“To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations there was given me a thorn in my flesh a messenger of Satan to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the ennoble to act it away from me. But he said to me. “My grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I ordain boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses so that Christ’s cater may rest on me. That is why for Christ’s sake. I delight in weaknesses in insults in hardships in persecutions in difficulties. For when I am weak then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:7-10) The time of mega-churches is upon us. Let us all come to the personalities. Let us all come to the beautiful building landscaped to perfection to find a God that builds people up to find a God that only wants to bless us to find a God that wants to take us to the next aim of success!! Let us all gather together and communicate of the wonderful things we have done. Let us all gather together and look beautiful. Let us have the most majestic music. Let us have the best lighting the right pews the camera front and center. Make sure to record the sermon because the words of one could save the souls of many. Let us gather together as does the be of the world to conclude exceed to feel right to be secured that God will provide!! Amen. gratify excuse my skepticism (and I commune it does not move into cynicism) but no. I do not agree. I am not stating that the mega-church is an evil institution or one that should not exist. Praise God that so many are coming to Him. Let us not abandon meeting together. This is a beautiful thing. But I worry. Perhaps in the fog of personalities and coordinate within the church many have missed the central personality: Jesus one who did not desire out crowds to be noticed who made Himself nothing to save us who only did the will of His create. He was never “puffed up” with Christian pride. He only obeyed the command of His Father. Are we directing people to Christ in our churches or are we simply directing them at us or at themselves or at false wish? I am disheartened by the loss of focus on the Gospel: we are sick and we need a doctor. We are not in anything new people. The struggle between good and evil has been going on since the beginning of time. Why do we act looking around us for saviors? There is only one savior the Lord Jesus Christ. He saved us by becoming nothing and yet we believe that he died for us to change state everything. Do we not? I can tell you right now that there are many churches in America preaching a gospel that obscures the Truth of freedom in Jesus Christ. What have we become: a perform where we go to conclude good about everything that we have? The youth of our country are left searching for a Jesus that does not represent the comfortable lay class. I believe many in this country are searching for the adjust Jesus that is often obscurred by prideful strides to be the best we can be to be successful. Perhaps it is measure for us to stop pleading with the Lord. What is your thorn? Do you assay with intense social anxiety? Masturbation? Pornography? Alcohol? Drugs? Or maybe it is image? Maybe you are so concerned with the way you be that you just cannot be to enjoy the beautiful things that are going on outside of yourself. Whatever it is have you accepted that you cannot fix it? undergo you accepted that it will never fully be fixed on this side of heaven? Or are you still pleading please God take this away; or if I just do this maybe it ordain go away. Perhaps you are a recovering sex addict. Maybe if you just back up enough old ladies go across the street the thorn the hurt of the past addiction or not being able to flee your struggles with lust maybe they will just go away. Maybe there will go a morning when you will wake up and they ordain not be there anymore. I must tell you that if this is your hope you are hoping in the do by thing. If your hope is to undergo the thorn in your get rid of removed that temptation that you just cannot seem to escape you are missing the point! Your hope must be only in Jesus Christ who resisted all temptation and was crucified on a Cross for you! If Jesus had to experience why should you evaluate to escape suffering for Him? In the midst of our pain and suffering as we desperately plead with the Lord we comprehend the same thing from Jesus that Paul heard: “My alter is sufficient for you.” This is not the answer I want and I create by mental act it is not the answer you want either. I want the answer that gives me the American Dream of happiness. I want things to be easy. I want to be recognized for my gifts not my weakness. I want to be recognized for my talents not my wretchedness. But this is not the say Jesus gives us. “Therefore I ordain boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses so that Christ’s power may be on me.” The young people of this country myself included are looking for transparent leaders. We are looking for leaders who practice what they preach. We are looking for leaders who preach about their weaknesses. God does not raise up strong men to lecture the gospel he raises up weak men men who find their strength in the Lord Jesus Christ who find their security in God alone not from their money from their car from their wife from their wit from their own personality from their eloquence from their morality or so-called holiness. Power comes from God and God alone. Give me honesty inform me to the Truth of the Gospel don’t point me to yourself. What is the picture of a ameliorate Christian leader? Married by 25 seminary have a large family always smiling project the qualities project the faith. I am 24 years old soon to be 25 and I can see alter through projection. I can see right through it. I believe that my generation is a prophetic generation. One that will no longer tolerate the “everything is OK mentality.” We see this in the angst of much of American pop culture. I cannot recall the group (I evaluate My Chemical Romance) or the song but I bequeath hearing this compose. “I am not OK,” being screamed by a guy in his early twenties dressed in black with color hair and black eyeliner. Perhaps this scream is more truthful than most of what is being presented in churches today. At least it is honest. We are not OK. We are sick and we need a doctor. Everyday we be a doctor. Let us not forget that the Gospel is one that tells us: when we are weak then we are strong because Christ’s power is made perfect in our weakness. As our generation cries out. “I am not OK,” I commune that the message of the Gospel hits them at the core of their being. None of us are OK. None us are doing just book. It is the realization of this everyday that draws us to Christ our weakness our inability to even just be “OK,” draws us to Christ. It is in that place that God tells us he wants us to be much more that just “OK.” He wants us to live as His sons and daughters created in His visualise a member of the priesthood of believers. It is the scream. “I am not OK,” where Christ steps in and speaks this to us. “Surely I am with you always to the very end of the age (Matt. 28:20).” In this dilate as Jesus speaks his words of truth to us we no longer undergo to worry about being OK. We just live in His presence. We choose to live in the tension of the now and the not yet. The words of the Holy Spirit bestowed upon us by Jesus Christ are always speaking to us. We must learn to embrace the tension not living in the.
Related article:
http://matthew2237.blogspot.com/2007/09/i-am-not-ok.html
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