Tag

church

Dec 25 2017
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Eyesalve: Be a Fellow Helper

By | Eyesalve

“We therefore ought to receive such, that we might be fellowhelpers to the truth.” III John 1:8

 

One of the main reasons for division in the church today is that you have those who promote truth and those who do not. It isn’t that those who don’t promote truth are actually aware of it, for often they don’t realize what they are doing. Anytime there is even a slight rejection of the whole truth of God, then division is happening between them and those who are totally surrendered to truth. Will you be a fellow helper of the truth?

Dec 22 2017
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Who Do They See

By | Articles

One of the biggest problems we have today, is that when sinners and saints alike, look at the church, they see man more than they see Christ. They see the personality of men; not that men shouldn’t have personalities. They see the agenda of men; not that men can’t have agendas. But it is the Lord’s personality and agenda that must be seen. The problem is, there is not enough of Christ in many of our churches to catch the attention of people. Fleshy, earthy saints sit on the throne.

What people see the most of when they enter a church is that which stands out the most. They hear what is the loudest. The prevailing attitude and the spirit of a people who are gathered together is what will impress those who have come to participate. If there is no Christ, then He is not seen or heard. I am not saying there is not a measure of Christ in many of the churches. If that were the case, they would not be churches at all. In some cases, maybe many, the gathering of so-called believers is nothing more than a formal obligation that is just a part of their weekly routine.

One thing the Lord has made known to me is that His heart burns for His church. How do I know that? I feel it every time I draw close to God in heartfelt prayer. It is there that He exposes me to the burden He has for His people to love Him with all their heart, soul and mind. Some of you saints may not be accustomed to thinking that God can have a burden. We usually attribute that to our lives. We think, “I am the one that has burdens.” However, Jesus did say that we should take His yoke upon us and that His yoke is easy and His burden is light.

There is one thing that I think all men experience, who have been given a special burden from the Lord. It is a feeling of frustration, or inadequacy in the seemingly impossibility of ever seeing that burden fulfilled. Questions like, “What can I really do about it” or “How could I possibly make a difference,” can rise up in the mind of those who share in the Lord’s burden.

Well, there is one thing that can be done every time the burden of the Lord is felt and that is to take it to the Lord in prayer. This is exactly what I do when His burden is placed on me. What I am doing when I pray is this: as God puts His burden on me, I put it back on Him. That does not mean that I am refusing to accept the burden, it means that I realize I cannot accomplish one breath of that work without Him doing all that He does. He wills it, He leads it and He anoints it.

I heard stories of men who had such incredible burdens. Of one preacher, it was reported that while he was traveling on his horse to minister from town to town, he would get so burdened that one time he stopped to pray and the snow around him melted. Robert Murray McCheyne, a Scottish preacher, could be heard in the streets weeping for the lost. I have to confess I have never had God’s burden come on me that strong. Does that make me feel bad or even somewhat uncommitted? Yes, but I find peace when I am reminded that His yoke is easy and His burden is light. It also helps tremendously that the spirit helps me to pray. “Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered” (Romans 8:26).

Anyway, getting back to the church and the lack of Christ being seen. Have you ever had to explain to someone that such and such a person, who is connected to you in some way, really does not represent you? Contractors are often criticized for shady deals. Yet, that doesn’t mean every contractor is a cheat. Lawyers are often criticized for being crooked and many jokes made about them, yet there are attorneys who have much integrity. People are quick to make others guilty by association. So too with the church. Many true saints of God are looked upon as hypocrites just by their being associated with the church that has in many ways turned fleshy and carnal. So we must be more mindful of that and pray and work toward seeing our association with the carnal church severed. What you hear from people today is, “All the church wants is my money.” Or, “If that man I work with is a Christian, why would I ever want to go to his church?” Another sad thing that people see is the church fighting amongst themselves. How could they possibly see Christ as the center? I know a man who several decades ago was powerfully delivered from drugs. His brother had already died from an overdose and this man, who has since become a good friend of mine, was headed in the same direction. Well, after he was marvelously saved, you would think the church would be overwhelmed with God’s delivering power. Of course some were, but the church started to reject him just because he parted his hair down the middle.

The devil has been very effective at getting the church to be about other things or people instead of being about the main person who is Jesus Christ. Imagine if you would, when you take all your bad church experiences, how different they would have been if every situation was approached with this thought: THIS IS NOT ABOUT ME, THIS IS ABOUT CHRIST. That would mean that man’s ideas and agendas would be secondary, if there was any room for some of them at all. That would mean that at the expense of your hurt feelings, Christ would be exalted. I am not saying every time your feelings are hurt Christ is exalted, but there are many times He could and would be. If He is exalted when your feelings are hurt, I would hope you would open yourself up to any onslaught of criticism and rejection. After all Jesus said, “Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake” (Matthew 5:11).

People don’t see the church being about Christ because those in the church don’t make it about Him. The point of this whole article is to challenge us all to be determined to see the church once again reveal Christ to everyone who will enter a fellowship of true believers. Now to see Christ, does not mean that men will not be noticed. One of the most influential men in my life was Brother B. H. Clendennen. When he visited our church, he stayed at my house, I ate with him and I can tell you he was as normal as you or me. When he preached I heard him and I saw him, yet my testimony is that when I heard him preach, I saw Christ. I was given a revelation of Christ that I never had before.

This is what the church needs in this closing hour. She needs to be able to reveal the life-giving, sin-forgiving, Son of God to all who come looking for Him. Don’t let men walk away from your meeting just seeing you and the brethren. You may be real nice people. But people need the power of God. Pray that people will walk away knowing they have been in the presence of Almighty God.

Dec 18 2017
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Eyesalve: Go Somewhere Else

By | Eyesalve

“Also Amaziah said unto Amos, O thou seer, go, flee thee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there: 13But prophesy not again any more at Bethel: for it is the king’s chapel, and it is the king’s court.” Amos 7:12-13

 

King Amaziah represents self-serving ministers. Bethel means house of God. When ministers take possession of the church, instead of allow the Holy Spirit to be in charge, the last thing they ever want is some man or woman of God to come and prophesy. They say, just as Amaziah said to Amos, “Go somewhere else and do your prophesying, this is my church.”

Dec 11 2017
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Eyesalve: Is He There?

By | Eyesalve

“It was round about eighteen thousand measures: and the name of the city from that day shall be, The LORD is there.” Ezekiel 48:35

 

Wouldn’t that be a great name for a church, The Lord is There? Is He there in your church?

Dec 07 2017
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Eyesalve: Son of Zadok?

By | Eyesalve

“It shall be for the priests that are sanctified of the sons of Zadok; which have kept my charge, which went not astray when the children of Israel went astray, as the Levites went astray.” Ezekiel 48:11

 

There is a remnant, like the sons of Zadok, who are staying faithful to the Lord, while a large portion of the church is going astray. Are you a son of Zadok?

Nov 01 2017
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Eyesalve: A Terror To Thyself

By | Eyesalve

“For thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will make thee a terror to thyself, and to all thy friends: and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and thine eyes shall behold it: and I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall carry them captive into Babylon, and shall slay them with the sword.” Jeremiah 20:4

 

If our present day ministers don’t knock it off with all their strategies, techniques and programs to build the church instead of depending on the leading and the power of the Holy Spirit, they will become “a terror to thyself.” They will see the church they have built and gloried in, fall apart right before their eyes. The only thing that will remain is that which was founded on the Rock.

Oct 24 2017
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The Church Has A Hole In It

By | Articles

“Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes” (Haggai 1:6).

 

There are a lot of activities churches are engaged in these days. There are loads of programs inside the church setting and there are evangelistic and social outreaches of various kinds that go on outside the church. I am speaking for the most part about the church in America. There is also the other side where a large part of the church membership is happy to go and fulfill their little Sunday morning commitment and then go on the rest of the week with their worldly business as usual. On one hand, we have a church that is busy with doing a lot of things like the church in Ephesus who lost their first love. “And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name’s sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted. Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love” (Revelation 2:3-4). Then on the other hand, we have a church like the one that is seen in Samaria when the king of Assyria sent men from Babylon and other nations to go and dwell there. “And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel: and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof…. . They feared the LORD, and served their own gods, after the manner of the nations whom they carried away from thence” (II Kings 17:24,33). The last verse of the chapter says, “So these nations feared the LORD, and served their graven images, both their children, and their children’s children: as did their fathers, so do they unto this day” (II Kings 17:41). So from generation to generation, we have had a church full of Babylonians who claim they fear the Lord, but they serve their graven images. People may not literally bow down to statues, but when men seek after riches and success, instead of God, then they are serving false idols. Come on saints, you know there are those who say they love God, but yet they still serve their appetites and seek acceptance in this world. They go through the religious rituals on Sunday morning and then live like the world from Sunday afternoon till church starts again next Sunday.

With much of the church in the condition that she is in, she is like a bag with a hole in it. I have lost some change because I put them in my pant pocket that had a hole in it. What if the church were to experience a great successful season of evangelism and lost sinners were coming to Christ. If the church continues to have a hole in it, those new members of the body of Christ will enter the church, but will eventually fall out of the church.

I am convinced that this is the reason the Lord has put such a strong burden on my heart for His church. That is why the focus of ministry today needs to be concerned with the spiritual health of the church first. Ministers, as well as the whole body of Christ need to once again understand the reason the church exists. To make as simple of an analogy as possible, I ask this question. If you were going berry picking, but discovered your container had a hole in it, would you not close up the hole first before you went to pick the berries? Of course you would. In the same way, don’t you think the Lord wants the church to be strong and healthy with no hole in it before He is going to put a fresh picked harvest in it?

I have a thought that I want to share with you. It is certainly not a conventional thought of our day. What if the Lord is postponing the conversion of souls until the church seals up the hole that is in her? What if the Spirit of God is keeping conviction down, in particular lost souls, until He has a church that is ready to receive them? Could it be that the Spirit is withholding His power to save souls until the timing is right? Just as you would not be so foolish as to collect berries in a container with a hole, God as well would not be so foolish as to save people only to put them in a place that they would just fall out and be lost again. Haggai says, you sow much, but bring in little. This could be the very reason much sowing is being done by the church, but little has come in. It could be the very hand of God that keeps the lost reserved for a day when His vessel, His church, is mended and ready to be filled with souls.

I suppose there are some skeptical Christians who would think that the church will never be mended. I am not one of those. I have the highest hope that God will have for Himself, in this generation and this nation, a church that will fully represent Him. A church that represents Christ and has an abundance of His presence amongst them, is a church that has no hole in it. It is a safe place. It is a place where God can send freshly saved souls to grow. A place He knows they will be discipled and perfected into real genuine men and women of God.

I have run into many so-called Christians who don’t believe in church any more. Some of them are just rebels against authority or not even really Christians. But then there are those genuine born-again believers who have been hurt by the church to such a point that they no longer attend. There are those people who were saved, but then brought into a church that has a lot of false doctrine or a lot of bickering and it eventually left them on the outside all confused. I know of a precious elderly sister in Christ who found herself, after many years of faithful church attendance, being rejected by some of the saints in her church. They would force on her some false doctrines that had come in. The church developed a hole and she fell out. She was so frustrated that she said she would never attend church again. Thank the Lord that she was not true to those words and did find a healthy church. Now she flows with such love she has become a patch to close up any hole.

When churches forget that they are called to make disciples, not just converts, then a hole is created. The main reason the church is to gather is, “For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:12). When the ministers and elders of any church understand this, then it keeps their churches from having a hole in it. It is then that they can begin to sow much and reap much.

I understand that any believer can fall away from the church, but let it not be because the church has a hole in it.

Oct 10 2017
1

Eyesalve: Smoking Flax

By | Eyesalve

“Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. 2He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. 3A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth.” Isaiah 42:1-3

 

This prophecy is referring to the Lord Jesus Christ and His bringing salvation to the Gentiles. Praise God, for I am a Gentile, a saved one. The Spirit of God plays the major part in salvation. Verse one says that the Spirit was upon God’s servant; again that servant is the One and only Jesus Christ. It was the power of the Spirit that brought forth salvation to the Gentiles. Verse three talks about a “smoking flax.” That is what happens when a fire is about to go out. It represents a life that is soon to be snuffed out. It represents Gentile’s desperate and holding out for truth, desiring salvation, but they have not much hope left. Church, there are millions of these smoking flax people all around us. We must not let the last flicker of hope go out. The answer again is found in verse one. It is a Spirit led, Spirit filled, Spirit powered believer who can cause the fire to burn. So much of what the church offers today is worldly and fleshy and void of the Spirit. No doubt many who use worldly means to reach the lost have sincere intentions. But we must understand that it is the world that smothers the fire, it is the absence of the Spirit that deprives fuel for the fire. “Quench not the Spirit.” (I Thessalonians 5:19). The Spirit does not need our help; we need the help of the Spirit. The Spirit of God just needs someone to perform through. If we quench the Spirit there is no other way for us to “bring forth judgment unto truth.” This generation like never before needs to be confronted by a Spirit filled people. You must be one.

Sep 21 2017
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Eyesalve: Don’t Refuse the Living Water

By | Eyesalve

“The horseleach hath two daughters, crying, Give, give. There are three things that are never satisfied, yea, four things say not, It is enough: 16The grave; and the barren womb; the earth that is not filled with water; and the fire that saith not, It is enough.” Proverbs 30:15-16

 

In spite that it is harder than ever to find a good church these days, there are just some Christians who will never be filled or satisfied. They jump from church to church or from this doctrine to that doctrine, and yet never find what they are looking for. More than likely, their problem is that they refuse the living water of God to satisfy them. They look for other people and things to satisfy, but they never look for God.

Aug 30 2017
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Eyesalve: Body Ministry

By | Eyesalve

“But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.” I Corinthians 12:8

 

Each one of you have value and add something to the body of Christ. Though it isn’t a common practice in the church these days, we have what we call body ministry time in our church service. It is a time for those who have a word, revelation, encouragement and even a reproof for the body to be able to speak up for the Lord. From my experience of being a pastor for over 15 years I can tell you that there is a risk to opening up a church service for such a time as body ministry because people can speak in the flesh. I want to say though that it is worth the risk. For the body of Christ to ever function as she should it takes participation from the body. So saint of God, don’t put pressure on your pastor to open up the service for a time of body ministry. Instead, seek God, attend church full of love. If the majority of the body will do this it can open your pastor’s heart to have confidence in the body to minister to each other under the leadership of the Holy Spirit.