2014 - a general letter to the church and to myself too...
I have been wanting to write a
general letter to the church about the new year. It will be a year of
change in many physical ways but there is an ongoing change that needs
to happen in the spiritual realm.
It would be very easy to make a list of those things that we need to do or improve on in the life of the church and then we could go down the check list and work on them. I do have that list in my head but I am going to resist the temptation to put them down here. If I would do that, then we would have this "works" mentality that if we just work in these areas then things would be "better." That thought just leads to another list and another time to get back on track. So I am going to try to keep the list in my head and not on the page.
I also thought about talking about obedience that is needed but as I investigated this route I knew that the list in my head would come out again because our obedience will be fleshed out in our lives and in the areas of the church that are lacking. Again, even under the disguise of looking "more spiritual" than a list, it would lead to the idea that Pastor is telling us that we haven't been obeying in these biblical areas therefore we need to shape up. That will only last so long and we will eventually stray and take up practices when the Pastor has gotten off of his soap box.
So where to do I go with this but deeper. What is needed is for all of us to love God more and then allow that to be seen in our obedience to Him and some of those things (lists) in your head about spiritual matters in your own life that are lacking will come into line because of not what you do but because of who you love. I think I am pretty safe to say that we all could love God more. I think it is pretty safe to say that there are times when we all have loved God less while He has continued to love us. That lack of love or waning love is seen in areas of our lives that have put what matters to God on the shelf while we pursue "other" things. If we pursue to love God more then whatever changes we make will be because of love rather than the motivation of "doing" or "because Pastor said so." "I am doing this because I love God so much" should be our cry for the year 2014 and beyond and dictate changes that are need individually and corporately as a church.
We need to hear the instruction of the Lord to the seven churches mentioned in the book of Revelation in chapters 2 and 3 and see how we can fall into these common traps when we take our eyes off of loving God and start loving ourselves more than Him.
Of the seven there is a church that has lost its first love and doing things out of duty only.
There is a church is that compromising by not taking seriously and living in obedience to the Word of God.
There is a church that is corrupt that has allow spiritual leadership to be equated to popularity rather than Christ-likeness.
There is a church that is called "dead," it is just existing and needs to be woken up.
There is a church that is lukewarm with a message that wouldn't want to offend anyone and so the message of Christ is replaced with the message of tolerance and the message of self-help and the message of prosperity.
All these churches have gotten off track because they have started to wane in their love for God. God calls each of them back to him, "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."
These are all typical paths that we go down when we start lacking in our love for God.
We will do things out of duty and soon we feel we have done enough (years) and it is time for a break.
We will stop reading and studying the Bible on a regular basis and therefore church attendance and personal study and small groups become less important.
We will look to other leaders rather than keeping our supreme leader and mentor and example Jesus Christ and we will accept and adapt to their ways.
We will become spiritually dead and have no life within us to call others to faith in Jesus Christ.
We will try to find fulfillment in what we create rather than what God has created through the Gospel and we will take on new purposes and usually these are more "me" centered than "God" centered.
This letter is getting longer than I thought - but one final thought past our need to love God more and allow that love of God to foster actions in our lives and the life of the church that see "His will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." The thought or statement is this - Stephanie and I are committed to be servants of the most High God wherever we are and right now we are here at Gaylord Family Fellowship while we pray about who is to come and where we are to go. Our service to Him is not based on where we are at but because of Who we love. Jesus hasn't stopped loving us and we have not stopped loving Him so we will serve Him out of love for Him where He has placed us and wherever He places us.
God bless your year - Pastor Adam
It would be very easy to make a list of those things that we need to do or improve on in the life of the church and then we could go down the check list and work on them. I do have that list in my head but I am going to resist the temptation to put them down here. If I would do that, then we would have this "works" mentality that if we just work in these areas then things would be "better." That thought just leads to another list and another time to get back on track. So I am going to try to keep the list in my head and not on the page.
I also thought about talking about obedience that is needed but as I investigated this route I knew that the list in my head would come out again because our obedience will be fleshed out in our lives and in the areas of the church that are lacking. Again, even under the disguise of looking "more spiritual" than a list, it would lead to the idea that Pastor is telling us that we haven't been obeying in these biblical areas therefore we need to shape up. That will only last so long and we will eventually stray and take up practices when the Pastor has gotten off of his soap box.
So where to do I go with this but deeper. What is needed is for all of us to love God more and then allow that to be seen in our obedience to Him and some of those things (lists) in your head about spiritual matters in your own life that are lacking will come into line because of not what you do but because of who you love. I think I am pretty safe to say that we all could love God more. I think it is pretty safe to say that there are times when we all have loved God less while He has continued to love us. That lack of love or waning love is seen in areas of our lives that have put what matters to God on the shelf while we pursue "other" things. If we pursue to love God more then whatever changes we make will be because of love rather than the motivation of "doing" or "because Pastor said so." "I am doing this because I love God so much" should be our cry for the year 2014 and beyond and dictate changes that are need individually and corporately as a church.
We need to hear the instruction of the Lord to the seven churches mentioned in the book of Revelation in chapters 2 and 3 and see how we can fall into these common traps when we take our eyes off of loving God and start loving ourselves more than Him.
Of the seven there is a church that has lost its first love and doing things out of duty only.
There is a church is that compromising by not taking seriously and living in obedience to the Word of God.
There is a church that is corrupt that has allow spiritual leadership to be equated to popularity rather than Christ-likeness.
There is a church that is called "dead," it is just existing and needs to be woken up.
There is a church that is lukewarm with a message that wouldn't want to offend anyone and so the message of Christ is replaced with the message of tolerance and the message of self-help and the message of prosperity.
All these churches have gotten off track because they have started to wane in their love for God. God calls each of them back to him, "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."
These are all typical paths that we go down when we start lacking in our love for God.
We will do things out of duty and soon we feel we have done enough (years) and it is time for a break.
We will stop reading and studying the Bible on a regular basis and therefore church attendance and personal study and small groups become less important.
We will look to other leaders rather than keeping our supreme leader and mentor and example Jesus Christ and we will accept and adapt to their ways.
We will become spiritually dead and have no life within us to call others to faith in Jesus Christ.
We will try to find fulfillment in what we create rather than what God has created through the Gospel and we will take on new purposes and usually these are more "me" centered than "God" centered.
This letter is getting longer than I thought - but one final thought past our need to love God more and allow that love of God to foster actions in our lives and the life of the church that see "His will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." The thought or statement is this - Stephanie and I are committed to be servants of the most High God wherever we are and right now we are here at Gaylord Family Fellowship while we pray about who is to come and where we are to go. Our service to Him is not based on where we are at but because of Who we love. Jesus hasn't stopped loving us and we have not stopped loving Him so we will serve Him out of love for Him where He has placed us and wherever He places us.
God bless your year - Pastor Adam
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