simple test: 1. If someone cuts you off in traffic do you instantly get angry and use a finger to express your anger or do you simply say, “I’ll pray for you.” 2. If a friend were to post something negative about you on the internet would you get mad and post something negative back? 3. When was the last time that you spent more than even 15 minutes in prayer? The response to these questions will determine how deep your spiritual seeds are planted!

If you have only allowed God to apply His power, Spirit and word to the outer parts of your skin then Satan can easily fly down and attack you and devour those seeds so they may never take root and grow! Study God’s word, pray and seek God and you will see that those seeds will be deep within your soul!

I assure you that God has a desire to be planted far deeper than most people allow! Not only does he want to be planted deeper, He wants to be the only seed that grows within you! He can supply all your needs so in reality do you really need to plant anything else?