“If Jesus preached the same message minister's preach today, He would have never been crucified.” - Leonard Ravenhill Ouch. That stings. But as my parents or a teacher or a well-meaning friend once told me: The truth hurts. Someone else once told me this as well: "... the truth will set you free." Does our modern preaching reflect the passion, intensity, content, rebuke, and challenge that Jesus' preaching did? Are we preaching the same message? Are we as willing to speak the truth in front of a non-receptive crowd? American Christianity reflects much of American culture: an over-emphasis on the individual, meeting felt needs, self-help, etc. In his book "Christ and Culture," H. Richard Niebuhr addresses the different ways the church has tried to relate in and to culture. He boils it down to three basic ways: church against culture, church enmeshed in culture, and church above culture. My point: this wrestling…
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When faced with a decision, do you hear multiple voices? If not, you should be ... “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice.” - Proverbs 12:15 A fool hears one voice: his own. If someone disagrees with a fool, the other voice must be wrong -- because the fool is always right in his own eyes. Wise people, on the other hand, listen to other voices. You don't to agree with them; just listen to them. Every once and a while (or more often than that), we see that the other voice is right. How many voices are you hearing?
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"Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I've got ahold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations." - George Bernard Shaw I first read this quote in Bob Buford's book "Halftime." Buford raises the all-important question: What are you doing with your life? More specifically, what will you do with the second half of life -- should the good Lord give you a full four quarters? Will you go through life carrying a candle or a torch? Will you flicker or beam brightly? Will you put off just enough light to crack the darkness or chase the darkness or away? Eleven years ago I decided to be a torch. Rather, God called me to be a torch. Through a season of searching and prayer, God placed three…
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Yesterday, I mentioned that when I'm "in the flow" the words seem to come naturally. This led me to think: how does one get in the flow while speaking or preaching? (Let's all stipulate principle number one is prayer). For me, this is when I know I am in the flow: My focus is not on myself but on magnifying Jesus. My concern is not about how I appear but does the audience understand. My desire is to see lives changed regardless of whether I get a "good job" at the door. My purpose is singular, clear, and compelling. I'm not thinking ahead; I'm simply speaking. If you do much public speaking, how do you know when you're in the flow?
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"If you double the number of churches in a city, the number of churchgoers triples." -- godlovescities.com Another good reason to be planting new churches!
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