Friday, April 18, 2008

GUARANTEED FAILURE

Mt 4:19 Then He said to them, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men."

When I taught Christian high school, I gained a lot of experience dealing with liars. There was nothing unusual about a student who did wrong being able to round up a handful of "eyewitnesses" who would lie that they had seen the whole thing. Parents would sometimes spread a false report given them by a student, and we teachers would sometimes find that several parents were angry at us because of false accusations spread by another parent.

In church work, you sometimes encounter leaders who have learned that lying can be an effective tool of their "ministry." On some Christian forums, people will write in under different names, claiming to have personally observed events that never occurred; this is also a tool for moving the forum higher up on Google and Yahoo.

But I have never met a soul-winner who does this. Jesus said "I am ...the truth..." in John 14:6. Jesus never led you, me, or anyone else to use lying as a tool of ministry. Some Christians get hurt by ministries because they tried to work with them after learning that the ministry used lying as a tool of ministry.

But if you are following after Jesus, you are not being led into lying. Do you want to succeed in your Christian life? Then get out from under any ministry that uses lying as a tool.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Guaranteed Success

Mt 4:19 Then He said to them, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men."

A common belief among Christians is that it is possible for a person or organization to "destroy" you. I have seen (and sometimes experienced) expulsions, firings, divorces, smear campaigns, etc., that happened to Godly people. In some cases, they were innocent, sometimes they were guilty, and often the truth lay somewhere in between.

In Jesus' promise, two Greek words are used for "follow." One is "Come," and it is a strong form of the word. The other Greek word is "after" or "behind." What Jesus literally said was "Come behind Me, and I will make you fishers of men."

Sometimes, a small group of rebels will seize power in a church. Jesus will have nothing to do with their sin, and if you follow after Him, you won't participate either. Sometimes you might feel that you should seize power for the greater good, but if you follow after Jesus, Who never rebelled against the authority of Rome, you won't do it.

One of the "dark secrets" of Christianity is that many Godly churches were started by people who had been cast out of other churches, or who had left other churches because of sin in the leadership. What you, personally, need to do is follow after Jesus, regardless of the consequences.

Were you run off from a church by people who were not fishers of men? Good for you. Now, study His Word diligently, so you'll know what He wants you to do, and then do it.