Money is our Mission Problem?

Great book.

"The early church missionaries did not have the benefit of greater financial support or better mission boards. They had no Mission boards and no human guarantee of support. They went forth in faith, looking to the Lord alone for guidance, for protection and for the supply of every need. 
Comparing the general conditions faced by these first missionaries with those under which we work today, the material advantages would seem to be all in our favour's. We surpass them far in number of workers, in funds, equipment and Facilities of all kinds. We have the advantages of quicker and more comfortable travel, better means of communication and greater guarantees for life and property."

- The New Testament Order for Church and Missionary - Alex Rattray Hay.

Preachers Trained Buy Social Media?

"Where will the next generation of leaders find this deep biblical grounding? So many potential next-generation leaders have been discipled by social media, the public education system, and even the modern workplace to think in unbiblical ways.
For our movement to stay healthy, we must develop leaders—in our youth ministries, colleges, church internships/residencies, elder-training programs—whose minds are so thoroughly drenched in Scripture that they even dream biblically."

Matt Proctor

Stiffy Spines Versus Iffy Spines

"When cultural tempests buffet, believers are tempted to bend on biblical truth, “blown here and there by every wind of teaching” (Ephesians 4:14). We need leaders with Scripture coursing through their veins to teach it boldly, stiffen our spines, and keep us faithful to God’s Word."

Matt Proctor

There Ain't No "u" In Team

Things only poor controlling leaders say.

The guys complained to Shaq, 

"Kobe ain't passing the ball."

So Shaq said he'd talk to him.

Shaq "There is no 'i' in team Kobe"

Kobe "I know but there is a 'm' , 'e' in that mother f@@er..."

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To quote a cartoon..... 

"There is no "i" in team!

There is no "u" in team either!

So if "i" ain't in the team and "u" ain't in the team, there is no Mother F-ing team."

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Do what you know is right to do, or has integrity. 

You don't have to agree to mediocrity, nor serve mediocrity to be a team player. 

There are many terrible teams. Teams that will have you wasting your life in tasks that are fruitless, or even worse, a concession to something you shouldn't conceed to. 

Bluntly, I've fround the leaders who would use this phrase (no i in team) are the least likely to be the ones I want to emulate or follow.

If being on a team requires that one must agree to time wasting fruitless activity that bothers your conscience, or unbiblical values, teaching, or questionable methods, then that team demands too much. 

Don't agree to mediocrity, don't agree to violate your conscience, nor scripture. 

Shaq video

Never Loved, Regardless?

 Doug Robinson:

There is a notion that if one if bright enough, well read enough, wise enough, that one can earn the respect and affection of non-believers and bridge the gaps between the Kingdom of God and the Kingdoms of this world.  That one can reject and be unlike all those foolish Christians who put their feet in their mouths and embarrass the rest of us.  

Problem is the biblical narrative tells us otherwise....... There is the trap once again, thinking that wise thinking people can avoid the conflicts with the spirit of the age and win over our adversaries through thoughtful reasoning!  

......Jesus failed on many levels to do that.  St. Paul was no slouch in the field of apologetics and where did it get him?  The bible teaches the need not for mere reasoning in search of common ground, but that men and women are lost and blinded and need to be converted from the ways of death to the paths of life  Sometimes notions of apologetics avoid that hard truth..

Jesus said: "Do not be surprised when the world hates you. They hated me first." 

A Christianity that wants to be loved by all men is bereft of loyalty to King Jesus. The real Christian loves his enemies because he actually has enemies who do not love him because they hate God.

  —Doug Robinson, August, 2018

Teethy Gospel Sharing?

“Christianity is not a modern success story. It is to be preached with love and tears into the teeth of men, preached without compromise, without regard to the world’s concept of success. If there seem to be no results, remember that Jeremiah did not see the results in his day. They came later. If there seem to be no results, it does not change God’s imperative. It is simply up to you and to me to go on, go on, go on, whether we see the results or whether we don’t. Go on.”

― Francis A. Schaeffer, Death in the City

The No Religion, Religion

"What if our main battle as a church TODAY, Right Now... isn't battling a secular worldview..... we are actually battling another RELIGIOUS worldview....
It isn't SECULAR or atheist worldview AT ALL.
We are fighting false religions and false religions of many different kinds. They have exchanged true religion not for NO religion, but for idolatry. We are in a country full of idolaters. They are not "secular people", they are religuous idolaters."

- Ben Witherington lll - ( Loose Paraphrase)

Dog's Bark At The Church

"The moon walks in brightness, though the dogs bark at it."

Matthew Henry

Psalm 2

Speaking of Church and Kingdom

"Those that did evil raged at the light"

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"Why do men oppose religion but because they are impatient of its restraints and obligations?"

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Psalm 2 Matthew Henry! (Worth reading Psalm 2 first)

The Eight Million Way!

"The way of the most
is neither the best,
the wisest,
nor the safest way to follow:
better to follow the eight in the ark than the eight millions drowned by the flood and damned to hell."
- Matthew Henry -
Commentary on 1 Peter 3

Tremble At No Other Name

“I will tremble at no other name
My heart's surrendered to no other reign 
I will bow at no other throne
Rest my heart at no other home 
Let these hands lift no other crown 
Let these knees fall on no other ground
Draw these eyes from the gold that won't shine
You turn this life from water to wine,” 
I tremble. I tremble, Lord In your presence,
- Lauren Daigle

Gate Post Compromise?

"When you start pushing on the gate posts of the narrow gate, to try and make it wider, so you can get through. There is usually more at work in your life that needs addressing."

Paraphrase of a statement I heard on a podcast.

Don't Preach From The Word?

Preach the word!
Don't preach from the word!
Don't preach about the Word!
Preach the word!
- Dr. J.Vernon McGee

KNOW IT IS.....

I don't believe the Bible is the word of God.
I know it is the word of God."

Dr. J. VERNON MCGEE  

Let The Lion Out

"When you got a lion in the cage, you don't need to put a guard there to protect it from the pussycats in the neighborhood. The lion will take care of himself if you just open the cage. The word of God is like that today."
Dr. J. Vernon McGee
He was very old then with cancer.

What Ya Preachin?

“Fear God and you’ll preach to transform people; fear people and you’ll preach to transform God.”

Dr. Dustin Messer

Most Wanted List!

UNCOMFORTABLY SO! 😆

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"My main ambition in life is to be on the Devil's most wanted list."

Leonard Ravenhill

Not Knowing Jesus's Self Revelation?

"We have so many professing believers who have not read the whole Bible. They don't actually know Jesus as he revealed himself to us.

For people who bear the name of Christ, we're really ill-informed about who he is and what he offers us and how he teaches us."

Rachel Jankovic

Air-Brushed Faith?

"Some clergy have simply "airbrushed sin out of their language. Having substituted therapy for spiritual discernment.....
" Sociologist Robert Bellah makes the same point decrying the tendency in evangelical ranks to "thin the biblical language of sin and redemption to an idea of a Jesus as the friend who helps us find happiness and self-fulfillment."
.....responding to the market means more than 'airbrushing a word here or there; it changes the very character of the church."

The Body, Charles Colson.

Becoming A Usless Thing!

COMPROMISE IS COSTLY

A. W. Tozer

Christianity today is so entangled with this present world that millions never guess how radically they have missed the New Testament pattern. Compromise is everywhere-but actually no real union between the world and the Church is possible. When the Church joins up with the world it is the true Church no longer but only a pitiful hybrid thing, an object of smiling contempt to the world, and an abomination to the Lord! Nothing could be clearer than the pronouncements of the Scriptures on the Christian's relation to the world. The confusion which gathers around this matter results from the unwillingness of professing Christians to take the Word of the Lord seriously. This whole thing is spiritual in its essence. A Christian is what he is not by ecclesiastical manipulation but by the new birth. He is a Christian because of a Spirit which dwells in him. Only that which is born by the Spirit is spirit, no matter how many church dignitaries work on it!

Come Out Of Our Christian Caves

I hope to help strengthen the Church to stay strong in a collapsing culture,” he proclaimed. “We will not be silenced because we have to speak. We have to be prepared to take the consequences."

Lutzer said it is "not necessary to have freedom of religion in order to be faithful," adding: “Just ask the martyrs. They were faithful without freedom of religion."

"I pray churches would be strengthened to say, ‘We're not going to submit just because we're under pressure,'" he concluded. "Jesus predicted that these days would come. And therefore, we are going to stand and take the consequences rather than retreat into our caves and say, ‘We cannot speak because of all the cultural pressures.'"

- Erwin Lutzer