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revmattchoo
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Name: Matt
Birthday: 12/14/1982
Gender: Male
Interests: Bible, theology, music, coffee, Starbucks, McAlister's
Occupation: Student
Industry: Other
Message: message me
Member Since:
5/25/2005
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| Why do you believe that believers do not evangelize as we have been taught and told to do? Is it because of fear? Is it because of a lack of knowledge? Is it because we don't want to have to answer hard questions that they may ask?
I believe that the main reason that we do not evangelize (tell the good news that the Bible proclaims) is that we don't truly know that well who we say we follow. We say we follow God, but then have a hard time telling (especially living) the good news that God has accomplished. Do we really know God? Or, do we say we know Him and are fearful of whatever, not willing to have to answer questions (and maybe admit that we don't know the answers), and really not know God. If we were to know God truly, I believe that we wouldn't have near as many problems as it seems the church has run in to when it comes to telling the good news. I believe that we would want others to know the good news because of what God has accomplished.
Which brings me to another point. Has anyone ever thought about these verses: Genesis 17:1; Deuteronomy 32:29; Psalm 46:10; 50:7; Isaiah 45:22; 46:9; Exodus 20:5; 34:14; Deuteronomy 4:24; 5:9; 6:15; Leviticus 18:21; Leviticus 20:3; Isaiah 48:11; Ezekiel 20:9; 20:14; and 20:22?
It seems that God is saying to His people that He alone is God. He's saying there is no other god, period. Therefore, in the first two commandments, He tells His people to not have any other gods besides Him and to not make any image, period. Not only that, but He tells His people that He is a jealous God. Not only does He state that He alone is God, but He tells them that they had better not worship other gods (which of course are rather silly things and leads to a rather silly thing to do) because He is a jealous God (of course, that's competition that is not equal, but rather, below God) and He will not let His name be profaned by His people. Why is it that we who call ourselves followers of God Almighty (the God of the Bible) think we can get by with doing what we want, all the while banking our very lives on the belief that we will not lose our salvation once we have become saved? When will we realize that we are now God's people and we are supposed to be holy as He is holy (1 Peter 1:15-16)?
Of course, some of you may say, "Well that's really not fair at all. God can't just order us around because we are really free will creatures." Ok, fine and well. When will we realize that it doesn't matter if we have a free will or not? It doesn't matter when it comes to God's holiness and righteousness! We are the ones who have sinned against God and deserve to be thrown in to the most worst punishment that can be imagined times infinity. It is our fault that we face judgment in first place, realize it.
But, after realizing the greatness of God and the gravity of our sinfulness, I believe this actually magnifies God's grace, mercy, love, kindness, patience, and so on. I believe that it should make us realize that what God has done is so much greater than what we can imagine. There is no other god but God alone. If that's the case, and He's a jealous God at that, then we have totally blown it. Of course, we could finish out the equation: We sin against God, Jesus died for our sins, we confess Jesus as our Lord and Savior, and there we go, we're saved.
We need to tell people to go out and evangelize, but let's educate them (and let God's Spirit do His work in their lives) so that they know God and really and truly have good (great) news to go out to the world to tell. Let's realize the greatness of God, the gravity of our sin, and the mercy and grace that God has shown us. Let's realize that God is King, and we must rely on His grace and mercy in order to not have to suffer the punishment that we so deserve.
Back to the original point of the post...Let's KNOW the God of the Bible.
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| Walking into the church building, he makes his usual rounds. He greets
all the people he knows and then heads off towards his Sunday School
room. Having been teaching for the last 20 years there, he knows
exactly how things run every Sunday. Walking into the room, he's
surprised by what he finds. Instead of the nicely placed rows of
chairs, he notices that the chairs have been moved into several groups
of circles. He wonders what's going on. It's only 10 minutes until
Sunday School starts! He can't go on with the chairs in this
disarray. Instantly, he turns right around and heads out the door to
go find one of the local ministers of the church. Finding the nearest
minister, he tells him all about it. A few minutes later, the pastor
has gotten help and put the chairs back in the "proper" place in order
for the Sunday School to go on.
When Africans or Chinese people meet together for the meetings of the
followers of Jesus the Messiah, do they have to wait for the room to be
set back before they can go on with the class? Do they complain that
the chairs are out of order? Do they complain when the building they
are in (which has windows built in) has no air conditioning because the
air conditioner broke, if they have one at all? Another question: is
it ok for believers in Jesus have to meet in a building in order to
have a "church" service? What does it matter if we have to move a
chair 2 feet for us to sit down, to have to open the windows in order
to get a breeze, and maybe have to meet outside the doors and windows
because there's no room in the building? Is it really that bad? Does
it mean we cannot worship the God of the Bible because we are in discomfort?
I must give a warning, of which God showed me: If we are able to
worship God without having a seat to sit down, having to bear some
heat, and maybe having to get a sunburn, we must be careful not to
complain when we do get comforts of which are 2 inches away from where
we would like them to be.
P.S. Perhaps I may post on both here and my myspace.
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| I figure that since xanga is experiencing less blogging these days, I shall direct people who check out this site to my myspace site: www.myspace.com/revmattchoo.
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| This is actually a two-part post. First will be the regenerate church membership, then church on Christmas.
Click here for the link to the church membership article. Basically, there are several million people on the church rosters, listed as members, in the SBC that we don't even know where they are. Not only that, but out of the several million people, whether we know where they are or not, many of those people are as lost as lost can be, but yet are still members of churches. At the SBC meeting this year, there was a resolution that was brought up to be considered, but was refused. The resolution had to do with regenerate church membership. Historically, regenerate church membership has been one of the main baptist distinctives. I will let you read the article now.
I was watching yet another rendition of Scrooge and saw something interesting close to the end of the movie. While Scrooge and most of the town is singing and dancing through the streets, there's a church service letting out. Remember that this is Christmas Day. I started to think to myself, "Why do we not have a service on Christmas Day?" Normally there are services held on Christmas Eve night which are usually candle light services. These are enjoyable to go to I believe. How come we do this on the Eve but not on the Day? Isn't it traditionally the Day that we celebrate Christ's birth. Of course, many of us don't even think about Christ on Christmas anyways. We wake up on Christmas morning and run into the room where the tree is to see what gifts are there. We don't even think about the very one that was born into the world to become our King and Savior. I really would not mind, nor be against having church on Christmas morning to celebrate with my brothers and sisters the coming of Jesus. I know that family is important, I love my family. Why not have a service to worship Jesus and then go have the Christmas dinner?
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