What is Necessary to Serve God?

Let's take a look at the relationship Adam and Eve had with God.  What was the world like back then when mankind served God perfectly?

From reading Genesis, I find the world to be totally different than what we have today.  We look back at that time and have difficulty imagining something other then Adam and Eve basically living in a forested area of our world.

Before the flood, the world was like an alien planet.  It had a pink sky and twice the atmospheric pressure we find today. The plants and animals grew bigger and there were so many more different types which we do not find today.  There was no rain, but a mist came up every morning to water the world.

Not only was the world different in the days of Adam and Eve, but Man’s relationship with God was different as well.  Before the fall, man’s relationship with God was perfect.  Adam and Eve were sinless, and they would meet with God in the evening to talk.  When Moses spoke with God, he came back to the people with a glow from God’s Glory.  I suspect that man had a glow about him that shone brightly and clothed him.  Man was not walking around completely naked, but walked in God’s glorious light.  After they sinned, that light faded and left them naked.

The Garden of Eden was where Adam and Eve lived and worked.  They were given the task to cultivate and keep the Garden.  When we think of gardening, we imagine a hoe and back-breaking work, but Adam and Eve did not live by the sweat on their brow.  I think they were like Jesus when he was on earth.  Jesus could calm storms, commmand trees, and even multiply food.  If the second Adam could do that, why not the first?  I believe Adam would order a tree to move to the side so that sun could get to another plant, and the tree moved.  He ordered a stream to form so that a section of the garden had more water, and the stream flowed just when he wanted.

What changed all this?  Why did man lose those powers?  What stole man’s dominance over the world?  Nothing stole it.  Man gave it away to Satan when he sinned.  The keys to this world were handed over to Satan, and man fell into the depths of sin, death, sickness and weakness.

Today, because of the work of Jesus Christ, we can have a relationship with God again.  With that relationship comes godly power.  The only thing that can stop God’s power in your life is sin.  Don’t be so hard with Adam when you make the same choice as him everyday and allow sin to separate you from the relationship God desires with you.

The key to serving God with Power is our obedience to Him.  Look at the scriptures from Genesis to Revelation and it keeps coming back to obedience.  He calls us to a life more wonderful than anything we could imagine, but it all begins with our submissiveness to God.

Photo Credit: Sunset, Long Caye, Belize by Roads Less Traveled Photography

Click here to read about the world of Adam and Eve.

Self-Denial of Today’s Christian

Do we deny ourselves like the first Century Christians, who went so far as to forsake the comfort of their traditions?

I have trouble denying myself the comforts of life.  I want to enjoy life like everyone else.  We Christians in America are rich and we love our comforts. Yet that is not the hardest thing for us to give up.  I have found that we protect our traditions even more than our possessions.

After Jesus had left, any Jew who accepted Jesus as the Messiah had to make a radical change to their life.  The traditions they had grown up with were now changed.  Christ coming turned the Jewish religion all upside down.  Many did not accept Jesus simply because it would mean changing their whole way of thinking.  Many of the comfortable traditions they had grown up with would be gone.

We don’t think we are holding any traditions, but that is not true.  It is just that we are so used to them; we no longer even notice them.  Examples of some traditions we might hold:

1. We meet every Sunday in a Church.  Buildings are our traditional place of worship.  The early church met in houses.
2. Baptism has to be by emersion. What is necessary is the person’s heart and their desire to make public confession that Jesus is their Lord.
3. Church service must have singing, a sermon and prayer.  What if God moved to just worship him the whole time?
4. No drums can be used in worshiping God.  Some people even say no music at all.
5. Church hierarchy of leadership. Should we have pastors? Deacons? Elders? Maybe have no leadership?

These are just a few traditions.  We can defend our traditions pretty well when we hold them to be true.  We get offended when someone attacks our traditions.  You might be offended that I mentioned one or more of them which you hold.

Traditions can be good, but they can never come before what the Scriptures say.  How willing are we to give up a tradition for the truth of Scriptures?  It can be harder to put aside a tradition, than it is to walk around blind to what God says.  Denying our traditions means to deny self.  Are we willing to turn our world upside down like the early church did so that we can live the truth of Jesus Christ?

To live as the first-century  Church did, we may have to examine our traditions and decide if we must put it aside or not.  This is a whole new world of obedience which our emotions and sentiments will not want us to go into.  Can we be brave enough to die to our own traditions?  With the help of Christ, of course we can.

Photo Credit: The Little Brown Church - Nashua, Iowa by jmehre

Faith in God’s Word by Today’s Christian

Do we preach Christ Crucified or do we preach a milk toast Jesus?

The Apostle Paul, one of the leaders in the First Century Church, said in 1 Corinthians 11:1 “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.”  Lets see what his faith was like.

^{Jesus commanded in the great commission at  Matthew 28: 18-20 to go into all the world preaching and teaching what Jesus commanded.  What did Paul teach? He tells us in 2 Timothy 3:16 “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness”  He preached the scriptures.}

^{How often do Christians look at the Gospel message and say, “How are we going to make this more desirable for the people to accept?”  So they dress it up and have two hours of games and fun with 5 minutes of Gospel testimony.  They do this especially when teenagers are involved.}

^{When the Gospel is presented, they have to make sure that it never makes anyone uncomfortable or offends them in any way.  The sugarcoat the gospel in hopes that the lost will accept their milk toast Jesus.  When you hear their gospel, the Christian life is all flowers, peace and happiness.  There is perfect happiness if you come and become a Christian.  The Gospel is emasculated of its power.}

^{Never let it be said that any sin, accepted by the world, is wrong.  You never want to offend someone about, homosexuality, sex before marriage, or belief in any other gods beside the Biblical God, Jesus Christ and The Holy Spirit.  Do the scriptures say something is wrong?  If it does then speak the truth.}

^{“Oh no.” You say in horror. “My friend will think I am some kind of religious fanatic.  They might unfriend me on Facebook. “  How sad that you do not love your friend enough to risk your friendship with them, so that they may never see Hell.}

^{If we truly believe God’s word, then we would be like Paul.  Persecution, slander, prison, torture, and even the threat of death, could not stop him from preaching the gospel.  He knew the power of God, which resided in the scripture.  The undiluted Word of God can change the world.}

Photo Credit: 1 Corinthians 1:18 | The Cross is the Power of God by UnlockingTheBible

Zealousness of Today’s Christian Leaders

You ask yourself, “Why should I worry about this?  I am not a leader.”  Even if that is true, God will call you to be a leader tomorrow.  God does not want you to linger where you are today.  You may be named the leader of a group, called to lead your family, or to some high calling of God you do not know about.  You can be sure that no matter where you are now, God will call you to leadership.

The Apostle Paul, one of the leaders in the First Century Church, said in 1 Corinthians 11:1 “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.”  So lets see how today’s Christian Leaders match up to following Paul’s example.

How Zealous was Paul? When it came to persecuting Christians, he was so zealous in running them down and killing them, that Jesus Himself came to him in a blinding flash saying, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?”

I am not sure there were very many things that Paul ever did without zeal.  In 1 Corinthians 10:31 he told the church, “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God”  Do you always eat and drink to the glory of God? I could see him saying when you do a good deed, do it to the glory of God, but he tells us to do even the smallest things to God’s Glory.  He had zeal for even the minutest things.

Paul zealously desired salvation for the lost.  He was whipped five times, three times beaten with a rod, stoned and left for dead, and still he did not stop preaching the Gospel.  He desired salvation for them so much that in Romans 9:3 he says, “For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh:”

Oh, that today’s Christian had such zeal!  Paul was full of zeal because he was full of the love of God.  Nothing else mattered.  To Paul, to live is Christ and to die is gain.  Today, God’s eyes are searching the earth for a Paul.  What will He see when His sight falls upon you?

Photo Credit: Mountain Men by Dioboss

I Struggle Everyday. I Don’t want to Die.

I am struggling.  It is not easy to be what God desires me to be.  I wish I could just go to church on Sundays to worship and with a smile, and live my own life the rest of the week.  I know it's selfish, but it sure does sound nice.  Most Christians live their lives that way, so why not me?

Then I hear this still small voice.  “Beloved Son, I expect more from you then that.  You were never created to live your life in the chains of the world.  You do not belong to yourself, and I will not suffer you to live as if you do.  I love you too much.”

This is where God brings to my mind Romans 12: 1-2 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 

^{2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.}

^{The early church understood this.  All they had and were, was given to God and to His people.  I am not the only one whom God calls to live the life of sacrifice.  He calls all of His children to die to self.  You are called to put aside your selfish desires for His desires.}

^{Yes, I struggle to keep my hands off my life and what I “own."  I struggle to let  my selfish die.  I don’t want to be a living sacrifice, but I don’t want to disappoint God either.  He loves me so much, how can I say no?}

^{The beautiful thing is, it is worth it all.  No matter how hard the struggle or what pains we might bear, doing the will of Christ is more than worth it.  He showers us with blessing and accepts us even when we fail.  He is doing a great work in us.  We just need to keep our eyes on Him and keep struggling.}

 

Photo Credit: Sacrificial Alter by Nat and Paula

Living the First Century Church

For the last two weeks, I pounded my head against a wall.  I labored and prayed hard to find the right subtitle for this blog. I felt that God wanted to refocus the blog's direction, but the exact words just did not seem to be there.  I sought advice from my Son-in-law Travis, who is my blog mentor, and he got me in the right direction.  I asked people on Facebook what the best words to use where.  I prayed, meditated and sweated over this until I finally think I have it.

“Living the First Century Church in the Twenty-First Century”

First let me say that the First Century Church was not perfect, but the Twenty-First Century Church has built up 2000 years of traditions and mistakes which we need to shed. We need to look back at the First-Century Church and see what Biblically based teachings they believed and produced in their lives.

What is special about this new Subtitle?  The first word (living) was the hardest word to determine, and it really is the key.  Many people suggested what the first word of the sentence should be, and they were very good.  I am thankful for intelligent friends who were willing to help share some wonderfully descriptive words.

The word “living” connotes that they didn’t simply exhibit the Christian life, but it was an integral part of them.  They didn’t have to think about how to live. It became  natural to them.  They didn’t just manifest Christ in their lives.  They lived Christ.  The seven sons Sceva are an example of someone who manifested the power to exorcise evil spirits in Jesus’ name but did not live the Christian life.  Acts 19: 13-16

What gave The First Century Church the power of God in their lives?  That is where we will be going together in this blog.  What we in The Twenty-First Century Church need to learn and allow God to transform in our lives.

Thank you to everyone who has helped me in this search.  Now let us begin to learn together what is in God’s heart for us in the twenty-first century.  Never be afraid to disagree with me or encourage me in what is said.  I have a lot to learn, and you might hold  a truth in your heart which I need to learn.

Photo Credit: Early Christian Gravestone by Walter Parenteau