Silliness

Silliness is defined by Merriam-Webster as 1. a lack of good sense or judgment, 2. language, behavior, or ideas that are absurd and contrary to good sense, 3. a lack of seriousness often at an improper time.  At MFC silliness abounded.  Of course, being a Word of Faith church, one can readily see where this is going.  In a previous post I mention things like pulling invisible levers, people scrambling for a Pay Day candy bar and there was more as well.  For instance all the dancing, running, laughing, acting drunk, etc.  Does this draw people to God? No. Are people getting worked into an emotional frenzy? Yes. 

How on earth is a person supposed to bring a visitor to a church when you have no idea what kind of silliness will happen?  I Corinthians 14:26-40 is about order in worship.  Silliness, like I mentioned above, was not order.  Many times it was more like mass chaos and occasionally people got injured. 

All the while you did not see people coming to Christ. You did not see baptisms.  You did not see people going out and drawing people to Christ.  It was just weirdness.  Don't be weird.  No one wants to be like a weirdo. They want to know that Christ is here to fill that God shaped hole in our lives.    They want to know that God loves them, even though they have made some mistakes.  There should be order to our worship services.  Not for us, for those who we are trying to introduce to our Lord and Savior.

All that to say this,  have good judgement in the church you attend.  Are lives being impacted eternally?  Are people coming to Christ?  Are people moving forward in their relationship with Christ?

A Good Example of What Not to Do

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSJt-LHMNRY&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Okay so look at this from the objective outsider. 1. If you were visiting, would you ever go back? 2. Does this make christians look good? 3. If you spend all this time publicly tearing people down does finishing it with I love you make it okay?

This is abusive use of the pulpit. He says he is important which shows his ego. But God should be lifted up not this guy. John  3:30 has John the Baptist telling his disciples that Christ must become greater and he must decrease. Verse 31 expands on this by saying that Christ is from heaven and is above all, but those from earth speak as one from earth. We are not the important ones, we are earthen vessels. God is the important one.

This is not making anyone walk away from the sermon having grown in their walk with Christ. On the contrary, I bet a lot of folks felt pretty low afterward. If you have a problem with a congregant you should take it to them in private. But airing grievances from the pulpit like this is not biblically sound. In Matthew 18:15-20 Jesus tells us how to deal with sin in the church. Go point out there fault just between the two of you, then if they won't listen get a witness, then if they won't listen take it to the church. Hunting people down from the pulpit is just abusive.

Watching this video made my breath get very shallow, as it reminded me so much of MFC.

Philemon

Something I have always wondered is why on earth is Philemon in the Bible? I mean, the book is tiny and it is to a guy named Philemon not a church.  and it seems to be about a runaway slave.  What is the deal here? And how do you pronounce it?  fie-LEE-mon, FIE-lee-mon, FIL-leh-mon

Well I don't know that I will ever know the pronunciation. But I may be starting to see what it is all about.  Onesimus was a slave that seems to have run away.  Now that is a guess on my part because he was a slave and was separated from his owner and Paul is writing to get Philemon to take him back as a brother, but Paul only says they are separated. Somehow they ended up meeting.  Most likely since Paul was in jail in Rome, Onesimus ended up there as well. In jail, Onesimus was led to Christ by Paul. So Paul is trying to help him make things right by going back to his master.  Paul is in effect being a mediator between this slave and his owner.  Much like Christ has mediated for us to the Father.  In verse 18 Paul saying "If he has wronged you or owes you anything... charge it to me." Sounds like the savior standing in place of us before the throne of God.  Don't just take these people as a slave anymore, take them as something better. A picture of how we can live like Christ.

Now here is a second layer to that onion.  Onesimus is going back to his owner.  So he is having to ask for forgiveness and that is never an easy thing to do.  It would have been easier to stay away.  We as Christians need to do the same thing.  When we wrong someone, we should ask for forgiveness because it is the right thing to do.  We don't ever find out how things turned out.  Did Philemon accept him back as Paul asked or did he punish Onesimus? What does it matter? Onesimus did the right thing regardless of how it turned out.

Philemon 1:8-21

Citizens

I met a man inSavannah the other day and he had me check out this video on youtube by a group called Citizens, the song is an old hymn, "In Tenderness". This band is a worship band at a Seattle based church called Mars Hill.

Hope you enjoy it.

Joining a Church

Why do you need to "join" a church? I mean is there a spiritual reason behind joining?  Or is it so the pastor can puff up their feathers and say that their church has x number of members?

Don't take this to mean, "Do I need to go to church?"  Because I do believe in "not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together" (Hebrews 10:24-25 KJV).  We should meet together and spur each other to good works as that same passage says.  Furthermore, Proverbs 27:17 (NIV) tells us that iron sharpens iron and one person sharpens another.  So we NEED that fellowship with other believers. But do we NEED to be a member of a church?

This is how I see it, we are called to be one body of believers.  And a lot of times different churches feel that they are better than others.  I believe that "membership" in a church can help spur this on.  Furthermore, you may primarily go to one place of worship, but what about when you are out of town on a Sunday?  What then?  Are we left to the wind?  Are we violating our "membership" by attending another congregation?  What about another church's bible studies?  Can we attend them or would that offend our "members"?  A church is not some exclusive club with members but rather a part of the body of Christ.