Ministers and more positive sermons

Positive Preaching

I like positive preaching.  I like to hear it.  I like to do it.  It is like watching the sunshine glisten on the dewy leaves of the apple tree by my window, fresh from a springtime shower.  I appreciate the knowledge that the sunshine and the rain will make the tree grow, bloom and bring the delicious ripened fruit.  I know that it takes positive preaching to make the Christian grow in grace and knowledge, blossom in faith and fervor, and bear the delightful fruit of a mature working Christian.

Only one year, however, made me see that it takes more than sunshine and rain to produce a bountiful harvest of golden apples from the tree.  I saw that the tree needed annual pruning.  It needed spraying or some other natural preventive of disease and contamination of the fruit.  Otherwise, a pretty little moth would find a lodging place for its egg in the bloom and every apple would be wormy and ruined.

It took no longer for me to learn that positive preaching is not enough to produce the good fruits of Christians.  It takes pruning, cutting away the superfluous growth, the weak limbs, the diseased branches, and the crossed branches which would abrade other good ones.  This is after the order of the Lord's parable of the vine and the branches (John 15:1-8).

Some negative preaching and work has to be done to clear the church of such branches; including "strife, jealousy, wrath, factions, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults" (2 Corinthians 12:20).

- by Robert Welch

How to live for God

HOW DO WE live in a media-saturated culture and not be affected by it...?

Unless you want to live in a cave and have no contact with the outside world, I don't believe there is any way to be completely unaffected by the media.  However, there are ways we can be less affected by it.  

Suggestions:

1.  Learn to discern.  Just because a movie is at the theater or on the video store shelf, it doesn't mean we need to see it.  Make a commitment not to view sexually explicit movies, which would include most R-rated movies  Use a resourse such as www.pluggedinmag.com to evaluate movies you are thinking about watching.

2.  Consider your reading material wisely.  When sitting in a waiting room surrounded by magazines, stop and consider what you are about to feed your mind.

3.  Determine ahead of time what you will and will not watch, rather than simply hitting the clicker on the TV remote and surfing channels.

4.  Limit movie and TV viewing to shows that do not idealize sex outside of marriage.  If soap operas have captured your time, choose another form of entertainment in the afternoon.

5.  Be willing to turn off movies and television shows if you discover they are sexual junk food.

6.  Read magazines and books that will encourage you in marriage and God-honoring sexuality.  Jill Savage, "Intimacy Inhibitors," Is There Really Sex After Marriage, 39-40

"Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things." Philippians 4.8-9

--Mike Benson

The Rattlesnake and the Copperhead

   Not all decisions we make in life are clearly right-or-wrong decisions.  I maintain that, as Christians mature, having made right decisions for a long time, the majority of decisions become the choice between better and best because you have consistently made decisions that settled most of the issues that deal with sin and righteousness.  Those decisions are no longer a challenge or temptation to you.

   However, life sometimes forces us into situations where we have to decide on “the lesser of two evils.”  I have an illustration for such situations: When you have to make a choice between a rattlesnake and a copperhead, don’t allow your hatred for one to cause you to “take up the cause” for the other!

   Be careful that what you stand against doesn’t cause you to stand for something that you really do not support.  I may have had experience with a rattlesnake that causes me such fear or animosity that I find myself defending the copperhead.  The truth is- I don’t want to crawl into bed with either one!  Both are extremely dangerous.  And all the rattlesnakes are going to defend their kind as are all the copperheads.  Don’t be fooled by either.

   A Christian does not side with evil to combat another evil.  Don’t fall into the trap of championing the cause of one evil to combat another.  You may be forced to make a choice, but don’t become a rattlesnake to defeat a copperhead… or vice versa.  

    Isaiah lived in a deeply-divided time.  The Lord had called him to be his representative.  Listen to what the Lord told him- “Indeed this is what the Lord told me. He took hold of me firmly and warned me not to act like these people.” “Do not say, ‘Conspiracy,’ every time these people say the word.  Don’t be afraid of what scares them; don’t be terrified. You must recognize the authority of the Lord who commands armies. He is the one you must respect; he is the one you must fear.”   - Isaiah 8: 11-13 (NET)

   Let him who has ears hear. 

Ken Stegall
The Woodlands, TX