Skip to main content

Preaching the Word of Life

The writing below was written in May of 2011. It was during a time, when I renewed my commitment to never try to preach quaint, copied sermons from other ministers, but to solely study the Word of God and preach the FULL Gospel message on the Life of the Spirit no matter how little it may be spoken within the "Fundamental" pastoral majority.

 
    It is frightening to think that the majority of preachers that I have known spend much of their messages propagating fear more than love. They preach on how every Christian is so susceptible from falling and that if a person’s devotion is only one ounce less than it was 5 minutes ago, he is backsliding.
     They shout how you can go so far as to be useless to God. So many sermons embrace the teaching that the Old man of the flesh battles the New man in Christ and we must feed one more than the other to win. They tell weary saints that they better be busy for Christ, for soon He will be back to judge all. They live for the ‘You shouldn’t and you better’ speech, but where is the ‘It’s not you anymore, but now the Spirit of Christ’ message? Where is the Spirit that is living within to build you in the image of Christ? Where is the NEW creation? Did not the Old man die, seeing that we are new in Christ? Why is it that we still have to battle, still have to fight for our precious lives, or else be doomed to failure?  
    This is not the true gospel. The gospel is the good news that God will not only save a poor sinner, but make him a new person in Christ, undoubtedly a holy saint. The greatest preaching is not ‘Do or face wrath,’ but ‘it is finished now face the Love of God.’ We are given a new nature where the old man is perished, not just dormant. IT IS DEAD. Just as sure as Christ has risen from the grave and is in heaven, even so His Spirit has risen in our hearts and is living in us. We have victory, not because we do something out of fear, but because we CLAIM in love that it has been done and we REST in His power alone which is mightily working in our lives. It is not some dog on dog battle of good and evil in us. This kind of talk uplifts the influence of satan and downgrades the power of Christ. Christ’s purpose in dying was to ‘destroy the works of satan,’ not diminish, but destroy.
     The irony is that so many preachers desire the congregation to live holy, thus they scream over DON’TS and shout out all the DO’s without ever first establishing the very fact that it has been DONE. Living Holy is simply acknowledging the Holy One in us, which we are set apart unto Him, and daily reckoning our new nature in Christ. Sadly, we have so many weak, anemic, self righteous, pomp believers, because the one’s who are supposed to be feeding the flock with Grace and Love in their hearts are actually hammering the sheep on their heads with fear and formality.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

By Fighting or by Faith?

    I have spent many years sitting under hard 'conservative' preaching where there has been a mile long list of do's and don't's and a standardized belief that the Christian life must be choosing what is good, better, and best. Here's an example.... Bob: You don't have a tie for service today? Tom: I am sorry, I did not know I was supposed to wear one. Bob: Well, it's the fact of what is good, better, and best! Tom: Oh, why is that? Bob: A tie is better. It makes you look distinguished. You don't want to look sloppy for God now do you? Tom: No. I suppose not. I just came to worship God. I did not know there was more involved. What kind of a tie should I wear to honor God? Bob: What kin.....well, um...you need one that matches the suit you should wear. Tom: I'm not good at matching, what if I don't have the right color. Will God be offended? Bob: Oh no! That is silly nonsense. So, Tom goes on his way. Buys himself...
1 comment
Read more

WORLDCLASS SCRUTINIZERS

Lord willing, I will continue to post the "letters of Madam Darkshade", but for now, I am posting something I wrote a few days ago regarding criticism and scrutiny. Romans 14:1-3 , “ Welcome people who are weak in faith, but don't get into an argument over differences of opinion. Some people believe that they can eat all kinds of food. Other people with weak faith believe that they can eat only vegetables. People who eat all foods should not despise people who eat only vegetables. In the same way, the vegetarians should not criticize people who eat all foods, because God has accepted those people (GWT).” 1 Corinthians 13:7a, “Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person... (AMP)” We have lost the art of giving someone the benefit of the doubt. In today's society, perhaps even more in the church, people have become avid critics. At some point in life, we all experience both sides of the ju...
3 comments
Read more

Star Light

I remember, when I was a child, my brother and I wanted to camp out in our front yard. We even talked our friends into joining us. We begged our parents to let us sleep out under the stars without a tent, because it would not rain that evening. It was somewhat foolish, but we were not thinking about the insects, strong winds, or even the morning dew. We just thought it would be fun to sleep outside. I think we lasted a solid hour in the dark, but once the cold wind blew and the mosquitoes landed, our imagination dissipated and we ran back indoors. Though we didn't stay out long, I do remember the stars that night. They were unusually bright and seemed to crowd the sky more than any other night. I don't think I will ever “grow out of” being in awe over the beauty of stars. I don't believe King David did either. He wrote in Psalms 19, “ The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky displays what his hands have made. One day tells a story to the next. One night shar...
Post a Comment
Read more