Gatherer or scatterer!

 

“…anyone who does not gather with me scatters.”  Matthew 12:30

Understanding Christendom today is a little more complicated than the first Century Christians. Church denominations, culture, language, race and so many other factors have impacted the Christian perspective and the church today. Each church denomination is like an independent institution with a customised set of thoughts, duties and expectations. People are operating and existing by the culture of the Church more than the expectations and mandate of Christ. And then the “Church worshippers”, I mean the ones who think God is equal to church building has nothing to do with missions. Church obligations and being part of the church activities are in themselves the biggest mission people think they are accomplishing.  Church obligations rob people of the purpose for His mission.

The mission and purpose of Christ Jesus is becoming more and more ambiguous because of personal interpretations and the interpretations of church denominations. Majority of the Christendom are missing the purpose of Jesus coming to this earth. It is muddled up with programs, entertainments, strengthening the fellowship with each other, making a family, making church big, I mean as a building and institutionalizing it. And sadly, the purpose of Christ Jesus is missed and, in most cases, ignored blatantly. Jesus articulated his purpose so clearly which says, “For the son of man has come to seek and to save the lost” Luke 19:10. If you notice, most of the parables support the purpose of Jesus coming to this earth. As individuals and Churches if we are not making it as part of our lifestyle then for sure we would continue to entertain ourselves as Christians but fail to be the disciple of Christ.  Here are few parables that also support Christ Mission and clarifies our mission on this earth,

 

• Sowing the seed and gathering the wheat (Matt 13:29),
• Impacting the flour with the leaven, (Matt 13:33), influencing the majority,
• Large net thrown in the sea to collect every kind of fish (Matt 13:47),
• parable of Lamp (Matt 5:14-16) the need to be the light and draw people,
• The Lost sheep (Matthew 18:10-14) leaving the 99 to find the 1,
• The feast of the Great Banquet (Matt 22:1-14) inviting maximum people for the banquet,
• Ten talents of gold coin (Matt 25:14-30) compared to multiplying souls,
• The Lost coin (Luke 15:8-10) rejoicing over one sinner,
• The prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32) Father waiting for his lost son,
• The rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31) the pain the rich man had for his lost brothers.

 

Can you honestly tell what percentage of all your spirituality is contributed to reaching out to people who are in darkness? If the above is not part of your daily schedule that makes the purpose for your existence, then what else is? What is our Church teaching? Here a person Hasti Gomes shares her disappointment about her Church experience.

Analyze this statement Jesus makes which is recorded in Matthew 12:30, “Anyone who is not with me is against me, and anyone who does not gather with me scatters.”. Be warned, you cannot play neutral here. It does not say that you are either gathering or not gathering, but it says that if you are not gathering then you are scattering. This is powerful and alarming. Jesus was in the business of gathering the people for the kingdom of God. Many are seen today institutionalizing the Church and busy trying to manage it and in most cases, making it an enterprise.  Church today, merely confines to edifying people for a good living. Sadly, never equipped to gather the lost people for the kingdom of God. What is your role today? You can explain and satisfy people with all that you are doing, but then if all that you are doing is not contributing to gathering, then you are scattering and working against Christ and His mission as said in Matthew 12:30. The 10 parables is just a reminder not for a story telling exercise but a call to come back to the core purpose of your existence, i.e. to be a disciple of Christ and seriously carry the gospel to the non-Christian world

 

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Move from A-B-C to C-D-E!

What is going to be your model for defining the impact of your Church in 2023? Is it going to be the usual A,B,C - "Attendance-Building-Cash" parameter that has been satisfying you for so long or do you want to seriously consider rethinking to make a meaningful impact in your Church. Aubrey Sequeira states, “Big numbers simply feed big egos with the notion that we are doing something worthwhile for God. But God’s real work simply cannot be measured by numbers alone.”

We are caught up in the idolatry of impact that says,

If it works let's go with it!
If it’s big, it’s good!
If it’s dynamic, It’s God!

Jesus faced three temptations to make an immediate impact, instead He chose a different route. Today, Christians are deceived to believe that all which is big and grandeur, are from God. And the Christian celebrities / Pastors are using this for their advantage to falsely satisfy the congregation of their duty to God.

Diane Langberg puts it beautifully, “God’s measuring stick does not have the markers of size, numbers, time, influence, or money on it. According to God, the little and insignificant is as important as the big and significant. The issue is not magnitude, but obedience.”. The obedience to the Great Commission is what matters. Sadly all Christians, by and large, ignore this. All that matters today is the ritualistic Sunday visits to Church buildings and leaving with a good feeling. How are we going to break this deception? Are we willing to revolutionize? Or are we too comfortable with the numbers as long as money rolls in? When I am saying "Big", I don’t mean only the parameter of measurement. Let not the small fellowships take this as an excuse for being stagnant. If your Church members are active disciples, they will be disciple makers, making disciples.

Let me emphasize on this, Jesus did not commission to build Churches in every village, town, and city but to make disciples. And somehow, we substitute this by making all attempts to build a structure and holy sanctuary because money and property are involved in it. What an idolism, sadly? We need to seriously break any deception that can destroy the actual purpose of the Church.

Let me explain what I meant moving to C, D, E  Pattern – “Carrier-Decision-Evangelism”

Carrier of the gospel:

Every believer is expected to be the carrier of the gospel. Jesus in His prayer to His father said this, “I had given them the words you gave me…” (John 17:8), it means that Jesus was the carrier of the words given by His father. In verse 18 Jesus says, “As you sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world”. If you notice Paul reiterates the same in 1 Corinthians 15:3 “For I passed on to you as most important what I also received…”. Today's Churches have conveniently abandoned this and are busy managing the Sunday Church Program. People hardly feel convicted of their responsibility. Can you seriously equip your members to be the carrier of the gospel? We are responsible to send them out with the gospel. Let’s not rob this purpose out of them.

Decision to be a Church:

Help your believers to be a Church. Enough of having people visit your Church and remaining as kindergarten students all their life. The true measurement of their spiritual maturity defines their ability to share gospel to the non-believers. Do you realise their personal Church space remains empty all their life? The writer of Hebrews makes his point when he says this, "Although by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the basic principles of God’s revelation again. You need milk, not solid food.". Hebrews 5:12 CSB. In most cases we have kept our followers depending on us always, all the time. Last year, I met a big leader with many Churches under him. He said that I should not by any chance speak about the early Church model because he thinks every believer will start a house fellowship and collect money which is a loss for the Church. If this is not a scam, then what would you call it?

Evangelism as a lifestyle:

The mark of a true Christian is when they can make evangelism their lifestyle. Some pastors tell me that their calling is not to be an evangelist and it’s not his specialisation. How badly they have misunderstood Christ's Mission? If your members are not capable to make evangelism their lifestyle it just tells the leader/Pastor have failed miserably.

Can we seriously strip off all the superficiality and be willing to live a radical life for Christ? Start becoming a carrier of the Gospel, becoming a Church and making evangelism a lifestyle in this year 2023. 

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Beware of the New Year Prophecy Scam!

 

With the year ending, we Christians look forward for New Year’s Eve where promises, prophecies and assurances overflow from the pulpit. Mostly the promises and prophecies are about becoming famous, rich, happy and prosperous, exciting all of us. It’s about owning a car, getting a new career break, financial abundance that will be shouted out by pastors and prophets to the promise-hungry congregation. This deception is an age-old trick carried out through ages and people still fall for it looking forward to lead a comfortable life.

If we were to draw a parallel incident that resemble this event in the Bible, it would be in 1 Kings 22 where Ahab's 400 prophets speak the same language of happiness, success and prosperity like all the Pastors, prophets and leaders of today. The Bible records the words of these 400 prophets which said, “Go up and triumph; the LORD will give it into the hand of the king” (1 Kings 22:12). This was the beginning of disaster and confusion for the king and the people. The same falsehood has seeped into the Churches so deep that it has robbed the purpose of its existence.

As we read the story we know that Micaiah son of Imlah was called at Jehoshaphat’s insistence. Micaiah' truth was hard  and  was from the Lord. I would like to point here that he was not rewarded for speaking the truth but rather was slapped across the face by one of the officers, Zedakiah (1King 22:24).  Sadly, history is repeating itself in today’s times. Most of the Christian celebrities, pastors and leaders are going to dish out false prophecies and happy promises to make the hearts of the people glad. 

Some notable blessings and prophecies are as follows:

·       You are going to be head and not tail

·       The barn house will always be full

·       All that you desire will be fulfilled

·       God will give you double.

·       You will not run out of dough and oil

We are so ignorant of the fact that Jesus never taught such things. His promises given by Him were as follows:

> You will have sufferings in this world

> You will be persecuted

> You will be hated by people

> You may be thrown in prison

>You will be brought before kings and Governors. (but that will be an opportunity to bear witness Luke 21:12-13)

> Many will be killed for His name’s sake.

> Will be betrayed by own family members

·       The end days is going to be so difficult even for His elect to bear the birth pangs as recorded in the gospels.

Yet we prefer to walk through the broad gate claiming hand picked promise verses and deceive ourselves. It never disturbs us that we have not influenced even one person with the gospel. As long as we pay our tithes and offerings to the Church we are good to go. The New year prophecy scam is robbing people of their purpose for existence. People's obedience to the Great Commission is not going to matter to many Churches at all as long as they are overfed, which they name it as blessing from the Lord.

We camouflage our disobedience with fun and frolic in the Churches and abound with false promises and prophecies. Remember the warning from the Lord through Ezekiel, “Since they have led my people astray by saying, “Peace,” when there is no peace, when a flimsy wall is being built, they plaster it with whitewash, therefore, tell those plastering it with whitewash that it will fall. Torrential rain will come, and I will send hailstones plunging down, and a whirlwind will be released.". Ezekiel 13:10-11 CSB. There was no mincing of words by the prophet.

Ponder over these following questions:

·  How many people this year have led someone to Christ?

· Beside speaking to the Christian crowd, have you connected with non-Christians?

·  How many people this year heard the gospel by some means through you?

It is good to retrospect. Stop listening to false promises and prophecies that gives you a sense of security but destroys your soul and robs your purpose for Missions.  Let us all strive to be the carrier of the gospel rather than wanting to become a dead fish comfortable in the four walls of the Church. 

 

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Deliberate Oversight!

If it is one thing that I want to emphasise in all my writings and conversations, it will be none other than ‘Mission'. Though lingering for ages, it is making sense to few and is always an avoidable option for many. Most often the Christians in the Churches are continually instructed and exhorted on Christian ethics like how to be good, godly, loving, benevolent, being a good husband /wife and a good parent. These are integral to any individual irrespective of any religion or creed. But then, when it comes to missions to the unreached world, it dilutes into a nice Christian philosophy. The Churches and Christians long to do something about it and eventually do nothing.

The gift of the Holy Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12 is often misunderstood for the anointing in 1 John 2:20, 27. Every individual who makes a commitment to follow Christ and becomes His disciple embodies Christ’s anointing. The anointing and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is often confused with the gift of the spirit. Holy Spirit is always misunderstood for something other than being a witness for Christ. Acts 1:8 which clearly states, “But you will receive the power when the holy spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.”. Today, this is immediately referred to the day of the Pentecost and people who spoke in tongues. But then again, the truth is distorted with either a lie or half-truth. The Churches and Christians fail to understand the implication of the people who spoke in tongues. They were heard by people from so many languages and races who gave their lives to Christ. I have spoken about this in my earlier blogs too.  The great Pentecostal event was measured by real evangelism and measurable outcome which is found in Acts 2:41 “So those who accepted his message were baptized and that day about three thousand people were added to them.”.

Paul emphasises with these words in 1 Corinthians 12:29 “Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all do miracles? Do all have gifts of miracles? Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret?” The gifts vary but the commission to the unreached does not. The Great Commission is not optional for selected few, but for every individual who accepts Lord Jesus as Savior and Lord. Matthew 28:19 is a mandatory command which says, “Go, therefore, and make disciples in all nations….”.  We are constantly talking about the gifts of the Holy Spirit without equally emphasising on the obedience to Christ’s mission.

Why people are not guilty when they miss to understand and demonstrate the obedience to the Great Commission? Is it because the Churches have made the people comfortable with Church activities and offerings? Why is the outcome of the Churches always about full attendance and not about holding the members responsible for the failure in sharing the gospel with the non-Christians? Most of the Churches have a history of less than 5% of their members who share the gospel and lead people to Christ. But whereas 95% and more are the once who fall in the category of the Pharisee who said in his prayer “I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of everything I get.” (Luke 18:12) without remorse.  Many have no concern for the dying soul. We need to confess not only for the sins of commission but for the sins of omission too.

Let us not forget the call of Christ which requires us to be a disciple maker (Matthew 28:19) not just survive as a branded Christian. Mark the words in the Great Commission passage which says, Go, therefore, and make disciples. The disciples are the one who make disciples. But today in Churches the disciples are the ones who have a discipleship course certificate but sit in the Church unaccountable to the mission of God laid out for every individual. This deliberate oversight can be costly for all of us. Let us not forget, Jesus calls Himself a Good Shepherd by constantly moving about taking the good news (Luke 8:1). The purpose of the Church is to be the carrier of the Gospel to the dying world, not a reservoir.

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Blessings for Sale --2

  

This blog is a continuation of the 'Blessing' series (The 1st part of the series can be checked HERE). As already discussed, blessings are the most misconstrued topic in Christendom. It's stuck to our psyche that devotion to God ends up in material blessings. This theology of Christians is not very different from the Hindus. Lakshmi, the goddess of good fortune, wealth, and well-being is worshipped fervently by Hindus to get more wealth. It's weird that the God of the Bible is also looked upon in the same way. Also, the theology of being chosen by God is marked by one’s prosperity and poverty is because of one’s sins. This concept mirrors the prevailing caste system of Brahmins and Sudras.

There are pastors who believe that God gives you a 'key' to open blessings and such pastors have delusional goals of making it to the top 10 richest pastors in the world. Sadly, many have become Christian psychopaths preying on the sheep entrusted to them (Ezekiel 34:1), grooming in such false theology in people's minds. Peter on behalf of all the disciples’ clearly states to Jesus in Matthew 19:27, “See we have left everything and followed you. So, what will be there for us?”. I urge you to check the poignant response of Jesus in the subsequent verses.

Today, the Church finds it cumbersome to help the widows, fatherless, the orphans and the saints who are in aggressive mission work. It feels it has a greater calling and has come to the point of distorting what pure religion is in the sight of God. The Church is hoarding its resources and refuses to spend the funds got in God's name for those who mean the most to God - the widows, orphans, fatherless and the saints serving Him full time. We have become abusers of the very people that God wants to bless.

Riches need not necessarily lead you to the love of money. If that is the case, then people like Abraham, Job, Joseph and David would have been lovers of money. They are classic characters of the Bible who teach us how to channelize money to worship God. These men were rich but loved God, not money.

If the blessing of a man’s life depends on how much he has, then the lives of the rich and the famous – movie stars, pop stars and sports stars - would be examples to us on how we too should live and label it a blessing. Contentment is worth more than all the wealth we could possibly accumulate. The Bible warns us, ‘People who want to get rich ‘fall into temptation and trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge into ruin and destruction.’. (1 Timothy 6:9)

We need to understand this truth. God’s highest desire is neither to make us rich, nor to make us successful, popular or famous. God’s dream is to make us right with Him. Today, you find people misinterpreting this truth which talks about Jesus like this, “but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself to the point of death, even the death of the cross.”. (Philippians 2:7-8). We brazenly misinterpret telling that God made Himself lowly to make us rich. We sell garbage by manipulation to the Church.

Having walked the faith journey for the last 6 years, I can confidently say favor and grace of God has always upheld me to be a revolutionary for Him and turn many to Christ and to His mission. Even through the abuse I faced in Christendom, I was able to focus on God's purpose in my life and learnt my lessons well. Fulfilling God's purpose in our life does not require riches. I urge you brothers and sisters to lead people to Christ without promise of riches and guiding them to love God for who He is. This will undoubtedly enrich their experience of salvation rich rather than filthy promising them out God will bless them with riches. For this "Lakshmi" is enough.

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Blessings for sale! Part 1

  

"Blessings", The one word loved and adored by all of us. However, we fail to notice how God used it for His purpose that impacted His divine mission. Today, as Christians we exploit this word 'blessing' more than any people who belong to other faiths. We are constantly bombarded through preachings which says, that God would  grant all the desires, make us heads, and we would reach the top. People throng Churches to see if the promises come true or not. What they really expect is blessing of wealth, name, fame and a life without difficulties or hindrances. Eventually, they come to know that this is a surreal life they are longing for.

In present times, we ridiculously equate luxury and riches to blessing. We quote Genesis 13:2 “Abraham was very rich in livestock, silver and gold.”.  Our deep longing for riches mars our interpretation of Biblical verses. As Christians we heavily lean towards the life of riches and wealth rather being content with a life of just our needs being met. The Theology of work project comments, ‘The writer of Genesis states early on the story about the creation of humans, “God blessed them” (Genesis 1:28). The word “blessings” or “blessed” is a central feature of the biblical story. Part of the blessing of relationship with God is very definitely tangible, in-the-hand stuff. And these material blessings are thoroughly integrated with the other benefits of knowing and loving the creator.’.

Dealing with this subject in Christendom is like walking on egg shells. No one wants to decipher the real meaning of the word from God's perspective because we are shaking the foundation of their age old beliefs. Money can be earned in various forms both good or bad. Let us analyze few instances in the Bible, to understand the perspective:

1. Joseph's brothers hate for him ended in trading him for twenty pieces of silver (Genesis 37:28).

2. Achan's greediness forced him to conceal the rich spoil, i.e. silver and gold for his future settlement (Joshua 7:21). 

3. Samuel, one of the greatest prophets, sons Joel and Abijah were corrupt dishonest judges in Beersheba. They profited by taking bribes to pervert justice (1 Samuel 8:1-3).

4. Judas traded Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. He meets the Chief Priest to know what he would get in return if he hands over Jesus to them. The ransom satisfied Judas and he starts working on a successful plot (Matthew 26:15-16).

5. The Chief Priests with no shame or remorse bribed the Roman soldiers with a large sum of money to tell a lie about the resurrection of Jesus (Matthew 28:12).  

Well, if money is a blessing from God then the above incidents from the Bible do paint a sordid picture indeed. Money that we so desperately long for was used to kill our Savior and also tarnish the very fact He rose again. Let's ponder over our misrepresented thought process on 'blessing' before we delve deeper into this series in my upcoming blogs.

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Secured yet Scared!

 

The ones who are established with a stabilized income source are the ones who are most scared of losing their security. They want to do everything to ensure nothing is disturbed. Putting this in a Church context, the Church leaders and Pastors are careful that they don’t say anything that can cause offense, even the right and hard stuff. The fear of losing people and income threatens their security. So, they ensure to speak everything favorable to the crowd. They hand pick verses from the Bible that talks about encouragement and blessing of success.

The celebrity preachers have found this mantra and keep speaking words of success, prosperity, goodness and wealth. They are always in demand. People are willing to get them at any cost because they are tied to their personal prosperity. Micaiah’s are rare to be seen today. Let me take you to 1 Kings 22 where it talks about the Jehoshaphat’s alliance with Ahab. Ahab the wicked king befriends Jehoshaphat and urges him to go with him to fight Ramoth-Gilead (1 Kings22:4). Jehoshaphat was unsure about the whole thing but wanted to oblige based on the word from a prophet. Ahab had readymade 400 prophets (22:6) and were summoned. They all prophesized favorably and predicted victory. Because the spirit of the Lord was pricking Jehoshaphat’s conscience he wanted to check if there is any other prophet beside these 400 Prophets. Somewhere down in his heart Jehoshaphat could sense something is wrong. Then we notice Prophet Micaiah is contacted and instructed what to say. 1 Kings 22: 15 The messenger who went to call Micaiah instructed him, “Look the words of the prophets are unanimously favorable for the king. So let your words be like theirs and speak favorably.”

Micaiah was far from being compromised with cheap thrills of money or security. And this is what he said, “As the Lord lives, I will say whatever the Lord says to me” And he was harder to Chenaanah when he mocked Micaiah. As a consequence, we are told Micaiah was put in the prison and instructed to be provided with little bread and water until King Ahab returns. Micaiah ends the conversation with these lines, “If you ever return safely, the Lord has not spoken through me.”. The end for the king was a disaster as we learn from that chapter.

 Security at the cost of Mission can be very costly. I have been going to various trainings and speaking assignments in Churches. I have been personally instructed several times to mellow down, speak favorably, so that the crowd is happy and not offended. This is utterly sad and unfortunate state. In my faith journey, I am ready to risk everything for the sake of the Gospel and I wouldn’t budge from the true Mission God wants every single person to follow. As Dr Eric Mason points this out, “The popular preaching of our days is going to catch up with us! We promise people that if you follow Jesus that He’ll bring your dream to pass. We have made better entrepreneurs, dream chasers, and personal purpose Gurus than we have disciples.”. As long as the crowd is successful the Church assumes they can be successful and secured. Can we strip such false security and disturb the people in your Church who have lived comfortably all their lives? Every soul is a Church lying vacant for years, some for decades. They become the student of the Church all their lives. We need revolutionaries not just good Christians. Jared Wilson stated this powerful statement, “The mission is to make disciples of Jesus. Don’t settle for just well-behaved pagans or self-righteous Pharisees.”

 

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