I just can’t get away from the frustration that I feel when I see or hear about churches arguing over a style of music, dress, and focus.  It really makes me feel tired.  I understand that these are serious issues in the church today.  Yet, these seem to side track us too.   

There groups of younger people feel that they could reach more people for Christ if their churches would change their Sunday morning program to a modern music format.  In contrast, groups of older people believe that the church should not change and that the modern music is not of God.  They reason that the church must not change so that people will recognize that the church is unchanging just like God.  They also reason that their style of music is sacred and should not be tampered with.   

Some groups dress casual and others dress formal for church service.  Some pastors believe that dress can be a barrier for people to attend their church.  Both believe that the way the other side dresses will run people off.  In my opinion, these groups that worry about these issues have spent their entire lives in church.  Both want to leave something of themselves in the church.   

Most of the time these groups grew up in church rebelling against what was established beforehand.  Each generation fights the other.  Each sees where the other generation has faltered in some way.  Each side uses Scripture from the letters that Paul wrote to different churches to justify why they believe what they believe.  What is unique about Paul’s letters is that he stressed the importance of unity and submitting to one another within the Church.  He even, in a few letters, dealt with how each generation was supposed to treat the other.  Are we missing the point? 

I asked my old pastor if he remembered when I came to the church for the first time.  I reminded him that I did not grow up in church.  My point was that I did not have any traditions that were following me through life to worry about.  I reminded him that when I came to Christ I did not say to him, “Hey, I will accept Jesus as my Savior if you wear a certain type of clothing.” I also did not say to him that I would get out of my Lazy Boy chair and come to church if they would assure me that they would play the right style of music.  He confirmed that these were not issues that I struggled with in the beginning. 

People! Listen to me!  There are not any people who are lost sitting in their homes tonight saying to themselves, “If the church would play my style of music, I would get saved.”  Or, “If the pastors would dress like I think they should would get saved.”  The only thing that  I was interested in was finding salvation.  The only Person I wanted to meet, was not the cool pastor who thinks that the Church is not doing enough to save the starving children, but I wanted to meet Jesus.   

Yes, I do care about the starving children and other injustices.  My point is that we Christians focus on the wrong things too much.  Don’t you think the devil loves our disunity over trivial issues?  My point is that we need to keep the focus on Jesus instead of on the non-essentials. 

When it is all said and done; I think the problem is that we just want to look like what we think a real Christian looks like.  We want to impress people with our huge compassion for the things that matter to the world.  We want to show people how intelligent we are by connecting the Word of God to the issues today.  We want to be the new, and improved, church.  Or, we want to be the church that did not change so that we can look super spiritual.  God’s point is, “When will His people get the point of Scripture and simply be the Church?”  In other words, when will we learn that we can find Jesus when we choose to look? 

I am not hindered by the style of clothing that I, or anyone else, wears.  I am able to enjoy all music that points me to Christ.  Why?  Because I know that I was lost, but now I am found.  I know what fate I avoided because of my desire to let Christ love me and save me which caused me to want to live for Him.  That is the point.

Adults, do not take parenting as a chore.  It is a privilege.  Kids grow up fast.  While serving in the ministry for some time now, I have learned how delicate child development is.  I remember a little girl who came to our church when she was in the second grade.  She was a real sweetheart and had the face of an angel.  She was also very clingy too.  She grabbed onto my leg and would not let go on our Wednesday nights.  Church was likely a break from having to take care of herself.  I knew her parents had other things on their minds besides caring for her by spending time with her and giving her the love that she deserved. 

Like many parents, they split up and went their separate ways.  While looking for their own lives, they forgot that they were responsible to build up her life still.  She had to take care of herself.  When she saw her dad her face would light up.  But I don’t think that he had a lot of time for her.  It was maddening to watch.  She looked forward to seeing me for the rest of that year.  I made sure to spend time with her and tried to affirm her too.

The next year, I looked for her so that I could somehow fill a void in her life.  She was in the third grade then.  When I saw her, she had developed the attitude of a teenager.  Her angelic face had changed to the face of a hardened person.  She had become a mean girl.  She was no longer clingy and even ignored me and other adults who tried to pour into her life.  All I could think was that this did not have to happen.  I don’t know where she is now, but I know that all she needed then was someone to care for her. 

Parents, school, church, and other organizations for children cannot take your responsibility.  You are the foundation builders.  Here is a song by an 80’s Hair Band that captures what kids feel when parents leave and ignore their children. 

House of Pain by Faster Pussycat

It’s a little past supper time
I’m still out on the porch steps sittin’ on my behind,
Waiting for you.
Wondrin’ if everything’s alright,
Mama said,”Come in boy, don’t waste your time,”
I said,”I’ve got time. Well he’ll be here soon.”
Five years old and talkin’ to myself.
Where were you? Where’d ya go? Daddy can’t you tell?

Chorus.

I’m not tryin’ to fake it, and I ain’t the one to blame.
No, there’s no one home in my house of pain.
I didn’t write these pages and my script’s been re-arranged.
No, there’s no one home in my house of pain.

Wasn’t I worth the time?
A boy needs a daddy like a dance to mime and all the time,
I looked up to you.
I paced my room a million times.
And all I ever got was one big line, the same old lie.
How could you?
Well I was eighteen years and still talkin’ to myself.
Where were you? Where’d ya go? Daddy can’t ya tell?

**end**
Well if i’ve learned anything from this, shh, it’s how to grow up
On my own.

We had a good attendance at Smith Chapel yesterday.  I got to teach about the importance of being connected to church.  Our text was 1 Corinthians 12 and I read from verse 4 to the end of the chapter.  While reading we noted that this chapter is about more than simply trying to figure out what our spiritual gifts are.  The bottom-line is that God connects us to The Church, the church, Him, and connects us (the church) with a lost world so that Jesus can connect to those who do not know Him.  That is it in a nut shell. 

During our service we able to baptize a man, which connected him to The Church, and hopefully to the our church too.  It was a good moment in our worship.  Some of his family was there with tears in their eyes.  This helped us as a Body to focus on Christ and the importance of knowing Him which led to singing praises from our hearts. 

Later, a young man shared with me that he is a universalist.  I hate to admit it, but it is refreshing to meet someone who is honest in the Bible-Belt about their view of God.  Most really do not know what they believe and why they believe.  He challenged me to dig for intelligent answers.  It has been a long time since I’ve focused on Apologetics.  It might be time for a refresher.  Nevertheless, for those who think that there really is not much of a mission out there that requires Christians to share Christ, here is your reminder. 

Finally, I capped off the day going to see someone who might be hours from slipping into eternity.  This person has not received Christ as Savior and Lord.  These are always tense moments for me as a pastor.  There are nurses and family around who do not want you to bother someone who is passing away.  I understand.  However, we must realize that receiving Christ is also how someone can pass away peacefully.  I asked the question, “Would you like to receive Jesus Christ as your Savior?”  There was no answer.  We must remember that God gives us all a choice.  I wish I had better news, but I don’t. 

Sunday started out with a sense of victory, but it ended with the reminder that there are still many who do not know who Jesus Christ is.  Further, there are many who choose not to know Jesus Christ.  Yet, God is merciful and longsuffering.  He continues to astound me by trying to save right up to the last breathe.  To Him be all glory and honor forever.

In the book of Exodus the Pharaoh is described as one who hardened his heart; or God hardened his heart.  While at times this is open to a lot of theological discussion whether or not the Pharaoh had a chance to repent, I suggest, the point was that he was simply too proud to seek forgiveness.  Eventually, God did punish Pharaoh as a result of his hardness. 

Moses and Aaron had the job to tell the proud, or bull-headed, Pharaoh to let God’s people go.  Pharaoh refused.  Several times after plagues were brought upon Egypt Pharaoh seemed to relent and ask for forgiveness.  Yet, each time, he only wanted to give God a small portion of what God demanded.  As a result, Moses was charged to tell the Pharaoh these plagues were going to increase in intensity.  After these plagues were increased Pharaoh came closer to giving to God what was desired of him.  Yet, Pharaoh would not completely yield.   

Interestingly, in Exodus 10:16-17, Pharaoh seemed to repent more than other times.  As we read this story, we cannot help but think, finally the Pharaoh is going to do the right thing.  We are almost relieved with this repentant king because he finally accepted that God is God.  Then we notice something about his repentance, Pharaoh asked that “this deadly plague” be taken away from him.  In other words, Pharaoh is saying “I don’t like what is happening to me.”  This is kind of like, let’s make a, so that Pharaoh could continue to be the same Pharaoh that he was before Moses came along.  He just wanted to be away from the bad circumstance he was in.  Therefore, he really did not repent and God really delivered judgment for his hardness. 

How often do we Christians and pastors accept this type of repentance for salvation?  Most of the time people experience rough circumstances and come the pastor and ask for forgiveness.  We, hopefully, point them to Christ for this.  We tell them that they must be sorry for their sins so that Christ will forgive them.  We celebrate that new life in Christ with the church and tell the person who was sorry that he or she is now saved by the grace of God.

After a period of time, that person who was sorry, eventually drifts away from church and God.  They were able to get through some tough circumstances and go on with his or her life.  Why does this happen?  Is it possible that they repented like the Pharaoh did?  If so, that salvation we claimed maybe should not have been claimed.  They were looking for relief instead of life change that leads to true forgiveness. 

If a person does not yield everything to God through Christ, then salvation may not have come to that person.  After all, God wants are whole heart, not just some.  Our churches need to do a better job of explaining true salvation to new believers.  It seems that we pastors and Christians are giving a stamp of approval to many who did not really seek it from Christ.  Instead they sought comfort from us and not God.  We can know when there has not been a change of heart in the person who is seeking forgiveness. 

True repentance occurs when someone is sorry enough to turn away from the life that he or she was leading before they met God.  I fear that the Christian Church is littered with many who were told that their half-hearted repentance, similar to Pharaoh’s, was salvation.  If I am wrong, good.  If I am right, then this is very bad.  Nevertheless, I suspect I could be right.  Otherwise Christians would clearly walk away from the sins that condemned them and put Christ first. 

So the question is, how long will some of us maintain that half-hearted repentance is good enough?  For those who are hard-hearted, beware.  If you have pride, then you will find it hard to have salvation.  If you have family and friends whose experience is much like Pharaoh’s, then you need to disciple them.  Their salvation may depend on it.   

1. Heath Mullikan has been posting video announcements on Youtube for his youth group.  I like this idea very much check it out.
2. Andy Stanley has a twitter account.  You can follow him here.  Favorite tweet by Andy Stanley, “Paul Stanley, Charles Stanley, Andy Stanley… All we need is a drummer.”
3. My favorite devotional is online for free reading.  My Utmost for His Highest and you can view it here.  This link is for September 30th and causes self-examination. 
4. North American Aerospace Defense Command has a website that will tell you about some events that may occur with that deal with national defense.  Check it out here.
5. Friend or Follow Application for Twitter.  If you are following someone and they are not following you, you can find out and drop them.  : )  Here is that link.
6. North Point TV.  Evidently North Point will be doing some of their announcements through here.  I am not sure.  But, if North Point is doing it, then I believe that it is something cool.  Follow this Twitter account here.
7. Here is a link to my hometown of Montezuma, IN.  This is where I live for 33 years. 
8. I don’t know if this is neat but my name is in an old obituary notice.  That is a little weird.  I thought I was the only Scott Uselman in the world.  Here it is the link.

What if we Christians found out that we really did not have forgiveness?  Can you imagine the shock?  Below is what Jesus said to those who believed they were right with God in Matthew 7:15-23  

“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.

 ”Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

So many Christians just want to tell God they are sorry and move along.  It is almost therapeutic for us.  It makes us feel better after we have sinned. I admit that forgiveness makes us feel better because feeling better is the byproduct to forgiveness.  But the point of forgiveness is that we need to change God’s mind and heart.  I suspect that most Christians approach forgiveness with the intent to simply bring peace to their minds.  Since we all have sinned, we must receive forgiveness from God.   

Forgiveness is life-changing.  It is not something that we simply reach for so that we can pay debts that we continue to run up repeatedly.  If I am to seek real forgiveness, then I must be willing to change the way I live.  After all, the way I live, along with inherited sin, is why I need to get forgiveness from God.  Yet, if I continue to live a way that is contrary to God, then I do not receive forgiveness.  In other words, if I have no intention of changing, God knows it.  Paul said that when we received forgiveness we were justified and then we were known by God.  So consider this when you read what Jesus said in the passage that I shared earlier. 

AC/DC wrote a song called “Have a Drink on Me.”  In  this song there is a verse that says, “Forget about the check, we’ll get Hell to pay!”  In other words, keep the party going we won’t pay.  As a bartender I used to keep a tab for people who wanted to pay at the end of the night, or who promised that they would pay later when they got some more money.  The problem with those tabs was that people kept buying and did not remember, or care, that they still have to pay for what they used.  It was a real shock to them when it came time to pay up.  Some even argued that they did pay.  I just forgot to write it down.  Not true. 

This is the same kind of attitude that many Christians seem to have about forgiveness.  Forgiveness is not a blank check.  People, the reason lives are not being won from sin is that our lives have not been won from sin.  If our lives have not been transformed we cannot help others to be transformed.  So the question is, “Have you really received forgiveness?”

While at Family Camp this week I have enjoyed the worship and preaching.  This year our district had The Difference from Southern Wesleyan University come to lead our worship in music segment of the nightly service.  It is great!  I’m blown away with the amount of talent that God has given to the SWU; it is like that every year.  Let me tell you, those young guys and gals, I guess I can say that since I am 40 now, really give it up to Jesus.  Hey, isn’t that awesome!  I say yes!

I have sensed that not everyone is excited about allowing a different style of music to be played during our Holiness    camp setting.  It is possible that some think it is the world being mixed in with the church.  I confess, as a person who was young in the Lord, I entertained those types of thoughts some time ago too.  I think God brought me out of that by showing me that He is not limited in the ways that He chooses to connect with people.  Besides, what is right worship?  Jesus said that it is in spirit and truth.  In the OT God desired obedience over sacrifice and noted that His people worshiped Him with  their lips but their hearts were far from Him. 

One thing that I come back to time after time is the thought that people who are lost (those who are not trusting in Christ as their Savior) are not having heated debates about what style of music should be played during church service.  American Christianity is something else sometimes.  We continuously find ways to focus on everything but what matters.  Jesus forgive us!  Listen, I can worship traditionally, or worship with older tradition like chants, or contemporary.  You get the picture. 

Without going into a long story about an experience I had with Christ I will tell you that the outcome of it was that I sent an email to my pastor and his wife and asked them if they wanted to come over to my house to worship with me.  It was in the middle of the day and everyone else was at work or I would have called them too.  Now this was a lot like a child calling another up and asking the child to come over and play games for the day.  I didn’t have any special music in mind, I only knew that the Presence of Christ was with me and that I wanted my friends to worship Him with me. 

Wouldn’t we Christians do better to focus on bringing the lost to the Presence of Christ so that they could make a decision to accept Him or reject Him?  I think so.  But, most of us believe that before we can invite someone to church that the music has to be a certain way or that the pastor has to be a certain way.  We Christians are wasting precious time that some who are lost do not have debating over whether or not modern music is better than traditional music and vice versa. 

It is funny how many are in a continuous search for the right ministry or church to be part of.  Can we ever be honest admit that it is ultimately about us instead of Christ?  It tires me.  The path that leads to the Presence of Christ is to truly seek Him and only Him through humbleness and Holiness.  Good, or bad, music has less to do with it than we would like to admit.  It is a tool that the Spirit uses to help put me into the right attitude.  Seeking Him is about thirsting for Him and when you find Him you bring others to the drinking hole where you found refreshing. 

So what is right worship?  Is it seeking Christ with the heart?  Or is about finding the right pastor, the right type of music, and making sure things are done the way they have always been done?  Then if everything meets our standards then we will give approval and consider that to be our worship for the day.  Let me tell you that giving our approval is missing the bulls-eye by a mile.  Meaningless.  It is about us coming in to His house so that we can receive His mercy.  Then we adore Him because of who He is.   

So I say let’s not burn up our energies on this issue.  Instead, let’s use our energies to seek Him and bring the lost to Him.  This is right worship to me.

Scripture: 1 Samuel 4:2-22

Israel had heard God’s Word because of Samuel.  The problem was that Israel still depended on themselves even though they were getting ready for battle with the Philistines.  Israel decided to go get the Ark of God and bring it into the camp (God did not told them to do that) so that they could defeat the Philistines.  The Philistines were scared because the ground shook with the cheers from the Israelites in their camp.  Yet, they defeated Israel and captured the Ark. 

Israel began to question: Where was God when all our men were killed?  Now our nation is defeated.

Israel depended on God the same way we do a rabbit’s foot.  He was only brought into the camp for good luck.  He was only needed for that battle.  They paid attention to Him to that point. 

• God cannot be manipulated!  We think that if we do the right things that God will be on our side. 
• Don’t manipulate God.  People most of the time say that they want to experience Him.  In worship we try to manipulate an experience with a particular style.  A style that is generally controlled by us.
• Don’t ignore God.  We must realize that we are not self-made.  Although we try to get through life on our own.  We trust in things instead of God. 

We only want to bring God out the box that we have Him in when we need Him.  We must try to know Him and not limit His worship to a particular style or way of doing it. 

My thought

Beware of only seeking God when you want Him to be on your side for your own gain.  It is better to focus on His gains and dwell in His Presence than to pull Him out like a rabbit’s foot.

Here are some hi-lights from a sermon by Rev. Willis on Wednesday night.  He used many different Scriptures but here are most of them.  1 Samuel 13:14, Psalm 37:4, Matthew 5:6, Psalm 139:23-24, Psalm 84:1-12

Matthew 5:6; desire God and He will give Himself to you; this should not be a verse used by us to seek worldly gain. 

Psalm 139:23-24; our thoughts matter to God.  This should be something to think about.

Jesus does not want 1st place in your life.  Instead, He wants to be your life!  The Rich Young Ruler’s story is baffling because of how it ends.  Consider, all those who were in this ruler’s life were only around him because of what he had in wealth.  They wanted to be his friend because of what he could do for them.  Yet, Jesus told him to sell everything and follow Him and you (the ruler) will still have Him (Christ) near.

We should be convicted when we let intercessary prayer be about the people getting what they want instead of it being about God getting what He wants.  This is because we want to please people instead of God. 

Rev. Willis’ advice is not choose silver over gold.  Christ is the Gold.  Here are some things that are silver: Prosperity, Possessions, and Pleasure.  These are at least 3 pieces of silver that we want more than Gold (Christ). 

Application

We need to get over doing something great for God too because we should be content with His Presence.  Be delivered and desire to know God.  After David’s sin with Bathsheba he wrote Psalm 51 and begged God to take away His Spirit. 

Definition of evil according to the Bible in Sermon on the Mount is those who do not know Christ.  Many Christians busy themselves with things, and even God’s work, but never take the time to know Christ.  This will be bad when we stand before Christ. 

In John 1:37-38; these two disciples sought the Presence of Christ.  After John the Baptist noted who Jesus was they promptly followed Jesus.  Paraphrase: Jesus said what do you want, they answered to know where you are staying. 

A thought I had

The problem with Christians is that we want to run the discussion about following Christ into the ground.  We want to talk theology and theory, but we do not want to get down to the real business of dying to ourselves.  Stop being busy looking and trying to do something great and be satisfied with His Presence.

Dr. Dunn preached a sermon Tuesday night about how we like our Word from God.  He shared some great insight with us from 1 Samuel 3:1-4:1.  “In those days, word from the Lord was rare.”  Here are some highlights from his talk.

• God’s Word was rare since it was not spoken by the people, priests, and in the Temple.  This much like today, believe it or not, God’s Word does not get spoken in the homes, by ministers, or even in the church. 
• God’s Word is rare today because it is confusing.  There are too many voices that God’s Word competes with.  God’s Word has, and still does, compete with God’s Word. God’s Word also competes with people, like friends, relatives, and etc.
• God’s Word was rare because it is frightening.  In Samuel’s day, people were doing what they thought was right.  They had begun to live contrary to God’s Word.  Eli did not correct and rebuke his own children with God’s Word.  So what was frightening was that a young boy like Samuel had to give a tough message to Eli.  The message to Eli was that you and your family are going to die because of their willful disobedience to God’s Word.  It was unlikely that that was an easy message to give. 

Application

Will you stand up for God’s Word in culture or let it be rare?  We are called to speak God’s Word and live under the influence of His Word.  God’s Word is supposed to be well done instead of rare.  Just think, Samuel spoke God’s Word as a boy and the Lord’s Word spread throughout the land.  Pastor’s are called to give tough messages much like Samuel was.  We are all called to live God’s Word in our culture. 

A thought I had

It is amazing with this understanding that Hannah still sought Yahweh even though nobody was pointing her in the right direction with God’s Word.