Keep On Keeping On!!!

2 Thessalonians 3:6-13

"The faithful Christians at Thessalonica were discouraged by the conduct of the careless saints who refused to work. 'If they don't have to work, why should we?' was their argument; and Paul nipped it in the bud. Sin in the life of a believer always affects the rest of the church. As members of His body, we belong to each other, and we affect each other. The bad example of a few saints can destroy the devotion, and hinder the service of the rest of the church." (Wiersbe)
Paul even names the sins of which they were guilty such as disorderliness and being busybodies. (However, these busybodies were not busy workers!) Even the Romans understood this concept, for they had a saying: "By doing nothing, men learn to do evil." Just as idleness was a danger then, it is today. Instead of being idle which can lead to being a busybody (i.e., noisily running around), we should "work quietly...and eat our own bread."

Where does that leave us? Well, unfortunately much of Christianity sees serving the Lord as a passive commitment. However, true service requires action, and action is something desperately missing among many Christians. I'm not talking about a "keeping the Law" type service, but a willingness to serve out of love and adoration. Does Christ deserve less than our very best? If the answer is "no," then why is it so hard for EBC to find enough people who are committed to serving the Lord? Why is it so hard to find enough teachers, workers, and leaders, who will fulfill their obligations "day-in, and day-out"? Are we just tired? Are we calloused? Are we committed?
Serving the Lord is a good thing, and it is something that we should never quit doing. Yet, we must remember that serving the Lord takes action, and action will exhibit our love for God to others.

P.S. I do appreciate all of you who are so faithful, yet isn't it true that God deserves more than we, including me, really give?

(Taken from EBC's monthly newsletter.)

Truth Or Dead?

To most Americans, questioning the truthfulness of another person's religious view is showing intolerance. While intolerance in the past dealt with bigotry or prejudice, the postmodern usage of the word has come to mean simply disagreeing with anyone else's beliefs. In other words, according to postmodernists, to question another's view is to invade and pillage a different cultural context - or a different "reality" - than our own. Strangely, though, postmodernists grant one exception to this universal prohibition against intolerance. They teach that it is okay to question and even denounce the religious views pejoratively labeled "fundamentalism." They argue that those they label fundamentalists are unacceptable because they subscribe to universal truth claims. {Excerpts taken from The Death Of Truth by Dennis McCallum.}

While I will not get into a debate concerning the "logic" (if that is what you want to call what postmodernists do...) that is used to defend such teachings, we, as believers, need to be aware that such thinking has permeated our society. In fact, many churches have fallen prey to such teachings. For example, many "Christians" think that it does not matter what you believe concerning salvation, just so long as you are sincere or a good person. Well, that is incorrect. After all, you can be "sincerely" wrong! The Bible does not allow for such ideas in the area of salvation. Jesus taught that salvation is through faith (repentance and belief/trust in Jesus Christ), and there is no other way. There are many other examples, but for the sake of time, I will not dare try to list them all. And while there are areas we have freedom to debate and strive to understand, there are certain universal truths that we cannot change, no matter how hard we try.

So, I say it's time we stop backpedaling and start fighting for the truth. We need to fight for the truth in our families, communities, and churches. We need to fight for the faith against such pompous teachings as that of postmodernism. We must fight the good fight and be found faithful. Yet, how do we fight the fight without being hypocritical and condemning? We love others as God loves them, sacrifice for others as Christ sacrificed for all, and be faithful to God's calling in our life.