Have you read these?

Usually when I'm discussing a Confession or a Catechism in a group or on social media, someone always says “I don’t adhere to a particular confession or Catechism, they don’t matter anyway.”

When I hear that, my first initial reaction is to say “That tells me that you have never actually read any, you don’t know what they say and you probably don’t really know what they are.”

I don’t say that though.

But I want to.

I’ll admit it.  It bothers me when people say that.  

It’s like saying “I’m not a Calvinist or an Arminian or a Molonist, I’m just a Christian”.  Which is ridiculous because if you are a Christian, you either believe the doctrine of Calvinism or you believe the doctrine of Arminianism or you believe the doctrine of Molonism (by the way, Molonism is just stupid and if you believe it you should repent). 

Like it or not, you are either a Calvinist, an Arminian or a Molonist, regardless of what you call yourself.

Don’t believe me?  Look them up.

Anyway. The confessions.  

Before you announce to the world that you refuse to adhere to a confession (or just argue about them on Facebook) read them and then decide.

The 1689 London Baptist Confession

This is the confession my church adheres to.

Did you know that when looking for a new church that one of the things you should ask is "what confession does your church adhere to?"

If they say they don't adhere to one at all or that they have their own (red flag!) you should be asking a lot more questions..

Or just move on to the next one..

The Westminster Confession

This is very similar to the London Baptist Confession except the part about baptism.  It's Presbyterian so they believe in baptizing infants (they don't believe it's a saving baptism though)..

Martin Luther's 95 Thesis

Almost every Christian pastor on the planet has talked about Martin Luther nailing his 95 thesis to the door of the Wittenberg Castle Church.  But how many of you have taken the time read it or really have any idea of what it actually says?

The pastor (and I use the term loosely) of my ex-church was always bringing it up, usually when he was introducing the next weird thing that a church really shouldn't be doing.  He would remind us that at one time Martin Luther defied the “legalistic and religious” church in order to bring them down and expose them.

He always described that moment as Martin Luther challenging the church as if he were standing on the steps of the church, his hammer ringing out, boldly confronting them with the real truth and daring them to deal with it!

Well guess what?  

That's not really why he nailed his thesis to the door.  In fact, he probably didn't even use nails and a hammer, but glue.  He wasn't defying or challenging the church, and he wasn't trying to start a reformation.

He loved his church.

He didn't even expect what he put on the door to cause such a scandal.

The door of the church had always been used as a community bulletin board.  Lots of people glued stuff to it.  It was where the people would go to read the latest announcements.

Luther’s thesis was just one of many announcements glued to that door.

Martin Luther was unhappy about the selling of merits and felt that the practice was unbiblical, so he posted his reasons (the 95 thesis) on the door and requested that they would hold a debate to sort it all out.

That was it.

It was the younger people in the town who saw the thesis, had it copied and sent it out to the surrounding towns.

It was after that, that Martin Luther began to learn more and speak out more and eventually became the great reformer that he is known as today; and even then, he still clung to a few heretical ideas that no one who brags about that moment wants to talk about now.

The Heidelberg Catechism

A personal confession of faith written in 1563.

It's absolutely wonderful.  

I'm in the process of writing down a portion of it every day along with a Resolution (see below).

The Cannons of Dort

Written by a synod of Reformed theologians in Dordtrecht, Netherlands, in 1618-19.

It's main purpose was to set the record strait about the conflict between Calvinism and Arminianism.

I read through it every couple of months.

I'm going to start copying a portion of it daily when I finish going through the Resolutions and the Catechism. 

Jonathan Edwards' Resolutions

If you have never read anything by (or about) Jonathan Edwards, please do!

He was a Puritan pastor and theologian, thought by many to be the greatest theological mind that this country has ever produced. His preaching, which helped spark the  First Great Awakening, emphasized man’s sin, God’s judgment, God’s sovereignty, the necessity of personal conversion, and justification by faith.

He wrote these resolutions when he was 17 and 19 and read them out loud to himself once a week until his death.

And he went on his way…

I was listening to Pilgrim’s Progress this morning while I was cleaning the kitchen. If you haven’t read it (or listened to it) I really encourage you to do so.  

Long story short, it’s about a guy (Christian)who learns that the city he lives in is doomed for destruction and that there is a way to be saved from it. So he goes on a pilgrimage to the Holy City. On his way he is helped by some and hindered by others. He is helped by people named Evangelist and Prudence and Charity and so on and so on. He is hindered by people named Sloth and Worldly Wiseman and Obstinate.  

You see the pattern I’m sure.

Once Christian truly understands where he’s going and why he is going there, his interactions with those who hinder him or question him begin to change. In the beginning he listens to them, follows their lead and ends up in trouble.  But after a while you’ll notice a change in his behavior. People approach him along this road and warn him of the dangers ahead and tell him to turn around or go back or to take a different road but he tells them what he’s doing, why he’s doing it, and what will happen when he gets to where he’s going and then you’ll read “and he went on his way”.

When I heard that it made me think about sharing the gospel and why so many who profess to be believers do not make an effort to share the gospel with others.

When I ask other believers why they don’t go out and share the gospel I generally receive the same answers. 

They tell me that it’s just not something they are called to do. 

I can't think of a nice way to say it, so I'll just say it.

That is a lie. Every single believer is commanded by Jesus to go and make disciples.

Including you!  

Some say that they don’t because they don’t feel that they know enough about the Bible to share it with others. This too is an excuse. If you are a believer and you know that you are saved and you know how you came to be saved then that’s all you need to say. Or you can just hand them a Bible or a tract with the gospel written on it and say “did you get one of these?“ or if you are too afraid to do that, just leave it somewhere. 

My husband can put a tract in someone’s pocket without them even realizing it but that’s a whole other blog post. 

I know people personally who say that they know they’re supposed to and that they want to and that they’re angry with themselves because they don’t.  

That’s the answer that I struggle with more than any other answer.  Seriously, you know you’re supposed to, you want to, and you’re mad that you don’t.   

But….?

Then it occurred to me today while listening to Pilgrim’s Progress that maybe the reason that they don’t is because they aren’t really sure what they are responsible for and what they aren’t.  Maybe no one has actually told them how.  Sure, they know that they should and why they should but they don’t know how.

I suppose you could do that circle thing that's all over Youtube.  I guess it's more popular than I thought.  Personally, I don't like it and I wouldn't chose that method myself (I'll tell you why if you're interested) but there are other ways.

When Clay and I first started our homeless ministry we thought that we needed to build relationships with the homeless first. You know, talk to them, get to know them and help them to know us before we could share the gospel with them.  It didn’t take us very long to realize that wasn’t really going to happen.  We do know a couple people by name and we do stop and talk to them when we see them but most of the people we interact with in those situations aren’t really interested in what we have to say. They are either tweaking and can’t focus on the words coming out of our mouths or they’re just waiting for us to shut up and hand over to them whatever it is we have to give.

I was disappointed because I didn’t really feel that we were making a difference. I didn’t feel that we were making disciples and we certainly weren’t building relationships.  It wasn’t just homeless people though, it was anyone we tried to talk to. 

Practically no one outside of a church wants people to talk to them about Jesus.  They just don’t.  The funny thing is- the Bible even says that. We are all haters of God until God sees fit to give us the grace to feel any differently.   

Until God enables us to love Him, we don’t.  We won’t. Period. No talking or arguing or pressing is going to change that.

So after several attempts at sharing the gospel with strangers (homeless or not) we had to take a long look at what we were doing wrong and what we needed to do to fix it. So we thought about all the attempts that people had made through the years to get us to convert to Christianity. They would try to convince us. They brought pastors to our house, sent missionaries to our door; people would say things like “Jesus loves you” or “you can be happy if you accept Jesus”.  

Even that day I stepped into that man’s office at Lifegate church. Almost 2 hours of talking, arguing and convincing me to say the prayer to accept Jesus into my heart but not a word of Scripture. There was no Gospel. There was no conviction of my sin. I didn’t even really know what sin was or what was so devastating about it. Yet I walked out of that office believing that I was “saved”. I didn’t really even understand what I was saved from! I just wanted that horrible, panicky, I don’t understand what’s happening feeling I had been experiencing to go away.

It did, but it was soon replaced by something else..

(another blog post perhaps).

It wasn’t until four years later when I heard some guy by the name of Paul Washer preach the real gospel on YouTube did I truly understand how much my sin was an offense to God and how desperately I needed a Savior that I was truly saved.

It wasn’t someone inviting me to church that saved me. It wasn’t the dozens of conversations I had with others throughout my life trying to convince me to become a Christian that saved me. It certainly wasn’t by observing the behaviors of other Christians, nor was it the relationships that had been formed with anyone either.

It was the gospel. 

It was scripture. 

It was the hearing and the reading of God’s Word at God’s appointed time that saved me.

So that’s it. That is all you are responsible for. You are NOT responsible for convincing anyone, converting anyone, hounding anyone, pressing or pushing anyone. You don’t have to be their friend. You don’t have to make them your project. You are not responsible for their walk with Jesus or how they learn or what church they go to. All you are responsible for is sharing the Word of God with them.

God does the saving. 

Not you

 Not the pastor

Not a church 

Just God.

 There is no one way to share the gospel.

 Some people go door-to-door, some people preach on the sidewalks, my husband works in foreign countries where he shares the gospel with people who have never heard of Jesus. He even shares the gospel with people who could possibly kill him for doing so. 

But he also sticks Bible tracts into Fifty Shades of Grey books at Walmart, hands Bibles to waitresses and leaves tracts on mirrors in public bathrooms. 

I have a friend who orders Bibles by the case and then rents a table at a flea market and puts up a sign that says “free Bibles”. She doesn’t preach to them, she doesn’t argue with them, she just lets them have a Bible. That’s it.

So don’t overthink it. Don’t let it overwhelm you. If you can’t bring yourself to approach a stranger and tell them what they need to hear to be saved, just hand it to them and then be on your way.

It really is that simple.

Just get out there and DO SOMETHING.

You can purchase tracts just about anywhere on line or at any Christian book store.  This is where I buy mine http://www.tractplanet.com

or you can email me and I will give you (or ship you) some for free.  

I have bibles too.

You can get tracts online for free at http://www.bibletractsinc.org

You can read Pilgrims progress for free too

https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/the-pilgrim-s-progress-new-edition

Once you believe it...

Every three months or so, LifeGate Church (the church I used to attend before I was saved) hosts an event called Healing Rain.  People go in the hopes that they will be healed.  

First a guy gets on the stage and talks about the healing power of God, and then the real reason everyone is there begins. The prayer teams line up in pairs in front of the stage.  The music is turned up.  The lights are turned down.  People in search of healing come forward.

I came forward.

I stood before Pastor Connie and another girl.  I told her about my epilepsy.  Well, I didn’t actually tell her about it, all I said was “I’m epileptic” and she took it from there.

She said “Ok, lets do this”.

The girl with her put her hands on my left arm, bowed her head and began to mutter gibberish (they call that praying in tongues) while Connie put one hand on my chest and her other hand between my shoulder blades and then told me to relax and "just let it happen”.  Then she began to declare that I was healed while gently pushing me backward and then forward again. Back and then forward.  Her words became a chant “praise Jesus, she is healed. Praise Jesus, she is healed. Praise Jesus she is healed”.

She began to push harder and faster. Back and forth, back and forth. While her voice became louder and her chant picked up the pace.  The girl next to her raised her voice, her gibberish becoming more feverish. I could hear the other leaders and their assistants chanting and yelling over whomever they were praying for, and I knew that people were already hitting the floor.  The pushing intensified. The chanting grew louder, the gibberish sped up.  I relaxed and “let it happen”.

And then I was on the floor looking up at Connie who was leaning over me, stroking my forehead and telling me  “God rejoices for you”.  She said “God dances in heaven for you”.  Then she told me that from that moment on, I needed to repeat to myself  “I am the daughter of a king!”  Every time I had a seizure, every time it felt like I was going to have a seizure, or every time I even thought about a seizure.  She said that I needed to say it to myself all the time, “I am the daughter of a king!”  Every time I saw her at the church after that she would say to me "who are you?" and I was supposed to reply "I am the daughter of a king!"  She told me that I needed to keep saying it until I truly believed it.  And once I believed it, I would be healed.

That was four years ago.

I still have epilepsy.  In fact, we now know that I have a serious autoimmune disease that causes seizures, Crohn's disease and Ankylosing Spondylitis.  

Maybe I don’t believe in God enough?  Maybe I don’t fully comprehend who I am in Christ?

Maybe I just don’t have enough faith?

Maybe it’s my fault.

Or maybe..

Just maybe..

That’s not how it works and I just fell for a big fat lie..

The kind of lie that millions of people all over the world are falling for because of churches like LifeGate.

Click here ——> THE HURT OF HEALING