Western Hills Christian Church: “You are family here!”

Him we preach,warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.
Colossians 1:28

Discipleship is personally transferring the full dimensions of your relationship with Christ to the person you are walking with.  It is not the imparting of spiritual disciplines as much as it is acquainting another with a Person you love.  Paul said that he would teach and urge with all his strength that every person God placed in his life would come to a complete experience of the person of Christ (Colossians 1:24-29).  He was not satisfied with people becoming partially like Christ.  He would not rest until those around him were perfect, or complete, in Christ.  That is, that the fruits of the Spirit were being fully expressed through each life and the character of Christ was reflected in each person (Galatians 5:22-25).

We can mistake Christian activity with becoming like Christ.  Christian activity and Christlikeness are not the same things.  We must not assume that because our friend attends church and reads her Bible, she is growing as a Christian.

Christian activities are an important expression of your relationship with Christ.  They can lead you to a relationship, but the danger is assuming that your religious activity is the relationship.  If you are only encouraging those around you to attend Christian activities, then you have not "discipled" them the way Paul did.  You do your fellow Christians an injustice by teaching them that Christian activity is equal to Christian maturity.  Do not rest until those around you have become "perfect" in Christ.  If God has put new Christians under your care, you have an obligation to "stay with them" until they have reached Christian maturity.

Henry and Richard Blackaby
Experiencing God Day-by-Day

Truth Is a Person

And they came to Him and awoke Him, saying “Master, Master, we are perishing!”Then He arose and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water.And they ceased, and there was a calm.  But He said to them, “Where is your faith?”
Luke 8:24-25

Truth is a Person, not a concept.  Jesus said He was the Truth (John 14:6).  That means that you can never know the truth of your circumstances unless you have first heard from Jesus.  The disciples thought they were perishing in the storm.  They were fishermen who knew the sea and knew what their condition was.  They had allowed their circumstances to convince them that the “truth” was their imminent death.  But they were wrong.  Truth was asleep in the back of their boat!

Since some of the disciples were fishermen, they trusted in their own expertise and wisdom rather than recognizing that only Jesus knew the truth of their situation.  At times, our human knowledge in certain areas of life can blind us to our desperate need to hear a word from Truth.

When Jesus spoke, the disciples saw the real truth of their situation.  There was absolute calm.  The disciples had seen Jesus perform other miracles, but they had not yet witnessed His power over nature in such a dimension.  Often we are like the disciples.  God may have recently demonstrated His power to us in a mighty way; we may have experienced many spiritual victories in the past.  Yet, when a new and frightening situation comes upon us we, too, panic and say, “Lord save me.  I’m perishing!”  God will remind us of His provision, saying, “I can handle this situation, too, and you will know more of Me because of it.”

Have you become fearful instead of faithful?  If you have, prepare for the rebuke, for it will come.

Henry and Richard Blackaby
Experiencing God Day-by-Day

Evangelical Leaders Sort True Gospel from ‘Gimmickry’

Originally posted Tue, Mar. 30 2010 at the Christian Post

Evangelical theologians expressed concern at a recent conference that fewer churches in America seem to be preaching the biblical Gospel.

The Gospel is not "God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life," nor is it "God gives you meaning for life," said Dr. R.C. Sproul, prominent author and founder of Ligonier Ministries.

Sproul was in Los Angeles this past weekend for Ligonier’s West Coast conference, which ran under the theme "Christless Christianity." He was joined by prominent theologians including Dr. Michael Horton, John MacArthur and Peter Jones to examine the popular misunderstandings of the Gospel today.

"Together we’ll sort the true gospel from the gimmickry," conference organizers said.

Objectively, the Gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, being born under the law, as a human, living a perfect life (by the aid of the Holy Spirit), and giving His life as a substitutionary sacrifice for others, Sproul explained to conference attendees.

But it doesn’t stop there, he continued. By the power of the Holy Spirit He was raised from the dead, ascended into heaven, and promises to return to consummate His kingdom.

And it is by faith alone – sola fide – that we are justified, he added. Righteousness is imputed to you and appropriated to us by faith alone, the theologian stressed.

The biblical Gospel, however, is not being faithfully preached in many churches, the speakers indicated.

MacArthur, pastor-teacher of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, Calif., specifically criticized one of America’s most well-known pastors – Joel Osteen of Lakewood Church in Houston.

He accused Osteen of making Jesus "a footnote in his ministry to satisfy his critics" and for offering "the unregenerate" things that appeal to their immediate desires.

Osteen, MacArthur said, has no biblical understanding of God or man. The Houston pastor teaches that everyone was made to be winners but the idea that man is helpless and hopeless, a loser, is also the most Christian doctrine, MacArthur noted.

Borrowing Osteen’s bestselling book title, MacArthur said this is not "your best life now."

Our best life, he said, is what is to come.

Amid much misguided teachings, Horton noted that a majority of Americans are religious but have their own spiritual playlist.

Christianity for many is just "a subjective affair between the individual and his own construct of God," said Horton, professor of Systematic Theology and Apologetics at Westminster Seminary California.

The movie of our life is about us and God just has a supporting role, he lamented.

Christians today are shifting from a historic faith towards a more amorphous spirituality – epitomized by the trivializing of God, our human condition, and the salvation wrought by God in Christ for us, Horton said.

The professor called for leaders who will pass down the historic Christian faith and for churches where the Word of God is rightly taught, the sacraments rightly administered, and church discipline practiced.

Ligonier Ministries is an international Christian education organization committed to faithfully present the "unvarnished truth of Scripture and help people grow in their knowledge of God and His Holiness." The Lake Mary, Fla.-based ministry will hold its national conference in June in Orlando.

Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness,and sin is lawlessness.
1st John 3:4

It is a dangerous thing to live your life without a spiritual "plum line," or standard, by which you determine right from wrong.  God’s Word is that plumb line.  Spiritual laws, like physical laws, are meant to protect you, not restrict you.  You may exercise your freedom to challenge the laws of electricity, but to do so can bring you death.   Likewise, you will not break God’s laws, they will break you.  God established absolute moral and spiritual laws that we are free to ignore, but we do so at our own peril.  These laws are timeless.  Culture does not supersede them.  Circumstances do not abrogate them.  God’s laws are eternal, and they will save you from death if you follow them.

You may feel that God’s laws restrict and bind you.  On the contrary, God’s Word protects you from death (Romans 6:23).  For example, when God said that you are not to commit adultery, He wanted to free you to experience the fullest pleasure of a marriage relationship.  Furthermore, He knew the devastating heartache that would come to you, your spouse, your children, your relatives, your friends, and your church family if you broke this law.  How important the laws of God are for your life!  Without them, you would be robbed of the delights God has in store for you.

Sin is choosing a standard other than God’s law on which to base your life.  If you are measuring your life by that of your neighbors, or society at large, then you are basing your life on lawlessness, and lawlessness is sin.

Henry and Richard Blackaby
Experiencing God Day-by-Day