Ever New

But if a man who is not a Christian comes to your church meeting while you are all speaking God’s Word, he will understand that he is a sinner by what he hears. He will know he is guilty. The secrets of his heart will be brought into the open. He will get on his knees and worship God. He will say, “For sure, God is here with you!”    1 Corinthians 14:24-25 NLV

We have this new idea. This is something we should try. I think this will work. All of these statements have tripped off my tongue at some time in my church life, and I have heard them, or words like them, from sincere folks who want their church to grow. We desperately want and need to be relevant we say, and that is true.

How many new ideas or programs do we use or try before we realise that church growth is just not happening? There is a saying in business that if something is not working, and there is no return on your investment efforts, you stop doing it! Then you think again and try something else. We are not good at that in church circles, are we? I think there is a fear that we might look bad by admitting that it was our new program that didn’t work.

A business would not think twice about quitting a process or program if it didn’t produce results. In truth you don’t get a different result by doing the same things over again. These thoughts have been weighty on my mind recently, and then I stumbled across this familiar verse, but in a different translation. Paul is writing to a troubled church. One that needed to grow properly, and in the truth of the gospel. The apostle’s advice went right to the heart of the issue then, and I believe it goes straight to the core of the problem today. Our churches are in trouble, and generally declining, so what do we do? We try new things. New programs. Learn new insights. Anything. But they still don’t work, so we blame society, our bad community, the members who are not trying hard enough, or are just not committed the way they should be.

Read our two verses above, and then read them twice more. Did Paul suggest a new approach to the message of the gospel? Far from it. Paul emphasised the same gospel without any frills or changes. Whether society accepts the gospel message or not, it is still the only show in town. So, let’s not keep on trying to reinvent the wheel, but get behind the only message that works consistently. Preach the gospel, and only the gospel. The same gospel your parents and grandparents heard and reacted to. When we do our part, God will do His. Then our community and visitors will make their own decision about the Word of God. They may accept it, or reject it, but that’s free will as God ordained, and nothing can alter that fact!

Inner Strength

Be strong and [be] very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Joshua 1:7 NIV

We all have those ‘goto’ verses where we find help, strength or comfort, and sometimes all three like this one! But like all of God’s promises, this one comes with a condition. Our salvation is free for the asking. Yes, you have to want it enough to ask for it and only then it is given as a free gift. In this verse, the condition is obedience to the law of Moses, but Jesus brought an extension to the law, so I suggest that our condition today, is to obey the commands and law of Christ.

Not straying to one side or the other is easier said than done, but it is required, no it is necessary for our success in life. Did you notice that being strong and courageous came first? Only then to taking care and obeying the law? By staying on the straight road, then and only then God’s people would be successful, and not only where they were, but wherever they went!

The strength of our convictions must come first, and the other things follow. There was a time that I thought we must not get sidetracked to the left or right, but that’s not the timeline of the verse, is it? As modern language would say, we have to ‘man up’ (or woman up!) with all the strength God will give us, and ultimately we will be successful. Just as it was for Joshua, so we are keeping good company. I can almost hear you asking, how on this earth are we supposed to find this strength. The answer is found in the very next verse where it says: “Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.” Joshua was to be obedient to the law of Moses, but we have the greater law as given by the Son of God and the apostles. Now I must ask myself the question, am I up to reading and studying the Bible, so that I will overcome? That’s something we must each work out for ourselves, so how about you?