Tag: pastor

Let The Church Be The Church

On By Ed AlgreenIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

The Holy Bible – The Good News Translation

1 Corinthians 12:12-13

12 The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ. 13 Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit.

My Thoughts:

Yesterday I finished my remarks with a sentence “Let the church be the church”, and after allowing God’s Holy Spirit to speak to me this morning, I was pointed to these two verses with a similar theme to what I ended with yesterday. I’m sure that Paul was, in a lot of ways, very similar to pastors and church leaders today, where they are probably sick of the ‘hand’ telling him (the pastor, or Paul) what the ‘feet’ should be doing and how they should be doing it, or least telling him every time they have stumbled. I believe the message from the Holy Spirit to churches today is that you are enormously blessed of God, you have members who have been gifted to help you achieve the ministry needed in your community that is desperately in need of the Savior. Have them respectively do their part to ensure that the combined body will be effective. To the members, I believe that the Holy Spirit would compel us to ask the Master for the wisdom, strength, boldness and power to do your part well, and pleasing to the Master, and oh, please pray for the other parts (members) to also be diligent about their part of the work, so that you can come back to your weekend service and fill your church building with worship, praise and thanksgiving to me (God). I believe that we must each discern our gift, with the help of the Holy Spirit and get to work, for the time that we have to accomplish this all is very short. Friends, fellow Christians, there is no indication that we are to gossip about our brother who may not be as strong as us; no indication that we are to get our fellow Christians together and gloat over the work that our remaining brothers are doing and how they are filling the gap for what we should be doing. Otherwise, what will you celebrate at your next church service? Yes, we can praise God for all that others have achieved, but won’t we be embarrassed and disappointed to apologize for us doing nothing for the glory of God? There’s a song that I started to hum as I paused, and the words included in that song are: “There’s a Work for all to do”, and friends, this is exactly what I discerned from this passage in 1 Corinthians 12. If you are not doing something to compliment the work of the Lord, your stagnancy can almost be considered a deterrent. Will you commit to do your part today towards building up the kingdom? You may not be the preacher or the teacher, but as a child of God your work is assigned to you! I encourage you to do it with every fibre of your being and with the help of the Almighty!

My Prayer:

Lord Jesus, Master and Almighty God, please forgive me for not always doing my part in the work of Your church here on this earth. Please give me guidance, wisdom and direction on all that I might do to edify, encourage and challenge all those that I come into contact with, so that they may feel a touch from You. I’m a part of Your enormous work here on this earth and in all walks of life I am reminded how badly ‘People need the Lord’. I can’t sit back and wait for my Brother to speak with, or impact the lives of my friends, I must use the gifts that You have blessed me with so that together with my Brother, we may impact a life for You and direct them towards the cross, where You might also give them the gift of eternal life. Please speak to Your church once again and open our eyes to the gifts that You have given to us and clearly enlighten us of the ways that we can use those gifts to bring You glory. Lord, may the church once again be the church! I ask this in the precious name of Jesus my Savior, AMEN!
**If you have been challenged to make a decision today after reading this devotional, please speak with a local Bible Teaching pastor, or contact me at NuggetsFromGodsWord@outlook.com so that we can pray with you and give you help and or encouragement as you begin, or continue your walk with Jesus. Any words underlined above will indicate a link to a song that came to mind as I wrote the devotional. Feel free to click on the link and listen as you continue to read or pray.

Who Will Stand?

On By Ed AlgreenIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

The Bible – The Good news Translation

Psalm106:29–31

                 They stirred up the Lord’s anger by their actions,

and a terrible disease broke out among them.

                But Phinehas stood up and punished the guilty,

and the plague was stopped.

                This has been remembered in his favor ever since

and will be for all time to come.

Thoughts:

Phinehas was recognized a few times in the Bible: for his leadership role in a group sent out, and as an adviser in a war. So he was not a known religious leader whom one would have expected to stand up again the evil that stirred up the Lord’s anger in the verses above. This precisely brings up an important point that I would like for us to consider in response to this passage. In today’s society, we will immediately look to our church leaders to stand up for evil, because we consider them God’s point men in our churches. However, like in our homes we have kids, and sometimes, spouses that rebel against our stand against evil, I believe that church members will be the first to criticize our church leaders for the stand against the evil that they have either recognized, or been told about. You see, I believe that many of us ‘church members’ are so wishy-washy in our beliefs and especially in our stand against the norm that we go along with the flow way too often, instead of standing up against the evil that happens around us out in this evil world. We are such advocates of being politically correct – in other words ‘splashing around in the truth in order not to take a stand and/or hurting anyone’s feelings’. So if this describes our ‘church members’ in general, who again do we expect to stand with our pastors and/or church leaders when they take a stand on behalf of our church? It won’t happen friend! We have seen churches split over simple things like the paint color on the walls, so imagine how quickly members will walk when asked to stand with our church leaders on decisions made that might cause the media to point out our church for a Biblical stand that it took! In these verses we see where the effects of sin were already being felt – a terrible disease had broken out. Do we see the effects of sin in our society, and in our churches today? I dare say that we do. There are diseases caused by certain known sins such as homosexuality, yet we have churches that splash around in the truth and accept this as a way of life. In fact some churches even accept these individuals as members, leaders or pastors. Yet we wonder why God permits certain disasters upon our land? Friend, our God is no different today than He was in this scripture we are studying today. I am studying a book by a popular pastor who said that he is not allow to preach something that is not Biblical. When we surrender our lives to the Lordship of the Lord Jesus Christ, we agree to live according to His commands as detailed in His Word (the Bible). Why would we do this, but look to our ‘Christian’ brother living in sin and say it’s alright? As we take a stand for total obedience to God’s Word, we might be more apt to also join our church leaders in taking a corporate stand for Biblical truths and against SIN. Are you prepared to join the army of Christ, friend? Are you prepared to call sin what it is?

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, taking a stand against the normal flow of society is very challenging. Yet when we accepted You as Lord of our lives, we agreed that we would live in agreement with Your Word, and its commands. You are very clear in Your Word on what is acceptable to You and what is sin. If there is doubt in our minds then we should consider the challenging thing as sin until we can get a clearer word from You. Many times we are so confused, I believe, because we are listening to the world for advice instead of looking to You for clarification. As we read Your Word more, we become more in tuned with what Your expectations of us. We then also understand Your commands and principles better. We learn the very heart of our Master and therefore have a much better base for the decisions that we should make, and subsequently for the stands that we should take. Please help us to stand firm on the Truth of Your Word, and that it is the only thing that would change our minds. We need more like Phineas in our world today. May I plead for Your strength and wisdom to be more like Phineas and not disagree for argument sake, but in order to stay the course for You. This is only possible through the power and mighty hand of my King, so Jesus I ask this in Your powerful and awesome name, AMEN!

NOTE: If you have been challenged to make a decision today after reading this devotional, please speak with a local Bible Teaching pastor, or contact me at NuggetsFromGodsWord@outlook.com so that we can pray with you and give you help and or encouragement as you begin, or continue your walk with Jesus. Any words underlined above will indicate a link to a song that came to mind as I wrote the devotional. Feel free to click on the link and listen as you continue to read or pray.

Make God First in Your Life, then……

On By Ed AlgreenIn Allegiance to the Lamb, Bible Believing, Bold Confidence, Born Again, Chosen by God, Christian, Disciple, Faith, Follow Jesus, God’s Word, Imitator of Christ, Listen to the Word of God, Obedience, Our Help comes from God, Pleasing to God, Reflecting Christ, Righteousness, Servants of God, Surrender, Work Til Jesus ComesLeave a comment

SCRIPTURE Studied: Matthew 4

OBSERVATION (What is God saying here?)

18 One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers—Simon, also called Peter, and Andrew—throwing a net into the water, for they fished for a living.19 Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!”20 And they left their nets at once and followed him.21 A little farther up the shore he saw two other brothers, James and John, sitting in a boat with their father, Zebedee, repairing their nets. And he called them to come, too.22 They immediately followed him, leaving the boat and their father behind. Matt 4:18-22 (NLT)

APPLICATION (How Can I apply what God is saying here to my circumstances today?)

While this seems like a miraculous thing for Jesus to call these men from what they were doing, and especially for them to leave their secular jobs and follow Him, I believe that this also occurs today. We were created by God, and while our flesh strives to live in and enjoy the pleasures of this world, I believe that our inward soul longs to be with Jesus and live a life pleasing to Him while here on this earth. Unfortunately I believe that the latter is not possible until we accept that deep longing to accept Jesus as Lord of our life. We can always stop and think of what life could be like if we weren’t so stuck on pleasing others. It is so unfortunate that we try so hard to please our peers, our family, our friends, our co-workers, our boss, our pastor and then with whatever is left in us we try to please God. Friend why not try and do this in reverse order – surrender your heart to God, give Him 100% of your effort to please Him and follow His commands, then watch how easy it will be to see others accept you for who you are. A life surrendered to, committed to and following the commands of Jesus will result in a happy, satisfied, fulfilled life with a purpose and a goal oriented mindset that will be fixed on Jesus Christ. Oh that we will do just that this Christmas season – a time on our calendar that we dedicate to the One whose birthday is the whole purpose of Christmas.

PRAYER (With God’s help, what am I going to do differently today because He said it?)

Father, I rededicated myself anew to You this Christmas. I pray that You will direct me each and every day, especially during this busy time on my calendar. I pray that You will help me place my life in perspective – You first, and all else to follow as You direct. May I be deep into Your Word daily so that I may learn of and subsequently follow the plan You have designed for my life. May I be an influence to others, especially those that have not yet accepted You as Lord of their lives. Like Peter, Andrew, James and John, may I be obedient to Your call on my life and serve You willingly every day. Please touch the lives of all readers today that they too may first of all accept You as Lord, then submit their lives totally to You and Your service. You gave Your very best that very first ‘Christmas’, may we in turn give our very best to You this Christmas.