A Christian Research Group in a nationwide survey conducted in the first quarter of 2001 asked this question: “Please describe your goals in life.”
The survey found that almost 9 out of 10 adults classified themselves as a “Christian,” by the following definition, “I am personally committed to Jesus Christ and have confessed my sins and I believe that I will go to heaven when I day because of God’s love and grace through Christ.” STRONG DEFINITION! Yet not one of those who said they were Christians declared that their life goal was to be a “fully committed follower of Jesus Christ and to participate in making Christian disciples.”

George Gallup reports:
Less than 10 % of Americans are deeply committed Christians. These committed Christians are far, far happier than the rest of the population. Committed Christians are more accepting of others than the average American, more involved in charitable activities, and are absolutely committed to prayer. While many more Americans than this 10 % profess to be Christians, most actually know little or nothing of Christian beliefs, and act no differently than non-Christians. Overall, the Sunday School and religious education system in this country is not working.

Being committed to Christ is not boring…it is the source of true happiness!   

Counterfit bills are never made in odd denominations($3 or $8 or $12) but are meant to imitate the real thing. At first glance they seem real, you may have passed them along without knowing it. But there is always something bogus about them, some blur or omition, something that doesn’t exactly correspond to real money. Phony Christians may fool many people: go right places, hang with right crowds, say the right things(John says they say ’I know Him’) but their experience is that of an unchanged life. Unchanged on the inside(Lack a desire to surrender before the Lord). Paul says, ’they profess to know God but by their deed they deny Him’.
SPURGEON: An unchanged life is the sign of an uncleansed heart’.
   

There was a farmer who had three sons: Ron, Don and Little John. All had their names on the church roll but none ever attended church or had time for God. Then one day Don was bitten by a rattlesnake. The doctor was called and he did all he could to help Don, but the outlook for his recovery was very dim indeed. So the pastor was called and appraised of the situation. The pastor arrived, and began to pray as follows: "O wise and righteous Father, we thank Thee that in Thine wisdom thou didst send this rattlesnake to bite Don. He hasn’t been inside the church in years and has shown little interest in You. We trust that this experience will be a valuable lesson to him and will lead to his genuine repentance. And now, O Father, wilt thou send another rattlesnake to bite Ron, and another to bite Little John, and another really big one to bite the old man. For years we have done everything we know to get them to get serious with Thee. Thank you God for rattlesnakes.

Just as in the story of the rattlesnakes, James recognizes that there is often a break down for many between what they profess to have and the fruit they bare.
   

W.H. Griffith Thomas scourged Christians this way, “There is no greater foe to Christianity than mere profession. There is no greater discredit to Christianity today than to stand up for it, and yet not live it in our lives. There is no greater danger in the Christian world today than to stand up for the Bible, and yet to deny that Bible by the very way we defend it. There is no greater hindrance to Christianity today than to contend for orthodoxy, whatever the orthodoxy may be, and to deny it by the censoriousness, the hardness, the unattractiveness with which we champion our cause. Oh this power of personal testimony ?with the heart filled with the love of Christ, the mind saturated with the teaching of Christ, the conscience sensitive to the law of Christ, the whole nature aglow with grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ.?(Listening to tthe Giants, 149-50, Warren Wiersbe, Baker 1980)
   I believe I got this story from Bob George…
Mac was a hard driving, though businessman in his 70’s.
He had been a church member for many years.
But one Wednesday night as he heard the associate share his testimony, he realized that he had never personally trusted Jesus Christ as his Savior.
Though he had been involved in a lot of religious activity, he never really had a clear idea of what it meant to be a Christian.

After spending a few days pondering and asking the associate questions, Mac made up his mind.
At the Sunday night service of their church, he decided to come forward to make a public profession of his faith in Christ.
The associate was down front serving as a counselor, and was deeply moved by the sight of this tough old businessman coming forward to receive Christ in childlike faith.
They were both in tears as they stood before the pastor.

“This is tremendous!” the pastor exclaimed.
He told the associate, “This man is one of the most brilliant businessmen in our city! He’s wealthy, he’s talented, and we need to put him to work! I want you to see that Mac is totally involved in what you are doing. We want to take full advantage of what he can do.”

The associate said he will never forget Mac, his eyes full of tears, speaking with a sincere, trembling voice: “Pastor, I don’t need a job. I need the Lord.”  

Even when we come across test questions that seem simple on the surface, we find that they’re often not as simple as we first thought. For instance, the answer to the question, "How long did the Hundred Years War last?’ seems obvious, but the answer is 116 years. When a test asks, "Which country manufactures Panama hats?" the correct answer is Equador. Here’s another: From what animal do we get cat gut? From sheep and horses of course. In which month do Russians celebrate the October Revolution? November. What was King George IV’s first name? Well, everyone knows it was Albert. Ah yes...many test takers are glad to be out of school...far away from trick questions like that thought up in some teacher’s lounge.

But as far as we try to get from the rigors of the academic life, we find our lives are filled with other kinds of tests. We take driver’s tests, drug tests, polygraph tests, sobriety tests, eye tests, entrance exams. People in law enforcement have to qualify on the shooting range at least four times a year, many of you have to take a test for your chosen profession. Like it or not, tests are a part of life.

But is there a test to determine whether a person is on the right track spiritually?   

In a sermon several weeks ago I referred to a man I couldn’t reach. John was ex-Navy, a heavy drinker and a violent man. He was very personable when you first met him; when he drank enough beer the demons took over. I must confess that, until I met John I always thought people were born with a good nature, and, if they wound-up on the wrong side of things, had just somehow made a wrong turn. John taught me better.
John had married Rosemary only a few months before I met him; it was his fourth time at the marriage license bureau – her second. A few weeks after Rosemary joined our church, John came down the aisle also. We baptized him and it seemed they would escape the divorce statistic hanging over multiple marriages. Rosemary thought she could get John to quit drinking; she was wrong. It seems I wasn’t the only one who couldn’t reach John.
The crisis came less than a month after John’s baptism. The honeymoon had ended and John began drinking again. One night, late, Rosemary showed up at the parsonage door. She was bruised and scared. Elizabeth and I took her in, and I went to see John the next day. When I drove up to their front yard I was greeted by a strange sight. John had stuck empty beer cans on the end of every branch of the small orange tree in front of their trailer. The sign at the bottom of the tree read: This is for you, preacher man.
John was very drunk but still somewhat coherent…and very loud. He greeted me at the front door and invited me in. I only asked, John, how can I help? John talked angrily for the next twenty minutes. Finally, he looked at me with a hatred that wasn’t his own and said, I’m going to make a minister out of you.
Later that day Rosemary asked if we would accompany her to the trailer to get her clothes. We drove up and I went in first. He was calm and seemed reasonably sobered. He agreed to let Rosemary come in and get her belongings. When she came in he immediately began to threaten her. At one point he went to get his pistol. I urged Rosemary to forget her clothes and leave; it was a bad idea to come back. She was determined to get her clothing. When she went to the closet, John re-entered the room waving a pistol – a very BIG pistol! (I must say it looked a lot bigger from the wrong end of the barrel). After several tense moments John allowed us to return to the car where Elizabeth was waiting.
Several months later we got a letter from Rosemary thanking us for our help, and saying that she had settled in another state. Not long after that we heard about John – on the evening news. He had threatened people outside a K-Mart store with his pistol, and when the police showed up he committed suicide. A painfully tortured mind and life came to a wasted end.
Was John saved? I don’t know; I am not equipped to judge that. He made a profession of faith and was baptized, but his behavior never changed. That leads me to an opinion he never really believed – never really trusted Christ. It is only an opinion – God knows the real truth. Beyond opinion, however, it is true beyond any doubt that saved people have a Savior; John’s savior, what he really seemed to trust-in was Budweiser.
Now the point of John’s story, a painful reminder of my own failure, is that we cannot save ourselves – and, without Jesus, I’m just the same as John. Many people would say that the only difference is that alcohol made John do the things he did; John’s problem was alcohol, not sin. The alcohol only loosened-up John’s inhibitions to do those things which were already on the inside. The reality is we all have those things on the inside; the doctrine of total depravity teaches us that! Every human being on the face of this planet who has ever lived was/is capable of doing whatever horrific deed you can dream up. This is why we need a Savior.
   

Phillip Keller wrote in his book “A Shepherd Looks at the 23rd Psalm,” about buying his first thirty sheep. He wrote: “Each shepherd has his own distinctive earmark which he cuts into one of the ears of his sheep. In this way, even at a distance, it is easy to determine to whom the sheep belong. It was not the most pleasant procedure to catch each ewe in turn and lay her ear on a wooden block, then notch it deeply with the razor-sharp edge of the knife. There was pain for both of us. But from our mutual suffering an indelible lifelong mark of ownership was made that could never be erased. And from then on every sheep that came into my possession would bear my mark.”

A long time friend and associate of Billy Graham was Chuck Templeton. He worked with Billy Graham in Youth for Christ in their early days of ministry. Chuck Templeton helped organize Youth for Christ in Canada.

But over time Chuck Templeton became an Agnostic and renounced his faith in Christ. He left the ministry and managed two of Canada’s leading newspapers.

Lee Strobel, now teaching pastor at the Saddleback Church in Southern California, was an investigative reporter for the Chicago Tribune. He had received his attorney’s degree and was a committed Agnostic. Through his wife influence and the Willow Creek Church in the Chicago area Lee Strobel came to a personal faith in Christ. He has written two outstanding books, “A Case for Christ” and “A Case for Faith.”

Lee Strobel read one of Chuck Templeton’s latest books, "Farewell to God: My Reasons for Rejecting the Christian Faith." He decided to fly to Toronto to meet Chuck Templeton, now 83 years old, and interview him. In their interview Chuck Templeton vigorously defended his agnostic rejection of a God who claimed to love, yet allowed suffering across the world to go unchecked.

Then toward the end of their time together, Strobel asked Templeton point-bland how he felt about Jesus.

Instantly, Templeton softened. He said, “In my view He is the most important human being who has ever existed.” Then his voice began to crack, he haltingly said, “I…miss…Him!” Then Templeton’s eyes filled with tears and he wept with his shoulders shaking.

What a contract of two friends, Billy Graham and Chuck Templeton. Once worked together for the Lord and then went their separate journeys. Billy Graham said that Jesus was his most prized possession, while Chuck Templeton weeps for having left Him long ago.
   

THE SHANTY REMODEL

"In the upper portion of New York City, many citizens may often have noticed, especially in the past years, a great number of miserable shanties, standing on the choicest sites. Though perhaps on the corner of a splendid new avenue or looking out on a magnificent prospect, the house was utterly unworthy of the site. Suppose that a millionaire should want to purchase this site, and that the owner should begin, before giving possession, to repair the old shanty for the new owner, putting fresh thatch on the miserable roof and a new coat of whitewash on the dirty walls.

How the purchaser would laugh at him and say, "My friend, I do not want your miserable old wreck of a tenement fixed up like this. At the best, it will only be a shanty when you have done all you can to it and I will never live in it. All I want is the ground, the site, and when I get it I will raze the old heap of rubbish to the foundations, and dig deep down to the solid rock before I build my splendid mansion. I will then build from the base my own new house according to my own magnificent plan. I do not want a vestige of your house, all that I require is the location."

This is exactly what God wants of us and waits to do in us. Each of us has a splendid site for a heavenly temple. It looks out upon eternity and commands a view of all that is glorious in the possibilities of existence. The house that is built upon it now, however, is a worthless wreck, it is past improving. Our patching and repairing is worse than waste. What God wants of us is simply that we give him the possibilities of our lives and let him build upon them a temple of holiness which he will make his own abode and which he will let us dwell in with him as his happy guests in the house of the Lord forever.

SOURCE: A.B. Simpson, founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, in his book Wholly Sanctified.

Change

Two battleships assigned to the training squadron had been at sea on maneuvers in heavy weather for several days. I was serving on the lead battleship and was on watch on the bridge as night fell. The visibility was poor with patchy fog, so the captain remained on the bridge keeping an eye on all activities.

Shortly after dark, the lookout on the wing reported, "Light, bearing on the starboard bow."
"Is it steady or moving astern?" the captain called out.
The lookout replied, "Steady, Captain," which meant we were on a dangerous collision course with that ship.
The captain then called to the signalman, "Signal that ship: ’We are on a collision course, advise you change course twenty degrees.’"
Back came the signal, "Advisable for you to change course twenty degrees."
The captain said, "Send: "I’m a captain, change course twenty degrees.’"
"I’m a seaman second-class," came the reply. "You had better change course twenty degrees."
By that time the captain was furious. He spat out, "Send: ’I’m a battleship. Change course twenty degrees.’"
Back came the flashing light, "I’m a lighthouse."
We changed course.

Max Lucado, In the Eye of the Storm, Word Publishing, 1991, p. 153.

In his book I Surrender, Patrick Morley writes that the church’s integrity problem is in the misconception "that we can add Christ to our lives, but not subtract sin. It is a change in belief without a change in behavior." He goes on to say, "It is revival without reformation, without repentance."

C. Swindoll, John The Baptizer, Bible Study Guide, p. 16.

I heard this story told Wednesday night at the Men’s Bible Study and I received permission to tell it here. It involves a TX Dot employee, who I said would remain nameless, but I was told that in TX Dot fashion I was permitted to use his initials "Randy".

Randy was apparently asked to change his password on the computer, and the computer even promoted him to do so three times. On the third time he entered the new password, then the computer prompted him to re-enter the password, which he did. He then received the message "You are about to change your password, is this what you want to do?" Randy was confronted with the choice. He chose "No", because he didn’t want to change his password, this then locked up the computer, because he was suppossed to be changing his password, and when given a choice, he chose "no". It is said that the other employees have learned from his mistake.

I asked Randy if I could share his story, because it was right along the lines of what I wanted to talk about today. God gives us a choice! We sometimes call it free will. He shows us the right choices to make, prompts us to change our passwords and our lives, and yet so often we simply choose to excercise our free wills to make choices that follow our own desires, often even chosing and saying "no" to a relationship with God.

[How God’s Children Change, Citation: Craig Barnes, author and pastor of National Presbyterian Church, Washington, D.C.; from sermon "The Blessed Trinity" (5-30-99)]
When I was a child, my minister father brought home a 12-year-old boy named Roger, whose parents had died from a drug overdose.
There was no one to care for Roger, so my folks decided they’d just raise him as if he were one of their own sons.
At first it was quite difficult for Roger to adjust to his new home—an environment free of heroine-addicted adults!
Every day, several times a day, I heard my parents saying to Roger:
"No, no. That’s not how we behave in this family."
"No, no. You don’t have to scream or fight or hurt other people to get what you want."
"No, no, Roger, we expect you to show respect in this family."
And in time Roger began to change.
Now, did Roger have to make all those changes in order to become a part of the family?
No. He was made a part of the family simply by the grace of my father.
But did he then have to do a lot of hard work because he was in the family?
You bet he did.
It was tough for him to change, and he had to work at it.
But he was motivated by gratitude for the incredible love he had received.
Do you have a lot of hard work to do now that the Spirit has adopted you into God’s family?
Certainly. But not in order to become a son or a daughter of the heavenly Father.
No, you make those changes because you are a son or daughter.
And every time you start to revert back to the old addictions to sin, the Holy Spirit will say to you, "No, no. That’s not how we act in this family."

Dallas Willard tells of when the REA (Rural Electrification Administration) extended the electrical lines to his home in Missouri. He says, “When those lines came by our farm, a very different way of living presented itself. Our relationships to fundamental aspects of leisure, preparing food, and preserving it — could then be vastly changed for the better.” Those farmers, “in effect, heard the message: ‘Repent, for electricity is at hand.’ Repent, or turn from their kerosene lamps and lanterns, their iceboxes and cellars, their scrub boards and rug beaters.” The power was now inside their homes to make their lives better, if they would accept it. But some did not accept the kingdom of electricity. They were suspicious of it, even afraid of it. Some thought it cost too much. Some just did not want to take the trouble to change. The blessing was there waiting for them to enjoy, but they were not taking advantage of it. In the same way, the kingdom of God is here waiting to be enjoyed. Some say it costs too much. Others are suspicious. Still others don’t want to take the trouble to change. But it is here nonetheless. The Bible says, “. . .the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him” (Romans 10:12).

Jack Jones wrote: "Putting a hog in the living room will not change the hog’s nature, but it will damage the living room. A lost man’s nature will not be changed by placing his name on the church roll, but the church will suffer by his being a member. Every Christian should be a church member; in fact, there is no place for a true Christian outside the church. But the church membership has nothing whatever to do with the salvation of the soul. Billy Sunday was right when he said, "Joining the church does not any more make one a Christian than entering a garage will change one into an automobile.’"
   

LOVE

We give our different reports of the church in worship service attendance and Sunday school attendance and offerings and contacts made. Wouldn’t it be something if we had a measurement or a chart that would say this week we were up in abounding love. We have increased by seventy percent in love over last week. What if we could measure love? It would tell us so much, because that is the key. That is what Paul is telling them to abound in, is their Christian love. (Philippians 1:9)

How important it is when people come and visit us, just how much they sense this aspect of abounding love. Maybe we cannot measure love tangibly, but people know when there is a true fellowship of love. We have love? Yes. But as Paul encouraged the Philippians we need to abound still more and more in our Christian love.

Rick Warren in his book The Purpose Driven Life says, “Life is all about love!”
“Because God is love, the most important lesson he wants you to learn on earth is how to love. It is in loving that we are most like him, so love is the foundation of every command he has given us; ‘the whole Law can be summed up in this one command; ‘Love others as you love yourself” (123).

Christ demands that the driving force in your life must be love. All other things, although important, are secondary. Love is the sign of true discipleship.

The Greek poet, Hosaye wrote, “ If you tell me who you love, I can tell you who you are

Max Lucado a dynamic Christian author said it this way, ‘ The sign of the saved is their love for the least”

Bill Hybels, Pastor of one of the largest churches in America echoed the thought , When he said,’We have never locked eyes with someone that did not matter to God”

And my personal favorite from the radio preacher, Dr.Charles Swindoll, “ You can tell a lot about a person by the way they treat those who can do nothing for them.”

   

C. S. Lewis said: "to love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one. Wrap it around carefully with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket of your selfishness. But in that casket -- safe, dark, motionless, airless -- it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable .... The only place outside heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers of love is .... Hell."   

AGAPE LOVE, THE HIGHEST FORM OF LOVE, IS REFERENCED IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 137 TIMES AS A VERB AND 116 TIMES AS A NOUN.   

Andrew brought Simon- just one. But that was many, for under God, Simon brought three thousand souls in one day! It has been estimated that probably 95% of church members have never lead anyone to Christ. I like what Paul say’s in 1 Cor 9:19 " I made myself a servant unto all, that I might gain the more." Why have we lost the spirit of a servant in this day? Didn’t Jesus say, "From henceforth thou shalt catch men"? Who ever told you to stop or to never try? The reward for the soul winner is surely great!

Think on this. With all our education, our fine buildings, our image of the church we are doing less to win people to Christ than our early church UNSCHOOLED forefather’s did. Were no longer fisher’s of men but keepers of the aquarium, and we spend most of our time swiping fish from each other’s bowl. I love our foundation of this church and what God has done in the past has been great. But I dare not look to the past and live off of their blessings! I want my own and you should too! Yet it will take getting your hands dirty, it takes time from our busy schedules, it takes knowing God’s word, prayer, fasting, unity, obedience, humbleness, faith, energy, money, love, to get out of our comfort zones, the power of the Holy Ghost and on and on! For this labor the reward for the soul winner is surely great!

The average insurance agent makes 45 weekly calls on prospects. Only 15 listen to him. Of those 15 only 2 put their names on "the dotted line." If an insurance agent calls 45 people and sells only 2 policies, should soul winners be discouraged if they make a thousand calls and bring only 1 soul to Jesus? Never! Paul clearly stated that the Thessalonians were his hope and joy and “crown of rejoicing"(Thes 2:19-20) Your labor is not in vain (1Cor 15:58) and he that winneth souls is wise (Prov 11:30). Surely the reward for the soul winner is great!


Ryan Yandris

LIFE AT ITS BEST An extensive survey was conducted in the United States by a leading polling agency. Questionnaires were distributed to people of various ages and occupations. The key question was this: What are you looking for most in life? When the results were compiled, the analysts were surprised. Most of them had expected answers that would suggest materialistic goals, but the top three things that people wanted in life were love, joy, and peace—the first three fruits of the Spirit!