To aspire to leadership in God’s kingdom requires us to be willing to pay a price higher than others are willing to pay. The toll of true leadership is heavy, and the more effective the leadership, the greater the cost.

The loneliest preacher today is the person who has been entrusted with a prophetic message ahead of the times, a message that cuts across the temper of the age.

The spirit of the welfare state does not produce leaders. If a Christian is not willing to rise early and work late, to expend greater effort in diligent study and faithful work, that person will not change a generation. Fatigue is the price of leadership. Mediocrity is the result of never getting tired.

Crucifixion seems to have been invented by ‘barbarians’on the edge of the known world, and taken over from them by both Greeks and Romans. It is probably the most cruel method of execution ever practised, for it deliberately delayed death until maximum torture had been inflicted. The victim could suffer for days before dying. When the Romans adopted it, they reserved it for criminals convicted of murder, rebellion or armed robbery, provided that they were also slaves, foreigners or other non-persons. The Jews were therefore outraged when the Roman general Varus crucified 2,000 of their compatriots in 4 BC, and when during the siege of Jerusalem the general Titus crucified so many fugitives from the city that neither ‘space…for the crosses, nor crosses for the bodies’could be found. (Pg. 23)

Hudson Taylor, founder of the China Inland Mission, was a simple yet astute man. He had the gift of saying tremendously significant things in a deceptively simple way. In a letter dated 1879 to the secretary of the mission, Taylor said: The all-important thing to do is to 1. Improve the character of the work 2. Deepen the piety, devotion and success of the workers 3. Remove stones of stumbling, if possible 4. Oil the wheels where they stick 5. Amend whatever is defective 6. Supplement, as far as may be, what is lacking.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/women/2015/march/choose-your-own-sexual-ethics-adventure.html

To download outline right click below

The People That We Meet on the Journey to the Crosspt3outline

FLEX or FIRM, Your Choice

In the last few months I have been hearing and learning about some serious problems the evangelical church is facing. It seems that many in our world see the evangelical church as irrelevant because it follows a strict set of beliefs from a book that is over 2000 years old.  It seems that church attendance is not what it could be because church leaders are insisting on imposing their moral code on the church’s membership. What’s more, the next generation is finding the church, how can I say this, boring. They aren’t used to being lectured or told what to believe. They want to mix and match belief systems. The church is just too intolerant. Everybody knows that.

Irrelevant, in your face, and intolerant; the church has got a big problem doesn’t it? After thinking about this for a while, I believe I have come up with a simple solution. The evangelical church needs to adopt a FLEX theology. FLEX implies something is to be pliable, flexible and easily molded to fit a situation, a culture, or a worldview. With this approach almost all of the church’s problems go away. Allow me to demonstrate with a simple acrostic.

F – This stands for forget as in forget what you have heard or heard preached. It’s a new day.

L – This stands for loophole, as in look for a loophole, to make the Bible say whatever you want it to say.

E – This stands for experience as in let your experience, what you feel, govern what you believe.

X – This stands for expand as in expand your beliefs to include all faiths and beliefs; they are all right in some way, aren’t they?

Right away you can see how FLEX theology could work for you. You feel ostracized by your gay and straight friends because they believe your church and you are judging their sexuality or sexual behavior. No problem. With FLEX theology you can alleviate their fears. By Forgetting what you’ve been taught you can be open to new interpretations. We know better now anyway don’t we?

Your church teaches that Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven and that people who don’t accept Christ go to hell. They quote verses like John 14:6 and Acts 4:12. This seems to be to narrow of a view.  How can it be true?  Don’t sweat it. FLEX Theology to the rescue. Use the ”God’s too loving to sentence anyone to eternal hell” Loophole. See how FLEX theology gives you some awesome wiggle room?

You know that sex outside of marriage is forbidden in Scripture, that marriage in the Bible is between a man and a woman and that according to the Apostle Paul’s teaching, giving in to same sex attraction is a sin. Your experience though tells you something different. You know many unmarried couples, gay and straight, some dating with no sexual restrictions, others living together without the commitment of marriage….. they seem happy enough.  What could be wrong with sex outside of marriage? Don’t worry about it. With FLEX Theology you can follow your heart. You can determine what is acceptable through your own Experience. It’s a better guide than any old Book anyway right?

You find yourself giving in to sin and compromising in your own behavior. No problem. With FLEX theology you can just eXpand what you consider to be right and wrong.  This will ease your guilty conscience and let you sleep at night. Aren’t you grateful for how easy FLEX Theology makes things for us?

When not seeing the Bible as a powerful, divinely inspired, authoritative, life-changing book but thinking of it more as just a collection of old but pretty good suggestions, we’ve found the secret to FLEX theology. When we are able to see the commandments found in the Bible not as being there for us, but only for the people of their day, we become enlightened enough to adopt FLEX Theology.  When we believe that we have evolved beyond the ancient religious concepts proposed in Evangelical Christianity, then FLEX Theology is for us.

Finally, here’s the best thing about FLEX Theology. It allows us to be seen as tolerant, gentle people who, in fact, believe in nothing passionately enough to stand for anything. This will allow everyone to like us and we will fill our churches with people so we can share with them that we, in fact, really believe in nothing and they can too. They can hold to whatever views they want to and live as they please unencumbered by an irrelevant, in your face and intolerant faith taken from an ancient Book that worked in the past but couldn’t possibly work now. It allows us to basically be the masters of our own lives —- and after all—– isn’t that what life is all about?

FLEX Theology is amazing isn’t it?

But on the other hand if you are uncomfortable exchanging your Christian faith for the man-centered wasteland of FLEX theology there is an alternative. If you prefer substance over nothingness, if there is a yearning in your soul for a God who has revealed Himself to man, you have another option. You could choose to embrace a set of truths that are unchanging. I’ll call this FIRM Theology. It is what for at least two centuries the serious Christian community has indeed embraced.  Embracing FIRM theology doesn’t lead us down an easy road. It is challenging, yet rewarding. It will require the following from us:

F – As in Foundational. I need to see the Scriptures, the Bible, the written revelation of God, as foundational to Christianity. This God- given book reveals to us the truths we need to have a healthy relationship with God as well as with others.

I – As in Investigate. I need to find out what the Bible really says. It is incumbent upon me to read it, study it, meditate on it and live it .

R – As in Rely on it. I need to see the Scriptures as my “go to Book” for advice. I need to hold on to it in times of suffering and distress as well as use it as a guide in the midst of life’s confusion. It is our authority for faith and practice and should be relied on as such.

M – As in Meaning – Find the meaning of life we all are looking for through a relationship with the God of the Scriptures. Understand the meaning of life through the words of the Scriptures. Share the meaning of life with others through the Scriptures.

The Revelation of God has been passed on to us almost as a legacy from those before. The Scriptures are the once and for all faith delivered to us that we are to earnestly contend for (Jude 3). The teachings of the Apostles found in the Bible are the essentials to what is called Christianity.

Everywhere these holy writings have gone they have dramatically changed the world around them for the good. They have been miraculously preserved and translated by men like John Wycliffe and William Tyndale literally giving their lives to make sure you and I could have a copy for ourselves.  The result of their efforts is that this Book, ancient as it may be, has changed whole cultures and families as well as individual lives. If we will embrace the Scriptures, we will find them to be our anchor in our storms, our medicine for our wounds, our light for our path, our wisdom for our decisions and our nourishment for our soul.  The Bible is capable of changing us from the inside out once we embrace and live out  FIRM theology.

Blessings

Pastor Dave Watson

Even when the leader has done the utmost to fulfill daily obligations, vast areas of work always remain. Every call for help is not necessarily a call from God, for it is impossible to respond to every need. If the leader sincerely plans his day in prayer, then executes the plan with all energy and eagerness, that is enough. A leader is responsible only for what lies within the range of control. The rest he should trust to our loving and competent heavenly Father.

The spiritual leader should outpace the rest of the church, above all, in prayer. And yet the most advanced leader is conscious of the possibility of endless development in his prayer life. Nor does he ever feel that he has “already attained.”Dean C. J. Vaughan once said: “If I wished to humble anyone, I should question him about his prayers. I know nothing to compare with this topic for its sorrowful   self-confessions.”