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A Message not a Massage
A Message not a Massage
There has been an issue on my heart for weeks and I have finally found time to share some thoughts. I hear all too often how preachers are not addressing sin issues enough. They call it soft and compromising if you preach the love of God and His love for all people. Sinners and saints. I have heard said that some call it giving a massage, instead of preaching them a message about hell fire and eternal damnation.
The prophet Jeremiah addresses a similar issues in his 6th chapter verse 14. “They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. ‘Peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace.”
Ministries often spend time preaching against things that no one in their congregation is dealing with. Social issues, sexual sins. Never addressing the value that love has to turn the heart of someone that has not embraced Christ.
When I share my thoughts on this subject, I often get a lot of criticism. I love that. In some small manner it puts me in the same situation Christ was in. The religious folks didn’t like His message either.
They often forget that it was the religious folks that hated Him because He loved the sinners. He forgave them, healed them, embraced them.
2 Corinthians 4:3-4 Message
3 If our Message is obscure to anyone, it’s not because we’re holding back in any way. No, it’s because these other people are looking or going the wrong way and refuse to give it serious attention.
4 All they have eyes for is the fashionable god of darkness. They think he can give them what they want, and that they won’t have to bother believing a Truth they can’t see. They’re stone-blind to the day spring brightness of the Message that shines with Christ, who gives us the best picture of God we’ll ever get.
The religious folks were looking for the Messiah. Those in the temple knew every prophesy about Him, yet they could not recognize Him.
Much like to day many have a picture in their minds of what Christ should look like. How He would respond to sinners and saints. All too often that picture is a God with a sword, poised to kill those who are in sin.
It is a picture that is painted all too often when telling the story of Jesus.
In John chapter 4 Jesus had the longest conversation recorded in the Bible with a woman who had been married 5 times, and was currently living with another man.
History tells us a lot about this woman.
Sometime after this encounter she was baptized by the Apostles and given the name, Photine. Her name means, “the luminous one” or enlightened one.
History says that she was recognized by the church as equal to the Apostles because she won so many people to the Lord.
Look her up. It is an awesome story.
In reading the story in John chapter 4 Jesus pointed out her life issues.
John 4:15-18
15 The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw.”
16 He said to her, “Go, call your husband and come here.”
17 The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have correctly said, ‘I have no husband’;
18 for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly.”
So where is the condemnation? He pointed out her issue and then opened the path to redemption. Seems like I read somewhere that if you have been forgiven much, you will love much.
I could go on and on so let me wrap this one up. Tell the story of Jesus. His birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension. Tell them why He did it. That must be the message. “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.”
By the way Photine converted her 5 sisters and two sons. They won many to Christ. In 66AD they were all martyred under the persecution of Nero. Some say he threw her body in a dry well.
Let me know what you think. visitlivinghope@gmail.com
The Road We Travel
The Road We Travel
Wow what an awesome God. “Jesus is the answer for the world today. Above Him is no other, Jesus is the way.” In His name we move forward as Christians. Dedicated at some level, individually and corporately, to carry His word, and His story to the world, and to our world.
I doubt there is anyone that doesn’t have a family member or friend that is struggling with life. Struggling with their faith in God. Dealing with hurts and failures. Trying to understand the answer that will move them beyond all their stuff, and find a meaningful relationship with Christ.
Paul in prison wrote this to Timothy in his second letter 1:12. KJV “For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.” That day meaning when Paul faced Jesus
“This is the Message I’ve been set apart to proclaim as preacher, emissary, and teacher. It’s also the cause of all this trouble I’m in. But I have no regrets. I couldn’t be more sure of my ground—the One I’ve trusted in can take care of what he’s trusted me to do right to the end.” “I love this stuff”
Isaiah 35:8-10
8 A highway will be there, a roadway, And it will be called the Highway of Holiness. The unclean will not travel on it, But it will be for him who walks that way,
And fools will not wander on it.
9 No lion will be there, Nor will any vicious beast go up on it; These will not be found there. But the redeemed will walk there,
10 And the ransomed of the Lord will return And come with joyful shouting to Zion, With everlasting joy upon their heads. They will find gladness and joy, And sorrow and sighing will flee away.
The road we travel will be, to say the least interesting. On it we will find all sorts of teaching tools. These tools have a singular purpose. Fulfill our purpose
Here is that purpose defined by scripture.
Ephesians 4:13
until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.
For the rest of this message I will be using road as a metaphor. You might say it is a journey that carries us forward in the knowledge of Christ. Learning, growing, embracing, and sharing what we know with the world.
Saul got on the road one day with letters to arrest and kill followers of Christ. “Jesus meeting on the road and changing the path”
God will prepare others to help you as the road changes in your journey. Same road, different process. Saul was blind.
Acts 9:17
So Ananias departed and entered the house, and after laying his hands on him said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road by which you were coming, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Saul was not trusted by the Apostles. They knew him as a killer of followers of Christ.
Acts 9:27
But Barnabas took hold of him and brought him to the apostles and described to them how he had seen the Lord on the road, and that He had talked to him, and how at Damascus he had spoken out boldly in the name of Jesus.
Saul who became Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles began his journey with murder in his heart. When he had an encounter on the road his purpose changed. He was now in an unfamiliar setting. God had positioned others to help Paul on his journey.
“What happens when you meet Jesus for the first time on your journey?”
The road to eternal life will test your character.
Luke 10:30-33
30 Jesus replied and said, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers, and they stripped him and beat him, and went away leaving him half dead.
31 And by chance a priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.
32 Likewise a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.
33 But a Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion.
“Religion wouldn’t help. It took compassion from someone despised in the culture of the day.”
The road, the journey will test your character. “The road, the journey will provide opportunities.”
Luke 18:35
As Jesus was approaching Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the road begging.
What about us today? Traveling our road, our journey. Have we passed a blind, hungry, sick, discouraged, angry, unloved, wounded, all alone person? If so did we stop? The road, the journey will test our character. “It will test our faith as well.”
This occurred during Jesus triumphal entry into Jerusalem.
Luke 19:35-38
35 They brought it to Jesus, and they threw their coats on the colt and put Jesus on it.
36 As He was going, they were spreading their coats on the road.
37 As soon as He was approaching, near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles which they had seen,
38 shouting: “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord; Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”
Verse 36 Amplified
As He rode along, people were spreading their coats on the road [as an act of homage before a king].
The road, the journey is a place of worship. This was a common expression of joy in the day. Given as worship in response to the great things Christ had done.
What about the your road, your journey.