As Rev. Loftin mentioned, the Apostles and the other members of this family of believers waiting for Jesus signal at the Upper Room, were afraid of their future and a mile long list of questions were building in their hearts. But the power of the Holy Ghost changed their lives forever. Today we have the same Holy Spirit ready to continue filling our lives with His anointing in such way, we could be agents of influence and change in our families, local communities, cities, states, nation, and beyond our borders to the ends of the earth. Yes, we, the Western Church can enjoy the same blessings and fruits our sisters and brothers of the Eastern hemisphere are bearing. Yes, we, as part of that church beyond the upper room, we can reach out to this generation of people with many questions and not many answers about our wonderful Savior and the roots of our faith. Yes, we have the obligation of carry on that legacy of a church that has already receive it the power of God to go into the housing projects, the crack houses, the hospitals, nursing homes, and hospices, the jails and rehab programs, proclaiming with authority the salvation from God to His children.
It is my prayer we can proclaim the message of Love and Salvation that only Christ can only offer from Detroit to Miami, and from the District of Columbia to Los Angeles. The time of being trapped in the Upper Room is over. We must go to the drug addict in Rochester, the single mother in Orlando, the unemployed in Denver, the poor of the poor living in the Appalachian Mountains, the Mexicans in San Antonio, the Iraqis in Dearborn, the Navajos in Tucson, the Chinese in San Francisco, the Rwandans in Baltimore, and every other individual under the sky from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego and from London to Beijing. This is our destiny, this is our mission, therefore, go, go , go, and change the world for Christ.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Taking the Great Commission with Urgency
After the awesome opportunity given to me by the Lord to publish the book "¡Y Me Seréis Testigos!¡Un llamado para cumplir Hechos 1:8 a su máximo!" ("And You Shall Be My Witness! A call to fulfill Acts 1:8 to its fullest!")I was able to visit many Latino churches in the state of Florida, mostly with the purpose of spread out the word about the book. However, as I traveled across the state, the Holy Spirit begin to stir in my mind and heart about taking the Great Commission with urgency locally, regionally, and abroad. It is this sense of urgency that most congregations in North America have lost and that is the reason why religions like Buddhism or Islam are making profound inroads in our society.
Today we have in the United States beautiful church buildings, a dozen of Christian television networks, hundreds of radio stations, thousands of blogs, and other multimedia outlets. Nonetheless, we do not have urgency in taking the message of the Gospel to the millions of human beings that need to hear the Greatest Story of all. As a matter of fact I gave up Christian television long time ago. I rather watch "Law and Order" than program after program in which the hosts spent their time to convince people about the "ten ways of prosperity", the "fifteen keys of wisdom", or simply a pep chat Anthony Robbins style to make people feel good.
If you go today to most mega churches, you will have a Broadway style, well rehearsed worship service. I am not against of doing things for the Lord with excellence; however, these are services in which people go to get entertained, rather than having a personal experience with the Lord through the worship and preaching experience. It bugles my mind to listen people explaining to me the main reason the go to a church is because the "children program", the "youth program", or the "ladies program." There is not whatsoever in their minds and hearts the reason we come to church is not because of the programs, the music, or how magnificent is the church building. We come to church to connect with other believers and have a personal and profound experience with our maker. Consequently, we have a large amount of people seating in our churches without any biblical foundation, and largely moved by the emotions of the moment, instead by the Holy Spirit and His Word.
Small congregations are also struggling spiritually. In many instances the sermons preached are without any biblical foundation, their services in many instances do not have any appeal at all to the congregation, and attendance to the services becomes more of a family commitment than a time of coming together as the scripture tells us to minister to each other and receive a message from heaven that can change our minds and hearts. Instead, some of these small congregations want to compete with the mega churches and in their desire to attract more people try to imitate whatever the "big church" in town is doing.
What happened to our commitment to respond to Grace with a message of love, salvation, and power in the Holy Ghost? What happened to the efforts of the local church to reach out their community, feeding the hungry and clothing the naked, not just for the sake of doing so or because that will provide publicity, but because we are simply the church and this is what we do? What happened to our church leaders who are spending more time in promoting the theology of prosperity rather than the theology of Grace, the theology of Love, the theology of Salvation? Sadly, while the Christian church is living in complacency the Muslim community has grown to an estimated of 7 million followers in the United States according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). Please, take in consideration also the growing of the Buddhist, Hinduism, and other "New Age" movements in America.
The incredible thing is the fact the church in the Western hemisphere is well aware of their crisis, but they continue paralyzed. They complaint about the government, the liberal media, the communist faculty in our universities, and the Muslim people. As a matter of fact one of the things irritates me is to watch modern evangelical churches in many instances spending more time in scaring off their members about the Muslim people, rather than teaching them about how to reach them with the message of Christ in creative ways. It is urgent we take the message of Salvation to them not because they are growing fast and we are in danger of becoming an Islamic Republic, but because they are souls in need of a Savior before they walk into the eternity. It is my prayer the North Church dedicate more time to reach out with urgency the lost and disciple them in the Word of our Lord Jesus Christ than in all the petty stuff they are wasting their resources, energy, and time today.
Today we have in the United States beautiful church buildings, a dozen of Christian television networks, hundreds of radio stations, thousands of blogs, and other multimedia outlets. Nonetheless, we do not have urgency in taking the message of the Gospel to the millions of human beings that need to hear the Greatest Story of all. As a matter of fact I gave up Christian television long time ago. I rather watch "Law and Order" than program after program in which the hosts spent their time to convince people about the "ten ways of prosperity", the "fifteen keys of wisdom", or simply a pep chat Anthony Robbins style to make people feel good.
If you go today to most mega churches, you will have a Broadway style, well rehearsed worship service. I am not against of doing things for the Lord with excellence; however, these are services in which people go to get entertained, rather than having a personal experience with the Lord through the worship and preaching experience. It bugles my mind to listen people explaining to me the main reason the go to a church is because the "children program", the "youth program", or the "ladies program." There is not whatsoever in their minds and hearts the reason we come to church is not because of the programs, the music, or how magnificent is the church building. We come to church to connect with other believers and have a personal and profound experience with our maker. Consequently, we have a large amount of people seating in our churches without any biblical foundation, and largely moved by the emotions of the moment, instead by the Holy Spirit and His Word.
Small congregations are also struggling spiritually. In many instances the sermons preached are without any biblical foundation, their services in many instances do not have any appeal at all to the congregation, and attendance to the services becomes more of a family commitment than a time of coming together as the scripture tells us to minister to each other and receive a message from heaven that can change our minds and hearts. Instead, some of these small congregations want to compete with the mega churches and in their desire to attract more people try to imitate whatever the "big church" in town is doing.
What happened to our commitment to respond to Grace with a message of love, salvation, and power in the Holy Ghost? What happened to the efforts of the local church to reach out their community, feeding the hungry and clothing the naked, not just for the sake of doing so or because that will provide publicity, but because we are simply the church and this is what we do? What happened to our church leaders who are spending more time in promoting the theology of prosperity rather than the theology of Grace, the theology of Love, the theology of Salvation? Sadly, while the Christian church is living in complacency the Muslim community has grown to an estimated of 7 million followers in the United States according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). Please, take in consideration also the growing of the Buddhist, Hinduism, and other "New Age" movements in America.
The incredible thing is the fact the church in the Western hemisphere is well aware of their crisis, but they continue paralyzed. They complaint about the government, the liberal media, the communist faculty in our universities, and the Muslim people. As a matter of fact one of the things irritates me is to watch modern evangelical churches in many instances spending more time in scaring off their members about the Muslim people, rather than teaching them about how to reach them with the message of Christ in creative ways. It is urgent we take the message of Salvation to them not because they are growing fast and we are in danger of becoming an Islamic Republic, but because they are souls in need of a Savior before they walk into the eternity. It is my prayer the North Church dedicate more time to reach out with urgency the lost and disciple them in the Word of our Lord Jesus Christ than in all the petty stuff they are wasting their resources, energy, and time today.
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