Where is the First Love?

Hello Brothers and Sisters.   There's been plenty of spiritual battles in the last couple months, I apologize once again for being so slow on updating the site.  I appreciate the many emails of encouragement - rest assured I'll be writing more.  I am growing spiritually and as I discern and learn better how to walk, this is forcing me to make choices that I would rather not.  Those that know me know that I try to be active, that I believe works are important, as well as faith.  In fact, I don't believe you can truly have faith and not be compelled to do works. (Click here to read  FaithWorks.)  Click Here to read A Call To Action  a short commentary I wrote about the Church getting more involved in the community. 

I have been in a curious position the last few weeks.  I feel very much on fire spiritually, yet I also feel very frustrated.  You see, I feel very strongly that one very important mission of a church is to get out in the World and spread the gospel, to feed the hungry, to take care of the poor, to visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction.  And I don't have to be the first to tell you, there's a lot of suffering out there.  There's a lot of hunger out there, a spiritual void in people.  (btw - This is readily apparent in the nursing homes.  If you've never visited a person tucked away in a nursing home - - do so.  It may very well break your heart, but it will also bless you.)  It troubles me when I see a church lose it's first love.  It is so easy to lose focus and turn inward, to build the walls up and never go beyond them.  We lose our compassion, if we are not careful.  If we are not careful, under the guise of building a church, we instead build ourselves a cocoon where we can hide from the world and feel safe and warm.  We may feel warm, but if we're not careful, that's exactly what we become, LUKEWARM!       

It doesn't usually start out that way, but if we aren't careful, sometimes a church ends up caring much more about it's "Building Fund" than it does about reaching people or searching out those "lost" sheep.  Somehow, in the struggle for a new church to survive, it gets tight with that money and resources, takes on a "me-first" attitude.  Examine yourself!  Examine your church!  How many times larger is your "building fund" than the money you use for missions or charitable works?  Month by month?  Have you lost that first love?  Has it become about your building, or your church surviving?  Have you lost your faith that God can provide and thus have diverted your energy and resources to merely building your building, resources that could be used in actually getting out and winning souls to Christ?

A congregation can get caught in a very simple trap, the old "grass is greener" syndrome.  Sometimes we think, if attendance is very low or poor, that it's because we don't have a large enough building or a fancy enough building. We think people won't stop in because our church looks so small and old.  We need to stop taking census and start preaching and obeying the Word of God.  We need to stop counting numbers and start winning souls to Jesus Christ.  I have seen churches refuse song books to other churches - - I am amazed and disgusted by the sheer territorial way I see some churches act towards one another.  OH what ever happened to

S E R V I T U D E ???

I lament the condition of many churches today.  I'm tired of "show" churches, where pretty speeches and talk of love flow freely, yet never any works - -- just "empire building".  That's not love folks - - talk is cheap.  Break out of the false sense of security, the cocoon, the lukewarm, "me first" attitude.  Jesus went to the sinners, and reprimanded the religious hypocrites.  Would He reprimand you?

To Be continued