"The church is not closed. It is DEPLOYED." ~ Greg Laurie
#BeNewFishNew #LiveFreeAndDeployableLive new -- regenerated and restored. Have a new start, and be apart of a new thing so that others can too.
Online-only services are really impacting. What's not to love about digital-outreach and cyber witnessing?
In a good sense I feel so proud of churches doing this! You can too. I feel passionate about the Lord and what He's doing through His Church!
Fear not, He delights to bless and use His people! Talkin' #QuarantineLife and Spiritual Awakening here. Back in the day "doing a new thing" was something God promised to His beloved people of Israel. Check it out in Isaiah 43 when this nation was in captivity in Babylon (not at all something any of the Israelites wanted).
They were being held captive because of their sins and things pretty much looked like God had completely abandoned them. Man, can imagine how the individuals must have felt back then? Will God ever free us? Will He ever love and bless us again? Will He ever use us to bless others?
Perhaps you too have felt ditched, neglected, over-looked and forsaken by the Lord? Maybe your own future looks pretty bleak to you? Do you feel like He has shelved you cuz of past stumbling or failings. God says...
“Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing.." Isaiah 43:18-19 (nkjv)
Take some moments to see the whole context of this passage. I believe it captures the very heart of God for His people today.
FEAR < LESS
LIVE THAT WAY, NOT
HOPELESS!
YEP, TAKE IT TO ZERO THIS UNBELIEF AND BEING AFRAID,
BY TRUSTING THE PROMISES OF THE WORD.
Christ is our living hope today, and there is indeed new HOPE for His people! Remember how God promised never to leave us, nor to forsake us because of our sins or failures. He in fact is wanting to bless -- to do a new thing in all of our lives! But you might ask:
“But how do you know that, Kurt? How can we be sure that this Bible passage clearly expresses His heart and desire for my life her and now personally?”
We can sing a new song cuz God's done one new thing after another down through all of history. History is His story, one of caring for His people. I know it because He is the same yesterday, today and forever. His Message and character haven't changed, His global purpose hasn't changed.
God always wants to do new things in the lives of His people! We saw this principle at work when we got saved. The Bible says..
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." 2 Corinthians 5:17
God always wants to do new things in the lives of His people! We saw this principle at work when we got saved. The Bible says..
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." 2 Corinthians 5:17
What a relief to find Christ and be forgiven! Have you been born again spiritually (John 3:3)? It can happen right now. When God saved me, He did a new thing in my life. He's done this in so many lives by making each of us a spiritual ‘new creation’.
But even before that day He seems to have incorporated this principle into His physical creation as well.
You know how God is the source of life and of every living thing created. He did it. We are constantly being made new -- daily it's happening as our cells are constantly dying and being replaced by new ones. You aren't the same person that you were ten years ago, Buckeroo.
We can continue to renew and grow, to be sanctified, to mature in our walk and witness. Daily we can obey Him. His mercies are new every morning! And someday we will see this principle of newness applied to His whole universe...
"Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” Revelation 21:5..
"Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away.." Revelation 21:1
Now when it comes to our spiritual lives (that part of our own experience dealing with our personal relationship with Christ), God always wants to do new things because—it keeps our relationship with Him meaningful, intimate, new, vibrant and fresh.
You see, God hates complacency, moldiness, laziness, and stagnation in our spiritual lives because.. if we’re not constantly moving forward with His new directives, we will inevitably be digressing, sliding backward. I say let's prayerfully advance by His Spirit -- cuz God will do something NEW!
But heads up, so often God can not do a new work in our lives until He first tears down the old worthless stuff that we have built up. He often has to weed out, before He plants new seed. He'll often unerect before he can erect..
"See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out and to pull down, to destroy and to throw down, to build and to plant." Jeremiah 1:10
Seems like God has allowed our many church services to be unerected in order to put together what's new online. He's allowed this for a time in order to answer prayers and do a new thing. Many congregations have been online a bit with their ministries, but now it's much different here in the USA.
Yes, God sometimes has to tear down or take away the old, before He can add the new in, or build something new and effective—and it is at this point where we come in. You see, we have to be willing to change—He never forces us to change. God isn’t asking us to produce the power to change our lives on our own, or our services—this isn’t about your will-power or mine. It's not about our own way--it is about His Way.
It first starts with belief and prayer. Admit it and quit it. Yes, it starts in each heart with repentance (meaning: to turn away from sin.. to Christ)—and then by you purposefully walking in the Spirit.
"I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh." Galatians 5:16
While God expects us to change, but never expects us to be able to change ourselves. He expect us each to be willing to change, yes, to cooperate with His Spirit and be changed. Then He empowers making us change-agents.
Well, you know how churches across our Land had to scramble in response to the change in circumstance with the spread of Covid-19 virus -- they were forced to go exclusively to online services weeks ago.
Well God In His Love Has Continued On In Blessing His People And Blessing Others As Well.
It’s Obvious That The Lord Loves Us And Our Digital Worship That’s Biblically Based. See What's Happening. He May Be Answering Prayers By Sending America’s Next Spiritual Awakening Using The Digital Outreach.
Am Feelin' Personally Stoked To See The Church Bringing Church To The Unchurched.. And To Others Globally. His Gospel Message Is Reaching Out Farther To Regions Beyond.
We've seen a much greater response to the Gospel Message going out from our current church in Dallas. And my former local church out west of where I live now had over 250,000 people attend their first Online-Only-Service and this too has increased every single week sense then to over a million people now. How cool is that!
Hundreds of thousands of people whom the marketers often refer to as the church's “target demographic”.. those between the ages of 18 and 34.. are now hearing the Gospel presented. Yes, since the start of the shutdown, the church's millennial viewership is up 235 percent. A good thang! We've prayed for this to happen.
Look around you. People want real life, not merely some Instagram-life. Pastors, leaders, Christians.. please continue to extend an opportunity for individuals to pray honestly and invite Jesus Christ to come into their lives. Ask, don't wait for another day! At last count, over 40,000 people have made professions of faith. In a matter of weeks, that many clicked it at an Online service.. responding about their own turning and trusting Christ.
You know how for decades, Christians have been trying, seemingly in vain, to reach America’s youngest generations—millennials and Generation Z—with the gospel. And all the while, we’ve seen headline after headline, poll after poll showing us that church attendance has been declining. Rapidly falling. The fastest-growing religion in America is now the “nones,” (pretty much believing in nothin')..meaning those individuals who aren’t necessarily atheists. Maybe they’re loosely spiritual often with a mix, but they profess faith in no specific religion or tradition at all. Then God allows a global pandemic! What shall we do?
We can suffer strong. Many are. We can witness strong even when we feel weak and God can make it count. One millennial said, “As a millennial I understand in a way a Gen X or a Boomer doesn’t (and probably a little less than a Gen Z) what it means to be digitally native."
Been told that people touch their phones 2,617 times a day (be sure to clean it off), and 84 percent say that they can’t go through a single day without having their phone on em. Most people under 30 can’t even remember a time, a world before cell phones.
Hard for me to relate to, but many people today experience a form of in-person angst a.k.a. face to face social anxiety. Online hearing someone explain what's so can come off differently. Real good. Both ways of communicating are of course still needed!
“One soul is worth a thousand worlds.” ~ R.G. Lee
“For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his-own soul?” Mark 8:36
“The best remedy for a spiritually sick Christian is to put them on a soul-winning diet.” ~ Vance Havner
"A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks." Luke 6:45
Sure it's been weird how several Governors and other politicians have overreached to push their liberal agenda and gain control of the people... like one alone out SUP-boarding on the sea, or on quiet beaches. It's weird how some of our local government authorities are not letting Christians gather but allow Mosques and weed shops to remain open. That's how the world is, so don't be distracted by that. Sinners sin because they are sinners..in their nature. They need a new nature inside!
“If we prepare ourselves for life's inevitables, we will not be perplexed by life's transitions.” ~ Jack Hyles
“If you are not concerned about your neighbor’s salvation, then I am concerned for yours.” ~ Ray Comfort
“I’d rather have people hate me with the knowledge that I tried to win them.” ~ Keith Green
“Make it an object of constant study, and of daily reflection and prayer, to learn how to deal with sinners so as to promote their conversion.” ~ Charles G. Finney
“It is not our business to make the Message acceptable, but to make it available. We are not to see that they like it, but that they get it.” ~ Dr. Vance Havner
Do your part and leave the results up to God ..working with them.
Nothing Online replaces, yep, zip takes the place of fellowship in a local church. I mean gathering together with the Word and worshipping Christ in person. I am SO looking forward to meeting with, to gathering together with our congregation in person again. Hopefully that can happen sooner rather than much later. Yes, in the very near future! But in the meantime let's ALL pray. Let's use the tools and bait (so to speak) that we have to get the Gospel out and reap. And then be led to disciple the baby Christians into healthy growth in grace and Bible truth. Facebook.com/shareJesus .. Fish4souls.org
