Lifestyle Missionaries

Take a look at the Great Commission:

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit - Matthew 28:19 (ESV)

Many times when Christians read this passage, they see "all nations" and think "Oh, that means foreign nations!" Yes, it does include foreign nations, but you don't have to live somewhere exotic to be a missionary. In fact the word "Christian" should be synonymous with "missionary".
Have you ever met someone who has gone on a missions trip, say to Mexico, and they say things like "Oh, the poverty there is just atrocious, the people there have never heard the gospel plan, it's just horrible! I'm definitely thinking about going into full time missions."
I've heard things like that before when our college students or youth come back from a mission trip. But I wonder if the students have ever gone to the bad part of town and done missionary work there, where the poverty is atrocious, and the people have never heard the true gospel plan? Have they ever gone to where the homeless people spend the night and given them blankets and socks and jackets and said "You're important to God"? Do Churches regularly go into the slums to share the gospel with the smelly old crazy lady, or the drug addict, or the vet who is scarred so deep it's impossible for him to sleep without nightmares? Do youth groups go on summer mission trips to the southeast part of town, where the kids run around in gangs and carry guns?
I've never heard of that. I think one of the reasons that isn't done widely is that Christians have a tendency to think that we're "clean" and we don't like to see dirty things. We'd much rather go on a mission trip to Chicago, where we can see the Sears Tower, and watch the White Sox play.
Matthew 9:10-12 says:

Later when Jesus was eating supper at Matthew's house with his close followers, a lot of disreputable characters came and joined them. When the Pharisees saw him keeping this kind of company, they had a fit, and lit into Jesus' followers. "What kind of example is this from your Teacher, acting cozy with crooks and riffraff?" Jesus, overhearing, shot back, "Who needs a doctor: the healthy or the sick? Go figure out what this Scripture means: 'I'm after mercy, not religion.' I'm here to invite outsiders, not coddle insiders. (The Message)"

If we truly want to be like Jesus we need to get out of the suburbs and into the slums. If we don't we're doomed to be Christ's lazy servants.

Christ's Righteousness As My Own

I'm a pretty nasty person in my eyes, and in most other peoples eyes. I continue to sin, and have pretty much given up on being perfect. I feel like Paul when he says "I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate!"

I am always doing something wrong, something that I do out of impulse, like speaking wrongly to my Mom, acting disrespectfully with my Dad, saying something I know I shouldn't, being a rear to my sister, etc., etc. It's emotionally draining! It's hard to talk to God when you've done soooo many things that you know He's displeased with. Think about that.

Here's a glimpse into the brilliant wandering mind of Joshua Privette:

Let's say your Dad gives you a list of rules to follow and says "Son, if you can keep all these rules and live accordingly, I will lavish good things upon you and you will be so happy." and you say "Okay Dad! I'll do it!" and so for the next two days you follow all of the rules.

BUT... one of the rules is: Do not covet. Uh-oh. As you're hanging out with your friend, you start talking about a girl. She's a girl you both know, and She's shown some interest in you. You adore her. And you plan to ask her out tomorrow. You haven't told your friend (let's call him "Jared" for fun) that you're going to. So you're talking to Jared and He says "Hot Dog! I asked this girl (let's call her Rachel) out today and She said yes. My Goodness, She is fine!" You think "What a dirty rotten friend Jared is! I can't believe he asked Rachel out! Doesn't he know I like her?! I've liked her since I was like, 10!! Boy, if I can't have her, I don't want him to either." So you start Plotting ways (in the left lobe of your brain) to break them up. An alarm goes off in your Dad's office that is conveniently labeled "Joshua is breaking our agreement" And you know it. So you say "$#!% I can't believe I broke the agreement!" And then you think "GAH! I just broke it again! (one of the rules was no cuss words) Do you really want to rush in and have a "chat" with your Dad just then? I wouldn't. I would be kind of scared. But did you know that your Dad (let's call him God) would say "Joshua, I'm gonna whip your rear, and don't ever do that again, but I know you're human and have human tendencies, so let's get over it and move on. I still love you and will still lavish great things upon you, just because you're my son."

See!? When God looks at you after you sin, he doesn't see your sin! He sees Jesus' righteousness! Instead of being tremulous after we sin we should go RUNNING back to him as fast as we can praying for forgiveness. It only prolongs our own misery to wait and be afraid of what God will say. I just found that out. I couldn't wait to tell.

Haul Booty Back to God

I'll Be Honest

Hey guys, another post! I just wanted to mention the website, illbehonest.com, part of the links. It is a great website with awesome videos! Paul Washer, John Piper, John MacArthur, and Tim Conway make appearances on there. I encourage to check it out! God bless!

Repentance

Hey guys, I wrote this paper during the summer, and briefly talked about it with you guys tonight at the Bible study. It is about repentance and the paper will explain the rest. God bless!

Repentance-A profound change of mind from sin-centeredness to God-centeredness. In its fullest sense it connotes a change of one's orientation in life, involving a deliberate redirection for the future. (Acts 26:20) First off, God DEMANDS that everyone repents (Acts 17:30). This note is due to the witnessing of many false, and unbiblical, definitions of repentance. Also, it is due to the countless false preaching and acts of false repentance that fills the church in the world today. People have diverted from the Bible and have formed their own ideas and continue to perform their own actions as ways of repentance, thus giving them a false sense of security of their salvation which damns many of them to hell. It saddens me greatly to see "alter-calls" being performed, "sinner's prayers" being recited, and seeing people who believe that their works will justify their sin and earn them a home in heaven with the Father. You will find none of these in the Bible! If it is unbiblical then it is not of God (Luke 16:17/ 2Timothy 3:16).This is Biblical repentance. Repentance has 3 different uses in the Bible. It is used in terms of salvation, confessing to the Father, and evangelizing.

Repentance in the form of salvation is one of the most important things to understand as a human being in regards to Christianity. God is sovereign and cannot have anything to do with sin (Daniel 4:25/ Isaiah 53). Humans are born into a sin-nature (Romans 5:12). And humans cannot understand God or know Him (Romans 3:11-18).Humans are called to live perfectly according to God's law. We cannot, due to our sin nature, and thus because of us breaking God's law He cannot help but discipline us with hell because the God of the universe is perfectly Just. But, after Jesus was crushed on the cross (and fulfilled the wrath of God), the law only reveals our sin. The Bible tells us that salvation is by faith in Jesus Christ alone and the death He died ont he cross (Romans 3:21-28). So the question is, how does a sinful, created being who has disobeyed its Creator come into a relationship with its Creator? The answer is conversion from a humans old-nature to his/her new nature (John 3:3). This is not at all by our choosing, but God's choice of revealing to us our sin nature and thus provoking us to truly repent (Romans 9/ John 5:21). There are three heresies in the church that are dealt with in salvation. 1. Alter-calls are the calling of a person to kneel down and pray a prayer to God after being worked up emotionally due to a pastor's convicting sermon. This does not save you, and you will find it nowhere in the Bible. 2. The "sinner's prayer" is a prayer that sends many to hell. It is the reciting of a prayer by a person to God saying that they are sinners and repent OF their sins. It sounds legit but is far from it. Again, nowhere in the Bible and you will find it nowhere in the church until the last 50 or so years. 3. Salvation based on works, is the thinking that a person can earn their way into heaven based on enough good works that outweigh their evil ones. "For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, so that no man can boast. This faith is not even from you it is a gift from God" (Ephesians 2:8). Salvation comes solely by God's grace but during the conversion, a sinner is drawn to repentance. Once God reveals a person's wickedness and helplessness that person's soul is anguished, sorrowed, full of guilt, ashamed, and strives to do whatever is necessary to please God (2 Corinthians 7:10). This is TRUE repentance. Being repentant FROM the person's previous evil nature and desiring to live their life solely for God's glory. This is the Repentance of Salvation.

After a believer is saved by the grace of God, they are not perfect. Human's are still born into a sin-NATURE which explains why we desire to delight in evil. Sin is pleasing to us, if someone boldly states they are without sin, they call God a liar (1 John 1:10). Even though children of God continue to sin, they are also called to be like-Christ (perfect) and be "holy like God is holy" (1 Peter 1:16). Since God calls believers to strive to be perfect, when servants of Christ do sin they are called to repent FROM the sins they commit. The Bible tells us the saints will be restored and that confessing their sins will result in joy, peace, and comfort (Jeremiah 15:19/ Psalms 32). Continuing to repent of sins will produce fruit (Luke 3:8) and will result in a saint growing in maturity and their faith in Christ (Hebrews 6:1). Also, repenting continually shows the weak state that believers are in and the constant need of God's grace thus resulting in humility. This is the Repentance of Confession.

As believers, we are called to "spread the gospel and make disciples in every nation" (Matthew 28:19). This is the Great Commission Jesus gave to His disciples and to His fellow flock before He ascended to Heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father (Mark 16:19). Since saints are called to evangelize to everyone, there must be a specific way to do it. That way is revealing to people their sinful nature and need to repent FROM their sins to God. Jesus said "Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand" (Matthew 4:17). Also servants of Christ are to preach repentance to sinners, not to people who are already saved. Now this might seem very obvious but Jesus made it clear who He was evangelizing too, "It is not the healthy who need a docor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance" (Luke 5:31-32). When believers evangelize the gospel, they should never be ashamed and continue to remember the grace the Father showed to them when He saved them from eternal wrath. (Romans 1:16). This is the Repentance of Evangelism.

To conclude, this paper is to reveal the truth of repentance and to shine light and expose the false teaching that most church's teach in the modern age. This is my first paper on a Biblical topic and I am still a young believer but by God's grace I can say that I am a child of Him. I pray this paper impacts you somehow whether by conviction or understand more of our loving Savior. God bless!

Putting Off the Old Self...

"...If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose, but whoever loses his life for me will save it." (Luke 9:23-24)

"You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires;" (Ephesians 4:22)

Over the last few days, I have been convicted of not choosing to follow Christ each day. Many of my days have been about me, what I want, and what I have to do. As I have found from these verses, this is totally unbiblical and not what God wants for me. Every day, I have to make the choice to put off my old self, along with all its wants and desires, and follow Christ. He was the ultimate example of humility. In following Him, I want to be humble, take my eyes off of my selfish self, and make a difference for Christ in the lives of others...

Fellowship

You know, for as long as I can remember I've always been involved with a church group, and a lot of people would say, "Well as long as you're in church, you're doing the right thing." But in reality, a church setting can be just as, if not more damaging than a worldly setting to our walk with Christ. People who can talk the talk but can't walk the walk can be a huge stumbling block. As Christians who are serious about our walk, we need to be careful to make sure we're hanging around with genuine believers who are also serious. Just something to think about...

Loving the World

"Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever." (1 John 2:15-17)

I was pondering these verses today. What does it really mean to "not love the world"? It's hard to know sometimes. I guess it depends on the way you interpret the word "love": Is it really "love", or is it more of a "like". I have always interpreted it as a "love" that cannot let go or a "hope". There are many things in this world that I "enjoy" or "like", but when I think about it, there are not many things in this world that I truly "love". I think the word "love" has become very watered down. However--despite how you interpret it--I think it's very important to ask the question, "How much does this world and the things in it matter to me?". Often I get wrapped up in my busy life and get "consumed" by the things in this world. It's good to step back and see things from a different perspective. When I do, I see that there is nothing more important than Jesus Christ and my service to Him.