Dr. A. J. Gordon was a Baptist minister of by-gone days who founded the Boston Missionary Training School in 1889. Dr. Gordon told of passing along Washington St. in Boston and seeing stores with the card in the window, “To rent, with or without power.” Any one could rent the store, and by paying something extra could have power furnished from the engine in the rear.
Dr. Gordon thought it would be a good idea to ask men and women when they joined the church if they wanted to be a member on the “with power” or the “without power” basis, and if the latter, to tell them there were no vacancies for that kind in the church, it already had too many members without power.
Perhaps his thoughts are relevant for today. Do you want to be a Christian with or without power?
Tags: Holy Spirit, power
Because of the large number of divorces in America, this was a sensitive issue. To take a grace approach can lead to Christians abusing the biblical standard; to take a legalistic approach nullifies the grace message of the gospel. So, serious Christians need to know the balanced truth.
What is your feedback? Did we do an adequate job of balancing the two? Can you add your own 2 cents worth? Do you have a contrary opinion? Spiritual growth should be a conversation, not a monologue, and I want to hear your feedback and questions.
There once was a boss who wrote this memo to his personnel director: “Search the company for an alert, talented young man who can step into my shoes. When you find him – fire him!” That boss was insecure and jealous, and the potential for growth in his business was stunted because of it.
When Adolf Hitler was looking for a chauffeur he selected the shortest man he could find and kept him as his driver for the rest of his life. This man was so short that he needed special blocks under the driver’s seat just to see over the steering wheel. Hitler used other people to make himself look bigger than he really was. Have you ever done that?
Paul told us, “Take delight in honoring each other” (Romans 12:10 TLB). Whose life are you making a difference in today?
Tags: honor, World War II
We keep track of all the visitors that attend New Hope each week. We consider a “visiting family group” to be from 1 individual to a family of five. In the 2009 year we had a total of 281 visiting family groups come through our doors. Obviously, some were visiting family from out of town because of a holiday, baby dedication, or special event, but the majority are within driving distance and are potential converts and new church members.
There were 86 visiting family groups in the Saturday night services, 60 visiting family groups in the Sunday 9AM service, and a whopping 135 visiting family groups in the Sunday 10:30AM service. In a day when nothing is traditional any more, seekers still choose to attend that 10:30 AM service over the other alternatives.
The 10:30 service is a mission field! On an average Sunday there will be two visiting family groups attend that service (last Sunday there were 7). These are people who have expressed an interest in our church, have never been here before, and are prime targets for what we say our mission is: To make disciples who make disciples. It also contains those who come back a second, third, and fourth time: great potential.
If anyone really wanted to make a difference in the Kingdom of God, that’s the service to attend and become involved in. That’s the service where needs are the greatest. That’s the service to be praying for.
Tags: church, evangelism
Yesterday, February 3, Anita went with me to a doctor’s appointment in Ft. Wayne. When we got out, it was about 12:30 PM, so we decided to get a bite to eat. As we pulled up to a stop sign at a side street, I could hardly believe my eyes. There, in the grass next to the road, were about ten red-breasted robins. On February 3!
What’s up with nature these days? Don’t those robins have an internal calendar telling them when to go north? Or have they been here all winter? Hadn’t they been notified by the ground hogs that there will be 6 more weeks of winter? Or perhaps those particular birds had eaten poison and were deranged or something.
Jesus rebuked the Pharisees when he said, “When evening comes, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red,’ and in the morning, ‘Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times“ ( Matthew 16:2-3).
What are sign that let you know that the last days are upon us?
Tags: signs
In response to Anita’s complaints about my “selective deafness”, I went to a hearing doctor to have my hearing checked. The test confirmed that I have significant hearing loss in my left ear. So I ordered a hearing aid. They are allowing me to wear it for three months as a test before I decide if I want to keep it.
Never having worn a hearing aid before, I didn’t know how it would help, or even if it would. So, I wore the thing for six days and really couldn’t tell a difference, at least not enough to make it worth all that money. I even turned it on and off near a sound source and couldn’t tell a difference. I had nearly decided to send it back when I decided to read the instruction book (duh!). The book said there would be an acoustical tone when it was turned on; I had never heard that.
So I put in a new battery, and presto: sound. That battery was dead from the day I got it and I never knew it. Now I can even hear the hair of my head brushing against the microphone. What a difference power makes!
What an object lesson regarding the Holy Spirit. A person who has never heard God’s voice doesn’t know what he/she should be hearing. So, silence seems normal. But when the Holy Spirit’s power comes into a life, suddenly everything becomes clear. What a difference His power makes!
Now I’ll be able to hear everything Anita says to me. Is that good or bad?
Tags: hearing, Holy Spirit, power
Suppose I bought an old 1925 Ford that I wanted to restore. It is missing some parts: the headlights, the wheels and the steering wheel. But the engine and the body are intact. So I strip down the engine and then rebuild it. Then I begin to work on the body of the car, and after hundreds of hours of work, the body gleams.
Then I put on some nice, square halogen headlights; some big, wide tires with beautiful mag wheels and a little racing-type steering wheel. I am completely proud of my achievement, so I drive downtown to show off my handiwork.
There’s an old man on the street corner who looks somewhat bewildered. “Well, what do you think of my 1925 Ford? You must have seen one.” “Well, that doesn’t look like any 1925 Ford I’ve ever seen”, and he then begins to point out the things that aren’t right.
I wonder if the Apostle Paul would be visiting the world today, would he even recognize us Christians? Or would he be convinced we had so intermarried with the world that we were actually neither one nor the other. If I am going to rebuild my life or a 1925 Ford, I need to refer to the Designer’s Book to do it right.