ALL OF US MAKE MISTAKES. SOME MATTER AND SOME DON’T.

 

The ones that do matter must be recognized and changed. Christians are often deemed perfect or at least expected to be behave better than others. But truth be told, they aren’t. Christians also make plenty of mistakes.

So I decided to share a few mistakes we can stop doing.

 

Not walking the walk, but talking the talk 

 

I wish the Christian tribe would learn from their mistakes and stop repeating them decade after decade.

Things like telling people what they should do rather than modeling the things that Christ did. Jesus was not just a messenger, He met the needs of people. Jesus did not just speak great words; He met significant needs. We should follow the model of Jesus.

“My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth!” (1 John 3:18 NKJV).

Talk is cheap, so faith must accompany loving others. Talk followed by action adds influence and power. Words can be empty, and activities can be hypocritical. The church must shift these old practices and try some new strategies. So we do not want to be the church with a big mouth; we want to be the church with big hearts and hands full of resources to supply the needs of humanity.

To gain the attention of the unbeliever we must show and tell.

 

Using religion as a standard 

 

Christianity is not just a religion; Christianity is a relationship with Jesus that begins after accepting Christ as our Savior. When we receive Christ, we receive His Spirit in our Spirit.

 The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you. (Romans 8:11, NLT)

His Spirit lives in us. We become sons and daughters of God, and He is our Father.  All false religions base their practices on pleasing God through their works. But God’s plan is not based on people’s efforts and our good works. Christians are saved by grace and not our ability to please God.

God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for the gift of grace, it is a gift from God. (Ephesians 2:8, NLT)

Religion versus Christianity: 

Religion is based on what you do

Christianity is based on who you are

Religion is based on works

Christianity is based on grace

Religion is trying to get to God

Christianity is about who came to us

Religion tries to earn God’s love

Christianity is about receiving God’s love

Religion is about the sacrifices of self

Christianity is about the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.

God wants us to know Him, draw near Him, and love Him with all we have. That is not religion; that is a relationship.

 

Prophesying to the Unbeliever

 

Regarding the prophetic, we have lost our way, and I have found myself resisting prophetic words. We have neglected the proper use of scripture when operating the prophetic gift. We fail to record and track the words properly, and we no longer judge the words as demanded by the scripture.

Let two or three prophets speak [as inspired by the Holy Spirit] while the rest pay attention and weigh carefully what is said. (I Corinthians 14:29, AMP)

We allow the lone prophets to troll social networks and our church hallways and give words to anyone. We have failed to properly train or restrain the prophetic stallions that move without accountability and freely entice and impress the novice and the spiritually immature.

The self-appointed prophet has a business card and an online certificate that cost 29.95. The actual cost of a genuine prophetic gift is a call from God. This gift can’t be bought or imitated. You can manufacture tongues but can’t produce prophetic words that come to pass.

And true prophets speak for God and not themselves even if you want to pay them 19.99. When did we turn into prophets for pay? We sit by as false prophets scam the saints.

Pastors, we are to judge the words and hold the prophets accountable. The local church has failed to produce true prophets, so the online schools created them for us. We may never recover from this neglect, but we wonder why the unbeliever does not believe in us.

 

Playing the Victim Card 

 

Jesus never played the victim. Jesus was the victor in every circumstance, not because He won every phase but because losing was not a thing. Today’s Christians quickly play the victim because we are too loose, too lazy, and too apathetic toward life.

There is legit persecution in this world, and then there’s the victim card. Believers who are constantly late for work, not interested in performing well, and receive a bad work review are not persecuted they are only reaping the harvest of their poor choices. Believers are to work as unto the Lord.

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. (Colossians 3:23-24, ESV)

I encourage all believers to be the best employee on your team. Be early, stay late, and do your job with passion and excellence. Most companies seek hard workers and honest people who earn their wages.

Let’s choose to do a fantastic job. This alone can bring positive change to you and the marketplace.

 

Correcting Unbelievers 

 

Why does the church expect the unchurched to live like the churched? We must learn to give the Holy Spirit time to work on the new believers and the unsaved. We shame new Christians with our altar blankets and unkind comments about modesty and sinful behavior.

We post Bible verses on secular social media sites without first trying to gain relational influence. We expect the super bowl halftime show to feature Chris Tomlin or Elevation Worship and criticize the world for its ungodly appetite.

The Bible tells us to remember this …

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the Spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body1 and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. (Ephesians 2:2-3, ESV)

The halftime show is not a party for Christians or focused on good morals. The halftime show at the Super Bowl is created for the world, not the church.

Come on man.

The world loves the world, and the church is to love them also.

Let’s work on that.

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