MIND OF TRUTH

I was catching up on reading a few blogs today at lunch and I came accros this one comparing the church to a bar. Here is the link. Please read it for yourself. http://tatumweb.com/blog/2007/07/22/church-bar/ OK, I understand where this guy is coming from. I would rather go somewhere where everyone knows my name, have fellowship with people, and eat good food as well rather than attend a dead, duty oriented church. The problem is that we are the church. If we go to a lifeless church, then we are helping to make it so. If we criticize the church for not caring about others and not providing a welcoming atmosphere, then we are again condemning ourself. All the things he mentions that make the bar fun were observations about the people. So really he is saying the people who claim to be believers are boring and don't care that much about other people, but the people at the bar do. You know there is really only one person we need to compare ourself to. Fun or not, dry and borin

I was challenged today that all truth comes from the Word of God. It does not come from years, decades or even centuries of church tradition. It does not come from what our parents taught us, and it does not come from our pastor. If you're like me, you grew up surrounded by Christianity and church and a biblical world view. These are good things, but they are not enough to stand for truth. Only God's Word can do that, only His eternal Word can stand up to the scrutiny and criticisms of men. We get confused sometimes and we speak about things we have been taught or things we just know. Unless we find it in God's Word, and unless we have experienced it's power as the Holy Spirit reveals the truths there to our hearts, we can not claim it as truth. I was challenged today as someone called into question beliefs I have held tightly to all my life. As I shared, they stated they did not believe what I was saying was true and they wanted to know where that was found in

I have found one of the most difficult things in our Christian walk is to rely on Jesus for everything. We all say we do, but when things get difficult, and the circumstances press in, and the waiting gets long, we bail. We reach our limit and we go back to the old methods and resources that we feel comfortable with. They have worked for us in the past and the temptation to rely on them just for a little while to get us out of the mess is often irresistible. We tell the Lord we desire to rely on Him, but we have to go take care of this little thing first, then we'll be back. Of course we don't see any of that while we are in the midst of the storm and the pressure is weighing down upon us. Thats why we need to make us our minds ahead of time and surround ourselves with people who will walk with us and remind us of our prior commitment and covenant with the Lord. Don't get angry with those people when they confront you. We all have a tenancy to invest ourself in our