1. The crisis in the Central African Republic is far from over. Even though conditions have somewhat stablalized, the hardships on the people continue per this recent BBC report. Please continue to pray for the people of the Central African Republic, the church there, and my friend Augustin Hibaile and his family. Thanks!
2. In our consumer driven culture, we must beware of allowing a consumeristic mindset from becoming our mindset when it comes to our local church. From my observation, it appears to me that far too many Christians are consumers rather than givers when it comes to church involvement. One way to combat this is to remember the words of Jesus when he stated, "But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Mark 10:43-45). And we must go on to not merely remember these words ... but preach them to ourselves over and over again. Only then we will be able to counteract the ongoing bombardment of our culture telling us over and over and over again that the path to true fulfillment is to get, get, get .... and then get some more!
3. One complaint I have heard more than once in my thirty plus years of pastoral ministry is, "I did not get anything out of the service." In fact, people have left the churches I have pastored for that reason. But whenever I hear this complaint, two questions always pop into my head. First, I wonder if the individuals have become more consumers than givers when it comes to their worship experience (see above). From what I understand about the biblical teaching on worship, worship is far more about giving than getting. In addition, I would be curious to know how much time they spend in preparing their heart and soul for worship. Certainly, a thirty second prayer as one sits down as the service is about to begin is hardly adequate preparation to meet and worship the maker of heaven and earth! If you want some advice and direction in this area (and if you are like me, you could certainly use some), check out this post: How to Prepare for Sunday Worship.
Thanks for stopping by . . .
pj
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