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Gleanings From The Word

Tag: the church

  • Proximity Doesn’t Produce a Profession

    Do you really know Jesus?

    An empty church pew with sunlight streaming on it reenforcing the theme of proximity, closeness

    I was thinking about Pat, a late friend from “the cowboy church,” recently. She attended and served at churches her entire life but later in life realized she didn’t know Jesus. She had thought that attending church and doing “Christian” things made her a Christian. After truly becoming a believer, she was an unstoppable force, not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but with a zeal matched by very few.

    I have met so many people like that, faithful in church, but without Jesus. What a tragedy it will be when He says to them, “Depart from me; I never knew you.” 

    I’m not judging them; I’m going by the fact that they told me of their conversion experiences later. It’s not for me to judge someone’s salvation; only God himself can do that. 

    Being near the holy doesn’t make you holy, or, as a nicely alliterated sermon title, “Proximity doesn’t always produce a profession.” That shouldn’t surprise us. Judas Iscariot walked with Jesus for three years and didn’t believe. Jesus worked signs and wonders, and people didn’t come to him.

    When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.” After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. John 6:60-66 ESV

    I have met people who have told me, “I tried Christianity, but it didn’t work for me.” Of course it didn’t. “Christianity” has no power to change anyone. We must be changed by the Holy Spirit, be born again and be in the process of being made Christ. God has the power, not some vague definition of Christianity.

    The Apostle Paul warns

    For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned. Hebrews 6:4-8 ESV

    It’s possible to go to church, have a Christian family or family members, and receive some of God’s blessings by being in their proximity without knowing Jesus. That’s a sobering thought.

    It’s why I believe that every sermon should point to the cross explicitly or implicitly. It doesn’t have to be the key point of the message, but it’s likely in most (every?) congregations that there is someone there who doesn’t know Jesus.

    What are you trusting in? If you aren’t trusting in Jesus by faith, you need to change direction.

    May you know the Lord and be bless by Him,

    Kevin

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    SUMMARY

    I think about my late friend Pat, who served faithfully in church her whole life before realizing, late, that she’d never actually known Jesus. Her story is a reminder that proximity to church doesn’t equal salvation, and every one of us needs to ask honestly what we’re really trusting in.

    TAKEAWAY

    Being near church, Christian family, or “Christian” activity doesn’t make anyone a believer — only faith in Christ does.

    Scripture shows this is nothing new: Judas walked with Jesus for three years without believing, and many disciples turned back after a hard teaching (John 6:60-66).

    Hebrews 6:4-8 warns that tasting the blessings of God’s presence isn’t the same as bearing real fruit — the question every reader must answer is what they’re trusting in.

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  • You Were Designed For a Godly Purpose

    You Were Designed For a Godly Purpose

    Pilings from an old lumber mill

    These posts and a mostly demolished brick building are all that remain of a once-thriving logging industry and the community it supported. Fortunes were made here, and lives lived. People were born and died. Eventually, the posts will be gone, and all that will remain of the building is an ever-shrinking pile of rubble. It served its purpose and was gone.

    There are many such places all over the world. Some are remembered in name only. Some are not remembered at all. Entire civilizations have come and gone, leaving nothing behind but a few artifacts, if that.

    These ghost towns and sites were once the focal point of people’s lives. For some, perhaps a few years; for others, generations. Yet virtually everything is gone.

    Things don’t last forever. That’s the way it is with the material things of the world.

    It’s why Jesus said,

    “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:19-21

    We are beings created in the image of God. The physical bodies we have now wont’ last. Eventually, we die physically. Yet we live on forever, either in resurrected bodies to enjoy God forever or designed to withstand eternal punishment and separation from God.

    The Westminster Shorter Catechism reminds us that the chief purpose of humanity is “to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.” We were built for far greater things than earthly pleasures and treasure. 

    We take nothing of this physical world with us. We know that, but somehow, we find ourselves lusting after the things that don’t last. We store up our treasures here in this life, where eventually they will be long gone, and we’ll be long forgotten by those left behind.

    Who is remembered among all those who have gone before us? Very few, even after a generation or two. Where are the things they chased?

    They are gone and forgotten here, but not by God. He knows each of them and loves them. He accepted their choice to be with Him or to reject Him.

    After you are gone, what will remain? Where are your true treasures? Our treasure is in Him. We were created to be in relationship with Him forever. Heaven and Earth will pass away, but the word of God and its author will remain.

    Are you building something that will endure or simply a pile of rubble?

    Be blessed

    Kevin

    Treasure of trash? The cross of Christ.
    Every Member Is Necessary — 1 Corinthians 12