God's Audit- Get prepared

“An unexamined life is not worth living” Socrates

‘God does not call me to be successful; he calls me to be faithful’. Mother Teresa 

As we come to the end of 2018 and prepare to enter into a new year it is good to know where we stand in terms of our relationship with God, the effectiveness of our Church and the impact our ministry has made. Whether we are willing to take stock of the same or not the Bible clearly states that the Church will be measured to see if we qualify His standard. In Revelation 11:1 it says, ‘Then I was given a measuring reed like rod, with these words: “Go and measure the temple of God and the altar and count those who worship there.’. Are you prepared for His audit?

We all know that the Church is the divine strategy instituted by God to propagate the gospel of salvation and the message of love in this world. Sadly, we see many Christians and Churches have defined it very differently according to what suits them. Apostle Paul talks about such groups who have their own way of measuring themselves.  "but when they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are without understanding.". 2 Corinthians 10:12 NASB

In 9Marks journal an article on ‘Healthy Church’ defines beautifully what a Church is not and it goes this way, “the church is not a place. It's not a building. It's not a preaching point. It's not a spiritual service provider. It's a people - the new covenant, blood-bought people of God. That's why Paul said, "Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her" (Ephesians. 5:25). He didn't give himself up for a place, but for a people.”

While Jesus was on the earth one time was highly disappointed when he literally visited the temple  and looked at everything. (Mark 11:11). In-fact He was infuriated when he saw the prayer house     was made a business center and He vehemently remarked, “is it not written my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations? But you have made it a den of thieves.”. (Mark 11:15).  God is going to measure it again as we see in the book of Revelation chapter eleven.

Today still there is a big gap between the Church and the members whether we want to accept or not.  In some cases, the members are made to believe their job is over when they give their maximum offerings. Unfortunately, Christian faith and many Churches are caught in a web of lies. Are we willing to rectify the same? Church is not a small scale or large-scale business. 

Let’s not forget that the Church is already under the radar of the government, fascist and political groups. Anytime our differences and sub-standard way of operating and functioning will not only disappoint the people around us, but also God. We are nearing the coming of the Lord and He already is in the process of pruning and cleaning. In the book of Malachi God expresses His disappointment as He articulates this, “I wish one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would no longer kindle a useless fire on my altar! I am not pleased with you," says the Lord of Armies, "and I will accept no offering from your hands. Malachi 1:10 (CSB)

Christianity is not a survival business, it is all about relationship, commitment and more important, accountability. Both lay people and Church leaders need to be careful that they do not fall short of the standards of God. Let me close this article for this year with a quote by Mahatma Gandhi which says, “I have never been able to reconcile myself to the debaucheries of the Christmas season. They have appeared to me to be so inconsistent with the life and teaching of Jesus Christ.”. May the Lord help us to think in these lines and ask God to make us worthy in order to meet His divine standard and exemplify our faithfulness to Him. 

You can follow on Twitter

Blessings.

Resource: https://www.9marks.org/article/churches-in-india-a-people-formed-for-god/

Jesus needed feedback, how much should you look for?

Simple definition of "Feedback" goes like this, "Feedback’ is used to describe the helpful information or criticism about prior action or behavior from an individual, communicated to another individual (or a group) who can use that information to adjust and improve current and future actions and behaviors."

When something on “Feedback” or “performance review” has to be picked up, then the first reaction would be that this is applicable only in secular organization and multi-national companies and it does not have any place in Christian ministry or Churches. This is definitely not true. People need feedback on their efforts. They have to know where they stand in terms of current performance and long-term expectations.

Feedback enhances effectiveness and helps to reach the point of excellence. Unfortunately, most of the individuals, leaders, churches wouldn’t want it. Either they assume they are already perfect because of the position they hold, or they are not ready to accept from people whom they serve. It is said, “People don’t want to hear the truth because they don’t want their illusions to be destroyed.”.

Jesus was willing to receive feedback, it is said in Matthew 16:13 Jesus wanted to understand the perspective and opinion of people about Him“. "Who do people say that the son of man is?" And then a pointed question to the disciples about who He is (Matthew 16:15). I have heard sermons on number of occasions from the pulpit and I am sure you would have heard too. But my question is, Is there a mechanism to receive honest structured feedback in Churches, organization? It's not once-a-year or once-every-three-month event. There may be a need to plan the timing to receive formal feedback in the case of Churches or organization in a more structured way; (in a form of feedback form, survey etc.), but informal, simple feedback can be given much more often – perhaps every week or even every day, depending on the situation.

Jesus asked for a feedback, which means God intentionally wanted to set a pattern for us to follow.

Some leaders limit their feedback from their chosen committee, some from people who hypocritically praise the leader for their own personal ends when actually their name or church reputation may be odious in the community. Romans 1:8 NASB says, "First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world." The reputation whether positive or negative is up on the air.

Jesus at one time challenged the crowd when he asked this, "Which one of you convicts Me of sin?" John 8:46 NASB. Jesus was the embodiment of perfection and commanded us to be perfect too, as individuals and Churches. "Therefore, you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." Matthew 5:48 NASB.

Blessings.

Selective Believing!

Have you noticed that our belief system most of the time revolves around a selected zone? Usually we believe what we want to believe and most importantly, it is based on feelings and our mental state at a particular point of time. But when we go through a difficult phase then it becomes even more hard to hope and think positively. This is not the case in children, their trust level is usually very high.

‘Object permanence’ is an expression used by psychologists of a child’s ability to understand that objects still exist even if they are no longer visible.

It is said up to about four months old, babies don’t have the capacity to believe something exists if they can’t see it. If you hide a toy it no longer exists as far as they are concerned. They reach a stage where if you hide a toy, they will keep on looking for it. They realize that objects exist even when you don’t see them.

This is a sign of Christian maturity: when we continue to believe in God’s love even when we don’t see it or feel it. We remember and recall. As we believe in the sun even when it is not shining, we continue to believe in God’s love even in times of darkness when we don’t feel his love.

I read an incident about Alex Buchanan who was well known as a ‘pastor to the pastors’. He was profoundly deaf in one ear, with only 5% hearing in the other, and one side of his face was paralyzed after he suffered nerve damage during a major surgery. He was once speaking about God’s love and he kept repeating the words, ‘God loves you unconditionally, wholeheartedly and continually.’

When he finished his talk he came up to a renowned leader and said, ‘Do you believe that God approves of you?’ to which the leader responded ‘Actually, I really struggle with that because I know things about myself that mean I find it difficult to believe that God approves of me.’ Alex replied, ‘We all struggle with that. But God wants you to know that he approves of you. He wants you to know he loves you unconditionally, wholeheartedly and continually.’

Yes, it so true that at some point we also struggle when we see things that we expect does not go as we anticipated. We have to trust and believe in His word, be encouraged by the history of His redemption recorded for us in the Bible and not go based on our feelings and context. God said in the book of Jeremiah, ". . .I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore, I have continued to extend faithful love to you". Jeremiah 31:3 CSB. He is too generous to assign days of misery in your life.

Blessings.

Striving to be relevant, for the benefit of the listener

       

The way of communication and how it is intended to reach the audience is the greatest challenge. Most of the time there is so much to say that people either want to say a lot and miss the core or say too little and miss the essence. It is said that the biggest challenge is when one is not able to present the claims of Christ in a correct manner and leave the people return undecided. A real sad state of affairs.

How convincing the message of Christ is to you? Does it inspire you daily? Does it make you emotional when you contemplate the claims of Christ and His sacrifice? Is your relationship with Christ meaningful and convincing daily? Think about it! The effectiveness of your message depends upon the state of your heart. Keep it pure and holy in order to have the message rich and sublime.

All of us communicate, some write articles too. I thought it is very important to learn to put things in proper sequence for the people to recall even after a week, in some cases it can remain even longer. People who speak to crowds or in Churches or in any other important platform should be conscious to prepare the message by putting the content in order, what God inspires to them. It is said about Peter, when he was prepared to explain things, “..He proceeded to explain to them in orderly sequence” Acts 11:4 NASB.

By all means the inspirations and revelations from God should not be wasted for the reason that we hold on to this one ideology that it was the spirit of the Lord that lead to speak that way and then try to make it more appealing to the crowd and wanting to sound impressive. The result of Peter putting things in this incidence is narrated in Acts 11: 18 NASB “When they heard this, they quieted down and glorified God, saying, "Well then, God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life.". This particular situation happens when one group misunderstood Peter for his association with uncircumcised group.

We all admit Paul was a great orator, his sermon on various contexts, if you notice, had a proper order and always challenged the ideology of the people and established the truth. Sermon on mars hill quoted in Acts 17: 22-34 is just amazing, thought provoking and convincing. Sometimes we all at some point experience sitting in the Church or in some Christian platform and not be touched or challenged at all by the message. The Pastor, leader or whoever is the speaker entertains, cracks humorous jokes but just misses the point and doesn’t realize that he has gone way out of the subject. Sometimes we want to talk about everything whatever comes to our mind at that point of time to keep the congregation entertained. This season of Christmas let us be convincing and stir the hearts of the people. “A prepared messenger is more important than prepared messages”.

Blessings.