What is a successful dad? Listen to my podcast now…
Men are you afraid of failure? Most are, and failure is part of learning. In spite of failure, learning the core ingredients for successful fatherhood is an absolute must for the sake of your children.
Randy shares lessons that must be learned from the life of King David in the Old Testament of the Bible. God’s wisdom will bring great success to you and your family.
What is a successful dad? Listen to my podcast now…
Men are you afraid of failure? Most are, and failure is part of learning. In spite of failure, learning the core ingredients for successful fatherhood is an absolute must for the sake of your children.
Randy shares lessons that must be learned from the life of King David in the Old Testament of the Bible. God’s wisdom will bring great success to you and your family.
It is imperative that every true Christ follower understands what is important to God. Then alter their lifestyle to practice what God Almighty specifies is the way to focus and fulfill His will. From the very first day the church was formed God was clear.
And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need.
So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved. Acts 2:42-47 NKJV
They Gathered to Glorify God and We Do Not Have The Right To Do Differently!
Our weekly Sunday gatherings must be a composite of the elements that the early church devoted themselves to. The first day the Holy Spirit descended upon the church 3000 brand new believers were born again. The Apostles immediately focused on their spiritual growth as recorded in Acts 2:42.
They would not stop gathering together to teach the commands of Christ to the church; they persisted in fellowship by lovingly encouraging, testifying, exhorting, and building up each other in the faith. They faithfully had communion together examining themselves for moral and spiritual purity and clearing their consciences by admitting their sins and being cleansed through the shed blood of Jesus who died for mankind’s sins.
Also, they strengthened one another through confessing their faults one to another. And then the Apostles led the church with loud voices, crying to God for His mighty acts through prayer.
When the church was formed they did not have anything that our modern day church considers essential. There were no choirs, pews, Sunday Schools, youth groups, etc. Jesus Christ formed, organized, and empowered His church from the outset.
Just like the cells of our human bodies, each Christian still has his or her function to perform within the unified local church, but they need mutual edification and support from each other, and the spiritual cleansing of God’s Word by faithful shepherds [pastor]. From the beginning, the church needed discipline and organization to send out approved members by the church “body” to serve and proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ.
Therefore we must practice Christianity as God instructs us to in the Bible. Every Christian is a member of the body of Christ and gifted and called by Jesus Christ, the head, to fulfill his or her purpose. When we gather on Sunday mornings we meet as taught in Acts and 1 Corinthians 14. Like a four legged table, our church gathering stands on all four elements of spiritual growth: the proclamation of the apostles’ doctrine [teaching], fellowship [public testimonies, exhortations, and confessions], breaking of bread [the communion/love feast], and group prayer.
I highly suggest churches to deviate from traditional church services by preaching the Word of God first. James 1:14 has clear application for the House of God, “Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak.” Therefore if you hear God’s Word first, before singing hymns and spiritual songs, people can keep from making promises to God they may not mean.
The reason is simple, we are warned “not to be rash with your mouth, and let not your heart utter anything hastily before God. For God is in heaven, and you on earth; therefore let your words be few” [Ecclesiastes 5:2]. He is the King of kings and Lord of lords, and we need to hear His perspective on life. We need to learn from His vast wisdom. He does not need to hear us. This practice is in obedience to Acts 2:42 and basic biblical principles.
Next, to be “doers of the Word” and not just hearers of sermons a local church can respond to God’s Word and have fellow believers take the responsibility of fellowship. We know that there are over twenty “one another” commands given in the New Testament for believers to practice when they come together.
For example, we are told to “not forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; exhorting one another: and so much the more, as you see the day approaching” [Hebrews 10:25]. Any church that is serious about obedience, spiritual growth, and outreach must practice all the “one another” commands. Testimonies and confessions following a sermon provide powerful interaction of the “one another” commands. This always results in the true spirit of love.
The explanation of the power of God’s Word is found in Ephesians 5:25-27 (KJV)
25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
27 That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
And this is important, after our hearts are cleansed and relationships mended and strengthened through the “one another” interaction of fellowship, we are ready for breaking bread together. We finalize our spiritual examinations, confess and repent of any sin God reveals, and have intimate communion with the Father while we remember the Lord’s most sacred act, the sacrifice of His life for our sin.
Refreshed and revived we are ready to shout out our praises to God. Most churches use music to try and prepare their people for the message. But, we have noticed that God’s word emphasizes the opposite. True praise comes as a result of God’s Word working in us. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord” [Colossians 3:16]
Finally, we have come to practice prayer and crying out at the end of our Sunday church meeting. Lifting our voices together as instructed throughout the scripture forces us into humble pleadings and cries to God. We have forgotten our pride and shout out together for help with our needs. Our supplications [intense begging] are being heard and He is answering our cries.
We Disciple Christians on Purpose
We also practice disciple-making through small group home Bible studies; C.L.A.S.S. 101– Committing to Christ and His Church, 201—Committing to Spiritual Growth, 301—Committing to Serving Others, 401—Committing to the Great Commission series studies; men’s and women’s fellowship groups; children’s church; teen fellowship; and special training and teaching seminars.
We Reach Out to Make Disciples
As we spread out into our world we practice good works and try to love our neighbors into conversation and invitations to Christ. Jesus taught us in the Sermon on the Mount “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lamp stand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”
The Sevenfold Practices of a Church
Narrow Road Insights, StraightTalk Articles
Yes Virginia, there really is a Savior.
“So get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives, and humbly accept the word God has planted in your hearts, for it has the power to save your souls. But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.”
“For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.”
“If you claim to be religious but don’t control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless. Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.” [James 1:21-27 (New Living Translation)]
Jesus, our Savior, uses supernatural power to save people from sin and change their lives. His death, burial, and resurrection paid the full legal price for everyone’s crimes against God. He saves true Christians from evil and turns them completely around empowering them to do good and right things. Christians do not just talk about justice and goodness but live out pure religion.
But it seems the modern Christian and churches are obsessed with the need to claim Christianity is not a religion, but a relationship. I know I have worn t-shirts with this weak argument in the past. I’m sure this stems from the oppressive anti-God, anti-Christ and anti-Bible sentiment that drives the majority of Americans in this 21st century dark age. But honestly the lost still contend we are a religion, and for good reason.
In the past Americans demanded politicians to be Christian and they were careful to at least put on the mask of being a believer. Not today, recent polls prove the majority will resist and not vote for a Christian. So much for our founding fathers faith and principles they held when establishing this nation.
Today, the networks make sure they deny any connection to a Christian program aired on their network but gleefully broadcast anything with every sin in the book with their full support. Anything the Bible condemns they seem to support.
Why would we want a Christian politician? A senator or representative? A president? A Christian mayor? A Christian news commentator? Christian networks and news channels?
The consensus today seems to be that character does not matter in how a person governs in our nation. Really? You mean to tell me you want a leader to stand up before you on TV and lie through his teeth to get your vote, or to manipulate you and gain further control over you? What do they have to lose?
For instance, if you think that it is no problem for a politician to secretly cheat on their spouse, and hurt the person they claim to love, what do you think they will really do to you?
But wait, everyone has a sinful past, but I am talking about persistent and continuous present lies and wicked behavior. Beware of the stone throwers who destroy first and seek out truth later because of past sinful mistakes like King David in the Bible. God led him to stop his evil and forgave him. This goes for all of our leaders today.
A true believer can’t do it! The Christian is commanded by God to not lie, and scripture explains a true Christian cannot keep on doing evil. The Bible demands truth from a Christian and states the liar, or adulterer is a big fat fake.
“Everyone who sins is breaking God’s law, for all sin is contrary to the law of God. And you know that Jesus came to take away our sins, and there is no sin in him. Anyone who continues to live in him will not sin. But anyone who keeps on sinning does not know him or understand who he is.”
“Dear children, don’t let anyone deceive you about this: When people do what is right, it shows that they are righteous, even as Christ is righteous. But when people keep on sinning, it shows that they belong to the devil, who has been sinning since the beginning.”
“But the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil. Those who have been born into God’s family do not make a practice of sinning, because God’s life is in them. So they can’t keep on sinning, because they are children of God. So now we can tell who are children of God and who are children of the devil. Anyone who does not live righteously and does not love other believers does not belong to God.” [1 John 3:4-10 (NLT)]
The next consensus of many today is that somehow Christians would cram their faith down the nation’s throat and punish people for not going to church or some other stupid fear. Yeah that’s what the Christian presidents did in the past, like George Washington, Adams, and Jefferson. NOT!
Only Christians fought for the rights of all men and demanded that everyone has the right to free speech, including those who disagree with them, and the free pursuit of happiness including owning their own land, creating their own business, and owning their own gun for self protection against criminals.
But, today the anti-Christian, anti-God movement hates that anyone dare disagree with them and they find ways to silence and push Christians out of the mainstream of culture, politics, and education. They carefully have erased history and lie to gain control of the nation. According to them, we must disarm and trust liars without character, rely upon government for everything instead of God, and blindly trust them to train our children in what is right and wrong through the government controlled schools.
Like a false god, they want government to tell us what is true and false, tell us what is moral and immoral, and give us the rights they think we should have. No wonder all you hear in the media is the drone of the robots trying to erase the Constitution of the United States of America, one small piece at a time.
To them, that old document has the smell of stupidity in it, from old idiots that believed in God the Creator, the Bible as universal truth, and Jesus as the only true religion. Of course they hate the Constitution it reeks with the divine all over it.
But the atheists demand we came from sea slim, over billions of years, by accident. Their superior knowledge of evolution, no moral rules, and might makes right proves the Christians are dumb sheep who bleat mindless sounds and brainlessly follow their “charlatan” pastors. But their great wisdom gives them the right to deceive and manipulate the nation and force the idiots into their modern Utopian society of slavery. And so we will see the continued misuse of power in America as they bravely push every Christian down the road to oppression.
The children of the devil believe we will comply to their government controlled health care that makes us give up our faith and conscience and allow babies to be murdered through drugs and abortion. And we will pay for it with our taxes and insurance premiums because freedom of religion does not matter, we are stupid in their eyes.
They think our God is weak and cannot protect us, so they will defeat and control us. Will we quietly gather in our closets and buildings and talk about God among ourselves, because we can’t openly broadcast it on public airwaves or in government schools? They control the media, at least most of it, and they don’t believe in freedom of speech, unless we agree with them.
Will we continue to sacrifice our children to the government machine of propaganda because we won’t offend the teachers, or even stand against false science that is crammed down our kids throats everyday in school? If we do, our children will rise up and join them, because we are too lazy to dare and give all the real and complete answers to our own children.
If so, indifference, our true sin will have its final way with us, and unlike our forefathers, lies, injustice, and the new un-American way will rule the land. But no one will notice the change because we are so focused on our jobs, families, and having fun on the weekends that we have lost all sense of God’s ways.
Did you know 35-65 million Christians refuse to even vote today, yet each election has been determined by around 2 million votes or less? Our future is dark because so many Christians refuse to even take their responsibility to vote for righteous and just leaders. “Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.” [Matthew 5:13]
For evil to prevail all it takes is indifference “to be trodden under foot of men.”
But, there will be a remnant, a small band of true believers, who will dare to be different. True believers who will not stop practicing true religion. They will “get rid of all the filth and evil” in their lives and make the Bible their most prized possession. It’s every word will be their guide, they will obey His commands, and will be blessed by the LIVING and ALMIGHTY GOD.
Their hearts divinely influenced by God will bubble inside until they lose their fears and find words of truth to speak to the unbelieving world. With new boldness their tongues controlled by the Holy Spirit they will speak UP and tell the truth to their children, families and neighbors.
In spite of a bankrupt government who will choose to neglect some children, widows and elderly, these saints will practice true religion somehow. They will do what the saints have always done since the atrocities of Rome and its neglect of the poor and needy, they will be Jesus’ hands and continue “caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt” them.
They will not be trodden down, but like the saints in the first century they will overcome the government oppression, cultural hatred, and spiritual darkness. They will not be quiet, but boldly proclaim the truth. They will love their enemies, bless their neighbors, and practice true religion no matter how many people try to stop them.
Jesus is ALIVE, he rose from the dead!!!!!
How about you Virginia, we have a Savior who is almighty, are you in?
