I've been bad
12/10/2003 03:50 a.m.

I confess I've been bad, real bad. I've been negative about the church. Negative in unproductive ways. It didn't bear good fruit and it wasn't what pleased the Lord. I am sorry for the way I have hurt others and I hope you'll forgive me. please pray for me.

what I needed to do then I seek to do now. Col. 1:28 " We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ. 29 for this purpose I labor...."

I wanted other people to get it right and I wanted to make them DO IT. I was wrong. I see an emphasis in this passage that was lacking in me and, I believe, is lacking in the church today. An emphasis on seeking "to present every man complete in Christ".

an emphasis on the individual.

Let me say emphatically; it is easy for me to state a need without assisting the church or you in how to do it. I have a strategy for performing this task, reaching the individual; it might not be the best strategy, but it is a starting place. I welcome your help in improving it. Please ask God right now if He would have you and I work together in improving our capacity to serve Him in "seeking to present every man complete in Christ".

trusting that people (IE: individuals) are going to "get it" or get what they need from the public proclimation of the word or the public ministry of the church is a false hope. The apostle Paul earnestly and diligently sought to relate to persons, one on one, and sometimes one on thousands. but he sought to relate in a way to each individual so that he could present that person to God as complete in Christ. This is an emphasis that is lacking in the church today, and that is tragically lacking in church leadership, and has been tragically lacking in me. It is certainly not my place to judge or blame.

May I remind you of John 6:28 "Therefore they said to Him, 'What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?' Jesus answered and said to them, 'This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.' "

Do you feel an inability to be aggresively involved in "presenting one man complete in Christ". Do you feel like it's not your place, and even if it was you can't do it? The truth is neither you nor I can "do it" without Christ. But to attempt to minister to an individual in such a way as to build him or her up, that will take a growth in faith in Christ. When we feel like we can't accomplish something that God wants us to do where are we putting our faith? Aren't we putting more faith in our own inability than in God's power to accomplish through us? So what we need is faith, the very thing that is God's primary work for us to do --have faith. Grow in faith.

I submit that God does not need your help or my help to change the world, well He does and He doesn't. God wants, primarily, to form faith in us: as opposed for us to accomplish some work. Some good works people do take no faith, I've done this. I've neglected the things that took a greater faith and performed things that had greater visabilty and congratulated myself on my holiness. And God was nausous.

Personally I think this is the point of Luke 17:3 where the disciples pleaded with Jesus to "increase our faith". They were responding to His demand that they forgive and they knew they couldn't do it. They couldn't do it and they needed more faith. That's the way I am when I try to forgive others or love others just as they are, I need more faith. And if I want to do the works of God I can't neglect to forgive one single person no matter how they've hurt me. I digress

I sent this letter to a lot of people, many of which won't read this far. I'm afraid of bugging people so I won't include anyone who doesn't respond in the subsequent mailings. Which will begin to deal with the how to start establishing a relationship with another person that is condusive to "presenting every man complete in Christ". a one, two, three, of how to approach a person without offending them, content and how to present it in an unteachy unpreachy way, using just the Bible, without giving homework, without much preparation on your part. come on it'll be fun, you'll grow in Chirst and increase your capacity to serve others

I believe I've made a biblical base for emphasis on the individual, and I believe this is a lack in the church today.

if you know anyone who might like to be added to this list, please let me know

I'd love to talk about it

and please let me know how to pray for you

in the battle

Mike

so far, I got one comment about something unrelated in the church, makes me sad