Do the New – Have a Revolutionary Church Service! – #GTH Blog
There was one thing that bothered me about our family prayer – it was too monotonous. It had two songs to sing, a psalm to read, and everyone prayed. Mamma prayed the longest while my sister and I picked at each other.
It was alright once and twice but then it became more of a ritual. And if we missed any part of it, there was nothing short of judgement that we felt on us. (Important to ponder on how to keep your family prayers fresh – oh my, I am a parent already!)
I wonder if our church services have become rituals too. The only thing that changes everything about a service is the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. Apart from that it is simply a ritual and a tradition passed down the years.
Ask Questions!
Good to ask, why do we do what we do? If we don’t have a solid answer other than it was something that has always been done, it is time to change.
One thing, I did not understand in our culture was that almost after 45 minutes of worship three people would pray extremely long prayers for the blessing of the meeting. And I would wonder, so what was the last 45 minutes about? Or didn’t that need God’s blessing?
How about some churches that still have testimonies that have no head or tail, no beginning or end, for somebody’s joy at the expense of everyone’s time. Testimonies in the church must be highly monitored as you are in an assembly.
One of the infamous testimonies is about a lady who got to testify about her dying goat and she wept and wept. And she cried more because her pastor’s beard resembled that of the goat. Now I don’t know if that is a true story but quite a popular one.
Questions you need to ask while deciding to include in your service timings the testimonies or even entertaining guests are:
Does this glorify God?
Is this going to a blessing?
Is this something the pastor has to summarise?
Is this worth everybody’s time?
A young church planter recently asked me, what can I do different in my church service? I simply said, “Don’t do the done, seek God for the new”.
Read More at:
Do the New – Have a Revolutionary Church Service! – #GTH Blog.
Peculiar isn’t always Popular
Hi Everybody!
It’s already mid-week and it’s amazing how time is flying by so fast. Before you know it, it’ll be Christmas! :O Has anybody started their early Christmas shopping???? I know I haven’t lol.
So today’s post is centered on how being a peculiar person isn’t always popular. When I look at the types of persecution that’s going around for being a Christian, I think that the level of persecution that is starting to rise is trying to send us a message that it isn’t popular to be a “Christian” at this time which is probably why some people will leave the faith. It’s kind of an oxymoron in a way because the rise in persecution is actually raising a few eye-brows as to why Christians are being so attacked in this decade. Each year, the death toll of martyrs is rising just because people believe in the One True God. In fact, just a couple of days ago, I even got a hate message from a Satanist via twitter which said: “Satan hates you too B****”. I felt sorry for the Satanist….thinking… you may hate all you want, but God will always love you.
The walk of being a Christian isn’t so simple as many people think it is and yet we are the Jesus Freaks in this day and age. The message of the Truth is not always well recieved and yet it still needs to be preached, televised, tweeted, facebooked, blogged, texted, spoken about and written about. We have so many avenues to preach the gospel of truth and as we head into that place where I believe that there will be a greater dispensation of God’s Spirit outpoured to His chosen people who are the remnant, we will see a shift in peoples attitude. I liken this season to the time where Elijah challenged the god of Baal with the One True God. God answers by Fire…and the fire that we have yet to see is the greater dispensation of God’s Spirit poured out on mankind where revivals are going to take place. In fact…I believe that revivals have already started to manifest themselves and we as Christians need to buck up and get ready for whatever God plans for us to do. I say all of this with much fear and trembling. We are popularly unpopular to the World and yet in Heaven, there is a constant party going on for each individual that gets saved. The turn around will be amazing and I think that even writing this message may not even be something people want to read, but it needs to be said.
Jesus is the only way to get to Heaven because He died and shed His innocent blood for all of humanity’s sins.
We should not turn a blind eye to the only God that came down as a man to die for His own creation just so that there could be a renewal of relationship between man and God because God so loved the World that He sent His begotten Son, that whoseoever believes on Him shall not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16).
The deception that I believe is veiling the truth about the existence of Jesus and the existence of the one true God is that people don’t believe that Hell exists. It’s one thing for people to believe that God doesn’t exist…but the reason why people don’t believe God exists is because they don’t believe in the reality of the Devil’s existence and the reality of Hell’s existence. Hell was never meant for us, it was meant for the fallen angels and Satan, but because of Sin…the consequence of all of us reaching that place is definite if we choose not to repent and believe that Jesus paid the price for us to enter back into Heaven. People, there is no other God out there who is like Jesus that will sacrifice their own so-called deity to come to earth as a man and literally experience torture for the sake of humanity just because their love is that great for mankind. Not even money can save you from Cancer or a car crash like our God can.
Many people struggle with identity crises because they don’t really know who they are and whose they are. Every person was created by God because God loves you. You are His beloved creation to whom He calls Sons and Daugthers of the Most High God. We are His Children in God’s eyes. Please tell me of a God that refers to us humans as God’s Children????
Many hate a God that they don’t even know personally and fail to understand that even in your hate, He still loves you and is sad when you cannot see the truth of His love. Many bad things happen because people don’t understand the real war we battle…We are fighting the wrong person. Many people are fighting against the God that loves them not realizing they are being decieved by the one that Hates them the most — the Devil. The Devil is rather happy when people believe that he does not exist. It’s easier to recruit people who are God haters that way.
My message here today is that, Satan hates all of humanity including God. He will stop at nothing and use anything and anyone to make that point clear. If you don’t know which side you are on, then seriously reflect and consider that no matter how scientific or philosophical you are… what cannot be denied is that Evil does exist…and it definitely has a source, and that source is called Satan whether you choose to believe that or not. If evil exists, then good exists; and if good exists… than God exists because our God is a good God that sent His Son Jesus to defeat the works and the powers of Evil by offering humanity a choice to choose eternal life in Heaven over eternal damnation in Hell.
As a Christian…I choose the unpopular route because…I have seen a lot of evil in my day that I know for sure and for certain that the Devil is real and that my God is Real and I choose to serve my God through Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.
There is coming a point where there will be a great schism in the last days…and for all those fence-sitters reading this message…do not assume for one second that you have all the time in the world to decide which way you’ll swing because the time is getting shorter and shorter each day you dilly-dally with your decision. The time is now to choose! This is what I’m feeling in my spirit right now as I woke up today and I cannot stress the message of Salvation any stronger than that. So today… consider where you are and where you stand. I can tell you to choose Jesus like every other Christian…however, I want to make one thing clear, Hell does exist whether you choose to believe that or not regardless of what you choose. If you can at least believe that, then that will be enough for you to decide. I think that my message sounds a little strong…but I’m sorry, I cannot afford to water this message down just so that you can sleep well at night. I have seen people’s lives snuffed out and lives destroyed all because of ignorance and unbelief. Satan is in the business of attacking peoples faith…so stay strong in the good fight of faith because being Peculiar these days is not very popular. We are at a stage where Satan is even causing Christians to deny their faith to embrace a lie, that it is better to preserve your life and deny Christ as Savior rather than choosing to die for the Truth because it is TRUE.
I admit…persecution isn’t attractive since I’ve experienced some level of it in my life and it is understandable why people would choose to deny Christ with the level of violence that is being propagated lately by those who hate Christians and the God that they serve, particularly in countries where it seems that there is a move to outlaw prayer and reading of Bibles…but I also believe that living a lie isn’t quite really living now is it when you consider the eternal ramifications towards your soul. Food for thought.
I would totally recommend reading my post called In Pursuit of Holiness – The Divine Revelation of Heaven and Hell to get the full picture of its reality. May it help you make the decision to choose to be a peculiar person which I know first hand is the unpopular choice but the only choice that will ensure that you spend eternity with a loving God who is waiting to receive you, His child in Heaven. I encourage others to re-blog or email or tweet or pass this message to family members if they need to hear this message. The message of salvation and the Gospel of Truth must be preached because that is the mandate of the unpopularly Peculiar.
God Bless you Everybody!
Related Articles:
http://taste-that-which-is-good.blogspot.ca/2011/04/persecuted-church-of-china.html
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