Healing
The connection between healing and salvation is a characteristic feature of the Gospel tradition. Miracles of healing are, as it were, symbolic demonstrations of God’s forgiveness in action.
CAN WE LOVE ENOUGH?
We don’t muster it up. We can’t! I mean, we’d never try to work really hard and muster up enough power in our hands to go heal blind eyes. We know that’s outside of what we can do in and of ourselves. However, I feel like quite often we are tempted to try and “muster up” love for people, to try in our own selves to love enough to release a blessing to them. But we can’t muster up compassion any more than we can strive to work a power miracle of healing.
It’s outside of us. It’s done to us. It comes upon and moves up through us. Only after we’ve been moved upon, are we then moved to action and the miracle is released. So to live like Jesus means we are moved by compassion, and everything we do for ministry is out of that God Emotion.
GUEST POST: #REIMAGINE...Systems to Move Forward
8 Systems you will find essential moving forward
|
Warner Sallman Head of Christ
This is a revelation of Jesus Christ.
When I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead.
He laid his right hand on me and said,
“Don’t be afraid! I am the First and the Last.
I am the living one who died. Look, I am alive forever and ever!
And I hold the keys of death and the grave.”
Revelation 1:1, 17, 18 NLT
Envision the Almighty—able to do anything He pleases, unrivaled in power.
Ponder the Holy One—unable to do anything wrong, untarnished in purity.
Revere the just God—sure to make everything right, unstoppable in plan.
Picture the loving God—dying for all on a cross, unmatched in passion.
God’s wisdom is beyond our ability to decipher—infinitely profound.
God’s awareness of us is beyond our comprehension—intimately personal.
God’s message of ultimate truth is beyond our intellect—infallibly perfect.
God’s heart of mercy is beyond our vilest transgression—incredibly poignant.
Jesus Christ is God’s Holy Alphabet—A to Z, First to Last, all God has to say to us.
Eons ago, He spoke the first word and radiant light dispelled sin’s darkness.
At the end of time, He will have the last word and eternal life will conquer death.
God is the only One in the cosmos who will always be who He has always been.
Generations have made God’s heart their Home, and God made their hearts his.
Before Jesus sculpted mountains or whispered stars into being, He cared for us.
Before we were born, He knew our name and drew the blueprint of our life.
He loves us today no less than He did yesterday—His love for us will never fail.
Standing in awe of Jesus, we never lose the wonder of who He is.
When we come to Christ, we find purpose for our life.
But first, we must get over our self.
Falling on our knees, we discover meaning.
Paying attention to God’s’ Word, we put our hand over your mouth and listen.
When we come to Christ, we learn timeless truths.
But first, we must understand we can’t figure everything out alone.
Hushing, we get to know God.
Adoring Christ, we do more than meditate; we worship him with all our being.
When we come to Christ, we experience joy too wonderful for words.
But first, we must become dissatisfied with the world’s empty promises.
Following his orders, we really come alive.
Giving Jesus undivided allegiance, we surrender our will to the King of hearts.
When we come to Christ, we find rest.
But first, we must become restless in our spirit and desperate for him.
Falling at his feet, He makes himself real to us.
© Pastor Johnny R. Almond
Gentle Whispers from Eternity
GUEST POST: Risking Love for Neighbors, Strangers, Enemies
Q: Explain the title of your book. We may not get over all of our fear, but we can live and love bravely.
While He was on earth, Jesus was teaching His followers to not be afraid, even while He was being pursued to death. Something about living through Jesus’ death and resurrection helped His disciples see that God’s love was powerful enough to not give in to fear. They lived in a time which could have been very fear inducing, but they knew the power of God. Jesus is inviting us to do dangerous and scary things, in His name, for the sake of neighbors and strangers.
Q: You use the phrase “discipled by fear” in your book. How can we be discipled by truth instead of fear?
We often lack awareness of how heavily our culture is forming us each day. Through the media we consume and the messages we repeat, we can be shaped into people who are afraid. So, the first step is to gain awareness of how we are being shaped by the voices we let into our lives. Then we need to be so immersed in the words of Jesus that the Holy Spirit can prompt us to test what we are hearing against God’s truth.
Q: Each section of the book includes suggestions of art and music to reinforce your themes. Why was this part of your application in the book?
The creative aspect provides another angle to influence our hearts and minds. They can give us practice using a different “muscle” to focus on God’s love instead of giving in to fear. The practical steps in each section are best done in community. We need to work together to change our mindset and live in love. God invites us to create a new kind of community and world, to reflect His love.
Q: You go beyond neighbors and strangers, to call us to love our enemies. You acknowledge that this is a hard teaching of Jesus. How do we move toward love of enemies?
First of all, we can’t dispute that Jesus included this in His teaching. So, we can skip the debates about whether or not it is okay to hate certain people. Jesus doesn’t give us any loopholes. And it isn’t easy if we are honest. The solution is to flood ourselves with light. If I am filling my mind with God’s lovingkindness, which is abundant toward me, then I have more capacity to love. I can’t love from my own triggered, wounded place. The root of my love has to be God’s love, which actually can overcome fear, hate, and evil.
During a time of quiet prayer, remember the loving, nurturing heart of God—the same lovingkindness the Bible teaches and Jesus embodies. Imagine a space filled with this love, then picture yourself in it.
Once you have grown comfortable in this spacious place of love, bring to mind others that you love. Begin widening the space to include them. Then, recall people you don’t know well, or have neutral feelings about, and allow the space of God’s grace and love to cover them too.
Finally, bring to mind enemies, one at a time. Don’t begin this process with the person who has harmed you the most; choose instead someone who frustrates or annoys you. Then, bit by bit, day by day, expand this circle a bit further in your mind. If the process becomes too traumatic, seek the help of a pastor, spiritual director, or therapist.
God’s love already covers us all, but practicing these prayers day after day allows God to renew our minds and change our hearts.
Adapted from Fearing Bravely. Copyright © 2022. Used by permission of NavPress represented by Tyndale House Publishers, a Division of Tyndale House Ministries. All rights reserved.
#ReimagineCHRISTIANITY...Start with Good Friday
GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD," John writes, "that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." That is to say that God so loved the world that he gave his only son even to this obscene horror; so loved the world that in some ultimately indescribable way and at some ultimately immeasurable cost he gave the world himself. Out of this terrible death, John says, came eternal life not just in the sense of resurrection to life after death but in the sense of life so precious even this side of death that to live it is to stand with one foot already in eternity. To participate in the sacrificial life and death of Jesus Christ is to live already in his kingdom. This is the essence of the Christian message, the heart of the Good News, and it is why the cross has become the chief Christian symbol. A cross of all things—a guillotine, a gallows—but the cross at the same time as the crossroads of eternity and time, as the place where such a mighty heart was broken that the healing power of God himself could flow through it into a sick and broken world.
It was for this reason that of all the possible words they could have used to describe the day of his death, the word they settled on was "good." Good Friday.
-Originally published in The Faces of Jesus
Rest Assured
Were not our hearts greatly moved and burning within us
while He was talking with us on the road as He opened and explained to us
the sense of the Scriptures?
Luke 24:32 THE AMPLIFIED BIBLE
Saddened by emptiness?
Obey Me, and I will make Myself real to you.
Trade a long face for a smile—be a good advertisement for the gospel.
I am your Source of Music—sing out for the entire world to hear.
Entombed by loneliness?
You are never alone—I walk alongside you on every road you travel.
When perplexing cares crowd your heart, I console and cheer you.
I am your Greatest Friend—you have not lost Me, so dance for joy.
Afraid of death?
Hear My reassuring voice and overcome Satan-coaxed anxiety.
Death Valley terror disappears as you realize shadows mean Light.
I am your Life—I will defeat all enemies, so count on ultimate victory.
Losing hope?
Open the eyes of your heart and envision My promised bright future.
Wait patiently for My new world to materialize—be brave-hearted.
I am your Center of Gravity—hide in Me and unflinchingly trust.
Perplexed by despair?
Guilt, death, hopelessness, angst, and gloom burden your heart.
Grace, vitality, hope, faith, mercy, and freedom bless your heart.
I am your Redeemer—hang on for dear life—all is well.
Walk life’s road with Me—and I will change dejection to delight,
skepticism to optimism, despair to hope, restlessness to tranquility,
depression to ecstasy, self-pity to praise, and doubt to worship.
I am your God—rest assured.
(c) Pastor Johnny R. Almond
Day 319, Gentle Whispers from Eternity
GUEST POST: #ReimaginePRAYER...Pray for a Business in Your Community
John Piper, theologian, pastor, and author, tells how George Muller, the prayer legend of the 19th century, said that for years he tried to pray without starting in the Bible in the morning. Inevitably, his mind wandered. He said his prayers were weak and powerless.
Then he added the habit of using the Bible in prayer, and turned the Book into a prayer manual as he read, and for 40 years he was able to stay focused and powerful in prayer.
Piper then notes, “I have seen that those whose prayers are most saturated with Scripture are generally most fervent and most effective in prayer. And where the mind isn't brimming with the Bible, the heart is not generally brimming with prayer.“
Our first Wednesday email of the month has a focus to help facilitate prayer that you can use for your business, community, city, and country.
1. Begin with Thanksgiving and Gratitude to the Lord for being our Protector (Psalm 100:4; 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18; Psalm 18:2; Psalm 127:1).
2. Pray that Jesus will revive His believers and His church to His Beauty, Love, and Supremacy (2 Chronicles 7:13-15; Psalm 85:6; Habakkuk 3:2-3a; Acts 2:37-41).
3. Pray for unity between believers in every sphere of culture. Pray that walls of theology, doctrine and practice will come down. Pray for offenses to be forgiven. Pray for love to grow and flow in us and through us making us one with Christ (John 17:21-23; Psalm 133:1-3; Acts 4:24).
4. Pray for those that are unbelievers, or believe but have wandered away, or have been offended by Christians, to be visited again by the love of God whether through dreams, visions, friendship, or something they see, hear or read (Acts 26:18; Romans 10:1; Galatians 4:19; 2 Peter 3:9).
5. Pray for relationships. Pray that Jesus will heal, restore, and strengthen every God-designed friendship, partnership, and family (Romans 15:5-7; Malachi 4:5-6; Joshua 24:15).
6. Pray for your local, state and national government that they will honor God and be given wisdom and serve with integrity, justice and mercy (1 Timothy 2:1-2; Romans 13:1; Micah 6:8).
7. Ask God to bless your city as you pray for its peace, welfare, and prosperity (Proverbs 11:11; Jeremiah 29:7,11; Acts 3:26).
May the Lord bless you as you partner with Jesus to be a house of prayer for all nations.
Your prayer partner in Christ’s love,
Bob Perry
Workplace Prayer A Ministry of A.C.T. P.O. Box 1649 Brentwood, TN 37024 United States
GUEST POST: Thirving Churches Are Intentional Churches
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Look, your King is coming to you. He is humble, riding on a donkey.
Most of the crowd spread their coats on the road ahead of Jesus,
and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.
He was in the center of the procession, and the crowd all around him were shouting,
“Praise God for the Son of David! Bless the one who comes in the name of the LORD!
Praise God in highest heaven!” The entire city of Jerusalem was stirred as he entered.
Matthew 21:5, 8-10
We walk prayerfully on the parade route God has mapped out for us.
Jesus is the Way to the Truth of Life—free, real, rich, full, eternal life.
The evil one would steal enthusiasm, kill joy, and destroy influence—
Christ yearns to guide us to a genuinely significant and fulfilling life.
The Humble King practiced downward mobility to save us.
Walking in His steps, we have His frame of mind and serve others.
We are a beautiful work of art God envisioned long before our birth—
yielding to Spirit brushstrokes on the canvas of our circumstances,
we are displayed for angels and saints to admire in heaven’s gallery.
We dance joyfully with praise that lasts—celebrating blessings God gives.
To avoid a fickle heart, we do not call Jesus king one day and desert Him the next.
To keep our Savior in the center of our life’s procession, we bow to nothing else.
We are privileged to give our Most Honored Guest a royal welcome every sunrise.
If we would keep joy alive in our heart every mile of the journey,
we must not let cheap thrills compete with the ecstasy of His Presence.
No matter how rough the road, we can always find reasons for thanks.
We march in Christ's triumphal procession leading to a promised bright future.
Jesus is our Personal Friend, never letting us down or running away.
He is our Pardoning Savior, forgiving our sins and setting us free.
He is the Powerful God, helping us accomplish all He asks of us.
He is the Perfect Lamb, redeeming us from sin’s penalty and power.
He is the Drumbeat of hope, fighting for us until the battle’s over.
He is Alpha and Omega, speaking the first word and having the last.
He is the Prophesied Messiah, winning the last war and defeating evil.
One day we will wave palm branches along golden streets—
until then, we can celebrate victories He gives on the roads we travel today.
(c) Pastor Johnny R. Almond
Day 310, Gentle Whispers from Eternity
One of the questions that Christians ask repeatedly at the moment is whether there is any hope or should we simply despair? Is the world so intent on dismantling what it means to be a human being that society is doomed to collapse, or at least committed to shunting Christians and Christianity to its far margins? The obvious answer is that yes, hope springs eternal for Christians because we know that Christ wins in the end, that the gates of hell will not ultimately prevail, and that the marriage feast of the Lamb will take place. Yet, while all true, there is a certain glibness to such a response if that is all that is said. For the question of hope is not simply one that asks about the ultimate end of history but one which typically has a more immediate, personal dimension for us: in asking about grounds for hope we are also asking about how we might find the motivation now to avoid despair and the personal experience of hopelessness that our present context often brings to our lives as individuals. The end of history is a long way away; the need to find a reason to get out of bed tomorrow morning has a more pressing urgency.
Ironically, the feeling of impotence and despair that many Christians feel in the face of the dramatic social changes we are experiencing is itself a function of the kind of self-hood that has led to those changes. If the sexual revolution is rooted in a notion of the human self as unencumbered with obligations towards others and as free to create its own identity and pursue its own pleasures as it sees fit, then this is also the reason why so many good Christian people are so despondent at the moment. It is not that we have forgotten our obligations to those around us—indeed, it is the frustration of our ability to fulfill those obligations (the protection of the unborn, of children, of the most vulnerable in society) that fuels our anxiety and despair. Rather, it is that we have forgotten our obligation to those of generations to come. Modern men and women—whether secular or religious—think too much in the short term. We want results now. We forget that we work today not just for the present but for the long-term future.
Carl Trueman identifies the historical, philosophical, and technological influences that have shaped present-day identity politics and teaches believers how to shift their modern understanding of personhood to a biblical perspective.
The contrast with earlier generations is instructive. Take, for example, Cologne Cathedral, perhaps the single greatest example of medieval Gothic architecture that Europe ever produced. Building work started in 1248 but was not completed until 1880. Now, a significant delay was caused by the various wars that tore western Europe apart from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries, but, even so, one thing is true: the original architect and the first masons hewing the first stones knew that they would never live to see the building completed, to enter through its magnificent doors, or to worship in the austere splendor of its sanctuary. And yet they still considered the task worthwhile. All of the hard work, and indeed the immense physical risk, involved was a small price to pay for constructing something they themselves would never live to enjoy.
That is incomprehensible to most of us today. The idea that we might work for something that not even our grandchildren might see come to fruition is a profoundly alien concept to our culture. We are children of an age of instant gratification with reference to the deep and worthwhile things in life as well as to the consumerist ephemera with which we surround ourselves.
It is worthwhile asking why that is. The answer is that the men and women of the thirteenth century saw themselves and the world they inhabited as embedded in something much bigger: a cosmos that was itself embedded in God and therefore had a meaning that transcended both the raw material from which it was made and the present moment of its existence. Thus, they built things like Cologne Cathedral because they knew the world was not about them and that they had obligations not simply to their own day and generation but to generations to come. That they could build fast enough to see the final fruit of their labor was of little account. They were building for future generations, that they might have a glorious building in which to offer praise to God.
We want results now. We forget that we work today not just for the present but for the long-term future.
That medieval mentality, whereby the individual found significance and purpose precisely in seeing themselves not as the center of the universe but as part of a larger whole with responsibility to future generations is something that should animate us today. To return to the question, Is there any hope or should we simply despair? The response should be: there may be no hope that our culture will be different by this time next week, next year, or even within my lifetime. But that does not mean we do not work here and now for the benefit of those future generations to whom we have an obligation. We may not live to see them, but that does not free us from our responsibility towards them.
And so, today we are called to be faithful, not because our work will come to fruition in the near future. Rather, we do it because it lays the foundation upon which our spiritual descendants can stand and then build. Hope lies not in the day after tomorrow but in the generations to come, and we must not allow the setbacks of today to discourage us from fulfilling our obligations to them.
The New Testament model of the Christian life points to precisely this kind of thinking. We are to hold fast to a form of sound words, we are to follow the teaching of the apostles, and through faithful worship and witness we are to pass the faith on to future generations. Paul knew this well, and thus he was able to see all of the personal setbacks and suffering of his ministry as a light, momentary affliction compared to the eternal glory that is to come. All of us need that future orientation if we are to fight today’s battles without losing heart. We need to relativize our present, and indeed ourselves, in the context of the larger divine plan of which we are privileged to be a small part.
Carl R. Trueman is the author of Strange New World: How Thinkers and Activists Redefined Identity and Sparked the Sexual Revolution.
Then he asked them, “Who do you say I am?”
Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
MATTHEW 16:15-16
Opinion polls reveal that from the world’s viewpoint the jury is still out.
But what about you? Who do you say I am?
Do you confess I am your Savior?
Then leave your eternal destiny in the hands of the King of Love.
Trust Me to forgive your sins—I will save you from hell, sin’s penalty.
Then lean on Me to experience victory over sin’s addictive power.
Do not depend on your own imagined virtue to conquer temptation.
Then look forward to total redemption—freedom from sin’s presence.
Do not be shaped by your guilty past—be shaped by My glorious future.
Do you claim I am your Sovereign?
Then advance My kingdom, and do not just try to build your own.
Give Me the wheel—if I am not in the driver’s seat, you will crash.
Then promote My cause—do not be preoccupied with your interests.
Copy Christ’s example of downward mobility—the way up is down.
Then build your life on Solid Rock, not on the quicksand of selfishness.
Stand on the Gibraltar of My government, not the fault line of your ego.
Do you testify I am your God?
Then worship Me with your emotions, personality, intellect, and energy.
Then revel in My mercy and unfailing love.
Be glad I do not treat you as you deserve—or you would not survive.
Then struggle to live a radically holy life.
If you claim you know Me, I expect you to live in a Christlike way.
Do you say I am your Master?
Then put aside selfish ambition, shoulder your cross, and walk in My steps.
(c) Pastor Johnny R. Almond
Day 309, Gentle Whispers from Eternity
I am writing to you to share some pastoral reflections on the broader evangelical world. These observations were highlighted during Discipleship.org’s participation at the recent Exponential Church Planting conference in Florida last week. My reflections also come from my home church and the numerous church leaders I have been training and coaching recently.
Here are my reflections.
For almost 200 years, there was a basic Protestant consensus in America when it came to some basic worldview questions. That consensus was shared by Southern Baptists, Churches of Christ, Assemblies of God, and the other churches. That consensus focused on six key items:
That consensus is breaking down.
The first item is the most influential. A high view of Scripture leads us to embrace the other elements of evangelical Christianity: the necessity of salvation in Jesus Christ, an emphasis on evangelism, the vital role of the local church, etc.
Yet the reliability and authority of Scripture is being undermined in more and more churches by progressive Christianity.
This movement used to live primarily within mainline, liberal denominations. But it is now gaining a foothold in the evangelical church. Here is a concise definition of the heart of progressive Christianity: the willingness to compromise or reinterpret Scripture to fit in with the progressive ideals of our culture.
Progressives think they are building an on-ramp to Christianity for people immersed in the culture, but, in reality, they are building an exit-ramp for Christians to embrace the views of the culture.
The alternative to Progressive Christianity is biblical discipleship and is characterized by the willingness to uphold the Lordship/Kingship of Jesus as taught in Scripture – regardless of cultural pressures. This rootedness in Scripture’s authority shows why biblical discipleship involves standing against the impulse to force Scripture to fit cultural ideals.
One’s view of the reliability and authority of Scripture is key in navigating this cultural moment. Whereas progressive Christianity is more of a theological movement, there are political movements, both rightist and leftist, which would co-opt and conscript our historic faith to serve as lapdogs to give religious legitimacy to their platforms. Whether the temptation is coming from those on the right and on those on the left, the kingship of Jesus through Scripture is our higher authority and demands our ultimate allegiance.
More can be said about this point, but the key for us is that we are called by Jesus to uphold the primacy and reliability of Scripture.
Much is being lost from the historic Christian consensus in churches today because of the combination of strong progressive cultural pressure and a low view of Scripture.
———–
The Gospel Coalition and RENEW.org have resources that show a better way on a daily basis. I recommend looking to those two sites for regular guidance. Additionally, here are four key resources (there are so many) to help you respond to progressive Christianity:
Two Key Books
Two Key Podcasts
A big part of the reason why the progressives are winning over more and more evangelical Christians to their beliefs and worldview is that fewer and fewer evangelical Christians are regularly reading their Bibles and actually know the teachings of Scripture. For the last several decades, the typical evangelical church has dropped much of its programming that focused on Scripture (such as Sunday school and Wednesday night services) and they are relying just on Sunday morning sermons to get their people into the Bible. And the sermons are often dependent upon inspiration, personal stories, and practical applications—without a steady diet of biblical teaching.
The sermons inspire people, but too often they do not teach people how to read and understand God’s Word. The net result is that people are spending less and less time in the Bible.
At the same time, individuals and families tend to be reading less and less Scripture at home.
Into this environment, the dominant voices of social media, the university, and entertainment are speaking progressive values. They are discipling the minds of more and more people into ideals built on other worldviews (such as the ideology of intersectional feminism, which you can see played out in many Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity trainings).
Although many of our Western ideals (e.g., the equal value of all people; all ethnicities being of the same family) arise from Christian influence, many newer secular and intersectional ideals do not fit in with the teaching of the Word of God, and many actually work to inflame tensions and divide people into tribalistic camps.
————
The church must point to a better way. We must provide a genuine countercultural alternative to what is happening in the world. We recommend a strategy to disciple everyone in Scripture and what it teaches. Here are six specific recommendations that come from my experiences as the lead pastor of my local church.
We want to encourage everyone to personally learn the teachings of Jesus—and put them into practice.
It was about a year ago that I first met a senior pastor from a huge church in Austin, Texas. This leader and his church with 6,500 in pre-COVID attendance have a great reputation for adhering to Scripture, leading wisely, and planting churches. The senior pastor told me how, based on the cultural realities revealed during COVID, they pivoted to a focus on family discipleship. They made this the central question they would wrestle with: How could they disciple families to disciple their children so that the children could arrive into adulthood being faithful to Jesus in a culture that would persecute them because of their faithfulness to Jesus?
I met up that same senior pastor at Exponential last week, and he and his team have not lost their resolve or focus. He pointed out several books and trends that describe the strong and ungodly influences gaining ascendancy in our culture. I may not have his words exactly verbatim, but he told me something I found chilling: “Once a child is over 11 years of age and they have been in the public school system, it is becoming harder and harder to disciple that child to uphold the counter-cultural teachings of Jesus.” “We are struggling to effectively help those families,” he continued. “We think it is probably best to focus our energies on the families whose children are at a younger age.”
Wow.
As soon as he said those words, my mind raced to the comments of a thirteen-year-old girl who has been attending our church recently. In a sermon, I mentioned that we have to resist cultural pressure from both the right and from the left. In describing the pressure from the left, I had simply mentioned the pressure from transgender ideology and from those who advocate a LGBTQ agenda in general. The young lady came up to me after the sermon and told me that I was homophobic for what I’d said. Her parents explained to me later that she had learned that at school. Another pastor told me last week of a father he is discipling. The father can no longer have civil conversations with his twelve-year-old son because his son so strongly disagrees with his father on LGBTQ issues.
The Barna Group makes this point: “In some ways, the church is not preparing young disciples for the world as it is. Cultural discernment is about teaching them not just what to think but also how to live. We must prepare them for the world as it truly is, not as we wish it to be.”
—————
Our churches must be laser-focused on helping parents with family discipleship. Here are three key resources:
As you can easily guess from what I have written, it is a difficult time to be a pastor/leader in a church. Old models and systems seem no longer sufficient for the times in which we live.
Many pastors were mistreated during the two years that COVID dominated our country. They were beat up by those on the right who did not think they were focused enough defending conservative political values and causes. They were beat up by those on the left who thought they did not do enough to support government vaccine and mask mandates and that they did speak out enough on racial issues.
They are now weary with the realization that some 20% of those who attended church pre-COVID are not returning, unless there is revival in the nation. They are fearful the percentage in their church might be even higher. They are not sure how to navigate the current cultural landmines.
We do not yet have established road maps for how to deal with the current challenges created by ever-present social media, anxiety, outrage, and tech monopolies.
—————
In addition to serious thinking on methods for navigating this brave new world, we strongly advocate that we must also return to our essential roots and focus on the basics.
COVID has devastated many churches and shown weakness in all our churches. In many churches, attendance is just getting back to 60% of what it was, with some having an attendance of just 50%. Many Christians have gotten out of the habit of going to church altogether.
Finally, some good news: Almost all church leaders that I talk to are now speaking of the crucial need to focus on disciple making. We’re seeing so much negative fruit of non-biblical thinking and beliefs in many who claim to be Christians—because Sunday mornings are simply not enough. Most realize that if people are not in discipling relationships outside Sunday morning, too many will be lost to the culture.
It was over 12 years ago that we first sought to re-focus my home church on disciple making. We switched our focus from Sunday mornings and attractional programming to a focus on discipling relationships. We then also developed what we call “T-Groups” (transformation groups of 3-5 people). We now have around 80% of our members in small groups and T-Groups.
We have not arrived, but we have made good progress.
All of our elders and leaders are on the same page with this focus. And that is a big deal. But we are an anomaly among churches. Most churches talk about discipleship and disciple making, but they don’t have a plan and they are floundering.
Again, we must keep doubling down on our focus and keep working on it with God’s help. But we can thank God for the progress we have made. My hope and prayer is that there will be countless churches to progress beyond my church and others that I know who are focused on creating a disciple making culture. Every day I am learning of churches who are surpassing us in various ways. Let me say it as clearly as I can: a focus on Jesus-style disciple making is the most biblical and important focus your church can possess as it faces the winds of our culture. May God bless you in your efforts.
————
At Discipleship.org we have multiple partners who can help you to shift your church to a disciple making focus. Check them out at https://discipleship.org/partners/.
I am convinced that we have great power amid the challenges that we face. In the words of Romans 8:31, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” We come from a long line of disciples of Jesus going back through twenty centuries who have faced greater challenges than what we face. They endured.
They were strong because they relied on God.
They found power through personal reliance on the Holy Spirit through prayer and fasting. There has never been a better time to become experienced in the spiritual practices of prayer and fasting. Jesus made us a promise in Luke 11: 9-10: “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”
It’s time to reclaim this focus.
There is no time that is better.
Warner Sallman Head of Christ
Come to me … and I will give you rest.
Matthew 11:28 NLT
Consider this your personal invitation from the King of hearts—
written in blood, dispatched from grace, stained by tears, signed with love.
Come to Me—not human resources, sinful pleasures, or popular opinions.
Surrender to Me and experience the best conquest of all—a conquered heart.
Come to Me—not obsessive-compulsive rituals, not pious-theatrical religion.
Yield to Me and experience an uncommon miracle—a calm heart.
Come to Me--not false gods of the heart—ego, money, status, possessions.
Augustine was right—your heart will be restless until you rest in Me.
I hide wisdom from sophisticated smart-alecks—I reveal it to trusting children.
Worship Me and I will be real to you and give you true riches—a contented heart.
Come to Me—not imagined self-sufficiency; you are made of dust, not steel.
My peace is an extraordinary out-of-your-world gift—receive it—relax.
Depend on Me and I will help you succeed and give you more—a confident heart.
Come to Me—and learn how to live—
Purposefully—not trudging and toiling; yoked to Jesus, patiently productive.
Peacefully—trading hectivity for My home, giving up madness for My mastery.
Calmly—bravely riding out storms on life’s sea, relaxing in faith’s quiet zone.
Meekly—traveling the only road that leads you to Me—humility.
Easily—keeping My commands, which does not chafe like Satan’s bondage.
Gently—not stepping on those who are down, not quenching hopes of the sad.
Lightheartedly—letting Me carry your burdens for you, so you can travel light.
Learn My lessons well—advance toward My dream for you—a Christlike heart.
Come to Me—you are invited to nestle near My heart; here is how—
Exchange your yoke of self-imposed stress for My yoke of sustained repose.
Drop your overburdening cares, and delight in My overshadowing concern.
Step off your unrealistic schedule treadmill, and rest in My gentle way.
RSVP yes to heaven’s invitation and find the secret of peace—a consecrated heart.
(c) Pastor Johnny R. Almond
Day 308, Gentle Whispers from Eternity
GUEST POST ~ Redemptive Prayer of a Righteous Person Changed A City
by Francis Frangipange
God's Response to Redemptive Intercession
When Abraham was confronted with the possibility of Sodom's destruction, he did not immediately jump on the "Destroy Sodom" bandwagon; instead, he went before the Lord and prayed for mercy for the city. Abraham's prayer is an amazing study on the effect a mercy-motivated intercessor has on the heart of God. Indeed, my objective here is to gaze into the heart of God as it is revealed in the discourse between the Lord and Abraham.
When we look at Abraham's prayer, we discover an amazing power granted us in intercession. And what is that? God is looking for a mercy reason that would justify Him delaying or canceling wrath. We must not belittle this principle, for in it is great hope for our land as well. The mercy reason for delay is found in the compassionate prayer of an intercessor.
Let us consider the Lord's initial response to Sodom's sin. First, He revealed to Abraham, His servant, what He was about to do. Why? Wasn't the evil so dark that it deserved to be destroyed? Yes, the wickedness in Sodom fully deserved divine wrath. Yet that is not why the Lord revealed to Abraham the pending judgment. The Lord informed Abraham of what was coming not so His servant could criticize, but so Abraham would intercede for mercy. Remember, God delights in mercy (Mic. 7:18) and takes "no pleasure in the death of the wicked" (Ezek. 33:11). The Lord always seeks for opportunities of mercy. Therefore, let's take note of how Abraham approached the Almighty:
"Abraham came near and said, ‘Will You indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city; will You indeed sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous who are in it? Far be it from You to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?'" (Gen. 18:23-25).
Notice, Abraham did not pray from a place of anger. He never said, "God, it's about time You killed the perverts." There was no finger-pointing vindictiveness in Abraham's soul. Somehow we have come to believe that non-compromising Christians must also be angry. Abraham never compromised with Sodom's depraved culture, yet he was above fleshly reaction. In fact, throughout his prayer, Abraham spent almost no time at all telling God what was wrong in Sodom. He appealed, instead, to the mercy and integrity of the Lord.
This is vitally important for us, because Jesus said, "If you are Abraham's children, do the deeds of Abraham" (John 8:39). One of Abraham's most noteworthy deeds involved his intercessory prayer for Sodom, the most perverse city in the world!
Abraham first acknowledged the Lord's integrity, then he spoke to the Lord's mercy.
"Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city; will You indeed sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty?" (Gen. 18:24).
The Lord knew that it would be unjust to slay the righteous with the wicked; Abraham's prayer did not enlighten the Lord of some unknown fact. But God in the process of determining future reality always prepares a merciful alternative, which is unlocked by the persevering prayer of a mercy motivated intercessor.
In other words, urgent, redemptive prayer shoots straight through the mercy door and enters God's heart. This door is never shut, especially since we have a High Priest, Jesus Christ, ministering at the mercy seat in the heavens (Heb. 8:1). It is open each and every time we pray.
Listen to how the Lord answered Abraham's prayer for mercy: "If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare the whole place on their account" (Gen. 18:26).
How the truth of God's mercy flies in the face of those so eager to judge their nation! Incredibly, the Lord said He would spare the whole of Sodom if He found fifty righteous people there. Now keep this in mind: the Hebrew word for "spare" means more than "not destroy"; it also means "to forgive or pardon." This is a tremendous revelation about the living God. He will minimize, delay, or even cancel a day of reckoning as long as Christ-inspired prayer is being offered for sinners!
Time and again throughout the Scriptures the Lord proclaims an ever present truth about His nature: He is "slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness" (Exod. 34:6). Do we believe this? Here it is, demonstrated right before our eyes in the Scriptures. He tells us plainly that a few righteous people scattered in a city can preserve that area from divine wrath.
Abraham knew the love of God. He was an intimate friend of God's. Abraham, in truth, had a clear view into the heart of God based on his own experiences. This interceding patriarch had seen the Almighty bless, prosper, and forgive him, so he pressed God's mercy toward its limits.
"What if there are forty?"
The Lord would spare it for forty.
Abraham bargained, "Thirty?"
He would spare it for thirty.
"Twenty?"
He finally secured the Lord's promise not to destroy the city if He could find just ten righteous people there. On God's scales, wrath is on one side and mercy on the other. Put the entire city of Sodom with all its sin and perversion on one side. The scales tip toward wrath as the weightiness of advanced wickedness runs rampant through an entire city. Let's assume that there were two hundred thousand evil people in Sodom. It is weighed heavily on the side of evil. Yet on the other side, place just ten righteous individuals. As the ten are placed on the scale, the spiritual weight of the righteous, with just ten, tips the scales toward mercy!
In God's heart, the substance of the righteous far outweighs the wickedness of the evil! Herein we discover what we are seeking in the heart of God through prayer: the Lord would spare (forgive) sinful Sodom, with its gangs of violent homosexuals, because of the influence of ten godly people who dwelt within it!
How About Your Community?
Now, let's think of your city: Are there ten good people among you? Consider your region. Do you think there might be one hundred praying people living within its borders, people who are pleading with God for mercy? What about nationwide? Do you suppose there might be ten thousand people interceding for your country? God said He would spare Sodom for ten righteous people. Do you think God would spare your nation for ten thousand righteous?
I lived in a metropolitan area in the United States that has about two hundred thousand people. I can list by name scores of righteous individuals, including pastors, intercessors, youth workers, black folks, white folks, Hispanic folks, Native Americans, Asian Americans, Christian business people, moms, dads, godly teenagers, praying grandmothers, secretaries, policemen, and on and on who live there -- far more than the ten righteous needed to save a place like Sodom. There are many who care about this city.
Think about your church and the greater church community in your city. Aren't there at least ten honorable people who sincerely care about your community, who desire that God would bring revival? Remember, the Lord said He would spare Sodom for the sake of the ten.
My plea in this message is that you would see yourself as one who is standing in the gap for your city. See if there are others in your community who will pray with you. The power of prayer can release a tsunami of mercy that can topple strongholds and set captives free in your region.
Finally, let us not give up our communities to the influences of hell. God is able to raise up a standard against wickedness. In fact, He says He looks for a man who will stand in the gap, that He might not strike the earth in His wrath. Will you be that one? You see, the true measure of spirituality is not how angry we become toward sinners, but how Christlike; our mission is not to see men destroyed, but redeemed.
Lord Jesus, forgive me for devaluing the power of prayer. Forgive me for underestimating how passionately You desire to reveal Your mercy. Lord, give me grace to be one who never ceases to cry out to You for mercy. Lord, let me not base my obedience on what my eyes see or my ears hear, but upon the revelation of Your mercy; let me build my life on Thee. Amen!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Adapted from Francis Frangipane's book,The Power of One Christlike Life available at www.arrowbookstore.com, on the topic of prayer. Francis Frangipane's In Christ's Image Training course devotes six weeks on the topic of prayer. We encourage you to consider enrolling in the upcoming Level I class.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
In Christ's Image Training
Sign up today for our next
In Christ's Image Training.
Online course begins April 1, 2022
Registration closes March 24, 2022
In Christ's Image Training is a six-month, online course developed by Pastor Frangipane. These are proven truths that break chains and lead to power in our Christian walk.
The course comes right to your home via email and audio messages and is designed to lift one's focus toward the actual presence of Jesus Christ. The full course not only includes 48 lessons and 39 audio messages (sample audio), but the discerning student will actually find the Lord using the weekly lessons to stage opportunities to deepen the truths found in the training.
For those with limited funds, the entire text is free by email. Just enroll in the Free Lesson Plan (new students only please).
Enrollment overview:1) Go to our overview page and read through the Level I page, FAQ page, Level I Syllabus page and Tuition page.
2) Choose an enrollment plan.
3) Next, complete and submit the Level I Registration form before the end of the day, Thursday, March 24.
4) Class begins April 1, 2022.
For more info, please see www.frangipane.org/icit-overview.html.
Training also available in Spanish / Español
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Visit Arrow Bookstore to order
resources by Pastor Francis
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Use our Mobile-friendly / Printer-friendly version to forward or
print this message.
GUEST POST ~ Scot McKnight
Churches, through its pastors and leaders and volunteers, can form into a culture of success. Such a culture then forms the pastors, leaders, and churches to fit into that culture. That is, the various measures of victories, winning, achievements, progresses and advances – getting caught up in these measures creates a culture of success.
 |
Photo by Mark Neal on Unsplash
Pastors can get snagged in the pull of success, prosperity and fame. That pull is formed by comparison with other pastors and churches, comparisons give birth to competition, and competition gives birth to expectations, and unmet expectations – they are inevitable and eventual – give birth to frustrations, and frustrations to denigration of other pastors, churches, and fellow workers, and denigrations turn into personal and church depressions, and together these are the treadmill to disillusionment.
When a pastor with such ambitions gets snagged he or she discovers the thrills of glory and acclamation, but such glories are themselves a never-stopping and rarely slowing-down treadmill. Losses, declines in giving and attendance spur the pastor to work harder and to “get back to where we once were.” That past is past; the present doesn’t return to the past. Yet another treadmill of going forward while looking back.
What to do?
I’ve talked to enough pastors in the last two decades to put forward a kind of “Wisdom of jumping off the treadmill of success.” Pastors, especially during Covid, have been run ragged. As they come out of this long winter of discontents, may they find the tranquility of what they were called to be and do.
Three commitments transformed the pastors I’ve talked with, and in most cases such pastors have had to sit down with the elders, deacons, co-ministers, boards — whatever — for a talk about stepping back to core commitments. Mind you, some of them have been hard conversations. All of them have yielded wiser pastoring.
Faithfulness
Instead of the ambitions of success, wise pastors commit their days, their homes, their work, their gifts, their pastoring, their preaching, their teaching, and their walk with the Lord toward being faithful to God, faithful to Jesus, faithful in the Spirit, faithful to the Scriptures, faithful to the great traditions of the church, faithful to their own calling to pastor people (not run the world), and faithful to themselves. And, yes, faithful to their spouses and children and family.
Pastoral Care
Instead of the ambitions of “bigger is better” and “more is magnificent” wise pastors commit their lives to pastor – catch this fave of mine – who they’ve got not those they’ve not got. In other words, they care for those in their care – parishioners and co-ministers and staff and family – instead of striving for more people and more givers and more filled pews/chairs and more buildings and more of this and that and here and there. Such persons care for those they know instead of looking through them to the newest visitor and the next big giver.
Personal giftedness
Instead of the ambitions of being everything to everyone, which can mean preacher, teacher, leader, entrepreneur, visionary, manager, chaplain, overseer, community worker, networker, conference attender, book reader, DMin-er, PhD-er, author, conference speaker, Zoom yacker, blogger, Substack-er, columnist – and, oh yes, husband/wife and mother/father, brother, sister, daughter/son, neighbor, friend, fellow pastor…. let’s start this sentence again: Instead of the pull of being everything for everyone, the wise pastor commits her or his life around what she or he is called to do, gifted to do. Yes, working on weak areas, but only because those areas are areas in need of shoring up for the calling. Wise pastors know their limitations and renounce the temptation of “no limitations.” They know their time constraints, their body, their psyche, their family’s capacities and health. They know their gifts enough to empower others to do their calling, to do what that pastor can’t do well, and to be given credit for their contributions to the Body of Christ.
Someone needs to hear this today. Hear what the Spirit is saying to you.
Thank you for hearing me out.
GUEST POST ~ #ReimagineCHRISTIANITY...In America
Are you an evangelical? It’s complicated. I thought I was until someone told me that since I was, I was also a white supremacist. This is what happens when theological terms are defined by the broader culture. So let’s clarify what it means.
“Evangelical” is a contemporary grouping of Protestant Christians that have their roots in late eighteenth and early nineteenth-century revivalism. They generally share four characteristics, the well-known Bebbington Quadrilateral: biblicism (the centrality of the Bible), conversionism (the individual acceptance of Jesus as Savior), activism (the requirement for evangelism and mission), and crucicentrism (the atoning work of Jesus on the cross). While some of these characteristics may be shared with other Christian traditions, evangelicals are also further located in the context of the twentieth-century debates between theological liberals and conservatives. These three ideas—Protestant Christianity, revivalism, and Bebbington’s Quadrilateral—triangulate the social identity of evangelicals in the United States today.
The term is not used the same way in other parts of the world. In Europe, for example, it refers to an ecclesial identity that is not Roman Catholic. In the UK, it shares some similarities with the use in mainland Europe; however, it is also used as a subgroup identity for low-church Anglicans, as well as for those not attached to the Church of England but still identified by the above three ideas. This suggests that “evangelical” is not simply a political identity, as it is all too often presented in the early twenty-first century, though it is a contested and somewhat malleable term.
The term “evangelical” draws from the lexical setting of the New Testament Greek noun euangelion, which can have a contextual meaning such as “good news” or, as some English translations of the Bible translate it, “gospel” (Gal. 1:11; Rom. 1:1, 16). The rationale for this group label is that those committed to biblicism, conversionism, activism, and crucicentrism may properly be understood as those who have aligned their patterns of belief and embodiment with the aims of the gospel. It is the message that God has acted in Jesus of Nazareth in order to redeem humanity, establish the kingdom, and restore creation. The ecclesial communities who identify themselves as evangelical understand their mission as the proclamation of this good news throughout the world. While there is significant debate as to the social implications of the gospel, there is agreement on the centrality of Jesus to the message.
When the diverse ecclesial label “evangelical” is attached to the term “theology,” it raises a perennial challenge: How does one define evangelical theology ? It is a theology that has its focus on the gospel of Jesus Christ from beginning to end. Several implications may be detected from this. Evangelical theology is fully Trinitarian, orthodox in its Christological teaching, and animated both by Christ’s atoning work on the cross and by the centrality of the Christian community of faith, gathered for worship and mission.
Two terms mentioned in the opening sentence of this post need further definition: (a) Protestantism and (b) revivalism, since evangelicalism is a nested social identity within these two movements from church history. Protestantism is a sixteenth-century movement of protest concerning the beliefs and practices of the Roman Catholic Church, itself a branch of Christendom that resulted from an earlier split with the Orthodox Church in 1054. The material principle of the Protestant Reformation—what made it possible—is that justification of sinners occurs by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. The formal principle—its unique shape—is Scripture alone. Scripture formed the doctrine that made possible a movement to reform the church for the glory of God alone. Since a protest movement is inherently unstable, though, Protestantism quickly branched into four streams: Lutheran, Reformed, Anglican, and Anabaptist. As these grew, further movements developed: Baptists, Methodists, and eventually Pentecostals.
The second movement important for understanding evangelicalism is revivalism, a conversion-and-renewal movement in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Its roots were in the Reformation’s Lutheran stream in Germany that developed into pietism—an approach to the Christian life emphasizing holiness and personal experience in contrast to the dry orthodoxy that had overtaken much of Europe. A shared spiritual ethos also developed with Puritanism, especially in England and America, along with the Great Awakening and eventually the Pentecostal outpourings. Revivalism was characterized by (a) longing for repentance, (b) confident expectation for revival, (c) gospel proclamation, and (d) renewal of ardor and scripturally based worship and mission practices.
Why does this matter? In the last several years, there has been a move to give up on the “evangelical” label, with some referring to themselves as “ex-evangelicals.” It has also, no doubt, been co-opted by political leaders and has drifted from its original gospel orientation. Labels matter, though, and sometimes we need to revisit what they indicate. When my evangelical identity reconnects the gospel with my theology and the church, it is functioning the way it should. But when it only connects an inward-focused subgroup, a condition referred to as koinonitis, then an intervention is needed—one that requires more than Dr. Phil.
Behold, the eye of the LORD is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy; (Psalms33:18)
Teacher in Christian Ministry online:
Christian Leadership School Of Impartation (Department of Christian Leadership University for developing Nations)
Mentor Coach of Spirit Life Cercles Online:
Communion with God Ministries
https://www.cwgministries.org/spirit-life-circles-explained
Founder and President of Talking With Jesus Ministries ( Prayer Centre and Mission) - Intercession Prayer, Spiritual life Coaching, Counselling; Deliverance; Bible retreat, and Church planting. Transformation of communities for God’s Glory! James 4:7-8, 10.
https://www.clsoionline.com/talking-with-jesus-ministries/
Chairman and Founder of Better Future Association:
Outreach vision of Talking With Jesus Ministries
