If God decided not to show up at your church next Sunday, would anyone notice?

Would He be missed?

Would the congregation immediately enter a time of corporate soul-searching and prayer to find out what was wrong? Or would you go merrily on your way as if nothing happened?

Many churches continue their routine business week after week, completely unaware that the Master of the house is not even there. It is like attending a party or a great banquet and having a great time but never even seeing or speaking to the host.

This was the problem of the church in Sardis. Christ, the Master of the house, had no words of commendation for Sardis because He found nothing commendable there. He told them, "I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead." No doubt the church in Sardis was very busy. They probably had a full range of ministries and services to their community. Undoubtedly their worship was proper and correct and perhaps even lively and entertaining. They had a good reputation and may even have had money and prestige in the city.

The church in Sardis had the form of godliness, the appearance of life. They thought they were alive and well. After all, they had a name that they were alive. Their only problem was that the Holy Spirit had departed, and they never saw Him go. They were dead and didn't even know it!

Contrast this with the church in Smyrna, which received no condemnation from the Lord, only commendation. Of this congregation Jesus said simply, "I know your works, tribulation, and poverty (but you are rich). Whatever the Christians in Smyrna lacked in material wealth they made up for in spiritual riches. They may have been poor in the things that the world values, but they were rich where it counted - they had the King!

Where does your church fit? Sardis? Smyrna? Or somewhere in between? Even more important, where do you fit? God has this incredible idea that church is about Him. Yet so often we try to make it about us. We try to turn church into our own private "bless-me" club. Our entire focus centers on how many chills, thrills, and goose bumps we get and how well we are entertained. Rarely do we even think to ask what our King wants.

It doesn't matter how big your church is, or how rich. It doesn't matter how many programs and ministries you have. It doesn't matter how exciting your worship is or how eloquent your pastor may be. Without the King, you have nothing!

Don't settle for artificial worship and dead formalism, either for yourself or for your church. You have a choice: Sardis or Smyrna. Which are you? Which do you want to be?

Older Women....

I need your help.

One of my biggest struggles is self-control.

God has been dealing with my heart on areas that are out of control. So I decided to reread the chapter "The safety of self-control", from "Feminine Appeal", by Carolyn Mahaney. This chapter has to be one of the best readings I have done on self-control.

On pages 64-65, she says; "Self-control is so important that the apostle Paul required it, directly or by inference, of every group of Christians he addressed in the Titus 2 chapter. The emphasis placed on this virtue reveals how essential self-control is if we are to effectively commend the gospel. We cannot afford to ignore it. Therefore, if Scripture requires self-control from every Christian, it is obviously attainable by every Christian. This truth should revolutionize our understanding of self-control. For whenever God gives a command, He also provides the grace to obey it."

This comment is very important;
"For whenever God gives a command, He also provides the grace to obey it."
A few months ago, someone made a comment that has given me a better meaning of the word "grace". I always thought of grace as being free from the condemnations of my sins, that grace covered me. But this person was sharing the idea of "means of grace", like having a bible, my vision, my ears, people around me, bible studies, ect, to be able to learn more about God, and grow in my faith. And I believe that one of my means of grace is the "older women" talked about in Titus.

And let me just say that even though I am getting older, I still consider myself a "younger woman". And that this post applies to me as much as it applies to any other woman, because I will always be older than some women, and someday I will be the older women that younger women are looking for guidance from.

Titus 2:3-5 says~
"Older women likewise are to be reverent in BEHAVIOR, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to TEACH what is good, and so TRAIN the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled."

God has placed some really great women in my life as role models of this text.
However, I have to share that there are others that leave me feeling defeated by complaining about something that I have done or said, by their words that condemn me, or behaviors that show signs of being displeased in me.

Complaining, or having an attitude towards other women of "I can't believe she did that, or said that", is NOT how Paul instructs the older women to handle the younger women.

I do desire to learn from you, but it is hard to do when I feel judged by you. I also want to be a good example of the generations to come. So please help me, by teaching me, training me, and setting a good example in behavior for me.

Behavior:
~ the manner of conducting oneself

Teach:
~to cause to know something, to cause to know how, to accustom to some action or attitude, to cause to know the disagreeable consequences of some action, to guide the studies of, to impart the knowledge of, to instruct by precept, example, or experience, to make known and accepted,
to conduct instruction regularly in.

Train:
~ to form by instruction, discipline, or drill, to teach so as to make fit, qualified, or proficient, to make prepared (as by exercise) for a test of skill, to aim at an object or objective, to undergo instruction, discipline.

"Was Jesus legalistic?"

I really had NO plans on teaching or explaining legalism, freedom in the Gospel, or how Jesus lived a perfect life.

And I still don't. For the past several weeks, Cleyo and I have been thinking and talking about Christ and how He was able to live without sin. And really, I was just curious to have thoughts from others, but only a few responded, and even though I really have no more information than I did when I started, I do have some conclusions.

First, I loved Linda G response on FB,
"Pharisees were legalistic, Jesus was obedient." ~ That completely sums it up, in 6 words!

And after some conversations with Amanda, here and through email, I believe that our thoughts are very similar, but maybe our responses are different(?).

I do have to admit that I have an issue with some Christians that take advantage of the freedom of the Gospel. Our lives must be Gospel Driven, but as Paul states in Romans 6:1-2 "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? ²May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?" Read all of chapter 6, it is SO GOOD;

Romans 6
Believers Are Dead to Sin, Alive to God
¹What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? ²May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? ³Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? ⁴Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. ⁵For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, ⁶knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; ⁷for he who has died is freed from sin. ⁸Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, ⁹knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. ¹⁰For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. ¹¹Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. ¹²Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, ¹³and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. ¹⁴For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace. ¹⁵What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! ¹⁶Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? ¹⁷But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, ¹⁸and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. ¹⁹I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification. ²⁰For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. ²¹Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death. ²²But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life. ²³For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.


I rely totally on Christ's work on the cross, and yet I am driven to obedience because of my love for God. So my conclusion, Christ was NOT legalistic, He was OBEDIENT, even unto death on the cross. So therefore, I do not want to be a slave to my "old self" but I want to be a slave to righteousness. Anyone that knows me well, or spends five minutes around me, knows that I am NOT perfect! And for those of you reading this, and have NOT trusted Christ as you Savior, there is NOT anything that I can do to earn favor with God, my salvation is a gift from God, not of works (Ephesians 2:8-9).

2 Corinthians 13:5 says, "Examine yourselves to see whether you are (standing) in Faith. Test yourselves. For you should know yourselves-that Christ Jesus is in you, unless indeed you fail to meet the test."

I must examine whether or not "my personal work" motive was to earn favor or pay back my salvation, or because of my faith in Him. I personally am driven to obedience, but yet I honestly can say that I do not have thoughts that I am earning favor or paying Christ back, not that my motives are ever correct, but I truly love God and from that love comes a desire towards obedience. Amanda stated in an email, "The line between obedience and legalism is very hard to find.", I totally agree with that. God only knows my heart. I know there has to be times when I think that I am obeying because I love God, but God only sees it as useless work. And when I fail, and I do daily, I fall back on God's promise that my sins are PAID in FULL on the CROSS through CHRIST.


And since I do not have the gift of teaching and I have probably only confused people even more, and if you are interested in listening to a Pastor that I think has been blessed with the gift of teaching, I found a link on this subject that is good, long, but good....

Christ Redeemed us from the Curse of the Law

Question.....

"Was Jesus legalistic?"

please no debating and only share answers with/from scripture, I am just curious................

A Preview, More to Come