The five C's of a healthy vision

Every ministry should have something that remonds hem of why they do what they do. Dave Kraft is one of the great leadership guys in the church and in this article he reminds us of some things that are important for a vision statement to have.

The Five C's of a Healthy Vision Statement

The Empty Tomb

I am not sure where the original of this comes from but it's really good!

             The cross means we can look back and be thankful;

               the empty tomb means we can look ahead and be hopeful.

            The cross fills us with gratitude;

              the empty tomb fills us with expectation.

            The cross means that He died for us;

              the empty tomb means that He lives for us.

             The cross means the old has passed away;

               the empty tomb means that all things have become new.

             The cross is the triumph of mercy;

               the empty tomb is the triumph of righteousness.

             The message of the cross is, "It is finished";

               the message of the empty tomb is, "I am alive forever more."

         

We must move forward from the cross,not get marooned on Golgotha.

Book Review: The Gospel According To Jesus

The Gospel According To Jesus: What is authentic faith? 
By John F MacArthur (First published by Zondervan 1983)

Available at Kalahari.com or Amazon.com

In this book MacArthur stresses the strict submission to the Lordship of Christ, as the vital element of true saving faith and for anyone who is in the slightest doubt as to their salvation, this is a must read.

Jesus’ words about eternal life were invariably accompanied by warnings to those who might be tempted to take salvation lightly. He taught that the cost of following Him is high, that the way is narrow and that few find it. He said that many who call Him Lord will be forbidden from entering the Kingdom of Heaven and for those who have struggled with this damning scripture, this book adequately explains the difference between 'Lordship salvation' and 'easy-believism.'

When Jesus says “come follow me,” it is abundantly clear that He expects total obedience (Luke 6: 46-49) and more often than not He turns people away, rather than have lukewarm followers. The reader is left in no doubt that to be a true disciple is going to be costly and that it would require obedience and sacrifice.

When Jesus calls sinners to repentance, He expects a complete surrender of the will and an inevitable change of behaviour – a radical new lifestyle; not just a difference of opinion, but a turning from the old life, to the new life in Christ. Such a change of purpose is what Paul had in mind when he described the repentance of the Thessalonians (1 Thess 1:9); a turning to God, a turning from evil, and the intent to serve God; true repentance includes all three elements.

Jesus came to seek and save what was lost and so from the opening pages of human history, it was God who sought out the fallen couple in the Garden and it is in His nature to bind up the broken and strengthen the sick. This is good news only for those who acknowledge themselves as sinners. Those who fail to confess their sin – like the rich young ruler – He turns away, but He reaches out in grace to those who like Zacchaeus and the Samaritan woman, admit their sinfulness and seek deliverance.

Let me say as clearly as possible right now that salvation is by God’s sovereign grace and grace alone. Nothing a lost, degenerate, spiritually dead sinner can do will in any way contribute to salvation. Saving faith, repentance, commitment, and obedience are all divine works, wrought by the Holy Spirit in the heart of everyone who is saved - John Macarthur

The book is sprinkled with interesting explanations of some of the parables and teachings of Jesus and makes for easy reading, even for the theologically challenged, and is highly recommended for anyone interested in a firmer grasp of the issues about real faith and salvation. I also found the book helpful as a daily read, as each chapter is independent of the rest and deals with different subjects.

All in all it is a very instructive book by an author of sound doctrine and useful tool for evangelising, especially for those who need some assistance explaining the scriptures.

Leon Huisamen - Elder

Christ is risen!

Raising the Bar

A good article on calling people to follow Christ in Asia:

I recently stumbled across an interesting set of questions. They are used by Asian Access (A2), a Christian missions agency in South Asia, to determine a new convert’s readiness to follow Christ. In the West, we might ask newcomers if they prefer contemporary or traditional worship. As you can see, the questions they ask in other parts of the world are a little different. Here they are:

Are you willing to leave home and lose the blessing of your father?
Are you willing to lose your job?
Are you willing to go to the village and those who persecute you, forgive them, and share the love of Christ with them?
Are you willing to give an offering to the Lord?
Are you willing to be beaten rather than deny your faith?
Are you willing to go to prison?
Are you willing to die for Jesus?

Besides making me feel very grateful for where I live (and slightly guilty for feeling grateful) the questions sounded familiar. I heard an echo of Jesus’ words from Luke 14. You know the passage. Jesus spins around to the people following him and says, “Are you sure you want to do this?”

That’s my paraphrase, of course. What Jesus actually said was much worse. If you want to be my disciple, you have to hate your family, take up your cross, count the cost, give up everything—real crowd-pleasing stuff.

It’s tempting for me to dismiss these radical demands. Jesus’ challenge seems harsh, even bizarre. But hey, we’ll file that one under “divine prerogative.” And the A2 questions? Well, those are necessitated by persecution. In a country (name withheld for security reasons) where converts and evangelists get jailed, weeding out the phonies is essential.

Still, I’m not so sure there isn’t a lesson here for those of us in the West. Could we benefit from raising the bar for those considering a commitment to Christ?

For the most part, we have specialized in doing the exact opposite. We talk about smoothing the path to God, and removing obstacles to faith. Every time I question the validity of a “soft touch” public ministry, I’m assured they have a solid discipleship program on the backend. But that strikes me as backwards. “Hey, come to church and you’ll have a better family. OK, now that you’re here, you have to die to yourself.”

I think that’s called a bait and switch.

What would happen if, like Jesus and A2, we put the hard demands of the gospel front and center? If we dispensed with slick campaigns and puffed up promises and gave people the unvarnished truth of what it means to follow Jesus? If we told them that sometimes following the Carpenter from Nazareth means donning your own crown of thorns? I’m sure it would cost us numbers up front, but would it be worth it in the end? I think it would be. How about you?

Orginal article is at Out of Ur: Raising the Bar

Sexual Healing

Absolutely brilliant! Please pass this on to anyone who has kids who are facing these kinds of temptations. (pre--teen to young adult)

The evil one lies to us about the value of sexuality leading us to believe that it is not as holy as God desires it to be. He uses it as a tool to hold us into slavery and to draw us into a place of feeling unworthy,  unworthy of the love of others and unworthy of the love of God. But there is a resurrected saviour who can heal us of the damage we do to ourselves and the damage inflicted on us by others.

A Plea for Pray-ers

From Gordon Macdonald at Leadership Journal:

Can I be frank? I'm distressed by the low quality of public prayer that is being heard in too many worship services today. Too often, prayer is used as a transition from one event to another. But what if the pastoral prayer was (as some like to say) a main event?

When Solomon dedicated the temple, a large part of his public leadership was a quite pastoral prayer. He knelt and said, "Lord, there is none like you … you've kept your promises … please give attention to my prayer … may you hear the prayer your servant prays toward his place … deliver us when we've been defeated … teach us the way to live … help us to walk in your ways … when we sin, please forgive."

This is not a lightweight prayer. It takes in everybody in the crowd. As he opens the gates of the temple, the king (little k) is interceding to the King (big K) on behalf of all who will come to worship.

I love to be in worship when young men and women are leading. And many of them lead us so well. But when they come to the place where prayer is appropriate, the substance of the prayer sometimes reveals a person who has hardly thought for a minute what they are going to say next. If the music was done like the praying, we'd probably switch bands rather quickly.

"God … we just want to thank you for this day … that we just could … just … sing to you … that we could … just … love you."

Well meant, those words. But they lack thought; they lack power, and they fail to lodge themselves in the souls of their hearers. The aged one losing control of his life who is listening for assurance. The sinner who is listening for hope. The addict who listens for deliverance. And the joyful person, who listens for thanksgiving.

Prayer can be intentional, thoughtful, powerful. Let's give our prayers the energy and depth that our Audience—and our audience—deserves.

The original article is here A Plea for Pray-ers | Leadership Journal