LET'S GET SERIOUS

From My Perspective - - -

Let’s Get Serious - A significant case will be heard before the United States Supreme Court today. Worldview asks the question: “Is Hobby Lobby The Most Consequential Religious Liberty Case In A Generation?” Worldview is calling on all people of faith to Pray Today – March 25^th – for this important case that can and will affect moral values in the market place. How interested are you and how will you respond?

Let’s Get Serious - if we began to take serious matters seriously, would the outcome in our lives be impacted good, better or best? If elected officials began to seriously consider serious matters, would there be a significant difference in our nation and world? If the church began to be serious regarding serious issues, would the influence and impact of the church be evidenced in a significant way toward that which is good, better or best? The bottom line is that in these and many other areas we must begin to be more serious than we are and be involved more significantly in those things that matter the most.

Let’s Get Serious - or the church to have a significant role in our culture, society and individual lives, there must be a change in direction and a refocus on eternal verities. The church has allowed itself to become an extension of the culture. In too many instances, the church has modified in order to mollify the culture of which it has become a part. The forms, rituals and functions are now designed to gain additional numbers who will occupy pews in buildings that were built to Worship God. Because of the compromises and accommodations, the role and place of man has superseded the role and place of God in too many situations and places that are designated and called “the church”! The ways, means, message and ministry have been adjusted in such a way that the ensuing result is the departure of people from the purpose and role of the Church and Christian Message in and for their lives. What has happened and why is it happening in our culture, society, churches and individual lives? Why are we not taking serious matters seriously? What priorities have been scuttled or set aside in this approach of accommodation in today’s world?

Let’s Get Serious – A recent estimate is that the world’s population is 7.2 Billion people. Out of that number, 2.2 Billion are estimated to be “Christian”! The result indicates that 5 Billion people are something other than “Christian”! Does this matter to you? Does this matter to the “church”? In the Pastor to Pastor Post (A Release of BreakPoint) – Seeking The Strays -  T.M. Moore writes the following: “The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought…” Ezekiel 34:4 – “God condemned the shepherds of Israel because they did not seek the strays and did not work to save the lost sheep. How do we respond to those who haven’t been to church in a long time? Who leave our churches without so much as an explanation? To young people who fall away from faith during their college years? To the many unchurched people yet remaining in our communities? Pastors should lead the way in showing concern for the strays and the lost, and they must do so with the “noble spirit” of a patient servant rather than the bluster of a self-assured tyrant of the soul. Let’s Get Serious - Is your own work in the area of evangelism sufficient as an example for your flock? What is your practice in “seeking the strays” in your congregation?”

Let’s Get Serious – If we are taking a serious God seriously, then we need to keep in mind that which He has commissioned and stated. John 4:35 – “Do you not say: Four months more and then the harvest'? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.” Matthew 7:21 – “Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” Romans 12:2 – “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.” Mark 16:14-15 – “Jesus appeared to the Eleven as they were eating; he rebuked them for their lack of faith and their stubborn refusal to believe those who had seen him after he had risen. He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.” Let’s Get Serious – How serious are you about the things that matter to a serious God? Consider these things with me!